Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Sandokan · Mar 17, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Quote from “Che Guevara’s Pope”, Page not found - The Federalist
“Yet not a single word spoken before Congress will annul Francis’ assent to celebrate Mass under a triumphal image of Che Guevara. Hasta la Victoria Siempre.”

This is a great article and at the same time perturbing. There are many discrepancies in Pope Francis words. He did not criticized the Castroit regime, rather he celebrated Mass in the Plaza Cívica with the image of Che Guevara looking down at him.

Excerpts from “Che Guevara: The Fish Die by the Mouth” (Cuba: Che Guevara: The Fish Die by the Mouth)
Those who attempt to present Che as a philanthropist of firm Christian values, the answer is given to them in this excerpt of the letter he wrote to his mother on July 15, 1956 from a Mexican prison: “I am not Christ nor a philanthropist, I’m quite the opposite of Christ, and philanthropy seems to me something of….(illegible word), I fight for the things I believe in with all the weapons at my disposal, and try to leave the other dead to avoid myself to be nailed to a cross or anything else.”

Che wrote in his diary: “….to executes a human being is something ugly, but exemplary. From now on nobody here will refer to me again as the tooth-drawer of the guerrilla.” In a letter to his father referring to this execution he writes: “I’d like to confess, papa, at that moment I discovered that I really like killing.”

Sandokan · Apr 5, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Raul Castro, the altar boy, is impulsive, dogmatic and sometimes brutal. In 1959, during the surrender of Santiago, the second largest Cuban city; Raul presided over the execution of more than 70 soldiers and officers who were machine-gunned and their corpses thrown into a ditch.

There is an aspect seldom commented of Raul Castro’s life and the fact is that in all the “judicial” processes of great importance that have taken place in Cuba after the triumph of the insurrection, he has played a fundamental role. He has been a kind of special prosecutor, a prosecutor with the capacity to sanction, to kill in cold blood.

Sandokan · Apr 23, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Those Cubans who lived and suffered under the Castroit regime do know and will never forget that while Fidel was the voice, Raul, Che, and others like Ramiro Valdés were the hammer and sickle of the revolution crushing and decapitating fellow Cubans.

Not only is the Castroit regime evil and violent, it is also inept at governing the incredible resources and ingenuity of the Cuban people. They have managed to completely destroy the sugar industry and coffee production, and now rely on foreign companies to help keep afloat what is left of the tobacco and mining production.

Sandokan · May 18, 2019

Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

For sixty years the Castro family has waged a war against its number one enemy, the Cuban people. They have violently denied the people of Cuba their rights and dignity as human beings. Their army of corrupt thugs harass, arrest, and torture anyone remotely perceived as a threat to the Castro mafia family total hold on power. Retribution would be morally justify against them and their clan for their criminal acts, and should be swift and uncompromising.

Sandokan · Jun 5, 2019

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From Information to Action
From Information to Action | Generation Y

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Yoani-Sánchez

Yoani Sanchez accepts the Knight International Journalism Award 2015. (karinkarlekar)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 12 November 2015 — My grandmother only knew how to write the first letter of her name. She would sign documents with an almost childish looking capitalized “A.” In spite of being illiterate, Ana always advised me to study and learn as much as possible. Nevertheless, that laundress who never went to school taught me the best lesson of my life: that tenacity and hard work are needed to accomplish one’s dreams. She instilled in me the urgency of “action.” Action with a capital “A,” like the only letter of her name that she could write.

However, action can become a problem if it is not appropriately accompanied by information. An uninformed citizen is easy prey for the powerful, a guaranteed victim for manipulation and control. In fact, an individual without information cannot be considered a whole citizen, because her rights will constantly be violated and she will not know how to demand and reclaim them.
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Fidel Castro in a speech on May 8, 1959, at Civic Plaza , Havana, said, “This s an entirely democratic revolution; is that all human rights are the rights of our revolution; is that freedom of opinion, freedom of writing, freedom of speech, the freedom to assemble and the freedom to believe, are sacred freedoms of our Revolution.”

Fidel Castro established a totalitarian state, put an end to the freedom of opinion confiscating newspapers, radio and television stations, the right to write criticizing the Revolution, freedom of speech, persecuting those expressing ideas contrary to the regime, abolishing the freedom of assembly beating and jailing those peaceably assembled, and persecuting religious groups. He got rid of all the human rights.'

