Cuba blog girl is back in action!!!! For your reading pleasure.

[Jammyisme]

 
They took him because nothing destabilizes the intransigents more than a man in his most free state.  At the Fifth Police Station, 3rd and 62nd in Playa, where the criminals take turns and a toilet is a painful illusion, Gorki rips the strings of his rebelliousness. He is a weird guy, everyone notices it, even more weird in a society where the model of the “New Man” is the coloring book version of the idiot in the classroom.

Gorki concentrates the attraction that his critics do not have; he sings, sways, and shouts in his bloody rock lyrics what others mutter with fear.  He has a room lined with egg cartons somebody gave him, because if we added up all the eggs he’s entitled to from the rationed market he would not have been able to wallpaper even a closet.  He is accused of a crime from the script of the film “Minority Report,” charged under the euphemism of “pre-delinquent dangerousness.”  Translated into the language of reality, it means they put you behind bars so you don’t commit the mischief that others see coming.

In the case of Gorki, the charge has been led by a delegate of the constituency with delusions of James Bond, a neighbor woman they “advised” to make the accusation, and by a community that avoids interceding for the “uncomfortable.”  On Thursday he will have his preliminary hearing and only some clothes and toiletries brought by his father have managed to make it to him where they have him “guarded.”  There is little chance of the defense lawyer convincing the strict prosecutor that Gorki’s long hair, his rock songs, and the noise of his guitar, are not more dangerous than the inertia, conformity and double standard in which everything is wrapped.

More details about the detention are at the site Porno Para Ricardo

[Jammyisme]

LOL! Hes a punk rocker from Cuba. 


 

[Jammyisme]

 
]
They warn me that on the table in some office rests “my case.”  A file full of evidence of infractions committed, a bulky dossier of illegalities I have accumulated on these years.  The neighbors hint to me to disguise myself with sunglasses and disconnect the phone when I would like to talk about something private.

Soon, very soon – they warn me – I could hear a knock at my door very early one morning.

In anticipation of this, I would like to point out that I do not keep weapons under the bed.  However, I have committed an unfailing and heinous offence:  I have believed myself to be free.  Nor do I have a firm plan to change things, but for me the complaint has replaced triumphalism and this – definitely – is punishable. 

I never slapped anyone, nevertheless, I refused to accept the systematic swatting at my “rights as a citizen.”    This last is reprehensible in the highest degree.  On top of that, and in spite of having stolen nothing that belongs to others, they have wanted “to rob” – again and again – that which I believed belonged to me:  an island, her dreams, her legacy.

But don’t fool yourself; I’m not entirely innocent.  I carry with me a mountain of misdeeds; I have routinely bought on the black market, I have commented in a low voice – and in critical terms – about those who govern us, I have nicknamed politicians and agreed with pessimism.  To top it off, I have committed the abominable office of believing in a future without “them” and in a version of history different from that which they have taught me.  I repeated the slogans without conviction, washed the dirty laundry in full view and – the greatest transgression – I have joined words and phrases together without permission.

I confess – and accept the punishment for it – that I have not been able to survive and comply with all the laws at the same time.

Words on painting:  I am hunting you

 

[Jammyisme]

   She writes with such passion.  *I wonder if anyone is reading this stuff?*

 have a lot to tell about the events of these last days.  I know that you are waiting for the details about what happened at the concert on Thursday, the poster, the beatings, the arrests, the incredible police operation and all the stand-by activities in front of the Playa Municipal Tribunal that ended with the liberation of Gorki.  The trial alone – in which I was present to check the inconsistencies in all the accusations made against the rocker – would give enough material for several posts.   Unfortunately, because of Gustav the weather situation in Havana doesn’t allow me to leave the house to connect to the internet in a public place.  On my balcony, fourteen floors up, we already have strong winds, and have started to close the windows and protect the plants.  Today I am called on to face another cyclone.

What I do not want to fail to say is that never before, as in these last days, have I seen international public opinion, the media, and Cuban civil society come together and cooperate.  Yesterday we demonstrated that we can push the wall if we do it together.  We have forced them to retract, to undo the injustice, and this is a very good precedent for us and extremely dangerous for “them.”  The internet proved that it can act, in the Cuban case, as a virtual environment for joint efforts.  I hope that these centimeters we have managed to push the boundaries are followed by meters and meters of reclaimed freedoms.

