Posts Tagged ‘Havana’
Written by admin on 22 February 2012
Havana, Feb 22 (IANS) A fascinating encyclopaedia on the history of ballet in the island nation of Cuba, from its first traces in the 18th century till date, has been launched after a rigorous research, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.
Author Miguel Cabrera, also the historian of the National Ballet of Cuba directed by prima ballerina Alicia Alonso, started his book with the first hints of classical dance in Havana in the 1800s.
John Guillet, a dance teacher of French or Catalonian origin, arrived in Cuba in July 1800 to work in a theatre under construction in an area where today stands the National Capitol, the seat of government in Cuba until after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and now home to the Cuban Academy of Sciences.
Guillet was the first to establish the rules for classic dance.
Two months later, in September, the first ballet show took place in Cuba. It was the “The Loggers”, a pantomime dance.
The author who says he can remain awake for three days, if necessary, to check over and over again a detail, walks with ease through the 360 pages of the book.
He writes about happy discoveries, like the premiere of the complete version of “Giselle” in 1849 in the former Tacon theatre in Havana.
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Written by admin on 21 February 2012
Havana, Feb 21 (IANS/EFE) Control, prevention and participation by the community are “essential” in Cuba’s battle against corruption and indiscipline in state corporations, the Communist-ruled island’s controller general said.
“The job of dealing with corruption and taking control of state finances is a matter for all revolutionaries,” and the first control “has to start with each of us individually”, Gladys Bejerano said in an interview published in the Sunday edition of the official daily Juventud Rebelde.
The fight against corruption has been a “banner issue” for the government of President Raul Castro, who in 2009 created the Controller General’s Office to conduct audits on hundreds of state companies and institutions.
For Bejerano, who is also one of Cuba’s vice presidents, public involvement in fighting corruption and illicit activities “needs real participation and is not just a matter of form”.
“When we speak about organizing a comprehensive fight against corrupt activities, indiscipline and disregard for the law, we’re thinking about all levels, and that includes the community,” she said.
“If someone sells it’s because someone else is buying. And we say nothing. The people aren’t responsible for the black market, it’s the responsibility of whoever has the product and doesn’t manage it correctly – but dealing with that situation has to be done by all of us. Because if we lose the revolution, who loses? Those in charge of managing goods and every one of us,” she said.
“We have to educate people in their role as inspectors,” she said.
The problem of corruption has been an important feature of recent addresses by Raul Castro, who has described it as “one of the worst enemies of the revolution”.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 12 February 2012
Havana, Feb 12 (IANS/EFE) Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has met experts from 22 countries to discuss subjects related to dangers threatening the human species.
The meeting was the 85-year-old Cuban leader’s second public appearance following the Feb 13 presentation of his memoirs “Guerrillero del Tiempo” (Guerrilla of Time), state media reported.
Castro, out of power since 2006 due to illness, spoke with the experts on the threats facing the world. The experts are guests at Cuba’s National Book Fair.
A year ago, during the 2011 book fair, Castro had also met experts and asked them to play an active role in the crises of food supply, climate change and an eventual nuclear war.
Castro proposed that the experts “read and comment” on recent news stories to “confirm the seriousness of the alarm that brought them together”.
“We can’t let ourselves be defeated by pessimism. It’s our duty,” he said.
In July 2010, Castro made a surprise return to public life after four years convalescing from an illness that forced him to delegate the presidency to younger brother Raul in 2006.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 09 February 2012
Havana, Feb 9 (IANS) Cuban runner and world record holder in the 110-metre hurdles Dayron Robles has said his objective in the London Olympics is “nothing but to win the gold”.
“I have no other choice. I will strive for the gold,” Robles said to the media here before leaving for Germany.
The champion of Beijing 2008 stressed that 2012 would be a “very complicated year” for him, because of the schedule of important competitions, including the World Championship, to be held from March 9 to 11 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Olympic Games starting July 27 in London.
He also remarked that before defending his title in Istanbul he will participate in three important races during the winter season, when he will face the best runners in the world, including “himself”.
“I am my fiercest rival,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Havana, Feb 6 (IANS) A Cuban sculptor uses tobacco leaves to create wonderful pieces of art, and has made life-size as well as miniature sculptures of Winston Churchill, Che Guevara, John F. Kennedy, Charles Chaplin, Luciano Pavarotti and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
With his unique work, Janio Nunez Leal has pieces in many private collections around the work, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.
Nunez, who worked as a “torcedor” or cigar twister in many cigar factories, first took up the idea of becoming a tobacco sculptor in 1994.
His work will be on display at the 14th Habano Cigar Festival to be held Feb 27-March 2.
Tourists wanting to know more about Cuban culture and tobacco are flocking to his recently opened studio-workshop in Boca Ciega beach in Havana.
In 2000, Nunez met Celia Sandy, granddaughter of former British prime minister Winston Churchill, who was known for his love for Cuban cigars.
Nunez then created a life-size sculpture of Churchill.
He says his sculptures are made only of tobacco leaves, using only an idea without any mold or frame.
His pieces, however, must be well preserved at 18-24 degrees Celcius and a relative humidity of 60-70 percent.
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Havana, Feb 6 (IANS/EFE) Cuba has begun to employ a new technology to produce white sugar, a measure that improves its quality, avoids the refining process and reduces the cost of manufacture, a media report said Sunday.
The technology, which to date had never been used in the island’s sugar industry, uses a sulphur salt produced in Guatemala that – once dissolved in water – directly adds to the bleaching, according to official daily Juventud Rebelde.
The procedure replaces the method of “sulphurizing” the sugarcane juice via the combustion of sulphur, which is very damaging to the environment, the report says.
The daily also reported that the sugar produced with this method can be sold for a higher price than either crude or standard refined sugar on the world market and that its use is spreading rapidly.
Rigoberto Toledo, the director of the Melanio Hernandez sugar refinery in central Sancti Spiritus province, the first to use the new technology, said that using it they will be able to optimize the production process and avoid refining the raw sugar, a situation that will reduce production costs.
That refinery is scheduled to produce between 15,000 and 17,000 tonnes of white sugar during the current harvest, all of which will be destined for local consumption.
Cuba is carrying out its current sugar harvest at a time when it is in the midst of restructuring the sector by replacing the Sugar Ministry with the Sugar Agro-industry Business Group with the aim of achieving more efficient management, employing new technologies and generating exports to finance its own expenses.
According to government forecasts, this harvest should see a 20 percent rise in sugar production, after the country in 2011 experienced a slight recovery and after the drastic plunge in the sugar harvest registered in 2010, the worst in 105 years.
–IANS/EFE
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