Cuba honors its patron saint; Archbishop speaks on radio
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Cuba
honors its patron saint; Archbishop speaks on radio
A
service of Radio Progreso Alternativa’s Havana bureau
On Sept.
8, Cubans paid tribute to Our Lady of Charity, the island’s patron
saint. Carrying yellow candles and flowers, the faithful visited the
churches at every diocese in the country to pay homage to their
patron saint, who in the syncretic religion [Yoruba] bears the name
of Ochún and is the goddess of rivers, kindness and love.
At the
Church of Charity in the municipality of Centro-Habana, the faithful
filled the temple, despite constant rain. And in the town of El
Cobre, in eastern Santiago de Cuba province, where the original image
of the virgin is on display, a multitude of believers offered their
prayers, vows and pleas.
The
tributes to the patron saint were not limited to the churches. Along
the streets of numerous cities and towns, the faithful staged
processions, carrying statues of the virgin on their shoulders.
Monsignor
Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, Archbishop of the
eastern province of Camagüey, said during an address on the
"Noontime" program of Radio Cadena Agramonte that the
faithful "are invited to walk with the Virgin Mary of Charity
during the processions we shall stage in the various municipalities:
Friday the 7th in the evening, in Sola and Sibanicú. Saturday
the 8th at night, in Céspedes, Florida, Vertientes, Guáimaro,
Esmeralda, Nuevitas, Minas, Cuatro Caminos en Najasa, Camagüey
and Santa Cruz del Sur."
A
similar radio announcement was made by Monsignor Álvaro Beyra
Luarca, Bishop of the Diocese of Bayamo-Manzanillo in eastern Granma
province.
Labor
unions criticize management
On Sept.
6, the daily Granma reported on the role of the workers’ movement in
the analyses and discussions of the Economic Plan for 2008. It also
stressed the importance the government has given to the proposals
emanating from those assemblies.
The
newspaper did not shy away from reporting that in some assemblies the
workers criticized administrative reports "with indicators that
are not sufficiently clear and precise to enable the workers to
identify problems and propose solutions."
There is
also "a lack of priority (which is needed for the task at hand)
and insufficient coordination, preparation and participation of the
administrative cadres and the [labor] union structures, particularly
in the sector of budgeting, which is on the table for the first time
in these deliberations."
All the
labor union chapters in the country have been asked to participate
openly and critically, not only in regard to the economic plan for
2008 but also in a free discussion of the speech made on July 26 by
the acting president, Army Gen. Raúl Castro Ruz. (See Progreso
Semanal blog for Sept. 7, 2007, "Changing
within socialism.")
ALBA
ministerial meeting
The
second ministerial meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the
Americas (ALBA) will be held in Havana Sept. 20-21, announced Cuban
Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.
The
agenda for the meeting includes the creation of the secretariat for
the integrationist organization and a common bank. Both proposals
were made by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías.
ALBA is
an integration project based on cooperation and stressing the social
aspect and complementation in the fields of production and services.
It is formed by Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Cuba
and the LASA conference
Solidarity
with Cuba was the central theme of the speech delivered by Ricardo
Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of the People’s
Power (Parliament), to 400 participants in the 27th Congress of the
Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Cuba’s National
Information Agency reported.
Charlie
Hale, president of LASA, described the steps taken by his
organization to enable Cuba to be present at the meeting in
Montreal,Canada. Numerous academicians, intellectuals and
professionals from the island were in attendance.
Wayne
Smith and Elsa Falkenburger, U.S. members of the Cuba Section,
explained the legislative situation in their country and the
initiatives that are being promoted against the U.S. blockade and the
prohibition of travel to the island for academic purposes.
The 135
Cuban delegates to the LASA 2007 Congress, along with the U.S.
members of the Cuba Section, learned about the work of the departing
board of directors and voted to elect a new board that will direct
the association next year.
Several
works written by Cuban academicians, researchers and intellectuals
were presented during the session. They dealt with the nation’s
culture and reality, in the present context of Latin America and the
Caribbean.
About
6,000 academicians and intellectuals from the U.S., Canada and Latin
American and Caribbean countries attended the meeting, which ended on
Saturday, Sept. 8.
A
book about The Five
The
story of five Cuban antiterrorists imprisoned in the United States
since 1998 appears in a book about the 25 most-censored topics in the
American press during the past year, several international news
services reported.
Alicia
Jrapko, a member of the International Committee for the Release of
the Five Cubans, says the legal case deserved one entire chapter in
the book, compiled by the Project Censored group of Sonoma State
University in California.
Every
year, the group collects hundreds of news stories on various topics
that are analyzed and classified (in terms of importance) by a team a
students and journalism professors, Jrapko says.
René
González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino,
Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero were arrested in 1998
while they collected information about terrorist groups operating
against Cuba from South Florida.
The
author of the section devoted to the five Cubans, Jeffrey Huling, was
unaware of the story before doing his research, which enabled him to
open his eyes "to the hypocrisy and lies of the U.S.
government."
“As
a studied the details of the case, I felt terribly frustrated when I
saw the weakness of justice, overrun by political corruption,”
Huling said. His work will appear on the group’s Web site.
Among
the personalities who select (and have selected) the stories are Noam
Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Norman Solomon, Erna Smith,
and Mike Wallace.
Canada
and Cuba augment their exchanges
International
news agencies report that Cuban exports to Canada from January to
June of this year grew by 144.3 percent when compared with the same
period in 2006.
Cuba has
exported products valued at $684 million and has imported Canadian
products worth $214 million, for an increase of 2.3 percent.
