Cuba claims to be the first in the world to manufacture cosmetics out of organic Spirulina, an algae commonly used in dietary supplements. Spirulina is known for it's unusually high protein content and is available in powder form, flakes and tablets. You may have seen Spirulina as an option at your favorite Smoothie bar. It's that dark green powder they use in the organic energy smoothies.Apparent
Just look at the cigars in this photo. If you're a cigar aficionado, your mouth is probably watering as you imagine how delicious that dark, rich tobacco will taste as you smoke it. Well if you've got a spare 16 grand lying around, you can bid on a box of these pre-embargo Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigars at Christie's Fine and Rare Wines and Vintage Cigars sale in London this week. The box was ori
Apparently Cubans don't like Cuba either. At least not in the current state it's in. Reports are that 2 Cubans are missing from their hotel in Arlington and presumed defecting to the US. The Cuban National Team in in town...
You think you know what Cubans go though? You will never truly understand the feelings we feel, but we can give ideas. What do I do here? I tell you what happened to my family, the horrors, Now you have an idea... and BELIEVE me it's REAL
Although Cubans have been able to get underground PCs for a while now, the Cuban government only recently lifted the official ban on them, and the first publicly-available machines just went on sale Friday. The state-approved QTECH PCs are only available at one store, where crowds formed to gawk at some pretty clunky tech — [...]
Raul Castro announced today that he is commuting all death sentences in Cuba (with the exception of 3 individuals charged with terrorism) to lesser sentences, citing humanitarian reasons. Cuba has faced pressure from human-rights activists to abolish its death penalty, which is still administered via firing squad.
The commutations are the latest in a wave of populist reforms introduced by Raul Castro since his older brother Fidel Castro retired and handed him power. Over the weekend he announced he's raising pensions for retirees as well as salaries for some government employees, while earlier this month he lifted long-time bans on Cubans owning cell phones and staying in hotels reserved for foreigners. From the Miami Herald:
The pay increases — which will affect almost one in five C
If seems Fidel Casto's little brother, President Raul Castro, who is now president of Cuba is loosening things up. Ordinary Cubans lined up for blocks outside telephone stores to sign up for cellular phone service for the first time ever. The service is costing the Cubans about US$120 to activate which is about half a year's wages on the average state salary. That doesn't even include the cell phone or credit to make and receive calls. However, the Cubans waited for more than an hour to get a handset. The new cell phone contracts will allow Cubans to make and receive overseas calls which is a key feature because the overwhelming majority of Cubans have relatives and friends in the United States.In most industrialized countries not having a cell phone is unthinkable;
Historic news out of Cuba moments ago.Cubans are now allowed to have unrestricted access to cellphone phones for the first time in history according to a new reform announced by President Raul Castro just within the hour.
WOW!
In a statement in official government newspaper Granma, the state telecom monopoly ETECSA announced mobile service to the public [...]
Havana, Dec 24 (Prensa Latina) Over a million Cubans enjoyed camping this year, confirming this type of family recreation as the favorite of the Cuban family.Some 300,000 people visited the northern coast of Havana Province, said Eduardo Tirado, president of the camping business world, in a press conference in La Cueva de los Portales, in Pinar del Rio.The increased demand means 79 of the country"s existing facilities are now insufficient, he noted.
A resolute President Bush stood in the Department of State yesterday and made his stance clear: he likes freedom. He’s not dancing around the tulips on this one. He’s never minced words. He likes it, loves its sister (liberty), and when he sees a lack of it, he’s compelled to speak out.
Communist Cuba, where “housing for many … is in very poor condition, while the ruling class lives in mansions,” was the latest nation to catch the sharp side of his tongue. The lack of freedom in that country is unacceptable to Bush and his constituents, and he decided he could no longer stand idly by and let tame economic sanctions keep Cubans from enjoying liberty, and the luxury American goods liberty keeps in its handbag. So, he took decisive action, encouraging stricter sanctions as a way of expediating freedom’s delivery. If the pure power of his rhetoric can’t bring freedom to the Cuban people, surely more privation will.
