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Thursday, October 17, 2019
THE THIRD DAUGHTER is making waves!
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Sunday, September 15, 2019
THE THIRD DAUGHTER broke out of the gate!!!
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Saturday, May 18, 2019
Sex and tango in Buenos Aires in the late 1800s
THE THIRD DAUGHTER, a new novel
In my new novel I dared enter an arena never explored
before....
It took enormous courage for me to write THE THIRD DAUGHTER
and to expose a buried, tragic chapter in history in which estimated 200,000 women were deceptively lured from Eastern Europe into prostitution in South
America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The whispers of millions of girls and women ensnared into
sexual slavery grew into loud cries in my head until I had to give them a voice.
It took research, but also maturity, compassion and skill to follow the thread
that turned THE THIRD DAUGHTER into a story of courage in the face of danger
and hope in the face of despair.
The novel will be released on September 3rd by
HarperCollins. (It is available for pre-order wherever books are sold.)
Summary of THE THIRD DAUGHTER:
The turn of the 20th century finds fourteen-year-old Batya
in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family from endless Jewish
massacres. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a
worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and
passage to America. Feeling like a princess in a fairy tale, Batya leaves her
old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon she discovers
that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her
to America: Buenos Aires, a vibrant, growing city in which prostitution is not
only legal but deeply embedded in the culture. And now Batya is one of thousands
of women tricked and sold into a brothel.
As the years pass,
Batya forms deep bonds with her “sisters” in the house as well as some men who
are both kind and cruel. Through it all, she holds onto one dream: to bring her
family to America where they will be safe from the anti-Semitism that plagues
Russia. Just as Batya is becoming a known tango dancer, she gets an unexpected
but dangerous opportunity—to help bring down the criminal network that has
enslaved so many young women yet has been instrumental in developing Buenos
Aires into a major metropolis.
This shameful chapter in history is true!
Protected by the Argentine government's laws (as the state
budget relied on taxing the brothels,) Zwi Migdal reported at the turn of the
20th century profits of $50 million a year. In some years they employed up to
30,000 women all across South America, (and reaching New York's Lower East
Side.)
The inspiration....
While there is plenty of English-language material about Zwi Migdal (and a lot more in Spanish,) there is hardly any work of fiction since, in 1909, the Yiddish storyteller
Sholem Aleichem published a short story, THE MAN FROM BUENOS AIRES. (You may
read its translation on my website.)
Interestingly, this story about a shady businessman who
brags about his riches but never reveals the nature of his affairs, appeared in
the same story collection as the stories about Tevye the dairyman and his
daughters, most known in its theatrical adaptation to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.
My imagination was fired at the question of what would have
happened if, after fleeing a pogrom, Tevye’s unmarried daughter met that shady
man from Buenos Aires?
Activism
In the coming months, before the novel's release, I will
team up with anti-trafficking organizations, local, domestic and international.
As I had done with my previous social-issue-centered novels, I will use THE
THIRD DAUGHTER as a platform for speaking opportunities and calls for action.
In my book tour, I will inform audiences what they can do
about the evil of human slavery in their own backyard. If your organization
sponsors a fund-raiser, a literary event, or any form of public stage from
which to educate and inspire, I would welcome your invitation. Please contact
my event coordinator, Lisa Bernard, at MecoxHudson@gmail.com, or call her
at (203)293-4741 .
I am looking forward to visiting your community.
Read more on my website....
My website has been updated to include material about THE
THIRD DAUGHTER:
* And the above mentioned Sholem Aleichem's story
And finally....
I can't end this blog without mentioning one more
inspiration for THE THIRD DAUGHTER--my late mother's painting. My mother,
Reviva Yoffe, was a renowned Israeli artist, and this painting, which she had
named "The Tango Dancers," revealed to me something profound about
these two characters' relationship. When I struggled with doubts as to whether
even tackle the subject of bondage, I found encouragement from my late
mother....
Thank you for your interest and support. I am looking
forward to reconnecting with you in the coming months. Please email me your
questions and thoughts.
Talia Carner
P.S. Please pre-order THE THIRD DAUGHTER now--in print,
digital or audio--and help get the buzz going.
