Love at First Bite: The Cuban Sandwich

<p style="text-align: justify;">Chef Aaron talks about his magical first experience with the pork sandwich.First time experiences should be magical! I clearly remember the first time I had foie gras, steamed mussels, cow’s tongue, sweet breads, black truffles and so much more.Almost all of my first-time food memories came during my education at Le Cordon Bleu. These memories are so vivid in my mind because this was the period in my life when I was falling deeply in love…with food! Every taste, scent and texture is imprinted in my mind just as most couples remember the first time they met, their first date and first kiss. Read More

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A blogger's notes: Perestroika revisited

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Renato Pérez Pizarro. Ex-Soviet envoy sees a Chinese-style reform. Scanning the Russian media in recent days, I have repeatedly read the word perestroika (reconstruction) in connection with the changes going on in Cuba.The word surfaced again Monday in an interview in the website Newsland with Aleksandr Semyonovich Kapto, former Soviet Ambassador to Cuba (1985-88), former chief of the Soviet Central Committee's Ideology Department, and currently a politologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Read More

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A View From Europe:A new Cuba?

<p style="text-align: justify;">4/24/2011. By David Jessop. For much of the last week, the world’s media have focused on the outcome of Cuba’s Sixth Communist Party Congress which took place in Havana from April 16 to 19.Most of their coverage focused on the time limits that will now be placed on the leadership’s period in office, the right in future of Cubans to buy and sell houses and cars, and the election of a smaller but not much younger politburo.Irrespective of this, far more important and challenging decisions were taken.What the one thousand or so participants in the Congress did was endorse a new Cuban model of governance and economic organisation. Read More

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New leader overhauls US broadcasts into Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer Laura Wides-munoz, Ap Hispanic Affairs Writer. MIAMI – A new generation of managers is taking the reins at the U.S. government's radio and TV broadcasts into Cuba,promising to overhaul the stations' programming in an effort to make them more relevant and reach a younger audience. Read More

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Youth, Love and Sex – Fewer Constraints

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Ivet González. HAVANA, Apr 22, 2011 (IPS) - Cuba's young people today feel they have more freedom to navigate the waters of romantic feelings in an uncomplicated way.With disarming candour, 20-year-old Laura Torres tells IPS that "a girl does not necessarily have to fall in love with every guy." A glassworks employee, Torres adds, "Nowadays you have more choices than before, and relationships can work out better." Read More

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Will the USA be the last one in building a new Cuba ?

<p style="text-align: justify;">new america media. Op-ed,&nbsp; James McGrath Morris,&nbsp; Posted: Apr 21, 2011. This past weekend the Communist Party in Cuba approved a set of reforms that will increase the ease by which Cubans can engage in private business and looks at ways to attract foreign investment to boost the nation’s nascent tourist industry. Read More

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Cuba launches era of perestroika

<p style="text-align: justify;">20.04.2011. Cuba launches era of perestroika. The congress of the ruling Communist Party is being held in Cuba for the first time in 14 years. It was opened with the address of virtual head of state Raul Castro. In his speech he announced major upcoming changes. However, as the leader assured, "there will never be the "shock therapy" in Cuba under socialism and "the revolution will not leave anyone without support." Read More

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Raúl Castro Proposes Change from Within Socialist System

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Dalia Acosta. HAVANA, Apr 19, 2011 (IPS) - Accompanied unexpectedly by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl brought the sixth congress of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC) to a close Tuesday with a call to "change everything that should be changed," but without abandoning the socialist path taken on Apr. 16, 1961."The congress is over; to work now," was President Raúl Castro's closing remark at the end of the four-day congress, in which some 1,000 delegates met in Havana and elected him first secretary of the PCC. Read More

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Cuban Communist Party begins voting on leadership

<p style="text-align: justify;">Monday, 04.18.11.Results to be announced Tuesday at the end of Communist Party Congress.By Juan O. Tamayo. elnuevoherald.com. A crucial meeting of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party began voting Monday on its key agenda items — a new leadership for a party ruled by Fidel Castro since its founding in 1965, and a shift toward private enterprise for the island’s Soviet-styled economy.The official Prensa Latina news agency distributed a photograph of Cuban ruler Raúl Castro casting a ballot marked “Candidacy for Central Committee membership.” A circle marked “Vote for All” was checked, indicating he did not pick and chose among the candidates. Read More

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Real Estate, Auto Markets Drive Reform Talk In Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Nick Miroff. April 15, 2011. Cuba's Raul Castro has outlined hundreds of reform measures in preparation for the big Communist Party Congress that starts this weekend, the first since 1997.Some would entail major changes to Cuba's property laws. The reforms could lead to a real estate boom, but could also mark the beginning of the end for many of Cuba's classic American cars.It is the quintessential image of Havana postcards and tourism brochures — dozens of battered Fords, Buicks and other aging clunkers from Detroit's heyday lined up in colorful formation outside the elegant Cuban Capitolio. Read More

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