More UN assistance

Cuban
Radar                                                                           Read Spanish Version

More
UN assistance

A
service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau 

The
United Nations has allocated new funds to the island for aid in the
recovery of damages caused by Hurricane Ike. It was the UN Central
Fund for Emergency Response’s answer to a petition by the UN System
in Cuba. Previously, a UN team had toured the areas ravaged by Ike in
the provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey. 

Susan
McDade, the UN System Coordinator on the island, said that with this
new allocation, aid by the organization has increased to $8,649,516. 

Nickel
industry back on its feet

Three
large nickel processing plants, located at the northeastern province
of Holguín, a region devastated by recent hurricanes, have
resumed working. According to a report by the National News Agency,
of the three existing plants, the "Daniel Ramos Latour" was
the most damaged. The destruction of walls and roofing caused damages
to the areas of automatic control, communications and the power
network.

The
recovery of this industrial sector is of vital importance, for
together with tourism it contributes the largest income to Cuba’s
economy.

Battle
against crime

Cuban
authorities have become aggressive against speculation, robbery and
diversion of resources and courts will give the harshest sentences to
those found guilty. 

A
report issued September 29 by the Holguín correspondent of the
Haciendo Radio program at Radio Rebelde said that 54 people had been
arrested for the above stated reasons. The news did not detail the
crimes or names of the perpetrators.

That
same day,
Granma daily
published an official press release stating that presently basic
products sold at dollar stores would not see a price increase. It
also said that at the farmers’ markets, governed by supply and demand
prices, prices would also be frozen to pre-hurricanes level.

(Further
information can be found in Spanish at "Borrador de un
Corresponsal" posted under the following headlines: El
Desvío, Robo y Especulación en la Mira
(September 26) and No
Aumentarán los Precios
(September 29.).

Grey
Quinquennium debate returns

The
Criterios
Theoretical
and Cultural Center in Cuba resumed its conference cycle, begun in
early 2007, dedicated to the so called "Grey Quinquennium",
a period of the 1970s marked by censorship and intolerance of many
artistic manifestations that strayed from the official opinion.

Now
the cycle will be dedicated to what happened in cinema, music, the
arts and the stage during the "Grey Quinquennium".

Attendance
was small — perhaps due to the fact that it was publicized only by
invitations delivered through e-mail and also an ad in the Cuban Book
Institute’s digital portal, Cuba Literaria.

According
to Criterio Director Desiderio Navarro’s declarations to IPS news
agency, "The news and cultural media do not report news related
to this cycle." Navarro believes that this secretive silence can
be blamed on "people who decide who are in agreement with the
thesis of the grey quinquennium of which the conferences are so
critical."

The
January 5, 2007, presence of Luis Pavon, president of the National
Council of culture from 1971 to 1976 and main executor of the
repressive policies of that period, on a TV program made
intellectuals believe of a return to the bad old times and triggered
the "e-mail war", an intense exchange across the island by
way of electronic mail.

Navarro
stressed that the conference cycle will continue, in spite of
criticism to that initiative inaugurated in 2007 as a result of
negotiations with the non governmental Cuban Writers’ and Artists’
Union and the Ministry of Culture as a result of the "e-mail
war."

U.S.
denies visas to journalists 

Prensa
Latina news agency denounced the U.S. denial of reentry visas to its
two UN correspondents.

Ilsa
Rodríguez Santana and Tomás Anael Granados Jiménez,
a married couple, who were vacationing in Cuba, had been accredited
for three years to the UN in New York, said a Prensa Latina report. 

According
to the news agency, the denial to grant them reentry visas is "a
gross violation of their rights as representatives of an
international news medium with almost half a century of continuous
coverage of the UN and its specialized bodies."

Rodríguez
and Granados together have 40 years of professional experience and
have been correspondents in China, India, and Zimbabwe, besides the
UN.