CUBA NEWS
Yahoo!

Cuban soap opera sparks debate

By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer. June 14, 2006.

HAVANA - Once persecuted, then excluded, and finally tolerated, Cuban homosexuals have seen the debate on sexual diversity expand in recent weeks as a state-sponsored soap opera featuring some gay characters has riveted the nation.

In a recent episode of "La Cara Oculta de la Luna," or the "Dark Side of the Moon," Yasel, who is married and the father of a little girl, is as surprised as viewers are to discover he is physically attracted to another man, named Mario.

The attraction leads to a sexual relationship and Yasel's subsequent contraction of the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

The series on state television is intended to educate Cubans about AIDS by telling the stories of those with the virus.

But it also has sparked a more open debate about homosexuality in a society where macho attitudes persist. And while some Cubans have welcomed the debate, others have been offended, questioning why such subject matter is even discussed on "revolutionary" state television.

"From now on, these themes will have to be discussed with more frankness," said Fredy Dominguez, script writer for the telenovela that has sparked discussions among Cubans of all ages and walks of life.

Reactions from some viewers were so intense that the government brought together a panel of experts to discuss the show. One viewer called in, outraged that homosexual relationships were presented "as if they were natural."

"It compels us to be better people, to be more tolerant," said panelist Manuel Calvino, a well-known psychologist.

"The show isn't a work of art; a lot of criticisms could be made," Mariela Castro, director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, said in an interview. "But the debate is satisfying."

Castro, whose center works to educate the public about sexual diversity, said an open discussion of such issues can help ease persisting prejudices and stigmas.

"Before, it would have been unthinkable to show this subject on Cuban television," agreed Tomas Fernandez Robaina, a 65-year-old gay professor.

But some other gay Cubans worry the show could perpetuate the idea that AIDS is punishment for homosexual activity.

"In the end, it treats homosexuality from an unhappy point of view. It's a sad story," said Olivia Prendes, a 34-year-old lesbian. "It's a continuation of the same silence."

What Cuban gays need is not just tolerance, but acceptance and respect, Prendes and others said.

Still, things have changed greatly since the 1960s, when gays were placed in work camps to be re-educated along with political dissidents, Jehovah's Witnesses and hippies.

The camps were phased out in the 1970s, but gays continued to live on society's margins, kept away from young people and key government jobs.

The exclusion gays suffered during those years was famously described by the late Cuban exile author Reinaldo Arenas in his memoir, "Before Night Falls," which was made into a film released in 2000, and other works. The film led to an Oscar nomination for actor Javier Bardem, who portrayed Arenas.

After losing his job and being jailed in the 1970s, Arenas left the island during the Mariel boatlift of 1980 and settled in New York, where he later died.

In the 1990s, the Cuban film "Fresa y Chocolate," or "Strawberry and Chocolate," did much to confront the stereotypes of homosexuality on the island.

Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category in 1995, the movie by Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutierrez Alea told the story of Diego, a sophisticated gay writer, and his non-sexual friendship with a naive young man named David who begins to question his long-held prejudices.

"Discrimination against homosexuals is a problem that now has been largely overcome," President Fidel Castro said in a recently published interview.

Cuban gays generally agree with that assessment, saying they no longer fear they will be arrested or lose their job because of their sexual orientation.

But many say they still lack associations and public spaces where they can express themselves with official approval, rather than gathering somewhat clandestinely.

Some would like official approval for clubs where transvestites can stage shows using female impersonators. Although some such clubs exist, and are tolerated, they are still illegal.

"What would be best today is that the work of ... transvestites be officially recognized," said transvestite performer Abrahan Bueno, whose stage name is "Dark Imperio," or "Dark Empire." "That's what I would ask for as a gay person."

School Board Makes Decision On 'Vamos A Cuba'

AP, June 14, 2006.

The Miami-Dade School Board has made its final decision on whether to keep a controversial children's travel book about Cuba on the shelves at Miami-Dade County public school libraries.

Wednesday afternoon, the board voted 6-3 to take not only "Vamos A Cuba" off the shelves, but to also remove all the other books in the children's travel series.

