A solitary man sweeps the dry leaves on the wide avenue where not one car is traveling in either direction. He lowers his head and avoids talking with the cameraman. Perhaps it's a punishment for not applauding with sufficient enthusiasm at a meeting, or not bowing with theatrical reverence before a Party member. The scene of the sweeper on his desolate street is captured in a documentary about North Korea that has circulated on our alternate information networks. A painful testimony, with people all dressed the same, grey depersonalized buildings, and statues of the Eternal Leader on all sides. Hell in miniature, which leaves us with a sense of relief -- at least in this case -- for not having been born under the despotism of the Kim dynasty.
When Fidel Castro visited Pyongyang in March 1986, almost a million people greeted him, among them thousands of children waving flags with suspicious synchronicity. Cuban television reveled in the chorus that sounded like one voice, in dancers who didn't differ from each other by even a hair out of place, and in those little ones playing the violin with surprising mastery and anomalous simultaneity. Months after this presidential trip, on the artistic stages of Cuban elementary schools they tried to emulate this robotic discipline. But there was no way. The girl next to me threw the ball seconds after mine had already fallen to the floor, and some abandoned shoe was left behind on the stage after every performance. The Maximum Leader must have felt disillusioned by the chaotic conduct of his people, so different from those syncopated genuflections before the Secretary General of the Workers Party in North Korea.
On Monday the images of thousands of people crying in the streets over the death of Kim Jong Il called to mind those perfectly timed children. Although our tropical experiment never managed to "domesticate us" like them, we did copy something in the Korean model. In these parts, as well, genealogy has been more determinate than ballot boxes, and the heritage of blood has left us -- in 53 years -- only two presidents, both with the same last name. The dauphin over there is named Kim Jong Un; perhaps soon they will communicate to us that over here ours will be Alejandro Castro Espin. Just to think about it makes me shudder, as I did one day before those long rows of little girls throwing a ball at the exact same millisecond.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
Ann Morgan: North Korea: A Country Without Fiction?
Sheena Greitens: Kim Jong Un's North Korea
Vishakha N. Desai: North Korea's Surprising Sense of Vulnerability and Hopes for Change
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Cuba urged to respect press freedom as repression of journalists intensifies -30 April 2010
Amnesty International today called on the Cuban authorities to end harassment of independent journalists following a month in which several reporters were arbitrarily detained and intimidated for criticizing the government.
“Journalists who try to work independently of the state-owned media outlets in Cuba are being targeted with repressive tactics and spurious criminal charges - and this clampdown on freedom of expression appears to be intensifying,” said Susan Lee, Amnesty International's Americas Director, ahead of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/cuba-urged-respect-press-freedom-repression-journalists-intensifies-2010-04-30
YOUTUBE : CUBAN Documentary - "Wishes on a Falling Star"
Cuba, in the 50th year of the Revolution. While the Castro brothers face their certain end, an uncertain future hangs over the island. Some people are afraid, many cannot wait, but all shudder and hope that the changes will be positive. This documentary leads the audience through the discovery of this hope, through a tourist's camera which looks to be turned off and oblivious to the conversation at hand, yet is focused on candidly capturing each person's wishes.
Castro's supporters and dissidents, young and old -- none deceive themselves that the star of the revolution will shine on for much longer. And this is what this project focuses on: the wishes on a falling star.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afnx7j1m6eA&annotation_id=annotation_725071&feature=iv
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS: For Cuban blogger Sánchez, a government 'distinction'- By Karen Phillips - March 25, 2011
Acclaimed Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has had her share of honors lately.This week, Sánchez received a very different type of distinction--from the Cuban government. She was featured on Monday night's installment of "Las Razones de Cuba" (Cuban Reasons), a state-sponsored TV program and website that chronicles perceived threats to the government and singles out independent journalists as enemies of the state.
Monday night's half-hour program was dedicated to the topic of "Cyberwar." ("Not a war of bombs and weapons, but one of information, communications, algorithms, and bytes," the announcer intoned). About halfway through the half-hour broadcast, sinister music announced Sánchez's appearance, next to the word "cybermercenary." The program went on to list her international accolades along with the prize money that accompanied each award. Next came some fuzzy footage of Sánchez entering foreign embassies in Cuba. She was criticized for having secured an interview with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.
The program's message was clear: Independent bloggers such as Sánchez are being paid by foreign interests to undermine the state.
http://www.cpj.org/blog/2011/03/for-cuban-blogger-sanchez-a-government-distinction.php
Death of former president Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic
Google translation.
Prague, December 18 (Prensa Latina) The president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel died today at his residence in the north, the victim of a severely ill respitaror condition.
His secretary, Sabina Tancevova reported that the EXPOLIT of 75 years died this morning in his sleep.
Havel was born on October 5, 1936 in Prague and also served as a playwright and filmmaker.
He took his first term as an officer of the Czechoslovak Republic on December 29, 1989, replacing Gustav Husak, and the next year was confirmed for a period of two years by the Federal Assembly of the nation.
He resigned in July 1992, but agreed to become the first president of the newly created Czech Republic January 26, 1993.
In January 1998 he was reelected by Parliament for a new management last five years.
The continuing health ailments limited his participation in politics.
In 1996 he removed half of the right lung after detecting a malignant tumor, and has since been hospitalized numerous times. The most recent entry was on 8 March by an acute respiratory infection.
Cuba is a dictatorship! No free elections, no political parties, no freedom of assembly, no freedom to leave the country, no free press, the same two men in power since 1959 and a ravaged economy that even Raul blames on the communist party's own doing and not on the U.S.
Castro's legacy will be of an control-freak, economic ignoramus that destroyed the financial and civil fiber of a country. You want to hear a compliment to Castro? He was good at keeping control and out-cornering rivals . . . and he used this ability to ravage a society.
For decades, Cuba has "exported" doctors, nurses and health technicians to earn diplomatic influence in poor countries and hard cash for its floundering economy. According to Cuba's official media, an estimated 38,544 Cuban health professionals were serving abroad in 2008, 17,697 of them doctors. (Cuba reports having 70,000 doctors in all.)
The regime stands accused of violating various international agreements such as the Trafficking in Persons Protocol and ILO Convention on the Protection of Wages because of the way these health-care providers are treated. In February, for example, seven Cuban doctors who formerly served in Venezuela and later defected filed a lawsuit in Florida federal court against Cuba, Venezuela and the Venezuelan state oil company for holding them in conditions akin to "modern slavery."
Cuba won't release its agreements with host countries, but details have emerged in open sources, including in Cuba's official media. These show that typically the host country pays Cuba hard currency for each health worker and provides accommodations, food and a monthly stipend generally between $150 and $350. Cuba covers airfare and logistical support, and it pays salaries to the health-care workers out of the funds it holds.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE
http://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_bahamas/2010/08/cubas-cash-for-doctors-program-a-business-of-modern-slavery.html
In N. Korea, suspicion would fall on all non-synchronous flag waving, by children or adults, for that matter. Unless spontaneity was ordered.