Monday, September 10, 2018
A Politically Incorrect Feminist
No political/social movement can be launched nor hurled
forward by the faint-of-hearts. The second wave feminism required no less
gumption and fierceness than the first wave. The first-wave feminism—that of
the suffragists who won for women the rights to vote and own property—surged
with the second wave, which started in the 1960’s and gained momentum in the
1970’s. It sought to broaden women’s rights to equality in family, sexuality
and employment and sounded the battle cry for fights in areas unique to women
such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, marital rape, paid maternity
leave, sexual harassment, affordable child care, and changes in divorce and custody
laws.
Paradoxically, civil rights, students’ rights and labor
unions often failed to include women within their leadership ranks, nor did
they give credence to women’s issues in either their ideologies or policies
until feminists fought them internally to be heard and included.
While in this excellent book Phyllis Chesler claims to not
have written the history of second wave feminism, she nevertheless does so
through her own eyes and personal experiences that were deeply intertwined with
the fabric of the movement. She recounts her involvement with almost every
aspect of this gut-wrenching years-long struggle, and most importantly, offers
an intimate introduction of the many players—their strengths and weaknesses,
idiosyncrasies and yes, madness. The battles that raged on the road to women’s
liberation were not only against the male hierarchy and dominance of political
and social views that held women as childish, given to hormonal fluctuations,
and incapable of thinking straight, but also internally. The fire in the belly
that fueled feminists’ fervor and made them effective in ultimately achieving
many of the movement’s goals burned also in the intensity of their diverse
worldviews that often targeted other women. Backstabbing, public shaming, envy
and demands for conformity crippled many talented women leaders. Many fell by
the wayside, slunk away to lick the wounds inflicted not by their powerful male
opponents and their centuries-old beliefs, but rather by their colleagues and
fellow Amazonians—often close friends—right inside the movement and in the many
organizations that sprouted within it.
Luckily, Phyllis Chesler is one who remained standing
through it all, albeit not unscathed. Her personal achievements as a
psychologist who confronted the entire industry and forced it to change its
perceptions and treatment of women patients is documented not only in this
book, but in the astounding success of her ground-breaking book, Women and Madness (a book that was
followed by over a dozen other best-sellers, each stepping into arenas no one
had ever dared enter before.) Time and again, Chesler paid a personal price
when she became the target of envy by those who did not wish to see stars
rising within the feminist movement, by those who held the paradoxical idea
that for true equality women should not publish over their own bylines (an
unimagined demand to be made from male writers,) or by early Lesbians who
discredited heterosexual women who chose to marry and become mothers as Chesler
did. The reasons for rancor could be many—or any—as Chesler analyzed in her
book Women’s Inhumanity to Women, and
as I experienced years later in a mini version when I traveled for three weeks
with a group of fifty women to the 1995 International Women’s Conference in
Beijing: Environmentalists against those who brought plastic forks; blue-collar
working women against executives; Lesbians against heterosexuals; non-Jews
against Jews; women of color against Caucasians; West Coast women against
“Yankees”; health-conscious against coffee-drinkers….
Yes, reading the book reveals that indeed, the movement was
created by “bitches, lunatics, prodigies and warriors,” as the subtitle
describes. Yet, overall, they were Wonder Women, because they lurched our
society forward into the changes of the late 20th century and early
21st century—and to what we are now experiencing as the “third-wave
feminism.”
I was younger, yet growing up across the ocean I was unaware
of any of these developments when I cultivated my own brand of feminist
ideas—and was labeled by some friends “a castrating female.” Later, in New
York, when I was drawn into a vicious custody battle, the judge listened to the
argument that I should not be allowed to raise my two baby daughters because I
had attended a conscious-raising seminar, and as my former marriage counselor—a
renowned psychologist—testified against me because I was “a feminist.” At the
same time, the judge refused to put into evidence my lawyer’s presentation of
the father’s passport proving that he traveled two to three weeks each month.
Reading Phyllis Chesler’s book I recalled how, a new immigrant to the USA, I
had sought out someone who could explain this. I checked with the local
university, where I was studying for my masters’ degree, but in those days of
pre- “Women Studies,” which Professor Chesler helped introduce, I couldn’t even
articulate what kind of an expert I was looking for. Phyllis Chesler, a
psychotherapist and a warrior, and the author of Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and Custody, would have
been perfect.