Last week, a review committee recommended that the Spanish-language travel book "Vamos a Cuba," translated in English as "A Visit to Cuba," should be allowed in schools. The recommendation came after the book was pulled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary School when a parent who emigrated from Cuba said the book doesn't accurately represent life in the country.

"He finds it very offensive, given his experiences living in Cuba, and so he's asked us to reconsider having it on the shelves in one of our elementary schools," said Joe Garcia, spokesman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

The book is geared toward second- and third-grade readers, and details the events and institutions in Cuba born under Fidel Castro's regime.

The book contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the Cuban revolution of 1959.

In a letter to the school board, Superintendent Rudy Crew stated that the book paints those events in a benign way.

Either the English- or Spanish-language book has been available at more than 20 schools in the district. The book is part of a 24-book collection. All of the books in the series will be removed from the shelves.

Pakistan, Cuba, HK To Set Up Missions In Bid To Boost Trade

Asia Pulse via Yahoo!7 News. June 14, 2006.

KARACHI, June 14 Asia Pulse - Bilateral and multilateral missions will be set up between Pakistan, Cuba and Hong Kong to serve as focal points for promoting commercial ties between Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states. The decision was taken at the NAM Business Council meeting held in Mumbai late last week.

Tariq Sayeed, a former president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), who is a member of the Council and attended the meeting said the move aimed to identify potential sectors of mutual interest.

The Council's charter was approved and will now be placed before the NAM summit to be held in September 2006 in Cuba. The heads of states of NAM member countries will attend it and the chairmanship of NAM would be shifted from Malaysia to Cuba this year.

The Council also decided to organise and support fairs and exhibitions on an annual basis to create awareness about the potential of trade between member states, which so far has not realize its ture potential.

Cuba: U.S. lying 'shamelessly' about power cut to American mission in Havana

By Anita Snow. June 13, 2006.

HAVANA (AP) - Allegations that power to the American mission in Havana was deliberately cut were denied by Cuba on Tuesday, which said U.S. officials were lying "shamelessly" about problems with the electrical grid in the area.

"We categorically deny that there have been premeditated cuts in the electrical energy to disrupt the functioning of the (U.S.) Interests Section," the Communist party newspaper Granma said in an editorial.

U.S. officials in Havana and Washington on Monday accused Fidel Castro's government of harassing the American mission by deliberately cutting off power a week ago and lessening the building's water supply on several recent days.

American authorities "lie shamelessly when they try to blame our government with a supposed cut in electrical power and a lessening of the potable water supply" to the building, the newspaper said.

It said that heavy rains in recent weeks had damaged the underground circuit in the neighbourhood around the mission, and workers were labouring to fix that as well as other affected lines in the area.

Accidental cuts in power lasting days are not unheard of in Havana, which has an antiquated power grid that the government is working to modernize.

"The government of the United States in bad faith fails to say that every time the (Interests Section) has reported having difficulties with the supply of potable water or with the supply of electricity in its installations, these have been duly attended to by the Cuban companies in charge of offering those services," Granma said.

The newspaper said the allegations of harassment were part of Washington's ongoing campaign against Fidel Castro's government.

Since the oceanfront building lost electricity a week ago, it has been operating with generator power, U.S. State Department officials have said.

In a Monday statement to the international news media in Havana, U.S. Interests Section spokesman Drew Blakeney accused Cuba of "bullying tactics."

The flap over electrical supply to the seven-storey mission on Havana's Malecon coastal highway was among a spate of recent disputes about the building.

Havana in recent months has complained about the U.S. government's use of the building to display an electronic sign streaming anti-Castro human rights messages to passersby.

Havana and Washington have not had full diplomatic relations since January 1961 - two years after Castro came to power.

The U.S. Interests Section in Cuba was opened Sept. 1, 1977, during the administration of then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter to provide a minimum of communication between the two countries. Cuba also has an Interests Section in Washington.

Tropical Storm Alberto drenches Cuba

By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer. Jun2 12, 2006.

HAVANA - Tropical Storm Alberto drenched western Cuba Monday after a weekend of heavy rains prompted evacuations, caused some dilapidated buildings to collapse and flooded low-lying areas in Havana.