Sandokan · Jun 24, 2019

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The Deadly Kiss of Price Controls
The Deadly Kiss of Price Controls | Generation Y

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Yoani-Sánchez

The official press blames private producers for the high prices of many foods. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 4 January 2016 — I was ten years old when Fidel Castro launched the economic battle he called the “Rectification of errors and negative tendencies.” The Maximum Leader’s rage fell, at that time, on private farmers and on the intermediaries who marketed their products. Cuatro Caminos Plaza in Havana, then known as the Single Market, was assaulted by officials and after that raid several foods disappeared from our lives: onions, garbanzo beans, chili peppers and even taro.

Almost a decade later, when the country had reached bottom with food shortages and scarcities, the government again authorized non-state food markets. The first time I approached a stand and bought a string of garlic, without having to practice stealth, I recovered a part of my life that had been snatched from me. For years we had to appeal to the illegal market, to a precarious clandestinity, to get things ranging from a pound of beans to the cumin seeds needed to season them.
Click link above for full article.

The food problems for the 1.6 million retirees would get worse with a shrinking ration book that last for only 10 days a month at a cost 20 pesos and supply 750 calories per day, and increases in a number of foods costs. The average pension is about 250 pesos, of which 25 to 35 are spend in housing, electricity and water, 25 to 35 are spend in toiletry, transportation, used shoes and clothing, and the rest is used to buy food in the farmers markets and state markets at a cost ten times more expensive than the ration book which supply another 650 calories per day.

Sandokan · Jul 8, 2019

Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The monthly cost of the food consume 75% of the pension and supply only 1400 calories per day, which is below the minimum of 1800 calories per day according to FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization), and is not enough for most people. Over 25% of elderly consume less than 1200 calories per day and suffer from malnutrition.

Sandokan · Jul 24, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The Cuban Railroad Died
The Cuban Railroad Died | Generation Y

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Yoani-Sánchez

Railroad in Cuba. (EFE)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 29 January 2016 – My father is a train engineer. It has been decades since he drove a train, long years in which he hasn’t sounded the whistle of a locomotive while passing through a village with children running alongside the line. However, this still agile retiree originally from Matanzas still marks the 29th of January on the calendar and says “it is my day.” The day still smells of iron braking on iron, and has the rush of the platform, where some leave and others say goodbye.

The date honors the guild established in 1975, during the finishing of the first stretch of the central line. At the celebration Fidel Castro operated a Soviet locomotive, a moment that is still a source of amusement among elderly train engineers. “Everything was ready and he didn’t even get the credit of making that mass move,” says an old conductor in his eighties. The event, more about politics than railroads, was enough to let the imposed anniversary go.

The 19th of November should be the date for those who carry the iron serpent circulating in our blood. The day the first rail link in Cuba was completed, between Havana and Bejucal, in 1837, should get all the credit to earn itself a celebration that goes beyond the fanfare of the politicians and the headlines of the official press. In those nearly 17 miles (27.3 kilometers) of the initial line, a lineage began that refuses to die.

Now, when I stand in front of the lines at La Coubre terminal in Havana and observe the disaster that is rail transport in Cuba today, I ask myself if the era of the “sons of the railroad” will come to an end. Old cars, unsafe, accidents, delays, long lines to buy a ticket, luggage thefts, the stench of the toilets… and an iron fence that isolates the platform and those going aboard from those who are saying goodbye.

The Cuban railroad died. There is not much to celebrate on this day.

The Compañía de Caminos de Hierro de La Habana built a 27 km line from Havana to Bejucal, which was inaugurated November 19, 1837. This was the first railroad in Latin America and seven in the world. In November 1838, the company built the 45 km section Bejucal-Güines for a total of 72.4 km of railroad tracks.

In November 1902, the construction of the Central Railway which ran the length of the island was finish, and the new 573 kilometers of tracks connecting Santiago de Cuba to Santa Clara, were connected to the existing 288 kilometers connecting La Habana to Santa Clara. The travel time between La Habana and Santiago took only 24 hours.

For the first time in Cuban history anyone could travel through the entire country. The railroad provided improved communication and reduced transportation costs. This brought prosperity from one end of the island to the other.

