Cuban Culture

Defending our culture is defending the homeland

Defending our culture is defending the homeland
Considered shield and sword of the nation, a sublime mixture of our deepest roots, Cuban culture constitutes a moral trench that upholds the emancipatory work of our homeland

Author: Mailenys Oliva Ferrales | informacion@granmai.cu
october 20, 2021 10:10:18



Photo: Artwork by Michel Moro
A redemptive anthem, a city for the first time free from the foreign yoke, and a rebellious history that began with the Mambi, remind us every October 20 why the Cuban people feel tremendously proud to celebrate National Culture Day today.
There are many reasons to commemorate and defend what we understand as our identity.
Considered shield and sword of the nation, a sublime mixture of our deepest roots, Cuban culture constitutes a moral trench that upholds the emancipatory work of our homeland.
Our enemies are intent on erasing this culture, which has been extended to education, sports and medicine as symbolic of a country, from our souls, with treacherous invitations in cyberspace, and condemn us to historical oblivion and detachment from the values forged by the Revolution.
The usual enemies, amidst the complex situation we face – with the tightening of the blockade and the impact of COVID-19 – direct their subversion laboratories against the very heart of the homeland: our culture.
Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez has made the people’s position clear, as we confront this unconventional war, in which the present and future of the nation are being defended.
Within the Revolution, he said, “There is room for everything and everyone, with the exception of those who seek to destroy our collective project…. In the Cuba of 2021, there is no room for annexationists or for the mercenaries of the moment.”

Cuba COVID-19

A Dialogue on Cuba’s Heroic Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Hosted by Saving Lives Campaign

A Dialogue on Cuba’s Heroic Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Welcome
– Sean O’Donoghue – Table de Concertation et de Solidarité Québec-Cuba

Speakers
– Dr. Agustin Lage – Founder and longtime director of the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM). A member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Lage led the CIM into becoming one of the world’s top Institutes for biotech and medical research. He completed his post-graduate work at the renowned Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. Doctor in Medicine, Ph.D. in Medical Sciences, Full Researcher, Coordinator of the Technical Council for Biotechnology Projects in Cuba.

– Dr. Samira Addrey –  2020 graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba. She was born and raised in Accra, Ghana before migrating to the United States at the age of nine with her family. She is currently the Coordinator of the ELAM program for IFCO/Pastors for Peace

– Professor Pedro Más Bermejo MD, PhD, DrSc – Leader of Cuba’s COVID-19 National Technical Group, Physician with more than 25 years’ experience in the disciplines of hygiene, epidemiology, microbiology and nutrition.. National Director of Epidemiology, Ministry of Public Health, Emeritus Research Scientist, Tropical Medicine Institute “Pedro Kourí”, Emeritus member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

Moderators
– Dr. Leni Villagomez Reeves – former United Farm Workers volunteer who attended UC Berkeley and UCSF. She worked at Valley Childrens Hospital for many years doing pediatric emergency medicine. Dr. Villagomez Reeves is active in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, where she co-chairs its national Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Committee, and with the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba and the Saving Lives Campaign.

– Alison Bodine – Social justice activist, writer and researcher in Vancouver, Canada who has been working in solidarity with Venezuela and Cuba for over 15 years. Alison has traveled to Cuba over a dozen times since 2006. She is coordinator of the Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice Venezuela Solidarity Campaign and on the editorial board of the Fire This Time Newspaper. She is author of the book “Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Venezuela” (Battle of Ideas Press, 2018)..

Register here

Cuba / US Relations

Neither internet nor kites

Neither internet nor kites
According to the United States government, any and all examples set by this proud island, persevering, despite all obstacles, must be erased
Author: Elson Concepción Pérez | internet@granma.cu
september 20, 2021 16:09:40