The reluctance of women to acknowledge greatness and give
credit to feminists who have paved the way for us continues. Several years ago
I proposed to the Women National Book Association to honor Phyllis Chesler, a
prolific author of eighteen books that changed the landscape of our society and
helped shape for the better the lives of millions of women, to receive the
Association’s yearly award. Her candidacy was rejected because she was “too
controversial.” Controversial because, as she describes in A Politically Incorrect Feminist she demands that American
feminists take a stand against the subjugation and brutality that is the lot of
hundreds of million women in Muslim countries. Controversial because her unique
research of “honor killing” in Western countries of daughters of Muslim
families that shame their families by assimilating into Western culture or dare
refuse arranged marriages is perceived as politically incorrect against Islam.
Yes, “the personal is political,” and this book that charts
the bravery and valor of so many amazing women has inspired me anew to fight
for women’s rights and dignity both at home and abroad.
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Public Thoughts To Be Read At The Passover Table
By Talia Carner
Author Talia Carner's novels are heart-wrenching suspense dealing with social issues. Please read the first chapter of each on her website at www.TaliaCarner.com .
This Passover, as we celebrate our ancestors’ freedom from
slavery, we reconnect through our most important holiday with our
centuries-long traditions. It is incumbent upon us to contemplate the broader
concept of freedom and what it means to us as individuals, as members of our
immediate communities, and as members of the community of Jews across the
globe.
Throughout history, Passover has also been a time of
increased blood libels and pogroms against Jews. While Jews celebrated freedom
and showed benevolence toward fellow humans, they were reminded how hated they
were—hatred so strong that it “justified” killing them by the dozens,
thousands, and millions. In these days, as a new wave of anti-Semitism is
sweeping over the globe, gathering tsunami-like power, it lands right in
Manhattan's UN building. The global Jew-hate fest from Venezuela to Spain—and
renewed in Poland—has metastasized into
leading universities, mainstream media, civic organizations, and even Western
governments. The tale of the Haggadah we read at the Seder stands to remind us
that hate comes knocking on our door first with words, then with economic and
academic boycotts, then with biased UN resolutions, and, as in the past, it may
end with guns, bombs and incinerators.
Passover also marks spring in our ancient agrarian society,
a beginning of a cycle of life, with the blooming of trees and the planting of
vegetables and flowers. Spring’s fresh start and the tradition of inviting
others to share our bounty at the Passover table reminds us of Israel’s
extraordinary achievements in agriculture and science—efficiencies, discoveries
and inventions she has shared for decades with over 120 countries to help
nourish children, improve global food production, and wipe out starvation.
While these past seventy years Israelis—both civilians and
soldiers—have given each Jew everywhere reasons to walk tall and proud, their
existential threat from Iran is real.
“Every Jew should consider himself as if he was freed from
slavery,” says the Haggadah we read tonight. In today’s climate we should add
that “Every Jew should consider himself as if he’s just escaped a terrorist
bomb.” There but for the grace of God and twist of history, we would not have
been spared the wrath and bombs of Palestinians or extreme Muslim murderers
taking shelter in our sacred freedom. Let’s give our prayers and charity to the
families who have suffered unimaginable, senseless losses. And as we do, let us
search within ourselves whether we have done all we could for them and for the
Israeli soldiers who take the first bullet for us.
And while we’re at it, let’s remember our American soldiers
on the forefront in the desserts of Iraq and Afghanistan—and the thousands of
families who would never get to put their arms around them upon their return.
The tradition of Passover also calls us to invite to the
Seder table any Jew who does not have one. Let’s invite—at least in our
thoughts—all our Jewish brethren in countries that do not offer the freedom and
protection that the USA guarantees us. For them, we can raise our collective
voice with indignation and outrage and use our collective power to fight
tyranny and fanaticism that calls for our—and their—demise.
Israel’s president Shimon Peres once said that even
Ben-Gurion had not dreamed big enough. Let us dream big tonight—stretch our
dream to encompass all the vast possibilities, and let us dream tonight of a
world of peace.
Let us bless all the good things God has given us so far,
and celebrate our resilience and our heritage of strong Jewish values that we
have shared with the world over for centuries. And let's allow that dream bring
joy to our hearts and to our Passover table.
Amen.
# # #
Author Talia Carner's novels are heart-wrenching suspense dealing with social issues. Please read the first chapter of each on her website at www.TaliaCarner.com .
Monday, March 19, 2018
One People--Passover Surprise Guests
It’s breakfast at Club Med in Mexico
I
approach the Chef-de-Village and ask
for a secluded spot where my family and another Jewish couple we’ve met here could
conduct a pre-sunset ceremony. He points to a beautiful thatched-roof area over
a dance floor, facing the sea. “Anything else I can do?” he asks.