Sandokan · Aug 6, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

From 1940 to 1958 Cuba's railway system was modernized by the acquisition of train stock from Budd and Fiat. These trains provided medium speed self-propelled (diesel) 4 car trains service on the main line between Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

In July 1953, the Cuban government acquired the railway company assets of Ferrocarriles Unidos de la Habana (The United Railways of Havana). A joint venture with the estate was formed operating under the name Ferrocarriles Occidentales de Cuba (Occidental Railways of Cuba), controlling the railway system between Pinar del Río and Santa Clara.

In 1958, Cuba had 15,164 kilometers of railway; 565 locomotive; 400 passenger cars; 100 boxcars and more than 10,000 freight cars. Of the 15,164 kilometers of railway, 5,862 were of public service and 9,302 serviced mainly the sugar industry. Cuba had more railroads per square mile than any other country in the world.

Garrido Shops, next to city of Camagüey

Since 1902 Camagüey, due to its geographical location, has been the railroad center of Cuba. The headquarters of the industry were established there, with the general offices, the Garrido shops and the Antilla Terminal, built on the Nipe Bay.

Sandokan · Aug 22, 2019

Re: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Sandokan said:
In 1958, Cuba had 15,164 kilometers of railway; 565 locomotive; 400 passenger cars; 100 boxcars and more than 10,000 freight cars. Of the 15,164 kilometers of railway, 5,862 were of public service and 9,302 serviced mainly the sugar industry. Cuba had more railroads per square mile than any other country in the world.

After 1959, with the nationalization of the transportation system, the diversion of resources to military expenditures and the lack of competition for the service, the train stock deteriorated, destroying what was one an efficient system.

The present railway system has only 8,193 km of railway tracks, of which 5,064 correspondent to public transportation, and the rest to agro industrial use (mainly transportation of sugar cane to sugar mills). The actual km of railway tracks has been reduced 46% with respect to 1958. Not even the railway system has escaped the ineptitude of the Castroit regime.

Sandokan · Sep 8, 2019

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Obama Is Surrounded By Symbols To Win The Hearts Of Cubans
Obama Is Surrounded By Symbols To Win The Hearts Of Cubans | Generation Y

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Yoani-Sánchez

Havana is preparing to welcome US president Barack Obama. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 March 2016 – He arrives on the Island on Palm Sunday, will attend a baseball game, and has already spoken by phone with the most popular humorist on the Island. Barack Obama’s plane has not yet landed and already he has stolen the hearts of a legion of admirers through a series of symbols. A meal in a paladar (a private restaurant), a phrase from José Martí in his major speech, and a mention of Cachita, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, would complete his upcoming gestures of enchantment.

On Saturday night Cuban TV broadcast a video in which the humorist Pánfilo called the White House to talk to the president of the United States himself. A masterstroke of the Obama administration, it thus placed itself miles away from Cuba’s powers-that-be, who lack any talent for laughter. Through the character of this old man who is obsessed with his ration book, the president of the United States addressed the Cuban people and did so in their own language.
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What the Obama administration gained from the Castroit regime? Cero, nada. What the administration gave to the regime? More money to keep enslaving the Cuban people.

Secretary Kerry Can't Provide Any Evidence of Improved Human Rights in Cuba.

Sandokan · Sep 25, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Marco Rubio was right when he said that Obama “knows exactly what he is doing. Barack Obama in doing that is undertaking a systematic effort to change this country.” He listed some of the ways Obama achieved in doing that: the $800 billion stimulus, the financial reform bill and the nuclear deal with Iran. And now of course, the bailout of the Castroit regime when it is in the ropes.

Sandokan · Oct 9, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The Special Period: The Return Of The Cuban Middle Ages
The Special Period: The Return Of The Cuban Middle Ages / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez – Translating Cuba

Yoani Sanchez
August 6, 2016

Cubans try to repair an “almendrón” (old American car) in Havana. (SN)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 August 2016 — She split the plate into two meager rations. “Mommy, you’re not going to eat?” asked one of the daughters voraciously swallowing the mashed banana without oil, free of protein and with hardly any salt. The image of this skimpy dinner in the summer of 1993 is recalled by Maria Luisa, 59, a Havanan who now fears the return of the hardest moments of the Special Period. Like her, many Cuban families are alarmed by the worsening economic crisis.

