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I dip me lid...Cuba's 'first lady' dies --------------------------- Gus: A great woman who understood the true meaning of liberation, of equal rights and of fraternity including achieving the public recognition of gays back in the late 70s, etc... There are many good women in the west who are cotton-wooled into comfortable religious beliefs and act atrociously with kindness, as few escape the temptation of patronising greed or the idiocy of dogma. This great Cuban woman was acting to lift the spirit of her local humanity for humanity's sake, no matter how poor in dollars it has been kept by some maniacs across the sea but how, rich in understanding, the people can share... Most (all) of my friends who have visited Cuba in recent years have been astonished at the vitality, the happiness and the ingenuity of people, who in most part are unafraid to share generously to a fault, without ulterior motives. Most of what has been said in the US about Cuba has been promoted from a view point of greed, thus greatly misunderstanding the efforts and the quality of result from a community that is not out there to destroy or democratise someone else in order to pinch their assets, but to survive with the common good of most people in mind.
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A heart in history
Cubans treat man who killed Che
Cuban doctors working in Bolivia have saved the sight of the man who executed revolutionary leader Che Guevara in 1967, Cuban official media report.
Mario Teran, a Bolivian army sergeant, shot dead Che Guevara after he was captured in Bolivia's eastern lowlands.
Cuban media reported news of the surgery ahead of the 40th anniversary of Che's death on 9 October.
Mr Teran had cataracts removed under a Cuban programme to offer free eye treatment across Latin America.
The operation on Mr Teran took place last year and was first revealed when his son wrote to a Bolivian newspaper to thank the Cuban doctors for restoring his father's sight.
But Cuban media took up the story at the weekend as the island prepares for commemorations to mark Che Guevara's death 40 years ago.
"Four decades after Mario Teran attempted to destroy a dream and an idea, Che returns to win yet another battle," the Communist Party's official newspaper Granma proclaimed.
"Now an old man, he [Teran] can once again appreciate the colours of the sky and the forest, enjoy the smiles of his grandchildren and watch football games."
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Gus: I'm sure some neoconic cynics will see this as a "public relation" exercise but, knowing what I know of the Cuban people, they value life more than the president of the United State does... Lots more. And despite whatever this man has done, there is place for human relationship and forgiveness in the heart of some people — usually the poorest, the kindest and the most proud of their hard stand despite the trauma inflicted on them by the rest of the world for not believing in the virtues of corruption that the US is peddling throughout the world.
smoke that!...
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has lashed out at the EU's decision to lift sanctions against his country, calling it "an enormous hypocrisy".
He said the move was "disparaging" because it was conditioned on human rights progress in Cuba.
The ailing 81-year-old said the measure came just days after the EU passed a "brutal" law that could jail illegal immigrants up to 18 months.
The EU lifted the sanctions against Cuba in principle on Thursday.
The decision is expected to come into formal effect on Monday. The EU said its move was aimed at encouraging change in Cuba, following Fidel Castro's replacement by his brother Raul in February.
The decades-old US trade embargo against Cuba remains in place.
EU warning
In an article published on Cuba's official website, Fidel Castro said he wanted "to put in writing my contempt for the enormous hypocrisy that surrounds the [EU] decision".
While saying that Cuba must improve its human rights record and free political prisoners, the EU mistreats illegal immigrants from Latin America by using the new law to jail and expel them, Mr Castro wrote.
organic cuba...
From the BBC
Climate change, drought, population growth - they could all threaten future food supplies. But global agriculture, with its dependence on fuel and fertilisers is also highly vulnerable to an oil shortage, as Cuba found out 20 years ago.
Around Cuba's capital Havana, it is quite remarkable how often you see a neatly tended plot of land right in the heart of the city.
Sometimes smack bang between tower block estates or next door to the crumbling colonial houses, fresh fruit and vegetables are growing in abundance.
Some of the plots are small - just a few rows of lettuces and radishes being grown in an old parking space.
Other plots are much larger - the size of several football pitches. Usually they have a stall next to them to sell the produce at relatively low prices to local people.
Twenty years ago, Cuban agriculture looked very different. Between 1960 and 1989, a national policy of intensive specialised agriculture radically transformed Cuban farming into high-input mono-culture in which tobacco, sugar, and other cash crops were grown on large state farms.
Cuba exchanged its abundant produce for cheap, imported subsidised oil from the old Eastern Bloc. In fact, oil was so cheap, Cuba pursued a highly industrialised fuel-thirsty form of agriculture - not so different from the kind of farming we see in much of the West today.
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the oil supply rapidly dried up, and, almost overnight, Cuba faced a major food crisis. Already affected by a US trade embargo, Cuba by necessity had to go back to basics to survive - rediscovering low-input self-reliant farming.