“A bottle of sweet red wine, please?” Besides the box of matzos and a silver kiddush cup, I packed a dozen Hagadahs and baby-blue
yarmulkes stamped with the date of our youngest daughter’s bat-mitzvah. I write
down my recipe for charoset, a
chopped mix of peeled apples, walnuts, pecans and dates, all flavored with
cinnamon, honey and red wine.
Moments later, I am surprised to hear him over the PA
announcing that all who wish to participate in a Seder, should meet at five
o’clock at the designated area.
I cringe and glance around at the crowd, busy picking
from mounds of fried bacon and pork sausages. Is someone cracking a comment
about the invasion of the Hebs? No one seems to pay attention, and I decide
that throughout history, Jews in far more dire conditions managed to celebrate
Passover. So will my family, down to the lengthy reading of the Hagadah, the
yearly retelling of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt
At lunch, a
sous-chef presents me with an industrial-size baking tray filled with charoset. Imagining that most of this
huge quantity will be baked in tomorrow’s pies, I dip a spoon into the mix. The
familiar taste of Passover festivity is already inside me. “May I also have a
plate with a hard-boiled egg, a lamb bone, horseradish, and sprigs of parsley?”
I ask. “And a cup of salt water?”
The sun is still high when I drag my family off the beach
to shower and dress in what passes in Club Med for evening attire—shorts and
Polo shirts for men; white slacks or gauzy dresses for women.
At five o’clock we arrive at the dance platform, carrying
my Passover paraphernalia. To my annoyance someone must have double-booked the
place, as dozens of his guests, dressed for a pre-dinner party are hanging
about. “Now we must go look for another quiet spot,” I mutter, and go search
for the sous-chef to locate my tray
of charoset and Passover plate.
In a cluster of people, I spot the couple we have invited
and wave.
As they wave back, some guests turn toward me, smiling. Only
then it hits me: All these people are here for my little Seder!
As my husband counts them—a hundred and forty—more
bottles of wine and crates of glassware are brought from the kitchen. We place
the Seder plate in the center of a table covered with a white tablecloth and
dedicate my kiddush cup for Elijah. We break my matzos into the smallest
pieces, and ladle charoset onto
serving plates.
Then we distribute the twelve Hagadahs—the story of
Passover told in biblical Hebrew. I watch as Jews from South American countries
speaking Spanish and Portuguese, Jews from
I examine the men’s heads covered with baseball caps,
dinner napkins, and my dozen yarmulkes in baby-blue like the undulating sea beyond.
For one hour, strangers to one another, we are connected by one culture and
unite through the ancient language of our ancestors in a tradition that
transcends all geo-political barriers, that has stood up to centuries of
persecutions, pogroms, and repeated attempts at our annihilation. “Next year in
Jerusalem
#
# #
Author Talia Carner’s most recent novel, HOTEL MOSCOW Russia
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Cuba: Thoughts and impressions of my visit
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| In front of a sculpture of a naked woman riding a rooster, while holding a fork and wearing high heels--the Cuban ideal woman.... |
As I’ve just returned from a trip to Cuba, and given the
myriad questions I am facing, I am putting in writing my fresh, unadulterated
thoughts:
I traveled with the Authors’ Guild for one week filled with
three to five lectures and presentations each day. The talks were by authors, publishers,
musicians, visual artists and university professors of literature, women’s
studies, urban planning and political science. We stayed in Havana for five out
of the seven nights, and traveled the three-and a half-hour drive to Trinidad,
a small town, where we stayed at people’s homes. (As a form of enterprise, many
add a room or two in their homes, complete with private bathrooms.)
In the first presentation, a professor of political science
was clearly on the side of the government. While he acknowledged many of the the
country’s problems, he attributed them to the US embargo and not to the government’s
failure over decades to help its people and economy thrive. In fact, while he acknowledged
that they must search for a new model, capitalism wasn’t an option because it
created a “social injustice.”