Announcements during the last session of the National Assembly about the island’s liquidity problems, amid the falling prices of nickel and oil, have only confirmed what has been palpable on the street for months. The reductions in annual growth forecasts from an initial 2% in GDP to a more realistic 1%, is one of many signs of the worsening living conditions of Cubans.
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The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, severely impacted the Cuban economy, since 80% of Cuba’s foreign trade was with the Socialist Countries. The reduction of oil from Russia impacted the transportation, industrial and agricultural systems. The increasing blackouts, and the food shortages led to the population upheaval in Havana in 1994 known as the “Maleconazo.” By 2016 the living condition has worsened, due mainly to Venezuela lower production of oil that resulted in the cut of oil subsidy to Cuba. Cubans are worry about a repetition of the Special Period of the 1990s.

Sandokan · Oct 26, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The Day of the Woman in Cuba, More Honored in the Breach
The Day of the Woman in Cuba, More Honored in the Breach / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez – Translating Cuba

March 8, 2017Categories 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

On Women’s Day, no protest march is scheduled in Cuba, as if the life of the women in this country was a bed of roses. (Silvia Corbelle)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 8 March 2017 – Lying in bed, with the light off, feeling each one of her vertebrae howling. After coming home from work she spent four hours in the kitchen, bathed her invalid mother, helped the children with their homework, went shopping and prepared an administrative report. On TV the announcers offer congratulations for the Day of the Woman, but it sounds like a distant echo that does not influence her life.

On March 8, the workplaces end their days earlier, the officials intone mellow speeches and all the stands are sold out of flowers. The news is filled with images of women who cut cane, give life to babies, and carry guns on their shoulders. Nor is there any lack of politics. Officialdom takes advantage of the day to insist that only “after January 1959” have we Cuban women been recognized.

There are no protest marches, no demands expressed, as if the life of women in this country was a bed of roses.
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Women are treated as second class citizens under the Castroit regime living in a society that privilege men. Machismo is alive and well in the island. They are beaten, threatened and sometimes murdered by their partners. Women have been the main victims of the economic crises, having to spend long hours in line to buy food and prepare it. The women’s rights movement have been crush and their right to protest and strike danaid. Gender equality is out of the window.

Sandokan · Nov 11, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The Departure Of Raúl Castro, The End Of An Era
The Departure Of Raul Castro, The End Of An Era – Translating Cuba

January 11, 2018 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

The vice president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, listens to Raúl Castro (Havana, May 1, 2016). GETTY

14ymedio, Generation Y, (Politicaexterior.com), Yoani Sanchez, 9 January 2017 — “Six decades are a lifetime,” says Facundo, a Cuban retiree who sells the official press in Old Havana to supplement his low pension. Born shortly before Fidel Castro came to power, the man is suspicious of the appointment of a new president next April. “That’s going to be like learning to walk,” he says, while hawking the pro-government daily Granma.

Like Facundo, a good part of the Cubans residing on the island today were born under Castroism or barely remember the country before January 1959. Raúl Castro’s departure from the government [first announced for February 2018 and then postponed until April] for them has the connotations of the end of an era, regardless of the rupture or continuity shown by the successors installed in the national command room.
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Castro mafia family is still in control of the island. Coronel Alejandro Castro Espin, son of Raúl Castro is in charge of the Interior Ministry, is the power behind the throne. He said that “Cuba will never returned to capitalism.” Raúl’s former son-in-law Luis Alberto Rodriguez runs GRUPO GAESA, an organization control by the Ministry of the Armed Forces which control strategic sectors of the country's economy, such as the retail market, the tourism sector, the Mariel Special Development Zone, telecommunication and real estate sector among others. Raúl’s daughter, Mariela Castro Espín is a member of the national assembly. Raul is still in charge of the Communist Party and will lead the most important decisions. Diaz-Canel is a figurehead, control by mafia family. The regime has place new limits on private business, keeping a stranglehold on them. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Sandokan · Nov 26, 2019

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Which One Is The Criminal?
Which One Is The Criminal? – Translating Cuba

Yoani Sanchez, 6 April 2018

The brothers Raul and Fidel Castro together with Lula (center) in 2010, when the former Brazilian president visited the island at the time of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo. (Juventud Rebelde)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 April 2018 — In 2010, then Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva provoked a bitter controversy when he compared Cuban dissidents to common criminals. Those words, said a week after the death of the opponent Orlando Zapata Tamayo, take on a new meaning today, a few hours before the Brazilian leader goes to prison.

