May 19, 1997

NEWS SUMMARY FROM MANUEL DAVID ORRIO

1) INCREASED EXPECTATION OVER STATEMENT TO BE ISSUED BY LEONEL MOREJON ALMAGRO.

2) CUBA: THE SUGAR HARVEST AND UNKNOWNS.

3) THE INTERNET AND THE CUBAN ECONOMY.

4) HERCULEAN MARABU IN CUBA

5) CUBAN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT RECEIVES AN ICY RECEPTION.

1) INCREASED EXPECTATION OVER STATEMENT TO BE ISSUED BY LEONEL MOREJON ALMAGRO.

HAVANA, May 15, 1997 (Manuel David Orrio).- The level of expectation is rising, among the opposition groups in the island, over the upcoming statements to be issued by the national delegate to the Concilio Cubano, Leonel Morejon Almagro, who has recently been released, after serving a prison sentence for his peaceful political activism.

While the Concilio delegate rests and prepares (his future steps), the opposition awaits, and conjecture increases, at the same time that the independent journalists ready themselves amidst a climate of greater competitiveness.

In the opposition realm, there are two different beliefs. On one side, there's the belief that Morejon Almagro should put an end to the differences which divided the Concilio in two, by disclosing important information as to what happened in the days leading to February 24th, which would shed some light on the causes of the deep rift within the Concilio.

On the other hand, there's the belief that, what is needed, is for him to issue some form of general amnesty, to strive for unity, taking into account that it wouldn't be the first time in the history of Cuba that a movement's recognized leader is forced to bring about some order between conflicting factions.

Thirdly, some already out of Cuba, ask themselves what will be Morejon Almagro's reaction once he reads the statements issued by Concilio Cubano's Ethics Commission, nearly forgotten since they were issued.

But since, in Cuba, tragedy and farce go hand in hand, already the pundits are comparing Leonel Morejon with a notorious character from the Cuban soap opera El Derecho de Nacer, Don Rafael del Junco, whose prolonged silence, kept the Cuban people full of anxiety.

Said pundits are found in the two branches of Concilio, perhaps the best proof of this is that.......... it's Cuban.

2) CUBA: THE SUGAR HARVEST AND UNKNOWNS.

HAVANA, May 15, 1997 (Manuel David Orrio).- Nearing the second half of May, speculation continued, in Havana, over whether the production goal, of the current sugar harvest, will be met.

We're still waiting for the annoucement that the third million tons have been reached, and it is overshadowed by the fact that 70 days were needed to produce the first million tons.

The official press offers data which leads us to calculate a potential of processing between 65 and 70 percent. If you take into account that the projections for this indicator were planned at between 76 and 80 percent, there are strong suspicions that there will be a severe deficit in the sugar production for this year.

As never before, administrative factors such as shortage of cane and interruptions in the operation have been severe. For the first time, Fidel Castro himself talked openly about closing down inefficient mills, without providing any solutions to the resulting unemployment which this measure would create.

The structural crisis within the sugar industry has been all the more evident during this harvest. The announcement of the possible closings of inefficient mills lead us to the question: What would happen if they were to be privatized?

3) THE INTERNET AND THE CUBAN ECONOMY.

HAVANA, May 16, 1997 (Manuel David Orrio).- The impact of the Internet on the Cuban economy is beginning to be felt in a contradictory manner.

While the lack of wide access to the information superhighway acts as the main promotional obstacle, already, forward thinking entrepeneurs are starting to approach it, and hire its services.

However, the usage of such possibilities as this is even less than a minority, according to a specialist at the service center.

This issue is beginning to worry some journalists, like Alexis Echlachter, who are calling, almost desperately, for a heavier concentration on "the economic and cultural potential of the Internet, making it, in the end, a valuable tool in human development....."

"Words like these indicate an undercurrent struggle to open the access to the information superhighway", said Daniel, an architect, who also thinks that this issue will likely be discussed at the next Communist Party congress.

4) HERCULEAN MARABU IN CUBA

HAVANA, May 15, 1997 (Manuel David Orrio).- The aroma or marabu, the scary, thorny plant which has infected the Cuban countryside, continues displaying a tremendous vitality.

It is yet to be known why they haven't controlled it with the means proposed by Cuban botanist Juan Tomas Roig. The latest reports tell of marabu trees with trunks 18 centimeters of diameter, evidence that there are fields in which this plant has been growing for years and with tremendous vitality, given its characteristics.

In 1916, Juan Tomas Roig recommended three steps against the marabu: to burn down the field, apply three months of deep plowing and plant it with sugar cane, tobacco or corn. In other words, plants that give shade, the only remedy against the spread of the thorny plant, according to his investigations.

5) CUBAN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT RECEIVES AN ICY RECEPTION.

HAVANA, May 15, 1997 (Manuel David Orrio).- The Cuban National Commission at UNESCO, an official entity in charge of the country's relationship with the United Nation's branch on education, science, and culture, gave an icy reception to an educational project put together by a Cuban, professor Moises Leonardo Rodriguez Valdes.

Rodriguez Valdes, brother of the well known opposition leader Lazaro Gonzalez Valdes, is a professor at the Workers Faculty in the town of Caban~as, Mariel municipality. He's not an opposition member, but a civic leader, and is the author of an educational system, through correspondence, for young Cubans, which earned a high ranking given by the regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean from UNESCO, whose ad interim director forwarded it to the Cuban National Commission for the United Nations, seeking to put it into place.

Rodriguez Valdes was welcomed there by an icy reception, according to his statement, saying that it is inexplicable how this project which has a non-political approach, destined to solve some of the shortcomings of the Cuban educational system, was essentially ignored by the officials of the aforementioned commission.

Correspondence courses for young Cubans seek to find international support, first of all from UNESCO, to accomplish technical and professional advancement for those young people who, for whatever reason, have lost their links with the educational system, such as the case of those in jail or of residents in regions where, their socio-economic situation, limits their options.

Rodriguez Valdes proposed to start the project in the community of Caban~as, where he lives and, according to him, is characterized by an average cultural level, lacking in communication, high crime rate, a high number of unemployed and, on the contrast, the development possibilities of the area due to its conditions.

Internationally, correspondence courses have a great deal of acceptance. They have served to raise the cultural level of many people in what is called the Third World. In the United States, it is part of the social rehabilitation of inmates. And, above all, they are cheap.

The official press in Cuba informed at one time how the Soviet cosmonauts and those having graduated as fighter pilots, had reached their Engineering degrees through correspondence schools.

According to sociologists, the official's cold reaction towards this initiative would be one of the many expressions of what has been called the Cuban self-embargo.

Translated for CubaNet by Lourdes Arriete