A man looks out over a balcony from a house in Cuba where Cuban officials plan to let Cubans buy and sell their own homes for the first time in 50 years
Photograph: Ben, a Cuban in Europe.
http://bendeasis.blogspot.com
At the beginning of the month Cuban officials opened up discussion on housing rights in Cuba, where people are not allowed to buy or sell their own homes. While citizens have welcomed the move it has also created suspicions. Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, gives her thoughts
Cuban conductor, Zenaida Romeu. Image taken from Yoani Sanchez's blog
By Yoani Sanchez, Cuba
Glancing at the TV I was caught by a phrase from Zenaida Romeu, director of the chamber group that bears her name. It's Tuesday and the energy of this woman, a guest on the program With True Affection, Two... had me sitting in front of the screen while the potatoes burned on the stove. She answered the questions skillfully, with a language far from the boring chatter that fills so many other spaces.
Coco Fariñas takes his first sip of water, Santa Clara hospital, Cuba. Photo: Yoani Sanchez
Get out of the fire of hypocrisy
from the edge of barefoot verse
Look for an avenue to throw down these necessities
and don't delay on the threshold of pearls and rain.
Enter like a shooting star.
Break the protocol
and teach the remnants of your soul
chained to the last collection of poems.
None will dare call you a marionette, wretch or fool
You will be - for ever more - safe
from gloomy reflections
from voices from beyond the grave
from the threads that support the mask
Escape from falsity and heaviness
At the end of the passage there is a door.
Escape this minute.
Before nightfall.
Before they trap you again
and force you to howl like a goat
or to jump like a fool.
- Jorge Olivera Castillo
translated by Cat Lucas
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He had repaired all types of books, from Bibles to incunabula with pages on the point of turning to dust. He was very good at returning to their places torn-out pages, repairing covers, and spraying them with a chemical solution that made the ink stand out. Through his hands had passed nineteenth century manuscripts, first editions of the works of Jose Marti and even a couple of copies of the Constitution of 1940. To all of them he returned the elegance they had once had, and on salvaging them he read them, like the doctor who wants a peek into the soul of a patient whose viscera he already knows well.
But the shortage of supplies is remarkable. Rio Zaza brand Tetra Paks have disappeared from the shops; the former joint venture that produced them is now mired in a corruption scandal. The black market has collapsed; it's no secret to anyone that it is fed by the diversion of resources from the factories and the theft of goods while in transport to the shops.By Yoani Sanchez
With the mass stampede of foreign investors, the store shelves show the real statistics of our finances. My mother called early to tell me there is toilet paper in a distant market; she said I should hurry because word was already out and it soon would be gone. I go out looking to the right and left like a fan, to see if there is any kind of juice to put in Teo's cup for the morning.
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