May 14, 1997

FROM CUBA

A NOT SO FESTIVE FESTIVAL

HAVANA, May 7, 1997.- Havana will experience commotion again between July 28th and August 5th. The street parties will, once again, try to mask the misery and the sadness of Cubans today. This time it is due to the XIV World Youth and Students' Festival, an old corpse which had disappeared with the demise of the socialist camp. The goal of this international gathering is well known. It is the latest attempt to obtain international support, criticize American policy, and condemn Helms Burton.

More than a festival of students and youth, we will see a political gathering where they will talk about the blockade, about social inequality, and about international unipolarity. It will be the pulpit from which to show the pretty side of Castro's old revolution, to continue asking for handouts, and blaming others for the misfortunes which we have been unable to solve on our own.

Havana will again turn into the lobby for the strewn communist youth which now travels the world without a battle shield or a bank account to sustain them.

But we are certain that they will not trek the grime filled neighborhoods of Old Havana or Guanabacoa, or even give a glance to the high schools in my neighborhood, which by now have forgotten the shade of their windows.

They won't travel in the "camels", which pass for public transportation, in a city which is drowning day by day while searching to survive.

For sure they won't drive by pre-fabricated buildings, which are much in the image of the often repeated lies, to give kudos and applaude to he who sets the rules of the game.

The XIV World Youth and Students' Festival is nothing more than a pretext. The real cause are the historical differences between Cuba and the United States, along with the well known positions of strength of one and the other side.

And the consequences, as always, will be us, Cubans on foot, who probably won't get to see the festival, the youth, or even the students.

Translated for CubaNet by Lourdes Arriete