「台灣古巴後援會籌備中」，第235期通訊，2010年3月19日。
寒流襲擊古巴 掀起五公尺巨浪 2010-03-04中廣新聞網
一股強大寒流襲擊古巴西北部地區，在此同時，大風掀起巨浪，越過堤防，捲過首都「哈瓦那」著名海濱大道，並衝進住宅區，民眾緊急撤離，交通受阻。
新華網報導，五公尺高巨浪直接衝過河堤，灌入連接新舊城區的海濱大道，當時剛好是上班交通尖峰，造成路上車輛嚴重回堵。撤離民眾表示，淹水情況通常在夏季颶風期間才會發生，冬季被淹還是頭一遭。
古巴氣象局說，這股來自北方大陸的寒流，將繼續向中部地區蔓延，當局已經發佈災害警訊。
古巴舉辦第12屆雪茄節 2010年02月23日
2月22日，在古巴首都哈瓦那，一名男子在雪茄節上觀看展出的雪茄。當日，第12屆雪茄節在古巴首都哈瓦那舉行。新華社/法新
Response: Cubans have the right to reject western consumerismThe islanders are better off than many believe, and the regime can cope with closer US links, says Helen Yaffe
Dr Helen Yaffe The Guardian, Wednesday 22 April 2009 Article historyRory Carroll concludes that "If Cubans want to be more like the rest of the world, warts and all, who has the right to stop them?" (Open for business, G2, 15 April). But will he, and his interviewees from rightwing thinktanks, accept the Cuban people's right to be different - to develop an alternative to the western model of consumerism which has led us into global recession and threatens the survival of the planet?
On the easing of the US's decades-long embargo of Cuba, Carroll says: "The risk is loss of control. By accident or design, a pillar of the revolution has been isolation from the superpower 90 miles across the Florida Straits. Every gringo who lands at José Martí international is a potential evangeliser for a rival system that takes disposable income and freedom of speech for granted."
Carroll fails to point out that President Obama's removal of restrictions on Cuban-Americans merely turns the clock back to May 2004, when President Bush introduced a package of measures to effect "regime change" in Cuba - a US "investment" of $80m a year. The return to this normality is hardly going to push Cuba over the brink. History and geography, as well as post-1959 politics, explain why one-third of Cubans have relatives in the US. It is cruel and unusual punishment to keep families apart to facilitate US ambitions for Cuba. Nonetheless, every year thousands of non-Cuban US citizens travel to Cuba, risking huge fines and imprisonment from US institutions.
Carroll suggests that Cubans have no expendable income and that salaries are 80 cents a day, but he omits to mention that the state provides a basic food basket; that most incomes are not taxed; that most Cubans own their homes or pay very little rent; that utility bills, transport and medicine costs are symbolic; that the opera, cinema, ballet and so on are cheap for all. High-quality education and healthcare are free. They are part of the material wealth of Cuba and cannot be dismissed - as if individual consumption of DVDs and digital cameras were the only measure of economic growth. And ask those living in the US's new tent cities if they take "disposable income" for granted.
Cuba is taking steps to reduce dependence on food and fuel imports. Havana now produces more fruit and vegetables than are needed, but you would never know it from Carroll, who places them at the top of the Cuban "wish list".
The US is now the only country in the Americas without diplomatic relations with Cuba. In December 2008, nearly 50 years after its expulsion from the Organisation of American States, Cuba rejoined the Group of Rio, participated in the South American trading bloc Mercosur, and attended the Summit for Latin American and Caribbean Integration and Development from which the US was excluded. The US came under pressure at this weekend's Summit of the Americas - one of the last forums from which Cuba is excluded - to end its blockade. President Obama is not trial-blazing; he is merely catching up with the facts.
• Dr Helen Yaffe is a Latin American history teaching fellow at University College London, and author of Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution
helen.yaffe@sas.ac.uk
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