Pandora's Other Box

2014 is nearing the end; perhaps before its time, perhaps too late in coming but… ready or not, the New Year is ready to roar to life… A review of the year’s happenings is a “de-rigueur” thing to do about this time. Every radio or TV program has its own mini history reduced into a few thousand pixels or sound bites of what went on during the year. On a TV show I saw recently for a few minutes, there was a review –with graphic pictures- about the deaths of several renowned actors and singers. Seems people can’t get enough of their idols, live or dead… As citizens of a country which has grown to accept violence as a somewhat normal day-to-day issue, Mexicans have adjusted to living in this uncertainty… but even they were shocked into action by a mass murder which took the lives of 43 young students for expressing themselves against abuses of the local political czar. Not too far south, Venezuela has become the second most dangerous country in the world, under the totally...

Much like the emperor of fabled fame, President Obama was left with no clothes on and saying thanks for the memories…   Yesterday was another day in a week which promised to be just another week, filled with regular, routine days. Yet, we were given some news which broke this uneventful moment; news which, in a different context and parameters, would have been welcome. As the President spoke from the podium, we were informed that there had been an agreement to exchange prisoners and to re-establish relations with Cuba, after 50+ years of diplomatic void. There would be new business avenues open, and even the status of Cuba as a terrorist sponsor nation would be subject to revision. All this, in exchange for basically… nothing. What happened was that with one unilateral (and probably unconstitutional) decision, Obama has given a new lease on life to a tired, sagging regimen that has oppressed 11M citizens, caused massive people flight and has germinated untold deaths thr...

Fall Is Coming. It has always been my favorite season of the year. That is, since the first time I experienced seasonal changes as a teen, after coming to this country. This affinity, however, is now taking on a different meaning for me. I cannot help but understand and accept that as time passes on, my life is a very much like a one year calendar which is becoming a little faded but yet comfortable to hold and to read, and that the approach of the fall season is very much like the approach, in my own life, of that period when an invisible barrier is passed and one accepts the fact that a good part of an existence has passed on, much like those pages on that calendar. Not morbidity, just reality. Those older sheets in that calendar are choke full of notes and anecdotes; of happy notations and very sad marks… sometimes just a dark exclamation point on specific dates that mark painful moments; moments which leave a memory forever. Some of those pages are relatively blank. I...

In the beginning, birthdays were the stuff of presents, cakes, friends… as I explore the second half of my life, they become reminders of a sort. Very soon I will be reaching my 68 th birthday; almost at the seventh decade portal. I sit here today, alone, staring at this typewriter, and my mind ( yes Virginia, there is a mind inside there, somewhere …) wonders about, unfettered and unhinged from any and all the pertinent pressures of daily living. Not a small accomplishment, mind you. Maria Jose So, I thought I would give myself a gift and return to these blog pages, an area of my liking which I have left unattended for a long time. I stare at Maria José, who is my daily companion, a beautiful plant which sits there giving me her company ( yes, “her” ) without uttering any complaints or endearments, for that matter. I hope she gives me a clue about what to write… but, like a good psychiatrist, just listens, stares and says nothing… I look at two of my father’s...

…a mini fairy tale… or not? Once upon a time, not too long ago, there were two brothers who roamed the plains, searching for great deeds to accomplish ( apparently not much else to do for these folks ) as well as some fame and, above all, a little fortune. Maybe even a Holy Grail thrown in for good measure. This would be considered the BIG prize… and they were both willing to do anything to get it, even if it meant doing in brother number two ( always the other one is number two )… In their case, this big prize was a job. Understand this was not a common job… no sir!! This was a job which gave prestige, fame, position and –above all- power… power to control all those who lived on the plains… The embodiment of all those rare levels that very few could even dream of achieving. So… how would you go about getting this plum of a job? I’m sure you are by now asking yourself… As it turns out and, very surprisingly, there are no real black and white qualifications needed… the impo...

Recently I read somewhere in FB a short recounting of a chance meeting … I wish I could think of who posted it to give the appropriate credit, but I can’t. Yet, the message really stayed with me and I wish this could become part of my mind frame, of my thought process. How often have you met, perchance or intentionally, with someone you know and on parting utter a simple “be well” or “glad to see you” or worse yet… “Yes, we have to get together for lunch sometime…” knowing this will never come to pass… We have learned to behave in a routinely manner, a manner which takes little effort on our part to just “carry on” and present a civilized front, allowing us to get through the day or, in the end, to get through the routine of our lives. Perhaps this is the reason that, when something comes across our senses, something different enough to rate a dissonant chord, we (I) pay attention. And sometimes, this something is impacting enough to stay with us, to maybe even effect a li...

As a follow up to the last entry (many responses to that one) this is a word and picture testament to what a misguided and power hungry government can do to those it is supposed to serve . Children learning to worship the leader Even though I was barely a 13 year old youngster when the current government took what would turn out to be an unrelenting hold of my country –Cuba- I remember that many held the hope this would be a change for the good. A change on the political front, because on the overall economic front the structure was working pretty well. At least, that is what independent stats show for the times. Nothing to do and all the time to do it in I remember a bearded leader who came from the mountains surrounded by priests and bodyguards and who, in what turned out to be his MO, sent others ahead to make sure the way was clear so as not to expose himself to any unforeseen dangers or threats. As a good demagogue, he has been a “leader” with words, not in action...

Originally, this blog was meant to touch on memories… times long past and moments of joy … or sadness. Or, whatever came to mind… As usual, last one won out... As it often happens, when I come face to face with the computer all plans go out the window. Usually taking with them all the words and thoughts I had … oh, so ready… they all seem to fly out the virtual window in the back corner of my mind… as I watch, totally powerless, and see them disappear into the vastness of nothingness… Oh My! … What should we write about? … Notice as the royal “We” gently rolls out of my fingertips while these deftly play the letter keys of this non-musical piano-like board on the computer…   So, which way to go? Should I fall gently into the past and dig a bit deeper around those repressed memories that still abound? Or go boldly into the future and create memories to be? … Perhaps these last can be a bit sweeter and warmer than some of the ones life has actually created… but then...

What Happened in Cuba?        This is a question we have asked ourselves for the better part of a half a century. We still don’t have an answer. A friend (not Cuban) sent me a list of what he called “historical Cuban achievements” he had found on a website, of which the following is a partial listing, and asked the same question… I still did not have an answer…        First Iberian American country to use vapor powered machinery and ships was Cuba in 1829     The third country in the world (after US and England) to have railroads was Cuba, in 1837     First ether based anesthesia applied in the Spanish speaking world was by a Cuban MD in 1847.   The first public electric light system in the Spanish speaking world was completed in Havana in 1889   Cuba eliminated bullfights before the end of the 18 th century, because they were “unpopular,        sanguinary and abusive with the animals” ...

Ukraine has the front seat in the news yet, closer to home in Venezuela, a massacre in the making is largely ignored by the national media. Venezuela is not my country of origin; I come from the other one, the one which is basically causing all the trouble over there. Including flying shock troops by the planeload to “show” the Venezuelan army and thug police how they must deal with the dissidents. No matter these are unarmed students and mothers whose only political sin is to ask for their basic freedoms and question the terrible state in which their country and society are, as well as give voice to their utter hopelessness for a better future. The current government cannot give coherent answers to these questions for the simple reason they don’t have any to give; the same government which created the chaos cannot possibly give hope of a better future when they can’t even manage the present. Faced with this, students and protesters refuse to back down, despite the fact these ...