Sunrise on 5th Avenue. The cars traveling fast and on the diplomatic license plates white letters stand out against a black background. The trees of the central promenade display their pruned leaves and the former Soviet embassy looks like an Excaliber stuck -- without architectural pity -- in Havana's chest. It's not hot yet, but some are already sweating as they run along the boulevard. Wearing Adidas, bottles of water, and white earbuds. A blue sky -- but with a touch of exclusivity -- hangs over the largest sports area of the city, which begins just beyond the tunnel under the Almendares River. A race track for the social class that has already accumulated pounds, but that prefers to jog outdoors, not on a treadmill in the gym.
A meet-and-greet place that is also called the Avenue of the Americas, with its source of sirens at one end and its luxurious mansions on both sides. At that corner the retired colonel and the new corporation manager have just run into each other and talk about the weather, their children... how beautiful the morning is. Here comes an official's daughter, with a childhood friend with whom she shared games and barbecues. Also, just crossing the street -- carefully -- the white-bearded poet with his purebred dog. And the actress who has returned from touring Europe joins the early morning calorie-burning procession. Because by ten in the morning the sun will want to offer them a free sauna, and none of them will be outside any longer.
Compared to the rest of Cuba, 5th Avenue stands as a rarity. And not because such urban beauty is scarce on this Island, not at all, because even the destroyed mansions of Central Havana maintain some of their former beauty. What is strange is this case is not the perfectly trimmed trees, the intact white granite benches, or the mansions with fences and gardens, but the people themselves. The most anomalous thing that strikes the eye is the behavior of these passersby who jog or walk their pets. There is a touch of comfort in them, an attention to their bodies and attire, a tranquility derived from the lack of daily annoyances. They are like some caricature of the bourgeoisie that official discourse tried to make us hate from the time we were little. But, there they are, with their relaxed trot, their athletic clothes, and those extra pounds gained through privilege that the diversion of resources or power have given them, behind our backs, and on our backs.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
Rich! WHERE HAS YOANI PRETENDED THAT THE CORRUPTION DURING BATISTAS WAS NOT TRUE? AND WHY DOES THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT NOT ALLOW HER SOME SPACE IN THE STATE CONTROLLED MEDIA SO SHE CAN BE REBUTTED? SHOULD SHE NOT HAVE THIS RIGHT?
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CUBA- Amnesty International Publications 2010
STATE MONOPOLY OF THE MEDIA: Restrictions on the Cuban media are stringent and pervasive and clearly stop those in the country from enjoying their right to freedom of opinion and expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.8 The state maintains a total monopoly on television, radio, the press, internet service providers, and other electronic means of communication.9 According to official figures, there are currently 723 publications (406 print and 317 digital), 88 radio stations, four national TV channels (two devoted to educational programming), 16 regional TV stations and an international TV channel. All are financed and controlled by the government.10 Three newspapers provide national coverage: Granma, which is the organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Juventud Rebelde and Trabajadores.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/005/2010/en/62b9caf8-8407-4a08-90bb-b5e8339634fe/amr250052010en.pdf
As for the Cuban media, it's owned by the state, run by trades unions and properly reflects the interests of Cuba's people. In sharp contrast, the US media is owned by corporations and consquently reflects only the interests of corporations, while those of America's workers is entirely ignored.
What a sacrifice Ms Sánchez made. What gratitude to the country of her birth where, according to her, everything is wrong and nothing is right. The poor woman can't walk down the street, apparently, without seeing something which mortally offends her. I suspect that that would be the case wherever she was.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE : A sweet life if you belong to Cuba's upper crust - Jonathan Curiel
Everyone knows that Cuba is one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest countries. In Michael Dweck's photo project that shows Cuba's privileged side - a side of beautiful models, late-night partiers, daytime surfers, hard-working guitar players and other people who make up Cuba's "creative class," as Dweck calls them. Two of Fidel Castro's sons (Alex and Alejandro) are on the periphery of this strata. So is the son of Che Guevara, Camilo Guevara, who's a photographer.
As Dweck notes in his new book, " Michael Dweck: Habana Libre," some of the people he photographed are "embarrassed" about their relatively elite standing; others, he says, "are afraid to draw attention to it for fear the socialist government will punish them for having a good life." "Artists, writers, filmmakers, dancers - they live this secretive life under the radar in Cuba that is really cool and lends itself well to a narrative," says Dweck. "I'm playing on the theme of privilege in a classless society."
Not surprisingly, some Cubans didn't want to cooperate with Dweck. One woman he met there told him, "I think this project is going to get a lot of people in trouble, and you're on your own."
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-29/entertainment/30228138_1
In comparison with other Latin American and Caribbean countries it isn't by a long way, especially that triumph of capitalism, Haiti.
Evidence of this is plain enough to see in its figures, confirmed by the CIA, for longevity, infant mortality and educational attainment, in many instances outperforming the self-styled richest country in the world.
You'll certainly have to find a new set of slanderous put-downs when the oil starts flowing.
You write so we can be what? Surprised? At what? A show of wealth that would not compare to that of five hundred cities of the capitalist world where the rich flaunt it because they got it and where the poor die because they don't.
We live in the same harsh reality. You ain't got no monopoly sister.