His pointed critique of Communi
Bush did a good thing yesterday talking about the future of Cuba. No matter how much Cuban Communists control the media (see sitemeter below for the number of Cubans who visit Asymmetric), the message will get out to Cubans that help from los Yanquis will be forthcoming if, after thier fifty-year stagnation, oppression, and idiocy nightmare inflicted upon them by power-monger Fidel Castro, they choose to join the free world. This should encourage the brave Cuban souls who are battling Fidel despite the threat of imprisonment to continue resisting a continuation of totalitarian dictatorship under Raul Castro and the Cuban heels who support him. Bush' promise may tip the more timid (or practical, if they think an American-backed government may win) towards fighting for a free future as well.
The speech is very good. I love the repetition of the line, "Cuban rulers promised..." Its parallel structure and logical argument make it worth reading.
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Hardbeatnews, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Aug. 8, 2007: So far this year, over a thousand Cuban nationals, trying to make it to the United States, have been repatriated.
Just like the English call car hoods, "bonnets" and subways, "tubes," and people in Minnesota call soda, hilariously, "pop;" distinct countries and regions in Latin America have different names for the same thing. The one that causes the most chuckles amongst non-Cuban Latins is the the word "guagua," which Cubans use for "bus" (most Latins call a bus, "autobus"), so much so that I stopped using it in conversations with my Mexican friends just to avoid the inevitable distraction.
One song that mentions guaguas is from my new favorite old group, Trio la Rosa. It's an exceptionally charming song, recounting the role the bus plays in one man's romantic history. In Amor en Guagua, a man meets his wife and falls in love with her on the bus. The bus then takes them to their wedding and subsequent honeymoon. Nine months later, the bus brings his son back dressed as a bus driver. The song isn't clear if the birth took place on the bus or in a nearby hospital.
Listen to Amor en Guagua
T
You can safely skip this post if you're not a Cuban of a certain maturity level. I don't mean to be exclusive, I just don't think you'd find it very interesting. It would be like my son watching an interview with Jon bon Jovi and the guy from Whitesnake in 2015.
I don't know what they heck they're talking about either. Here is Miguelito Valdez a few years earlier in an outstanding performance of Babalu.
Prayers for the victims.
Castro blamed the United States for accepting people who wish to go there. Wouldn't it be more appropriate for Castro to blame himself for running Cuba in such a way that Cubans would rather risk their lives than stay there?
Story below:
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Oh Mitt, what have you gotten yourself into this time:People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami. But when he mistakenly associated Fidel Castro's trademark speech-ending slogan -- Patria o muerte, venceremos! -- with a free Cuba, listeners didn't laugh. They winced.Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase -- in English, ''Fatherland or death, we shall overcome'' -- for decades. ''Clearly, that's something he was ill-advised on or didn't do his homework on,'' said Hialeah City Council President Esteban Bovo. ``When you get cute with slogans, you get yourself into a trap.''Romney's fumble demonstrates the potential snags for state and national politicians trying to navigate the Cuban-American community of South Florida. Ever since Ronald Reagan enthralled exiles by crying, ''Cuba sí, Castro no,'' in a landmark 1
This story has Castro recovering. I'm a Christian so I guess the proper thing to do would be to pray for his recovery and conversion. I won't be disappointed if they go unheaded, however. I like this line:
Cuba's vice president said Monday that Fidel Castro continued to recover from intestinal surgery and the country was operating normally in his absence.
Operating normally?
Don't worry, fellow Cubans. Our economy will still be in ruins, the government will continue to persecute disloyalty to the state, and you still can't do anything about it.
So, this is it.
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Ariel Perez was, like thousands of fellow Cuban doctors, a devoted soldier in Fidel Castro's most important overseas mission -- providing medical care to the poor in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba's most vital ally. But last year, Perez and two Cuban companions, carrying rucksacks with a few belongings and holding just $1,300 among them, sneaked across the Colombian border and promptly defected."From the moment I got there, I thought of it -- leaving," Perez, 36, said in an interview in Bogota, where about 40 Cuban physicians and other medical professionals are living after fleeing from Venezuela.
Now, Perez and the other Cuban defectors are providing a rare inside look at a program that has helped define the close relationship between Washington's two most formidable adversaries in the Americas, the 48-year-old communist government in Cuba and the populist administration of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.Cuba has dispatched more than 20,000 doctors, as well as
