Thread: Cuba

Here's a little ditty about a song that is being censored. The lyrics are below. I don't see what is worrisome about it.

Cuban band battles censorship

Posted: Friday, October 05, 2007 12:59 PM
Categories: Havana, Cuba

By Mary Murray, NBC News Producer
A top Cuban rock band – "Moneda Dura" – is in trouble with government censors. Someone decided their newest song is too controversial. Presumably it’s been perceived as too unfavorable to the Cuban government – so it’s been banned on all state-run airwaves.
But, the songwriter feels his work is misunderstood. "We did something important, that mattered to the people who listen," said Nassiry Lugo, the band leader.

VIDEO: Cuba censors hit song
The song is entitled "Mala Leche" – Cuban slang for "evil intentions." It’s the title track on their latest CD, released this summer on the island’s Egrem label. Despite the official ban – or maybe helped by it – Mala Leche is gaining fame.
Local fans are downloading the contraband from – and then, sending it straight to the Cuban underground.
Proof that in today’s high-tech world, censorship is no match for a good song.

VIDEO: "Mala Leche" music video And here is a translation of the "Mala Leche" lyrics:
Evil Intentions
It’s 4 o’clock, the bus is still not here
People around me won’t stop talking
and they drive you nuts
Sweat rolls down my ears
I’m talking about just another typical day

It’s 6.45, I get on the crowded bus
Nauseated by the bad smell of the guy beside me
People pushing all the time
People with evil intentions
Others who hammer my ears

We’re a mixture of grease and iron
We’re like cows hurrying to the slaughter-house
We’re like ants going into a hole
We’re a ball of fire

I find people who live to make things worse for me
People who don’t talk, only bark
People who spit words
If I don’t hurt you, don’t pick on me
If I don’t hurt you, why your evil intentions?
Ah! Tell me what I did to you to make you target me
Relax and cooperate,
Can't operate on the fat in your brain
Don’t take it so hard, your shouting unnerves me
Ah! But tell me, tell me
Why your evil intentions?
7 o’clock in the morning, I slowly eat breakfast
As if I lived in a palace
(Instead of) this tenement and its noise
The lights are still not on
Without a doubt, today will be fun

I spend 15 minutes spying on my neighbour
I get turned on and she doesn’t even look at me
The electricity bill is killing me
But what can I do, if living is also killing me

Now my brain is in a coma
Now my life is a car without tires
Now I was so happy with my vices
All is well when I'm immoveable
I don’t bring solutions, I don’t give surprises
Why am I to be blamed because of your headaches
If we're doing the same, don’t obsess on me
Give your brain a chance to relax
We come from a unique lineage
If we're the heat that burns deeply,
Why don’t we treat each other as brothers
My heart beats when they call me Cuban

Link: Cuban band battles censorship - World Blog - msnbc.com

Here's a lengthy article on "Cuban Block Committees" (CDR). Their influence is waning, as Cuba changes slowly and the Revos get older.

Cuba's block committees were born in 1960, shortly after Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces toppled the corrupt, U.S.-friendly government of Fulgencio Batista. Concerned about a U.S. invasion, Castro's government adopted a motto, still present on Cuban billboards: "In a fortress under siege, all dissent is treason."

The concept behind the CDRs was to create a citizen force that would reinforce the dictates of Cuba's government, establishing a kind of omnipresent peer pressure network among next-door neighbors. Leaders of CDRs could put Castro's every public thought directly and rapidly into the hands of every Cuban, so the government would not have to rely solely on mass media.

....

Once, in a bygone era when revolutionary fervor was at its apex, they were muscular entities, dominating street life and cementing Castro's hold on power. But over the years they have atrophied, becoming more creaking relic than shining showpiece, victim of the waning enthusiasms of a population weary of economic deprivation.

As Castro's brother, interim President Raul Castro, prepares to take full control after his brother's death, party officials take visiting dignitaries on tours of the committees, and there are signs that the younger Castro is trying to inject new life into a system that could be crucial to solidifying his hold on power.

Police call block leaders more often, pressing aggressively for information, according to interviews with current and former CDR leaders. Earlier this year, Cuba's state-run television network broadcast an exposé shaming several committees for failing to post obligatory round-the-clock sentries.

