Friday, September 25, 2009

Odds and ends

  • Author Achy Obejas says the real change spurred by last Sunday’s concert was in Miami. Carlos Saladrigas agrees: “The old policies of hurting the regime with collateral damage to the people need to give way to policies that help the people even when they may provide a collateral benefit to the regime.”

  • AP sums up the story of the concert that almost didn’t take place. Juanes complained that his driver turned out to be the same guy that served him breakfast, and was watching him as if he were a security agent (!). And he and others complained that the section closest to the stage was being reserved for a government-supplied crowd. Rui Ferreira has video of a scene in a hallway of the Hotel Nacional. Penultimos Dias notes Granma’s response: it was a big misunderstanding, the guy is a sommelier.

  • Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon is invited to a U.S. Congressional event and is denied a U.S. visa.

  • The United States beat Cuba 5-3 in World Cup baseball competition yesterday in Italy, and now heads to the Sunday final. Cuba has to beat Canada (in Florence, 7:00 p.m. local time tonight) to get into the final for a rematch with the Americans.

  • The Herald reports on the torture suffered by the Cuban migrants in Mexico who were rescued by Mexican police. The mistreatment was apparently perpetrated by smugglers from both Mexico and Miami. Earlier story here.

  • If U.S.-Cuba postal service is resumed, it will mean the resumption of service that began as early as 1767, a Spanish researcher reports.

6 comments:

  1. "The old policies of hurting the regime with collateral damage to the people need to give way to policies that help the people even when they may provide a collateral benefit to the regime."

    Well said!

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  2. It is interesting that we haven't heard from Juanes, Bosé, and Tañón yet.

    Vecino de NF

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  3. The Pedro de la Hoz' article in Granma is a veiled warning to Juanes & others that any critiscism will be met with a campaign to discredit them. All past deeds will be brought to the public eye like in the case of the reference to Sandoval.

    Poor Juanes, Bosé, Tañón, and others! Apparently they never understood the lessons from "Faust".

    Vecino de NF

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  4. vecino at this fortune telling best.

    only cuba would be so stupid to do to juanes what they did; only cuba would be so paranoid. with reason.
    but the only point is the concert went ahead and was a success, despite the bs from all sides.
    lets hope there will be others.

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  5. Otros conciertos, no lo creo, la ganancia para la dictadura fue mínima, y el riesgo tremendo. Cualquier reunión enCuba hoy, puede terminar en violencia, violencia como la de 1994, el maleconazo. Finalmente, la dictadura impuso sus reglas, y paso lo que era de esperar, nada. Como cualquier suceso, cada cual verá lo que quiere ver; pero la realidad, nada de nada. Como esperaba fue un empate; lo sperdedores, fue la oposición que se vió más reprimida desde mucho antes de que sonaran los instrumentos. http://cubabit.blogspot.com

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  6. Anonymous September 25, 2009 12:54 PM,

    Did you see the viral video of Juanes', and Bosé's meltdown before the concert? Did you read Mr. de la Hoz's article? Please educate us on what is happening re/ these two items!

    Vecino de NF

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