In the coming days it became clear that the greatest social
injustice, in fact, lies right at the feet of Cuba’s double currency. After the
revolution of 1959-1960—a process that lasted close to three years, not an
overnight coup—Cuba aligned itself with the Soviet Union and its economy. It built
an economy that was based on the Russian ruble, but even more upon bartering of
goods with the Soviet Union. In the barter system, the ever-changing non-monetary
values had nothing to do with a sound fiscal policy. Unfortunately, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cuban economy found itself
floundering and gasping for air. Suddenly, the only steady source of income
came from remittances—money sent by expats living in Florida to their families
in Cuba. Until today, remittances are by far the greatest source of the Cuban
economy.
 |
| Old American cars in Havana are a trademark of the city |
However, since the remittances are in dollars, the CUC—the Cuban
conversion of a dollar—is worth 27 times the value of the “national peso,” called
CUP. Thus, a two-system was established, existing side by side. Cubans get paid
by CUP, thus making 27 times less
than those receiving remittances or are employed in the tourist industry where
they are paid in CUCs. Tourists can only use CUCs, while Cuban state workers
receive their wages in national pesos, and are only permitted to use in order
to purchase basic necessities—except that it is insufficient and allows no
small treats. (An ice-cream cone costing $2.50 is out of reach for someone
earning $50 a month.)
If there was ever glaring social injustice that makes
university professors starve while hotel bellmen thrive, this is it. In fact,
as a result of this huge gap in income, scientists, physicians, academicians
and trained professionals have left their professions in drove to become tour
guides, hotel clerks and concierges. Our tour guide, Christopher, had studied
nuclear physics when he switched to major in languages so he could work with
tourists. Our group of twenty-five tipped him for the week at least $50 per
person, totaling an estimated $1,250 in a country where a government employee earns
$50 a month. (Our bus driver received half of this sum, which is still huge.) Time
and again we heard how a bar tender makes in one evening what a university
professor or a doctor makes in one month.
Housing: One of the first steps of the revolution was to
nationalize all private properties, starting with apartment houses and private
mansions. Whoever lived in an apartment in 1959 became its owner. And the
servants, gardeners and chauffeurs became the instant owners of the mansions
where they had served the masters. However, the government kept the ownership
of each building as a whole as well as the land on which they stand. As a
result, while an apartment dweller owns his apartment, he does not own a share
in the common areas—the surface of the building, corridors, stairwells, or
garbage area. Maintaining them has been the government's responsibility.
Needless to say, with an impoverished economy, buildings fell into complete and
utter neglect. The idea of giving mansions to the former service staff also failed
to take into account that these people lacked the means to maintain such
structures.
 |
| A former mansion, one of thousands that have fallen to great disrepair before collapsing. |
The urban decay of Havana is heart breaking, as the many buildings
that still carry signs of past glory are decaying—not just peeling plaster and
dark mould spreading, but missing windows, broken terraces and gaping rooms
whose walls have crumbled. In places, one sees a feeble attempt of tenants to salvage
their place by constructing crude propping of floors, but these pathetic
attempts often fail: On the average, three buildings collapse each day—one
thousand a year—and that number will escalate as more buildings give in to the
passage of time. On each street one can see buildings that look like photos of
a bombed-city.
The brain drain of young professionals and educated people
seeking economic opportunities abroad has resulted in a population whose 30%
are over the age of 60. That number is expected to grow to 40% in the coming
decade. From a housing point-of-view, it means that older people are unable to
climb stairs to high floors in buildings that never had elevators, nor do they
have the resources to find suitable housing when their buildings give in to the
elements. The isolation of the aging is yet another social injustice that is
sure to increase.
Education: In the midst of this misery, free education is still a priority for the Cuban government, and it covers not only K to 12th grade, but goes all the way through graduate degrees for whoever wishes to do so. Cuba boasts 51 universities—a large number for a population of 11.5 million habitants. In addition, the education system favors specialized training in the arts, and children as young as five years old that show promise are directed to schools of music, dance and circus arts. Visual arts are taught throughout the school years because the country has great appreciation for art, and at age eighteen, those who wish, may attend dedicated art academies. Furthermore, students who show interest in music, dance, writing and art but not enough to attend the specialized schools, are offered all these after-school classes at no charge.
As a result of the high level of education, Cuba’s second
largest industry is the “exporting of brain,” that is academicians and
scientists who travel to other South- and Central-American countries to work or
teach. Unlike the expats who’ve left for the USA and Europe never to return, these
professionals come back home to Cuba after earning some decent income. Many repeat
such assignments abroad every few years.