*I have dictated this post by telephone to some friends who will post it.  With the collaboration of some of them I was able to report yesterday from outside the court.  I want to especially thank Ernesto Hernández Busto through whom much of this information saw the light of day in the pages of “Penúltimos días.” 

 Da tu opinión »

[Jammyisme]

The fear has reached you by contagion, because in truth you never suffered an interrogation, nor looked over the walls; you were never the victim of a purge nor did they throw an egg at your face.  Maybe they never even called to tell you about it.  Your sense of unease came to you from what you hear, by transference, through others who have reason for intimidation.

One day you packed your bags and crossed to the other side of the Atlantic, packing also the piece of fear that you wear.  Your children were born far from this Island, but still you serve them their corresponding tablespoon of apprehension.  They may not be able to speak Spanish, they may not be able to find the country where their father came from on a map, but they know how to find fear.  The devastating epidemic of fear that is not cured has come to them.

 6 opiniones »

[flopnfly]

thanks Jammy,  keep them coming   

[kharmar77]

WOW!
I just starting reading this thread....
fascinating!
thank you, Jammy!
Karen

[Jammyisme]

It is interesting isn't it?  I'm happy someone has been reading 

[bmnichol]

I've been reading it too. I'm more of a reader these days than a poster.

[Jammyisme]

   good to know

[Gambitt]

I'm reading too!    Keep 'em coming! 

[Jammyisme]

A cry for  help :

 :sad10:Calm in the Atlantic
Escrito por: yoanisanchez en Generation Y , Septiembre,11,2008
 

The principal Cuban television meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, announced that no new tropical storm or hurricane has formed in the Atlantic ocean.  The relief spread across the one hundred and eleven thousand square kilometers of this island.  At least for a few days, the cyclone corridor that we have become will take a break.  This climatological news has not dispelled the sorrow and unease that we have for the immediate future.  Despite the air of triumph they present to us on the TV news, talking about “hurricane recovery,” Cubans are very worried.

On the one hand, all the illusions of those expecting an economic recovery in the coming months have been dashed.   We have already said goodbye to certain products including bananas, mangoes, avocados, the foods and citrus fruits that will take years to return to their already high current prices.  After four days without electricity and without any water supply we, and all of the neighbors in the 144 apartments in my building, are waiting for a free supply of drinkable water and the distribution of prepared food.  Some have been shouting their disapproval from the balconies, to which I responded with a provocative “Viva Raúl!” which nearly cost me a lynching.

Nor can the market where they take only convertible pesos, with its fat prices, cope with the demands of desperate habaneros.  Hurricane Ike has made the profound social differences between those who can keep a reserve supply of food, boards, and battery-powered radios, and those who depend exclusively on the official administration, all the more obvious.  The past history of how State aid to victims of natural disasters fades over the months causes people not to want promises, but rather immediate solutions.  The voracity with which we take now what might no longer be available tomorrow had the inhabitants of one town in Pinar del Río laying into a truck with machetes to reach its 100 sheets of asbestos cement roofing.

There is a lack of humility in those who should do everything possible to allow humanitarian aid to enter Cuba.   One measure that would be very well received would be if the National Customs waived the taxes on the kilograms of medicines, clothing and food emigrant family members want to bring to the island.  Instead, however, we Cubans woke up in the middle of a cyclone to an increase in prices for fuel and other staples.  They turn down aid without asking what the people think and allow some outsiders to conduct inspections while refusing to let others do likewise.  The image of the Venezuelan military arriving in Cuba to “inspect the damage” – that’s word-for-word – contrasts with their fastidiousness about accepting something similar from the European Union countries (with the exception of Spain and Belgium) or the United States.

The questions of the moment are:  What is the priority of the Cuban government?  Political principals or the welfare of those who have lost everything?  What is the preference of the North American government?  That the formal inspection requirements are met, or that the aid reaches the victims?  Citizens are not going to wait until both governments come to agreement.  The people’s diplomacy can surprise them by acting faster and more efficiently.

