Infrastructure & Technology
Articles, Opinions and Papers
May 2012
BBC News
Havana is beguiling from a distance, especially its old colonial buildings bathed in tropical sunshine. But up close this city is crumbling.
Cuba: Railway upgrade means quicker, more dangerous trains; 33 train-car crashes in 2011
May 7, 2012
The Washington Post
HAVANA - Cuba is reporting 33 accidents between trains and automobiles at rail crossings last year.The island's state-run news media usually avoids the grisly accounts of crashes and violent crime that are common in other countries.
April 2012
In Cuba, young people long for a way to access Facebook
April 24, 2012
MiamiHerald.com
McClatchy NewspapersPINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - The 24-year-old volunteer shows off the seven computers sitting on wooden desks under a painting of Saint Juan Bosco in a small, 6- by 10-foot cement room at the back of the church.
December 2011
The Huffington Post - Blog
The sign reads: Alternative media and social networks. New scenarios of political communication in the digital environment.Architecture that was once daring, a carefully tended lawn and well-guarded doors to ward off the curious.
The Huffington Post
It certainly looks and sounds like Facebook. Even its name, "RedSocial," the Social Network, would make Mark Zuckerberg's lawyers squirm.Cuba, a nation where just 2 percent of the population has an internet connection, has quietly launched a Facebook wannabe, a "virtual meeting place for Cuban uni
November 2011
Is it the end of the road for Cuba's classic cars?
November 13, 2011
BBC News; Isle of Man
President Raul Castro has agreed to allow people to buy and sell cars in Cuba, ending a ban on Cubans selling cars bought after the 1959 revolution that ushered in communism.
October 2011
Mimi Whitefield, The Miami Herald
When two women at Havana’s Cuatro Caminos market began beating on pots and pans with spoons one day in August, their protest call for freedom echoed around the world. At least 16 video entries, many of them the same or similar footage, were posted on YouTube and reposted on websites from Miami to Madrid. They showed the women calling out for freedom before police arrived to take them away. As a crowd followed, a rhythmic chant of “ Libertad, Libertad, Libertad’’ began.
August 2011
By Juan Tamayo, The Miami Herald
Borrowing a page from those pesky marketing cell phone text messages that cannot be blocked, a Cuban blogger in Spain is sending uncensored news to about 1,000 Cuban cell phones daily — and exploring far more sharp-edged applications.
Capturing Cuba's TV Culture
August 19, 2011
By Claire O'Neill, NPR
There were some fascinating developments in the living rooms of Old Havana. Many of the sets that I saw in 2000 — 1980s Russian models and mid-century TVs from the U.S. — had been replaced with shiny new imports from China. The cheap, new TVs were surrounded by the same vintage fans, rickety ornaments and faded family photographs. It seemed the only thing that had changed was the TV itself.
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Suggested Books
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Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis
Click here to purchase this book
Description -
Joseph L. Scarpaci
The University of North Carolina Press (1997)
One of the oldest and most celebrated cities in the Western Hemisphere, Havana is a fascinating metropolis where history has left its handprint on every corner. Here, an international trio of well-known architects and planners assesses nearly five hundred years of development in the Cuban capital. They offer an insightful introduction to Havana's historic architecture and modern buildings, its social and economic fabric, its diverse people, and its contemporary challenges and opportunities. From the colonial and early republican periods, through the 1959 revolution, and into the post-Soviet era and today, the authors trace Havana's physical evolution and place it in the context of important political, economic, and cultural developments. This new edition--which has been completely revised, redesigned, and updated since the book's original publication in 1997--also highlights recent restoration efforts in Old Havana, commercial development projects throughout the city, and the wide-ranging effects of international tourism. -
Reinventing the Cuban Sugar Agroindustry
Click here to purchase this book
Description -
Jorge F. Pérez-López and José Alvarez
Lexington Books (2005)
One of the key issues that faces Cuban policymakers today, and will continue to face them, is what steps to take in order to ensure the future of the sugar industry. In 2002, nearly one-half of the country's cultivated land was occupied by the 156 fully functional sugar mills, more than a dozen plants and refineries, and the complex transportation infrastructure brought about by the commerce. The loss of preferential markets for Cuban sugar that arose from the demise of the international socialist community constitutes a crisis that the Cuban government has only begun to address, with a radical restructuring plan that would foresee the reduction of sugar land and the elimination of about 100,000 jobs, for increased economic emphasis on tourism. The radical premise of this volume is that there is a future in the twenty-first century for a reinvented Cuban sugar agroindustry, responsive to market signals, organized around smaller and more agile production units, producing raw sugar as well as high value-added outputs, and using some of the facilities to produce ethanol and generate electricity. The editors have asked over a dozen recognized world experts on Cuban agroindustry to analyze specific topics and make recommendations that would not only reinvent an industry for effective transition to a free-market environment but that has the potential to reinvigorate the Cuban economy, providing employment opportunities and generating wealth for generations of Cubans to come.