Elián González poised to become a Cuban lawmaker
I was too young to really grasp the political game going on when Elián González was in the news as a child. But I do remember it and a few years ago I went and Googled him to see what had become of him. All I knew was that he was in college in Cuba. This morning it turns out that there is news about him going into politics in his home country.
Seems fitting for a child who was used for political means in the US.
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Cuba and the Internet, Geopolitics at work
An interesting article diving into the ALBA-1 cable which finally allowed Cuba direct Internet access and for them to stop relying solely on geostationary satellites for national access.
I find this image particularly fascinating to show just how isolated Cuba is when there is a literal cable ring around it. One which they are still be denied access to due to the isolation they are held to.
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Cubans protest in Havana for the 2nd night since Hurricane Ian knocked out power
Climate Change reaches so deeply into the world with the effects it creates.
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China, Albania and Cuba are all higher than the USA in Life Expectancy
But stagnation is one thing, the collapse since 2019 is a phenomenon of a different quality. It is a full measure of the disaster that was the COVID pandemic in the United States. Over a million Americans died of COVID, one of the worst outcomes on the planet.
According to the CDC, half the disastrous fall in life expectancy is attributable to COVID with the opioid epidemic being a second significant factor.
In living memory China's life expectancy languished at levels prevailing in the West a hundred years ago. By the 1980s, thanks to the provision of basic sanitation, a minimum standard of living and health care, Communist China had surged ahead of most other developing countries. Chartbook Newsletter #28 showcased the reports of the World Bank on this startling fact. China's dramatic economic growth since the 1980s propelled further steady increases.
In terms of healthy years of life, China overtook the United States already in 2018. At the time the United States was one of only five countries - the others being Somalia, Afghanistan, Georgia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - that were experiencing a fall in healthy life expectancy at birth. Extrapolating those trends, China was expected to overtake the United States in absolute life expectancy by the mid 2020s. The divergence in the handling of the COVID pandemic has brought that moment forward to 2021.
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"#YoSíTeCreo: Will the #MeToo Reckoning in Cuba's Music Industry Spark Broader Change?"
On April 18, one of Cuba’s most prominent musicians, José Luis Cortés, died suddenly at the age of 70 after suffering a stroke. Known by his nickname, “El Tosco” (“the rough guy”), Cortés founded the dance band NG La Banda, one of the pioneers of the Cuban salsa style called timba, the most popular genre on the island from the late 1980s to the mid-aughts.
But Cortés was also known for his machismo, both in his music and life. In 2019, Dianelys Alfonso, known as “La Diosa” (“the goddess”)—a singer with NG La Banda from 2003 to 2009—said that Cortés had repeatedly sexually assaulted and beaten her during the course of their romantic relationship. In a subsequent interview, she expressed fear of retaliation by Cortés, saying he sent her a threatening text warning there would be “consequences” after she went public. She also described him as physically abusive with his ex-wife and another woman in the band. Upon news of his death in April, Alfonso wrote on Instagram that every word she’d said about Cortés was true—and that he wouldn’t be hitting anyone anymore.
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