What concerns Cubans?
A service by the Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau
Bohemia magazine’s latest edition published the results of a survey on the issues that most concern Cubans.
Among the most pressing subjects that respondents felt should be discussed by the National Assembly (parliament) are the difficulties with public transportation, high prices for products and services, delays in housing construction, quality in health care, limited offers in food products, inadequate salaries and pensions in relation to the cost of living, instability in the water supply, poor quality of gastronomical services, deficiencies in education, and corruption and illegalities.
Defection of Cuban athlete still unconfirmed
Cuban sport authorities have not confirmed whether Rafael Capote, a member of the handball team, has defected. Up to the moment the only source of news is the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo, which reported that an officer of the Cuban delegation had said that Capote’s whereabouts were not known.
Cuba has sent a large delegation to the 15th Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, where it hopes to win second place in the over all standings.
UN agency in favor of Cuba’s energy revolution
Susan McDade, UN Program for Development’s representative in Cuba, told local media that her agency will assist the Cuban project known as energy revolution during the period 2008-2012.
Assistance will be on two basic issues: financing for equipment and training opportunities for Cuban technicians.
The government’s program has made significant progress and practically has eliminated blackouts. Once totally implemented the country will save approximately one billion dollars a year in power generation.
Situation of prisoners to the Conference of Cuban Bishops
The Ladies in White, a group of wives and relatives of Cuban prisoners, together with the Christian Liberation Movement, sent a setter to the 31st Latin American Episcopal Assembly, (CELAM) held in Havana, requesting their intervention to obtain the release of what they term as prisoners of conscience and a better attention to their health problems. CELAM placed the matter in the hands of the Conference of Cuban Catholic Bishops for discussion with Cuban authorities.
The news has received wide coverage by the foreign press, particularly those media that routinely have an antagonistic attitude toward Cuba. However, that same press has not reported that Catholic priests and pastors of different Christian denominations, as well as religious activists, make periodical visits to the island’s prisons to administer sacraments and give spiritual comfort to prisoners of every type, regardless of the crime for which they were sentenced.
UN official recognizes safety of childbirth in Cuba
The security offered to women in Cuba for childbirth was recognized by Alfonso Fornós, assistant representative in the island of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
According to a report in the digital Cienfuegos newspaper Cinco de Septiembre, the UNFPA official praised in particular the practices in that Central-South province in favor of a riskless maternity.
Fornós said that it is amazing that the province has a rate of zero maternal deaths, and he also deemed of interest the humanization of childbirth program, which allows the presence of the father and other relatives in such an important moment.
UNFPA collaborates with governments and other organizations to assure that every woman have access to three basic reproductive health services: voluntary family planning, attention at childbirth by qualified personnel, and emergency obstetric treatment.
However, over half a million women die every year during pregnancy and at childbirth, 99 percent of them in developing countries. All that suffering and deaths are avoidable.
Jailed opponent walks free
René Montes de Oca left jail after serving his sentence of two years in prison.
In 2005 he was tried and sentenced for public disorder when he took part in a small demonstration in remembrance of the sinking of the 13 of March tugboat. The vessel was hijacked by a group of people attempting to reach the United States.
According to French AFP news agency, based on information by opponent Elizardo Sánchez, Montes de Oca “was freed, he served his sentence and is in good health.”
Cubans, heat and sports
First it was the America Soccer Cup, and Cubans were passionately divided between fans of Brazil and Argentina. Followers of the latter witnessed in a live broadcast how Argentina lost to Brazil, which played its best game of the tournament.
Now Cuban TV is broadcasting the Pan American Games, directly from Rio de Janeiro, where Cuba expects to maintain its habitual second place, not an easy achievement.
But sports compete with other preferences. For the first time Cuban TV is broadcasting around the clock and offering a wide array of options that attract important sectors of the public. Films and series of all kind are after the medals in TV.
But up to now heat is the champion, not only because it is high, but because of its price: energy consumption increases due to the use of fans and air conditioners way beyond its regular time.
Fidel Castro on brain drain
A new reflection by Fidel Castro, this time on the issue of brain drain, was published by Cuban national media on July 18.
"This is not only about capital transfers, but the import of gray matter, uprooting the intelligence and the future of the peoples," Castro says, while driving home the idea quoting figures and data that reveal the abysmal gap between countries of the South and the wealthy nations.
"In the last 40 years, over 1.2 million professionals from the Latin American and Caribbean region have emigrated to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. From Latin America an average of 70 scientists per day have emigrated over the past 40 years,” Castro wrote, citing figures from an October 2005 World Bank report.
For the Cuban leader, "The brain drain is a double whammy against weak economies that not only lose their best human resources and the money spent on their training, but subsequently they must pay approximately $5.6 billions a year to employ them.
In his article, Castro announced that in a few days Cuba will graduate 1,334 computer scientists. Of that number 1,134 will begin working in key ministries and institutions of the economy.
The new graduates earned their degrees at the new University of Computing Science, which has over 10,000 registered students.
Translated for Progreso Weekly by Germán Piniella.
