There are many jokes in Cuba alluding to the stereotypical information provided by the official press. Jokes about the tendency to narrate only the positive that happens in the national territory and to show the rest of the world through a succession of tragedies and negativity. One of the best known of these jokes is repeated when the prime time news begins and some families hang an empty bag under the television. "At least it can be filled up this way from the tons of meat, fruit and foods that show up only in the news reports," say the cheeky housewives burdened by the shortages. Beside the sarcasm, there are linguists who have noted the use of verbs such as "grow, sow, build, develop" in the headlines referring to our own country, while they prefer to use words such as "die, bomb, prosecute, punish and destroy" for articles about the rest of the world.
Despite the fact that in recent years they've tried to offer a journalism closer to reality, triumphalism continues to set the standard for what appears in the mass media. A recent example is the outbreak of cholera that appeared in early June in the eastern provinces. The first evidence that something was happening was a text from an independent journalist. On the official digital sites this news was branded "another hoax from the imperialists." Only to have to recognize weeks later that there is, indeed, an outbreak of vibrio cholerae in the City of Manzanillo. As people disbelieve so much of what the newspapers say, they even read this note in Granma with suspicion. To the figures of 3 dead and 53 infected, popular rumor started to increase the numbers. And all this speculation is because we have learned to read the news upside down and between the lines, and to distrust almost everything said on TV.
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.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
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www.ascecuba.org
The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (abbreviated ASCE) will hold its twenty second annual meeting under the theme "Where is Cuba Going?" on 2-4 August 2012 at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel in Miami, Florida 33132. This event represents the broadest gathering of academics, policymakers and professionals working or researching the Cuban economy and society. Among the distinguished scholars and professionals expected to attend will be Professor Jorge I. DomĂnguez (Harvard University and ASCE) delivering the Betancourt Keynote Address. Scholars and civil society actors from Cuba, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and South America will also give presentations on the Cuban economy. For the Preliminary Conference Program, registration and hotel bookings, visit www.ascecuba.org. Register by 15 July 2012 for reduced pre-registration and hotel rates.
http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
Only the government releases health&education statistics.
Rarely are they true.
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That's so just because the huge and excellent health system inherited by castrofascism and built by democracy before castro-batista regime........ castrofascism also inherited excellent plumbing and sanitation systems but regime did not transform those systems in a propaganda issue to project a false image of prosperity but instead took the health system as propaganda flag........... but regime could not avoid the destruction of this health system too.
HAVANA – - The supply of potable water in the Cuban capital has reached its most critical state in the last 50 years, with more than 100,000 people dependent on tanker trucks for water and with sources of supply ready to collapse, Communist Party daily Granma said Friday.
The Havana water system loses 70 percent of the water pumped for consumers before it gets to them, the newspaper said.
Almost half of Havana's more than 2 million inhabitants have suffered from serious problems in the basic water-supply system, while some 110,000 people are wholly dependent on deliveries of water by tanker trucks, according to official data cited by Granma.
The paper said that there has been a "notable drop" in accumulated volumes in aquifers and reservoirs due to the drought over the past two years and the poor functioning of an aqueduct "that has deteriorated over time."
"In a more subtle way than hurricanes, this hydrological drought, together with the poor state of some 2,194 kilometers (1,363 miles) of pipelines, almost 71 percent, and other infrastructure problems, is also damaging the nation's economy," Granma said.
"Because of how serious the situation is, the possibility of cutting off service to those who consume more than planned is being evaluated," Granma said.
http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2252:cuban-capital-facing-qcriticalq-water-shortage&catid=36:in-cuba&Itemid=54
WATER POLUTION
According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), water pollution in Cuba is a serious concern, particularly since there is a marked lack of infrastructure to address the issue. Of the 2,160 main contaminant sources recognized by UNEP, 1,273 or 59 percent, release their pollution into the Cuban environment without any treatment whatsoever. Another 433, or roughly 20 percent, receive limited but inadequate treatment before being discharged. (2) This analysis included agricultural sources of contamination, as well as industrial and human waste.
Despite its clear importance to the citizens of Cuba, the treatment of urban sewage in particular is extremely limited: only 17 or 18 percent receives any treatment before discharge into Cuban waterways. (3) The infrastructure of water and sanitation are beyond the breaking point and are close to catastrophic failure. Havana’s sewer system, which was built almost a hundred years ago, has been due for major repairs for almost five decades and is serving over two million citizens, well beyond its design capacity of 400,000. (4)
The Cuban government has recognized this as a major environmental problem on the island, conceding that “pollution in our ground and marine waters has gradually aggravated…caused mainly by the deficient state of the sewerage and its incomplete nature in the majority of cases."
http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/FACTS_Web/Cuba%20Facts%20Issue%2026%20November%202006.htm
In one Cuban hospital, patients had to bring their own light bulbs. In another, the staff used ``a primitive manual vacuum'' on a woman who had miscarried. In others, Cuban patients pay bribes to obtain better treatment.
Those and other observations by an unidentified nurse assigned to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana were included in a dispatch sent by the mission in January 2008 and made public this month by WikiLeaks.
Titled ``Cuban healthcare: Aquà Nada es Facil'' -- Nothing here is easy -- the cable offers a withering assessment by the nurse, officially a Foreign Service Health Practitioner, or FSHP, who already had lived in Cuba for 2 ½ years.
CLICK LINK BELOW FOR ORGINAL WIKILEAK DOCUMENT
http://www.wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/01/08HAVANA103.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK3AnxSgdxA&feature=share
YOUTUBE : Patients in Hospital for Cubans part 2 - More videos showing patient's rooms at the 10 de Octubre and Miguel enriquez hospitals in Havana. Notice how some of the beds have bed sheets that are not the typical white sheets used in most hospitals. This is because many patients have to bring their own bed sheets, pillows and towels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8T4SinsfWQ&feature=related
The country goes through frequent epidemics but most of them are kept in secrecy by regime. The only signal people have when something is wrong is the police display and the prohibition to freely circulate in - out and around the zone in problem. In this case independent journalist could guess something wrong in Manzanillo and its hospital because the hospital was surrounded by police and the city were seized by political police in order to avoid information filtration about the epidemic.