Entire & Link: washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

If the USA would just butt out things would be peachy!

I'd have to hear the music to appreciate the song. The lyrics could use some work -- appears to have been written by a 6-year-old.

The ol' wet foot dry foot policy. Will these 2 million people please go back home.

Five Cuban players missing

Group disappears in Florida after Under-23 qualifier

Posted: Wednesday March 12, 2008 9:01PM; Updated: Wednesday March 12, 2008 10:09PM

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Five Cuban soccer players went missing Tuesday night after the under-23 team played a key match against the United States, a team official said Wednesday.
The missing men had not yet reported to authorities.

Zachary Mann, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said it's unlikely the agenwill learn the men's whereabouts until they come forward.

Under the United States' "wet foot, dry foot" policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are allowed to remain in the country and apply for U.S. residency after one year.

Interesting song; it's obviously about living in a dreary, oppressive society. if it's as bad as that I'm sure regular Cubans are ready for change; once Fidel's gone change will accelerate.

Here's a bump on this "Cuba Thread" since this island nation apparently causes the ire of some.

Enjoy

A couple of days ago, I noted that I believed, that a country that doesn't allow mobile phones is "odd." I was put down for stating this by a poster, who went off topic and started talking about "weird Americans."

Well, sorry. I still think it's odd for a country to ban mobile phones among citizens.

Why is this the case?

updated 5:25 p.m. PT, Wed., April. 2, 2008

HAVANA - It's not the stuff of Lenin or Marx, or even of Fidel Castro, but it's hardly free-market capitalism, either. In fact, steps to encourage a Cuban spending spree may help the communist system and its new president survive.


In rapid-fire decrees over the past week, Raul Castro's government has done away with some despised restrictions, lifting bans on electric appliances, microwaves and computers, inviting average citizens to enter long-forbidden resorts and declaring they can even legally have their own cell phones.


More could be on the way. Rumors are rampant the government could ease travel restrictions and tolerate free enterprise that would let more people start their own small businesses. And hopes that it will tweak the dual-currency system that puts foreign products out of reach for most Cubans have sparked a run on the peso.

Cubans taste new kind of communism - Americas - MSNBC.com

And i wonder if America will now lift its childish sanctions against Cuba that have been in place for decades.

Who really cares if the US lifts the sanctions or not?

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

If the USA would just butt out things would be peachy!

Damn right, then all them spics could move right into Florida at will and really fuck stuff up..

Canadians love the fact that Americans aren't allowed to visit Cuba. Thats why so many of them holiday there.

Canadians go to North Dakota on three-day weekends to escape the cold.

You can have Cuba -- take Haiti too.

Originally Posted by pickel

Canadians love the fact that Americans aren't allowed to visit Cuba. Thats why so many of them holiday there.

The Frenchies of Quebec, in their obese-laden speedos in Florida.

I've seen it. It hurts. It brings nightmares. I'm with Texpat.

Frenchies/Quebecois: please continue to go to Cuba for holidays. And you can trade and invest there as well, since I don't care about US corporations.

I went to Cuba, they like us there and they will just stamp a piece of paper and give it to you as they know not to stamp your US passport, so there is Yanks there, don't believe there ain't.
They really do like the US money too.

Originally Posted by blackgang

spics

Spics is actually a more common slur used in describing Puerto Ricans my friend..As wetbacks refers to Mexicans, etc..

Originally Posted by Driventowin

Originally Posted by blackgang

spics

Spics is actually a more common slur used in describing Puerto Ricans my friend..As wetbacks refers to Mexicans, etc..

SPIC:

Spanish, puerto rican, Indian, Cuban.

Wetback:

An illegal Mexican alien who "swam across the Rio Grande" river, and his/her back is still wet.

Originally Posted by blackgang

I went to Cuba, they like us there and they will just stamp a piece of paper and give it to you as they know not to stamp your US passport, so there is Yanks there, don't believe there ain't.

Visiting the land of the not so free and having to hide the fact from the government of the land of the free. Ironic?

They really do like the US money too.

Not many countries left that do.

Originally Posted by Driventowin

Spics is actually a more common slur used in describing Puerto Ricans my friend..As wetbacks refers to Mexicans, etc..