 Da tu opinión »
How can I help?
Escrito por: yoanisanchez en Generation Y , Septiembre,11,2008
Those who have plans to travel to Cuba in the coming months and would like to show their solidarity by helping, I recommend bringing in your luggage a few kilograms of supplies to deliver directly to the victims.  While anything can help those families that have lost their possessions, there are certain things and resources that are a priority.

Water purifying tablets.
Vitamins, every kind of painkiller, thermometers, band-aids, oral hydration salts, disposable syringes, cotton, medicinal sprays for asthmatics, aspirin, paracetamol and suture thread.
Clothing of all kinds, including underwear and shoes.
School supplies, especially notebooks and pencils.
Rechargeable batteries, flashlights and portable radios.
Toiletries: soap, toothpaste, shampoo and toothbrushes.
Baby clothes and things for babies.  Remember that babies have been left without even a bottle.
A recommendation to take into consideration:  It is always preferable, whenever possible, to deliver the aid directly to those in need.  Personal delivery or sending things through friends is the most secure.

[Jammyisme]

A character with a fat neck and briefcase in hand appears every Wednesday in the humorous “Wait let me tell you,” in same space where Professor Chicken Mind, already described in this Blog, releases his platitudes of dilettante wisdom.  Incompetent Lindoro is the director of an inefficient company and has a car registered to the State that he never uses for the benefit of the workers.  Impeccably dressed, he sidles up to his subordinates and warns them ironically, “As for me, it pleases me to please.”  His extra pounds and his elegant dark blue suit contrast with his slovenly demeanor and the unproductivity of everything in the “Bartolete Pérez” workshop.

This prototypical boss flaunts a phrase that has managed to insert itself into the popular vocabulary, precisely the epithet with which he refers to the inefficient, apathetic and poorly paid group of household appliance repairers that he directs.  With his Colgate smile he asks, while announcing some urgent task or a new bureaucratic absurdity, the question, “How is this valiant collective?”  Incompetent Lindoro is not a caricature of a boss, but rather the sum of many of them, the portrait in humorous tones of those who have a little power.

These days he frequently evokes the chubby company director and his triumphalist language.  In the midst of a flu caused by rain pouring in through the windows of my house, I listened on my little dynamo radio to many Incompetent Lindoros.  They spoke precisely of a “valiant collective,” where I only see desperate faces.  They called for calm and resistance, from their fat necks, from their dry cars.  Some, the most powerful, without personally going to the disaster sites, attempted through a telephone line to make promises as hollow and empty as those of this satirical character.

Our Incompetent Lindoros don’t want to recognize that the emergency situation created by Gustav and Ike is not only the fault of the strong winds and rains, but rather of the disaster of production and housing that had already dragged this Island down.  Today, in the morning, after two hours in line I was able buy four pounds of sweet potatoes and a piece of fruta bomba* without seeing in the line a single specimen of a director.  For pork, we must take turns in the early morning.  In the stores that take convertible pesos* the empty refrigerators stink of chicken and meat that was ruined.  The food situation could not be worse and although my house endured the winds and in my area there is no great devastation, the only thing people ask about is food.  Rising fuel prices already caused the private taxi drivers to double their fares; for a trip that used to cost ten pesos we now pay twenty.  But the TV doesn’t see that side of the crisis, but rather a people strong and “valiant” declaring their votes of confidence and expressing hope in front of the cameras.

What will Incompetent Lindor do when the slogans shouted today in front of journalists turn into expressions of discontent and protest?  Will they hide themselves then–with a stash of food–inside their briefcases?

Translator’s notes:


Fruta bomba is the Cuban word for papaya.  In Cuba ‘papaya’ is an exceedingly rude word relating to female body parts.  If you are in Cuba and would like a papaya, you are advised to ask for “fruta bomba.”


Convertible pesos: See the entry, “From the same pocket,” 7 February 2008, and the footnote for “Cyber-mutilated,” 21 July 2008, for more information about the Cuban dual monetary system.

 Da tu opinión »

[karmadoc]

Excellent posts Jammy, thankyou so much for sharing.
I've seen the 1st blog about Ike on a number of forums, and a Facebook group.  Reading it makes it really hit home just how desparate the situation is in Cuba right now. 
Those that hold the purse strings for International Aid need to pay attention and step up to the plate and help!

[Jammyisme]

Im glad you like it. It is profound what this woman writes. My heart goes out to her. It reminds me of what I need to do.