Photo: Endrys Correa Vaillant
According to the United States government, any and all examples set by this proud island, persevering, despite all obstacles, must be erased. It could be increasing access to the internet or the fact that Cuba dares to guarantee vaccines against COVID-19, products of the intelligence and the determination of technicians and scientists to reach the entire population this year.
They have bet on the losing team and continue to do so.
It turns out that the U.S. Senate have passed a document demanding that the government of President Joe Biden establish a fund that allows this service be provided freely and uncensored in Cuba.
The member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla wrote in his Twitter account, “I denounce the aggression of the U.S. Senate by the amendment on the internet that contributes to the lucrative business of the political-subversive machinery from Florida. The blockade is the main obstacle to a free and sovereign access of the Cuban people to the internet.”
EFE news agency reported on the amendment but it never mentioned the U.S. blockade on Cuba and the new 243 measures imposed by Trump’s administration that have remained untouched under Biden’s.
And here is my question: if we were to use the same ‘democratic’ elements than the U.S. government and, let’s say hypothetically, the Cuban parliament meddled in the internal affairs of the United States and passed this amendment, requesting the Cuban president to facilitate funds to subvert the order in the neighboring country, something Cuba would never do, what will be the charges, what legal or illegal action would they impose against us?
I think it would be more realistic, objective and serious to research and describe the reality of the access to the internet, what are the real economic and technological limitations imposed by the U.S. blockade and how those sanctions affect and restrain Cuba. In that way, they would be able to clear that pattern of lies imposed by the U.S. governments and that is used in anti-Cuban campaigns in internet.
The amendment, tainted from birth, was introduced by Republican Senators for the State of Florida Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and it requests the creation of a reserve fund “to facilitate free, open, and uncensored access to the internet for the people of Cuba,” who, in his words, have been deprived of the free flow of information by the illegitimate Cuban regime.
In addition, our regime is an ‘illegitimate’ one, according to these people who seem to have kidnapped U.S. foreign policy as long as they have to do with our country.
For them, the only solution is to end Cuba, be it with internet or with kites flown from Miami. Nevertheless, they are betting on the losing team, there is no doubt about it.
Translated by ESTI

Blockade of Cuba

Those who encourage hate against the Cuban people


Influencer or U.S. political agent?
On Friday July 30,2021, President Joe Biden held a meeting to discuss how his government would continue to “support the Cuban people.”

Author: Daily Pérez Guillén | informacion@granmai.cu
september 20, 2021 15:09:54


Yotuel, obviously at the service of those who encourage hate against the Cuban people. Our people always love and create. MEME FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF CIBERCLARIA
On Friday July 30,2021, President Joe Biden held a meeting to discuss how his government would continue to “support the Cuban people.” The website of the White House has reported on the meeting. One of the questions about whether the sanctions would continue or would stop after the ones announced the day of the meeting, asked to the president by one of the attendees, is included in the report. According to the news reports, the attendees were Cuban-Americans whose profiles were politicians, businesspeople and a rapper.

Biden, who called those summoned “experts on the matter,” carefully handpicked his guests to attain the expected results. A few days ago, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez denounced in his twitter account that to please a reactionary and extortionist minority, Washington is able to multiply the damage to 11 million human beings, ignoring the will of most Cubans, U.S. citizens and the international community.

In line with the event, the corporate media called attention to the attendance of one of the authors of the song that is assumed to be directly linked to the protests on July 11, 2021 in Cuba. Previously, Yotuel had gone live on his social media with the director of National Security for the Western Hemisphere and advisor to Biden in Latin American topics, Juan González. With his physique and demeanor, the rapper confidently embodies the “followed one” in communities of young black Cubans, vulnerable given their underprivileged social condition and who the government of the United States have identified as targets in its regime change operations on the island.

Shortly after the meeting, and through a show on social media, the rapper became a “spokesperson” and answered questions asked by the most notorious influencer of Trump’s policies and the Florida-based Cuban hard line rightwing. Otaola, who has spread the idea of a dead stop in the island and publicly demands the U.S. government to condition the granting of visas to Cuban artists to their political leanings, was very interested in the sanctions Biden could issue in the future.

Yotuel’s inclusion in White House guestlist is part of the communication strategy conceived to bring the Cuban people closer to Washington’s discourse, especially the younger generations. This strategy is not new neither it is used for the first time in Cuba, it has been successfully rehearsed in other scenarios, including Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020, and it is still used a year and half into his presidential mandate.

An article originally run in The New York Times explains how the communication team of the Democrat campaign took a turn to widen its reach in social media when Trump seemed to occupy most of the space. For that purpose, Biden shook hands with influential personalities who endorsed his strategy on those platforms. Scholars, minority leaders, social causes activists, influencers and YouTubers shared content in favor of Biden. “Our goal was really to meet people where they were,” said Christian Tom, the head of then Democrat candidate’s digital partnerships team. Following this horizon, they defined their target with precision as well as the contents that may be of their interest.

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