“I think hunger strikes cannot be used as a human rights pretext to free people,” said the former steelworker, eight years ago in March. “Imagine what would happen if all the bandits who are imprisoned in Sao Paulo went on hunger strike and asked for their freedom,” he remarked cheerfully.
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Of course Lula da Silva. He was convicted of money laundering and passive corruption, defined in Brazilian criminal law as “the receipt of a bribe by a civil servant or government official.” But compare to the Castro brothers he is petty criminal. Being a lefty hi is out of prison and ready to emulate the brothers.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo a plumber and bricklayer of black race and humble origin, a member of the non-violent Alternative Republican Movement, had been sentenced to several months in prison for public disorder, disrespect, and disobedience, and released on conditional liberty. He was arrested by the political police of the Cuban regime after the crackdown against the independents journalist in the spring of 2003 for his participation in a fast to protest the harsh treatment of the political prisoners and sentenced to three years in prison. Due to his activism and protest in prison his sentence was increased to 36 years!

After 85 days of Zapata’s hunger strike to protest years of beatings and human rights violations by the Castro regime, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was left to die as Christ in the cross. He never engaged in violent activity, nor murders anyone but himself for what the regime did to him, his race and his people.

Sandokan · Dec 9, 2019

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Cuban Temper Tantrum Unleashed at the United Nations
Generation Y | An English translation of Yoani Sanchez's blog Generacion Y, from Havana, Cuba

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Yoani-Sánchez
YouTube

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 17 October 2018 – At first one can even be sympathetic: an elementary school classmate who flaps her arms while screaming. Later, comes the rudeness as the saleswoman’s mouth clenches before she spits out, “Girl, why did you even take that off the shelf if we haven’t marked the price yet?” Or the soldiers practicing on Independence Avenue while chanting a motto that ends in the phrase, “y nos roncan los cojones.”

Thus, over several generations, we Cubans have grown up with the idea that screaming, saying bad words, insulting others, calling them mocking nicknames and not letting others speak makes us look brave, superior or “macho.” This has undoubtedly contributed to what can be called “revolutionary trash talk,” that effrontery in the use of language and manners to make us seem more proletarian, more humble.

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The Castroit regime delegation tantrum at the U.N. is responsible for the damages cause to the property and shall pay for it. The event, highlighting the bad conditions of the political prisoners, angered the regime delegation that started to disrupt it, screaming, beating on the table and refused to leave. This type of behavior has to be condemn and the U.N. make sure do not happen again.

Sandokan · Dec 30, 2019

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Six Decades of an Unattainable Utopia
Six Decades of an Unattainable Utopia | Generation Y

Posted on January 2, 2019

This 2019, the process that delighted millions of Cubans reaches six decades of existence, without resembling the dreams generated in its early days. (Archive)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 2 January 2018 – Ramón, an old man now, was a smooth-cheeked teenager when Fidel Castro entered Havana on January 1959. Soon after, he decided to become a militiaman to defend what many Cubans then proudly called “the Revolution.” Today, with a pension that does not exceed the equivalent of 23 dollars a month, the retiree lives on the money sent to him by his grandchildren, emigrated to the other side of the Straits of Florida, to that country to which Ramón pointed his rifle while standing guard in a military unit in the midst of the Cold War.

This 2019, the process that delighted millions of Cubans reaches six decades of existence, without resembling the dreams imagined by young people like Ramón and without having managed to provide a dignified and free life to those who stayed on the island. Now there are few who call the political model established after the arrival of the “bearded ones” to power “Revolution”; instead they prefer to say “the system” or simply “this” or “this thing.” Of the leaders dressed in olive green who came down from the Sierra Maestra, there are only a few octogenarians left and they fail to arouse admiration or respect in the vast majority of people.
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The 60th anniversary of the Castroit regime mark the failure of its promises. In January 8, 1959, Fidel Castro said: “Today there is no torture, nor political prisoners, nor assassinations, nor terror. Today there is only joy.”

Statistics for the past 60 years: 7,700 documented deaths; more than 475,000 political prisoners have gone through the jails, more than 96,000 deaths in the Straits of Florida trying to escape; around 15,000 Cubans killed in “international solidarity” wars, Bay of Pigs invasion, Escambray Insurrection and in Latin American guerrilla actions.

