I wasn't yet old enough to go to school and I was at the park the neighbors in the area called "Carlos III," although the maps insisted on labeling it "Carlos Marx." My sister and I were playing in the dry fountain, jumping from one bench to another. At some point we glanced over at the site of the Masonic Lodge at the corner of Belascoain and the globe on its roof was throwing out gray smoke, slowly burning up in front of our eyes. I remember we shouted at my father, "Papi! The world is on fire!" and the three of us ran to the building guard to tell him. In a few minutes the fire trucks came and from that day the reproduction of the planet ceased to turn, its rotating mechanism stopped working... for decades.
In this same park from my childhood, the Critical Observatory* held a meeting yesterday, in solidarity with the worldwide movement of the outraged. Hours before the demonstrators arrived, the area was taken by the political police as well as uniformed guards. Several activists and journalists were detained before they got there, and taken to distant neighborhoods so they could not participate. The event finally happened, although with marked haste and low attendance. They were able, however, to display a pair of anti-capitalist banners, take some photos, and connect, from a distance, with the current discontent shaking countries like Spain, England and the United States. The attendees sang the Internationale and some habituates of the place discovered -- just then -- the face of the author of Das Kapital chiseled into the wall. Fifteen minutes later #12MGlobal ended in Havana and the children returned to take over the empty fountain, the benches, and the bust in relief of a man born in Germany in 1818. At night, prime time news would report the protests in London and Madrid, while remaining silent about the demonstration on our national territory.
Despite the limited number of attendees and the narrow ideology of the convocation, what happened yesterday is something that enriches Cuban civil society. The official sectarianism doesn't distinguish between nonconformists on the left or right, suspicious of all who dare to criticize, regardless of their affiliation. In the offices of State Security they will have an open file on Jose Daniel Ferrer as well as Pedro Campos, they will follow the tracks of the Patriot Union of Cuba, as well as those of the Critical Observatory with suspicion. To totalitarianism, it doesn't matter if its dissidents say they embrace the same doctrine as the once official manuals, criticizing alone is enough to land them in the same sack of enemies. This country, stuck in political inertia, needs to get moving, urgently needs to embark on the path of pluralism and democracy. Like the globe at the corner of Carlos III and Belascoaín, Cuba must begin to move. Perhaps at first it will turn to the left or to the right, it will stumble and waffle until it finds its own rhythm. But from now on, no one can impose a single direction, no one has the right to constrain it to a single path.
*Translator's note: "Critical Observatory" is a group challenging the Castro regime from the left. An article in which a member describes the group, in English, is here; and a report of Saturday's protest from the same author is here.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
A global effort to translate Cuban bloggers working from the Island into multiple languages, HemosOido.com (We Have Heard), is HERE, and YOU CAN HELP.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIRlvQ0ItSg
http://en.rsf.org/annual-accounts-2010-21-07-2011,37870.html
Reporters Without Borders income in 2010 was mainly from:
The sale of publications (mainly books of photographs) and related products (45.5%)
Corporate donors and foundation (17.8%)
Income from the general public (4.7%) included donations from private individuals in France and other countries, as well as legacies. This money was used for:
Drives to raise further funding from the general public,
Public campaigns and assistance work.
Other income was mainly from:
- public institutions (18%) such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the French Development Agency and the International Organisation of the Francophonie.
- the 2010 part of the Roland Berger Award for Human Dignity (7%) (the amount is included under other private funding).
- Other sources (4%), mainly member dues, structural rebilling (Reporters Without Borders International), financial income (mostly exchange rate differences), income rolled over from previous years and transferred costs (mainly government-subsidised hiring).
The NED still refuses to provide the requested documents or even reveal the grant amounts, but they are identified by these numbers: IRI 2002-022/7270, IRI 2003-027/7470 and IRI 2004-035/7473. Investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood asked Morillon on April 25 if her group was getting any money from the I.R.I., and she denied it, but the existence of the grants was confirmed by NED assistant to the president, Patrick Thomas. ..... "
http://tinyurl.com/6xp599m
SORRY TO BREAK IT TO YOU Comrade Komar!! SHE HAS A WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE THAT INCLUDES MANY INSIDE CUBA! WITH LITTLE OR NO INTERNET ACCESS IN CUBA & THE CASTROFASCIST CONTROL OVER ALL MEDIA SHE DOES PRETTY WELL!
In 2008, Sánchez was honored with awards that included Time magazine’s "One of the 100 Most Influential People in the World”,[70] one of Foreign Policy magazine’s “10 Most Influential Latin American Intellectuals” of the year, and the El País 2008 “Ortega y Gasset Prize for Digital Journalism”.[72] She was, as well, one of El País’ 2008 100 most notable Hispanoamericans,[73] and one of Gatopardo’s 10 most influential people of 2008.
Time magazine named Sánchez's blog, "Generation Y", one of the “25 Best Blogs of 2009”.[75] The World Economic Forum, yearly, selects a group of young global leaders of whom Sánchez was one, in 2009.[76][77] In the summer of 2009, Sánchez was honored as one of the winners of the Columbia University School of Journalism's “Marie Moors Cabot Prize”. The prize is the oldest in international journalism. Sánchez was denied an exit permit by the Cuban government to travel to the New York City award dinner.[78] In 2010, Sánchez was named a "World Press Freedom Hero" by the International Press Institute, and also received a Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands' Prince Claus Fund, with an honorarium of € 25,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoani_S%C3%A1nchez
Get rea. Has Yoani spent time in, say, a Mexican slum? Dealt with a Colombian paramilitary who rape and murder with US training?
Nah. She's busy explaining how submitting to the USA is supposed to be a good thing. If she wants to write about "totalitarianism" maybe she should be reporting from the torture camp at guantanamo bay instead of this colonial propaganda.
But what is she FOR?
Not a word of it. Yoani Sanchez is not an honest reporter. She's a US-backed propagandist. Her silences are deafening.
One can take a guess though. She's a member of Cuba's chattering classes and as such has the arrogance to believe that people like her should run Cuba, almost certainly to the detriment of the vast majority of ordinary Cubans.
Until the above article was published there was no reason to suppose that she wanted anything other than to sell out her country to US imperialism. Apparently not, although I would take that with a pinch of salt.
Too many times she has been caught lying, either through ignorance or deliberately. Too many times she has twisted the truth to breaking point in her efforts to denigrate her country. She is simply not to be trusted.