IPS: Political Tug-of-War Over Medicines

<p style="text-align: justify;">"We see this as a campaign against the local pharmaceutical industry and in favour of foreign companies," Pérez told IPS. She mentioned in particular the group of countries making up the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA). Read More

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Bitter Disappointment for Progressive Cuba Policy

<p style="text-align: justify;">Monday, 22 November 2010, 9:29 am. Press Release: Council On Hemispheric Affairs. The Mid-Term Elections: An Easy Prediction for the Future of U.S.-Cuba Relations by COHA Director Larry Birns and Research Associate Kelsey Strain As the April 2009 Summit of the Americas drew to a close in Trinidad and Tobago, President Obama’s statement that the U.S. was prepared to seek new relations with Cuba favorably resonated with the assembled Latin American leaders. Read More

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Travel Bill Confirmed DOA. What Next?

<p style="text-align: justify;">It has been reported in the Congressional Quarterly that Rep. Berman will not bring the travel bill for mark-up during the lame-duck session. How should this be interpreted? Several options: 1) The inevitable result of the mid-term election results and Rep.Ros-Lehtinen's anticipated position as chair. (Too few committee members will work through the lame duck session--the losers are moving out of offices as is the staff.) 2) Berman never had sufficient support, as the Hill reported at the time of the announcement, and "postponement" of the mark-up was just a face-saving tactic because the election results were predictable. 3) Al Fox was right. We have been played and there was never a serious intention to end travel restrictions or any possibility of White House support. Read More

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Why not Grow Coffee on the Plains, like on the Mountains?

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Freddy Perez Cabrera. Any solution that helps save the nearly 47 million dollars destined by Cuba to purchase the coffee consumed by its population is welcome, as long as such a proposal is rational and sustainable. With this objective, Cubans are developing coffee plantations on plain regions, as an alternative effort to the traditional practice of growing coffee only on the mountains. Read More

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ECONOMIST on Cuban oil prospects: The other way out

<p style="text-align: justify;">Nov 19th 2010, 16:34 by The Economist online. HAVANA. Several international energy companies are making a push to find Cuba’s long-awaited oil. In 2011 at least three exploratory drillings are expected to go ahead. The first is expected to be a consortium led by Spain’s Repsol, the only firm with experience in Cuban waters. In 2004 the company did find oil below the seabed, but deemed it not to be commercially viable. Read More

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Cuba Is Opening Up, As America Turns Away

<p style="text-align: justify;">Havana, Cuba—You see them on stage, on passenger flights, and at trade fairs: Americans in Cuba legally, and hoping to travel here more often. “The willingness to share something makes a difference. Why wouldn’t it make a difference?” Reyes told me. “How big that difference will be I don’t know but I can say the willingness to share an experience is pretty important.” The New York Philharmonic, too, just announced plans to travel to Cuba early next year, and several Cuban musicians, performing with Chucho Valdes, have also toured the United States recently. Read More

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Could Cuba Help U.S. Fight Tropical Diseases?

<p style="text-align: justify;">When it comes to issues like the spread of infectious disease, increased collaboration with Cuba may just be good medicine. By Julienne Gage.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wed Nov 17, 2010 09:19 PM ET. In the wake of this month's Republican electoral shakeup in Congress, talk of lifting the U.S. travel ban to Communist Cuba is pretty much off the table. But President Barack Obama still has the executive power to ease the amount of red tape faced by U.S. medical researchers who can travel to the island. Read More

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MH/Levin: Isaac Delgado's tribute album reclaims Nat King Cole's Latin Legacy

<p style="text-align: justify;">Nat King Cole's Spanish-language recordings remain popular in Cuba today and are easily obtain in bootleg editions. MIAMI HERALD. Sat, Sep. 11, 2010. Cole en español: Isaac Delgado's tribute album reclaims Nat King Cole's Latin legacy. BY JORDAN LEVIN. ZAYRA MO / EFE. Cuban salsa singer Isaac Delgado's idea to record the Spanish songs of Nat King Cole was one of those singing-in-the-shower inspirations -- simultaneously natural and presumptuous. Read More

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Isabel Santos: Alicia is an Empress of the Motion

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Giusette Leon Garcia. 11/08/2010. Wax dancers, tiny, light, stylized, mounted on acana wood like an old dreamt scenario, or suspended, movable, in midair as a great jete, fill Origenes Gallery of Havana where the plastic arts artist Isabel Santos presents her personal exposition "Darts of the Memory."&nbsp; Two installments complete the exhibition, impressions in plaster of feet and the hands of the first dancer Anette Delgado in positions that remind the Willis from "The Swams Lake."&nbsp; Read More

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Certified Right-Wing Extremists Set to Take Control of House Foreign Affairs Panels

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Alexander Main. Published on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 by CommonDreams.org. In the early years of the past decade, two hard-line Cold Warriors, closely associated with radical Cuban exile groups in Florida, occupied strategic positions in the U.S. foreign policy machine. Read More

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