Seems like for the last week or so that you have really became an expert in all things, Such as a Medical Degree, coarse you have always known more about everything than most folks on here tho.

Originally Posted by Milkman

SPIC: Spanish, puerto rican, Indian, Cuban. Wetback: An illegal Mexican alien who "swam across the Rio Grande" river, and his/her back is still wet.

Thats the way I have known it for the last 70+ years, as do most folks..

Originally Posted by Driventowin

Actually the wetback term could be much disputed as it was more commonly referred to by the way they wet their hair back, when I lived in San Diego..

I have lived in San Diego off and on for a good many years as I have had numerous jobs there, and thats the first time I ever heard of that, are you sure that you are not making most of this shit up as you go along??

Originally Posted by pickel

Not many countries left that do.

OH Yes, every country likes any kind of money as long as you are spending it and US dollars are one of the easiest to trade with as every one understands it, the only thing now is it has lost value but is still a viable currency in business, just that some do not want to invest money into buying it.

Originally Posted by blackgang

Seems like for the last week or so that you have really became an expert in all things, Such as a Medical Degree, coarse you have always known more about everything than most folks on here tho.

Far be it for me to have different life experiences to call upon than you. Sorry (not really) that my vast life experience is offensive or threatening to you, but I've nothing to be ashamed of, nor any reason to defend it..You have your... ahemm...experience and I have mine.. So what's you problem BG? Yours is no more valid than mine is..Maybe you and Milky should get a room..

JFYI If I'm making this up I could be a world class author having this much imagination and creativity..

Originally Posted by Driventowin

that my vast life experience is offensive or threatening to you

WOWZERS, damn I didn't know that you thought that too, now that is really neat..
They should just put a sticky up and then people that wanted info could just post it directly to you and it would save a lot of bandwidth and would stop all mis info.

Originally Posted by blackgang

I went to Cuba, they like us there and they will just stamp a piece of paper and give it to you as they know not to stamp your US passport, so there is Yanks there, don't believe there ain't.
They really do like the US money too.

BG,

You've been around. Tons of places. I'm interested in hearing more. Tried to green ya but I'm maxed out on ya.

As expected, Raul is implemented slow but steady changes in Cuba. Comments and opinions?

Cuba reforms turn to state land


Large areas of Cuba's farm land lie fallow and food imports are high


Cuba is to put more state-controlled farm land into private hands, in a move to increase the island's lagging food production.

Private farmers who do well will be able to increase their holdings by up to 99 acres (40 hectares) for a 10-year period that can be renewed.

Until now, private farmers have only been able to run small areas of land.

The BBC's Michael Voss, in Havana, says this is one of President Raul Castro's most significant reforms to date.

National security
President Castro, who took over from his ailing brother Fidel in February, considers reducing costly food imports as a matter of national security.

For various reasons there is a considerable percentage of state land sitting vacant, so it must be handed over to individuals or groups as owners or users...


Cuban decree

Since the 1959 revolution, some Cubans have been allowed to run small family farms. But most agriculture has been placed in the hands of large, state-owned enterprises.

Our correspondent says these have proved highly inefficient - half the land is unused and today Cuba imports more than half its needs. Rising world food prices will cost the country an extra $1bn this year.

The presidential decree was published in the country's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.

In it, co-operatives are also allowed to add an unspecified amount of additional land for 25 years, with the possibility of renewing the lease.

Grants cannot be transferred or sold to third parties.

"The maximum to be handed over to individuals who do not hold land is 13.42 hectares (33 acres), and for those who hold lands, as owners or designated workers, the amount can rise as high as 40.26 hectares (99 acres)," the decree said.

"For various reasons there is a considerable percentage of state land sitting vacant, so it must be handed over to individuals or groups as owners or users, in an effort to increase production of food and reduce imports," it added.

The decree also said that farmers would have to pay taxes on their production, but it did not say how much.
The reform has been promised for some time by President Castro. Since taking over the presidency, Raul Castro has signed the UN human rights accords and lifted restrictions on Cubans owning mobile phones and computers.
He has also announced that workers can earn productivity bonuses, doing away with the egalitarian concept that everyone must earn the same, our correspondent says.

Link: BBC NEWS | Americas | Cuba reforms turn to state land