Odds and ends

• A Freedom House opinion survey performed in Cuba shows that “Cubans remain generally pessimistic about reforms and skeptical about their future,” and that there are “moderate levels of optimism regarding the reforms,” according to two Freedom House professionals writing in the Miami Herald. I’m confused too; I guess you have to read the report itself.

• Reuters: Cuban oil production was up in 2010 and is up so far this year, while natural gas production dipped in 2010.

• The New York Times follows Alejandrina Hernandez, a Cuban American who goes back and forth to Cuba and earns money delivering baggage and packages for other Cuban Americans who send things to their loved ones. A poignant comment from her: “I have half my heart here and the other half there. The sad thing is, I am not really happy in either place."

• EFE: Guillermo Farinas began his 24th hunger strike last week and, in another act of self-abnegation, he ended it when other dissidents told him that if he did not stop they would start hunger strikes of their own. “I can deal with my own death but not with the death of others,” he said, noting that he did not want to be “contributing to the destruction” of the movement.

• “Internet in a suitcase,” a U.S. government initiative to develop a full set of network equipment that can be hand-carried to places where censorship or other government actions impede open Web access; New York Times story here, illustration here.