A few old buildings around Havana crumbled in the heavy rains, the official Prensa Latina news agency reported - a common occurrence during storms. There were no reports of other major damage or injuries.

"The intensity of the rains has diminished, although in some localized areas of Pinar del Rio they could remain heavy, as well as in the Havana area and on the Isle of Youth," Cuba's National Meteorology Institute said in a statement.

Some areas of Pinar del Rio province near Havana lost electricity for up to 12 hours, the official daily newspaper Granma reported.

Granma said heavy rains caused damage in some agricultural regions, but Cuba's most important crop - tobacco - was unaffected because the harvest has been completed, with the leaves used to make the island's famed cigars safe and dry inside curing houses.

More than 12 inches of rain fell in some rural areas over the weekend, Prensa Latina said.

Under the country's civil defense plan, nearly 25,000 people on the island's west end were urged to leave their homes as a precaution to stay with friends and relatives on higher ground.

They included high school students at rural boarding schools who are often sent home during tropical cyclones to stay with their families until the storms pass.

State television warned people to stay away from swollen rivers and overflowing reservoirs.

25,000 Cubans move from 'life-threatening' storm Alberto

MIAMI, 12 (AFP) - US officials said the first tropical storm of 2006 carried "life threatening" rains as Cuban officials evacuated 25,000 people from the path of Alberto.

"Alberto is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) over the western half of Cuba with isolated totals of 30 inches (75 centimeters) over the higher terrain," the US National Hurricane Center said.

"These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," said the Miami forecasters.

The US center issued a tropical storm watch for the western coast of Florida, meaning that storm conditions are possible from north of Bonita Beach to Steinhatchee within 36 hours.

At 2359 GMT Alberto was in the Gulf of Mexico, about 585 kilometers (360 miles) south southwest of Apalachicola, Florida, the center said.

The storm was moving north at 15 kilometers (nine miles) an hour, and a gradual turn toward the northeast was expected during the next 24 hours.

"Maximum sustained winds are 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts," the Miami center said.

"Some fluctuations in strength are possible during the next 24 hours."

What is unusual about the storm is not its strength, but is width, the center said.

"The strongest winds in this tropical storm are well removed from the center and extend mainly eastward up to 230 miles (370 kilometers)" the service said.

"Rainfall totals of five to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) are possible over the Florida peninsula and the Florida keys through Tuesday."

Cuban Civil Defense officials evacuated 25,000 persons from low-lying areas in Pinar del Rio in western Cuba. The Isle of Youth south of Havana was cut off from air and sea transportation because of heavy rains, local television news reported.

Alberto is the first tropical depression to gain tropical storm strength, and so the first to earn a name. Tropical storms must have sustained winds of 39 mph (63 khr) and less than 73 mph or (118 khr) after which they become a hurricane.

Two thousand students in Cuba were sent home from schools on Saturday, the official National Information Agency said.

Four medical surgical brigades were set up in Mantua, Guane, Minas de Matahambre and La Coloma, while two more were ready for deployment, officials said.

In the past two weeks, torrential rains killed seven people in Havana and two others in the eastern part of the country.

Castro: al-Zarqawi killing a 'barbarity'

AP, Sat Jun 10, 2006.

HAVANA -Fidel Castro called the U.S. airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a "barbarity," saying he should have been put on trial.

The United States acted as "judge and jury" against the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq, Castro said late Friday.

"They bragged, they were practically drunk with happiness."

"The accused cannot just be eliminated," he told a literacy conference. "This barbarity cannot be done."

The U.S. military has said al-Zarqawi initially survived the dropping of two 500-pound bombs on his hide-out Wednesday, but died a short time later.

Castro said if Cuba used the same logic, it could bomb the United States to kill its No. 1 enemy, Luis Posada Carriles, who is being held in El Paso, Texas on immigration charges.

The communist government accuses the Cuban-born Posada of masterminding numerous violent attacks against the island, including the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people in 1976. Posada denies involvement in the bombing of the plane.

PRINTER FRIENDLY