Cuba’s third industry is pharmaceutical, medical research
and biotechnology. The country prides itself in developing and manufacturing a
range of specific medications. (It was left unclear to us how their testing is
done and what are the standards applied, especially since, with the thawing of
the commercial and economic embargo toward the end of the Obama’s
Administration, talks of US drug companies medical testing in Cuba became
relevant.)
Agriculture, which could have been a strong industry in this
fertile land, is unfortunately sorely neglected. The offering of vegetables and
fruit during our stay, even at good restaurants, was relatively poor—string beans
were only canned. No cauliflower, carrots, asparagus or broccoli. A visit to several
food stores showed no basic staples such as peanuts or even dried fruit. Mango,
pineapple and guava are available—but no apples, pears or grapes, and even
bananas are in short supply. Driving through the center of the country from Havana
to Trinidad we saw sugar cane fields, but no corn or wheat. There is no cattle
herding, and therefore meat is imported. In Trinidad, located half-an hour from
the sea, no fish was available during our two-day stay. Rice, beans and
potatoes seem to be the major food staple.
 |
| Courtyard of a home in Trinidad, Cuba, that rents out rooms to tourists. |
Due to the economic struggle of all Cubans, they all must resort
to other creative means of survival. They call it “La Lucha,” a word that
translates to “struggle.” Each person must find a way for his or hers “Lucha”
in the form of side entrepreneurial service or manufacturing. Perhaps more than
being deprived of political freedom, Cubans lose dignity due to their ongoing economic
hardship that forces them to desert their natural tendencies and interests
(e.g. science,) in order to haul tourists’ suitcases.
Interestingly, in spite of shortages and poverty, crime rate
is very low. Havana is safe at all hours of the day and night, as are tourists’
possessions. The Cuban people are pleasant and seem at ease both among
themselves and with foreigners. Some of my fellow passengers attributed it to the power of Cuban music, but it seemed to me that music could only serve as a veneer, not a panacea for a lifetime of frustration, deprivation and indignity.
USA policy: In my research for a one of my novels, China Doll, I learned that our government
employs either one of two approaches toward unfriendly nations: Engagement and
Containment. Engagement maintains that exchanging knowledge, culture and business
practices demonstrates how capitalism works while instilling Western values
when it comes to human rights. (e.g., in China, factory supervisors use beating
as a disciplinary tool that is, of course, forbidden in US-owned factories there.)
Containment holds that a country such as China that calls itself “The Sleeping
Dragon” is dangerous and its ambitions for expansions should be carefully
watched. (Cutting corners, the unscrupulous China has been buying R&D from
the West, and what it can’t buy it steals.) China has been controlling the
nations of the Pacific Rim to the point that these countries must adhere to China’s
interests when making their decisions.
This view of US policy has helped me understand the
decades-long Containment policy we’ve held, broken in 2015 with Obama’s visit
to Cuba and his declaration that we were neighbors. Unfortunately, this start
of a policy of Engagement also supports the current government, one that
oppresses its people, that controls the press, and stifles criticism even if it
comes in the form of art it so reveres. With the upcoming elections in early
2018, rather than maintaining a feeling of “kumbaya,” which only strengthens
the current one-party, autocratic government, and makes it more acceptable to
its people, the US clamps down on such support.
This is where I found the USA new guidelines on travel to
Cuba telling: The commercial ban on Cuba is translated into merely restrictions on commerce with the Cuban government.
In fact, our administration encourages working with individual Cubans who are
entrepreneurs, as it wishes to strengthen and support people. Therefore, journalistic
activity, professional research, educational and religious activities, public
performances, clinics, workshops, athletic competitions, humanitarian projects
and activities of private foundations or are permitted. All family members
wishing to visit their relatives in Cuba are permitted to do so.
There are a few candidates for the position of President. If
in the past the single most important credential was that the candidate had
been part of the 1959 revolution, these people are too old or gone. Yet, it is
unclear what the new wave of candidates offers, nor do they make their respective
visions for the future of Cuba public. Such campaigning is not called for in
this system. Instead, each candidate is listed with his main points of past achievements,
but none offers a platform of his plans for the future of Cuba. Even if all of
them are members of the single ruling party, it is conceivable that they may hold
different opinions and dreams. There’s a talk about a shoe-in of the current
vice-president. Only the future will reveal whether he will have the courage to
move on to an open-market economy and democracy. The Cuban people are certainly
ready.
 |
| In front of Hemingway's home, holding my Toastmasters magazine. |
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