Odds and ends

· Lest anyone forget Raul Castro’s April speech about the centrality of the “economic battle,” decrying “bloated payrolls,” stressing the need for everyone to feel “the necessity to work in order to live,” and reminding Cubans that they have to rely above all on themselves to find “socially useful work,” Granma ran an excerpt on its front page last week.

· Babalu carries a press release from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen about “reports that certain U.S. companies may be refusing to allow remittances to be sent to the families of political prisoners in Cuba.”

· EFE: The Cuban government is offering exit visas to the mother and other relatives of the late dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

· From Vietnam’s official news agency: The Vietnamese are for more trade and investment with Cuba, but exporters don’t like waiting “300-500 days” for payment.