Odds and ends
- EFE: a new report says Cuba’s population is stagnant and will decrease by 100,000 by 2025.
- Wired: Cuba as a potential IT outsourcing powerhouse.
- From London Metropolitan University, a new issue of the International Journal of Cuban Studies, including an interview with Britain’s current ambassador to Cuba, sketches of Cuba from a former ambassador, and a 1963 essay on the socialist revolution and the roots of Cuban nationalism.
- The distribution of idle farmland in Matanzas province “is not going well,” Granma reports. About 5,000 applications for land have been approved, more than 7,000 are in process, and 4.6 percent of applications have been denied so far.
- Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon says an exchange of jailed dissidents for the Cuban Five should be possible because the dissidents “committed the same offense as the five compañeros, being agents [of the United States], albeit to do different things.”
- Spain’s La Vanguardia visits Havana’s Calle G, Avenida de los Presidentes, where 20-somethings hang out en masse on weekend nights, and the scene “begins around nine o’clock and stretches toward dawn.”
- The Herald’s Cuban Colada translates excerpts of an article in ABC (Madrid) on the goings-on at the Matanzas farm of Conrado Hernandez. Hernandez, reportedly in detention, is a Cuban who worked for Basque businesses in Cuba and reportedly hosted Carlos Lage and Felipe Perez Roque for some relaxed weekend get-togethers – with microphones.
The blog lead to the Matanzas story leaves out that Granma says that 30% of Matanzas' land is idle. Cienfuegos is supposed to be the province where the transfer of idle lands have gone best. Anyone has figures on land utilization in Cienfuegos?
ReplyDeleteThe Spanish intelligence (CNI) story begs the question of how did the Cuban government became aware of the taping of Lage's and Perez Roque's comments. A mole, an official exchange,...? Also the fact that the CNI head has been caught in corruption allegations can not be discounted as pure coincidence. It could very well be either payback or blowback from the Cuban operations.
Vecino de NF
Nice find on the Wired story.
ReplyDeleteCuba as an IT center.
I would never have considered that possibilty.
Of course, that is WAY...WAY in the future.
After Fidos/Raul's cuerpos are enterros.
More likely in the near future, we'll see what is happening now in Iran... Cuba shutting down the internet/cell phone access...to maintain "order."
Penultimos Días showed a quote from an IPS interview of Mariela Castro Espín. The views expressed in the interview are similar to the views of Carlos Lage Jr. who was delinked from the government structure before his Dad got into trouble. It would be interesting to see how much she can get away with being the daughter of Cuba's President. She might be saved by the fact that the IPS interview is for external eyes only not for national consumption like was the case for Carlos Lage Jr.'s comments. She is skirting a Cuban perestroika by denouncing intellectual diversionism, a phrase popularized by her father in a speech for the Cuban Armed Forces back in the early 1970s. Either she is extremely naive or extremely Machiavelian.
ReplyDeleteVecino de NF
A lot of interesting articles in this one for sure.
ReplyDeleteVecino: can you elaborate on the story you read featuring Mariela? What are the views that she and Lage Jr have expressed? What exactly do you mean by intellectual diversionism.
Always interested to hear your responses.
Thanks.
Hola, Vecino de NF:
ReplyDeleteAnd could you please publish a link as to where Carlos Lage Jr. made his comments? The last I heard, there were reports he had emigrated to Spain, although I don't know if this has been confirmed.
Thank you.
Anonymi 8:37PM, 8:51AM,
ReplyDeleteI'll publish the links on Carlos Lage Jr later on. Right now I have a recollection but I need to go through my e-notes.
Intellectual diversionism was a charge directed at the intellectuals during the early 1970s (The Gray Quinquenial - El Quinquenio Gris). There was a speech by Raul Castro to the FAR that was published in Verde Olivo (the official FAR magazine) in which he warns against any deviation from official thinking. I am recollecting from old memories so please bear with me on this one. I don't have any bibliographic data on this one. Last couple of years there was big brouhaha in Cuba because some of the people that were involved in these purges were brought back to the public's attention and the intellectual community rose against bringing them back in anyway. Armengol has published some recollections as well.
Vecino de NF
Anonymi 8:37PM, 8:51AM,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find in my e-notesthe roundtable discussion where Carlos Lage Codorniu (CLC)expressed some views that can be read as perestroika-like. My recollection is that this happened after Fidel Castro became sick and shortly before CLC was made a non-official person (Fall of 2007?). At the time he was President of the College Student Association (FEU). But I did find lots of articles in Juventud Rebelde where he exposes some views similar to Mariela regarding political hypocricy, etc. I wish I could document this in greater depth but alas this is a blog not an academic journal! I would suggest searching the Juventud Rebelde website for Lage Codorniu. Hurry before they start pulling down the articles!
Vecino de NF
Anonymi 8:37PM, 8:51AM,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't imagining things. Apparently there was a symposium (fancy word for something we like to call a b... session) where CLC participated. The reference I got through Armengol's Cuaderno de Cuba (see http://www.cuadernodecuba.com/2007/11/la-transicin-gotha-gotha.html). Unfortunately TEMAS has been pulled down from the web. I also came accross a CLC quote: the people has to see the kindness of socialism in its food plate. He gave an interview to EFE in September 2007. He was gone as FEU president by December of the same year. He has another brother (César) who was promoted to the political directorate of the Communist Youth Union (UJC). The Lages were the only other political dinasty in Cuba with impecable academic credentials.
Vecino de NF
Temas (www.temas.cult.cu) is up but you must register to access contents.
ReplyDeleteVecino de NF