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Ken Hiebert writes:
While the website is based outside Cuba (in Nicaragua I think) the
writers are genuinely Cuban and are giving their real names, as far as
I can tell. Are they guided and paid by the U. S. government? From a
distance I cannot say. Presumably the Cuban government would be
watching that and would charge them if there were evidence that they
were receiving money from abroad.
I have only a little Spanish and I have never set foot in Cuba, so I
must defer to those who have been there. Whoever on this list has been
to Cuba, your reports would be much appreciated.
I think you could start by reading Richard Levins' 'How to visit a
socialist country' in Monthly Review (April 2010) or see his website
richardlevins.com. And then maybe think about visiting Cuba. You'd find
that Cubans think many things and are not shy about expressing them.
Some of those views are reflected in Havana Times (which, being in
English and on inaccessible internet, is not prepared for Cubans but for
you). The best way to grasp what HT is about is to read the pieces by
Farber and Haroldo Dilla (whose bile makes Farber look like a garden
variety liberal) placed there by the editor Circles Robinson, who worked
for years at the state translation centre [esti] before losing his job
and leaving Cuba. Of course, a site limited to these (and to blog-like
Miami Herald stuff about the cholera epidemic supposedly sweeping Cuba)
would be not very effective and would preach only to the choir. So, a
real effort is made to include other perspectives, and there are
personal stories and portraits which convey the difficulty of life in a
besieged and blockaded country--- but you shouldn't be naive in reading
it (as are some of the people I know who write for HT directly or via
translation).
michael
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Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home: Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 778-230-6137
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