On March 13, 1959, Fidel said: “We have said that we will turn Cuba into the most prosperous country of the world. We have said that the people of Cuba will reach the higher standard of living than any country in the world.”

Communism soon killed any possibility of prosperity. Cuba’s statistical reports and specialized agencies show that Cuba’s agricultural production declined year after year from 1980 to 2010. There is a shortage of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, bananas, mangos, sweet potatoes, taro, rice and other foodstuffs that traditionally have been produced in the island. The 2017-2018 sugar harvest with a production of 1.1 million tons of sugar represents the worst harvest in 124 years.

On May 8, 1959, he said: “This s an entirely democratic revolution; is that all human rights are the rights of our revolution; is that freedom of opinion, freedom of writing, freedom of speech, the freedom to assemble and the freedom to believe, are sacred freedoms of our Revolution.”

For six decades these fundamental rights in a democracy, have not been respected in Cuba. Newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, have been confiscated, closed. Thousands of people imprisoned, persecuted for expressing or trying to express their opinions. The denial of human rights by the Castroit tyranny have caused all acts of barbarism, thousands of people executed, thousands of political prisoners tortured, the exodus of 1.7 million Cubans, during all that time.

Sandokan · Jan 21, 2020

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

“! We will make the Revolution, the agrarian reform and all the laws, even if rails fall!” Speech October 21, 1959.

Six decades after the establishment of Agrarian Reform, Cuba is the only country in the hemisphere where all economic indexes have fallen. Cuba's territory is very fertile and is able to provide food for its people. Castro tyranny is the only one responsible that the Cuban people have a ration on the supply of fruits, vegetables, tubers, tobacco, coffee, milk, meat, sugar, etc., all of them produced on the island.

swing_voter · Jan 21, 2020

It was just a year or two ago that Cubans got access to the internet.

And even now, all traffic passes through a government owned ISP so that the communist government can see where everyone is browsing to.

Sandokan · Feb 7, 2020

swing_voter said:
It was just a year or two ago that Cubans got access to the internet.

And even now, all traffic passes through a government owned ISP so that the communist government can see where everyone is browsing to.

.

“Luckily for us it is a country of magnificent resources, which when it has been able to develop all its resources, when properly invest all the human energy that today is invested, many times, in an useless way, it will manage to reach a very high standard of living; and it will yield fruits of wellbeing all the effort that we make today.” Speech at the Palace of Sports, Havana, November 8, 1960.

In 1958, the annual per capita of 76 lbs of beef consuption and 147 liters of milk intake, were among the highest in the world and their cost to the people among the most inexpensive. Cuban livestock has been decimated. From 6.33 million heads of cattle in 1958 with a population of 6.6 million, equivalent to 0.97 cattle per inhabitant (National Ass. of Cuban Cattlemen), to only 4.13 million in 2014 with a population of 11.24 million (National Statistics Office, Cuba), equivalent to 0.37 cattle per inhabitant.

Today the regime continues to relentlessly repress any form of dissidence, and its largest source of foreign exchange continues to be the export of professional services like doctors, engineers and others. After 60 years the Castroit tyrannical regime have nothing but failure to show for itself.

Sandokan · Feb 22, 2020

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Nostalgia For The Cage Of The ‘80s
Nostalgia For The Cage Of The ‘80s | Generation Y

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Yoani-Sánchez

The ‘80s were also years of experiments and official programs marked by the voluntarism of Fidel Castro. Headline: “Now We Are Going to Build Socialism!” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 22 April 2019 — That day I did not want to watch national television but rather some documentary on the ‘Weekly Packet’, but when I turned on the screen there was Ramiro Valdés, speaking before the National Assembly about the “diversion of resources,” the official euphemism used to talk about stealing from the State, and how “ethical values” had deteriorated in Cuban society with the arrival of the Special Period. In his tone and choice of words there was a nostalgia for the 80s, for that “golden” decade before the economic crisis.

I perceive a similar recollection in many Cubans over 40, who consider that time as the best we have experienced in the last 60 years of socialism on the island. The longing leads them to see everything that happened in that decade through rose-colored glasses. With a highly selective memory they remember markets full of products, bread and eggs for sale freely without having to go through the rationed market, an average salary being enough to feed a family, and public transport operating with numerous routes and sufficient vehicles.
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The Peru Embassy crisis and the Mariel Boatlift
“On April 1, 1980, twelve Cubans traveling in a bus smashed through the gates of the Peruvian embassy with the purpose of seeking asylum.”

A Cuban soldier stands by a refugee ship at the port of Mariel on April 23, 1980, as the refugees aboard wait to sail for U.S., where they hope to start new lives. | Jacque Langevin/AP Photo

This incident caused the stampede of 10,834 Cubans that fleeing from oppression, voted with their feet entering into the Embassy grounds, after Castro removed the guards protecting the Embassy. The social pressure became so great that Castro on April 20, announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel. Cuban exiles in the U.S. hire boats to go to Cuba and rescue their relatives. A total of 125,000 Cubans fled the island and their arrival on the U.S. created problems for the Carter administration, forcing it to declare a state of emergency on some Florida counties. The Castro regime released around 5,000 jailed criminals and mentally ill inmates, homosexual and prostitutes, forcing them to leave with the refugees. To validate his action Castro said that that the Cubans leaving the island were counter-revolutionaries who needed to be purged because they could never prove productive to the nation. The immigration crisis contributed to Carter losing the election to Ronald Reagan.
That's how devil pays those who served him well.

Sandokan · Mar 7, 2020

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

“Is completely false that rumor that the Revolutionary Government will intervene the private schools. Why? … Some counterrevolutionaries said that the revolutionary government was going to take away parental authority–and there are some people who has gone to psychiatrists because of that.” Castro Speech, November 8, 1960.

Barely four months later he contradicts himself; where I said that, now I say this: “And, therefore, we announce here that in the next few days the Revolutionary Government will pass a law nationalizing the private schools. This law cannot be a law for one sector, that law will have a general character; that means the private schools will be nationalized.” Speech at the International Workers’ Day, Civic Plaza, May 1st, 1961.

The saying “a liar is sooner caught than a cripple”, fits him “like a glove on the hand.” As far as it is known, Fidel is not a cripple. The confiscation of all private educational centers included all the assets such as facilities, buildings, bank accounts, etc., without any compensation to their rightful owners. It can be characterized as an armed robbery.

Sandokan · Mar 22, 2020

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

“Why? If we are doing some wonderful schools for the people, we are doing what we always said: that we were going to make schools for the people much better, and is what we are doing.” Castro Speech, November 8, 1960.

The intervention of all the education centers was intended to implement socialist ideas, not education by itself. The so-called “achievements” of the Castroism educational efforts have culminated in failure after 58 years of socialist indoctrination in the education sector. Actions speaks louder than words.

In 1958, with a population of 5.6 million, there were 8,436 primary schools, of which 3,587 were urban and 4,849 rural. In 2016, with a population of 11.2 million according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) 2016, Education, chapter 18, there are 6,863, of which 2,084 are urban and 4779 rural. There are less urban and rural primary schools than in 1958. The figures speak for themselves.

Sandokan · Apr 5, 2020

Re: Cubaâ€™s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

On December 17, 1960, Castro, in the CMQ-TV program “Meet the Press”, affirmed that, “The illiteracy rate in our country is 37.5%.” In the first Congress of the PPC, held from December 17 to 22, 1975, he said: “on the date of the Moncada (1953), 23.6% of the population over 10 years was illiterate.” In spite of what Fidel Castro said, the document approved by the V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1997, referring to the period before 1959, almost doubled it, upon affirming that, “a country with more than 40 per cent of illiterates.” (Granma International, October 1997, Havana)

Cuba’s national illiteracy rate was 18% in 1958 for persons older than 10 years of age (Cuba’s Ministry of Education archives), ranking third in Latin America. There is a pattern from the regime to inflate the percentage of illiterates prior to 1959, by using the illiteracy rate of the 1953 census of 23.8%. The regime statistics acknowledged the real number by indicated that in 1961, “from a total of 929,207 identified as illiterates, 707,212 were taught to read and write; 221,995 did not acquire these skills.” (Verde Olivo, Havana, August 16, 1968).

In 1958, the population over 10 years of age was 4.97 million, and the number of illiterate 894.600. In 1961 the population over 10 years was 5.15 million, and the number of illiterate 929.207.The actual illiteracy rate based on the regime figures was 18 %, the same percentage than in 1958. It is obvious the cooking of the figures by the regime.