Edwin Colon Zayas Receives Cubadisco Special Prize

HAVANA, Cuba. Puerto Rican musician Edwin Colon Zayas said the greatest recognition of his career has been the Cubadisco Special Prize for his album Reafirmación presented on Saturday at the Cuban recording industry's annual awards ceremony in Havana.

Edwin Colon Zayas, accompanied by the Cuban National Symphonic Orchestra, performed a special concert of Concierto Criollo composed by Puerto Rican Ernesto Cordero.

"I always feel very good in Cuba where I can share with friends and musicians who feel the musical roots of our people in the same way I do," Edwin Colon Zayas told the press.

Edwin Colon Zayas has recorded several albums and is considered one of the greatest purveyor's of Puerto Rico's national instrument, the cuatro , which owes its name to the four-string original version of the guitar-like instrument.

Reafirmación, on the Colon Zayas label, is a good example of traditional Puerto Rican music with genres that run from the mazurka and pasillo to the guaracha jibara.

During his stay in Havana, Edwin Colon Zayas will share the stage with Cuban tres player Pancho Amat and his Cabildo del Son band. He will also take part in a workshop on Monday with Cuban children's theater company La Colmentia and traditional Cuban singer Alexis Díaz Pimient.

(Intérprete puertorriqueño elogia valores del folclor de Cuba)

US Illegal Broadcasts to Cuba: So Much Money for Such Small Audiences

The Mexican news agency Notimex reported that the US plans a slight reduction in funding for Radio and TV Marti that broadcast illegal transmissions to Cuba and are hardly watched or heard by anyone in Cuba.

It seems like the crisis is even affecting these two ill-named broadcasters, whose budgets will be reduced from US$ 34.8 million a year to 32.4 million.

According to the Miami Herald, the cut comes as part of large reductions to the federal budget. The article also points out that the new objective of both broadcasters is to produce “shorter, more frequent TV news segments and an all-news radio format,” to try to attract audiences to
programming that receives too much money and has very small audiences.

Critics based in the United States say that very few of the 11.2 million Cubans who live on the island listen to Radio Marti or watch TV Marti.

Less than 1 percent of the 1,200 Cubans who were interviewed by phone had heard Radio Marti during the week before the survey, according to a study published by the Government Accountability Office.

Barely two weeks ago, Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations Abelardo Moreno denounced the illegal broadcasts to the UN Information Committee.

Moreno said that both stations transmit 1,955 hours of radio and television each week through 31 different frequencies (short and medium wave, FM and TV) of programming that has a profound lack of “objectivity and balanced reports.”

British Singer-Song Writer Sting Thanks Cuban Music Festival for Award

HAVANA, Cuba. British singer-song writer Sting described as an unexpected honour an award granted to him by the organizers of the 13th Cubadisco Music Festival that began on Saturday in Havana.

The award to Sting, former leader of The Police, is for his CD ‘The Journey and the Labyrinth’, which he shares with Bosnian Edin Karamazov.

In a letter read during the awards ceremony with which the event began on Saturday, the prestigious singer and composer also expressed his admiration for Cuban music and culture.

“To be honoured in this way has a gratifying flavour for us,” wrote Sting in the message read by Cuban maestro Leo Brouwer, who received the award on behalf of the British famed artist at his own request.

In the text, Sting recalls that when he visited Cuba a few years ago with his wife, he learned to dance and listened to music in concert halls, hotels, bars and even in the street. “It was extraordinary and inspiring.

Music and arts are the living blood of Cuba,” he wrote.

In his letter, Sting notes that he accepts the award on behalf of John Dowland, an English composer of the 16th century who created an enduring legacy for singers and musicians that transcends until today.

The top awards of Cubadisco 2009 were granted to singer Omara Portuondo and to the world famous band ‘Los Van Van’.

(Sting considera un honor Premio Cubadisco)

Cuba on Track to Eliminate Acute Hepatitis B

HAVANA, Cuba. Systematic immunization campaigns carried out in Cuba over the past 17 years have allowed the Caribbean nation to reduce the incidence of acute Hepatitis B in more than 99%.

According to Granma news daily, the prevention campaign is being implemented by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health using a highly efficient vaccine produced by the Havana-based Center of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering.

In 1992, a total of 2,194 cases of acute Hepatitis B were diagnosed. The figure decreased to 1,344 in 1997 and the number of cases dramatically dropped to 34 in 2006; 17 in 2007 and 15 in 2008, while there are no cases reported in the first quarter of the current year.

The Granma article recalls that according to criteria from the World Health Organization, form the epidemiologic point of view, when the number o cases reported are below 10, the diseased is not regarded as a health problem.

However, vaccination strategies and the strict control of blood donations remain in place in order to prevent chronic patients from transmitting the disease to people that have not been immunized.

Cuba will mark the World Day against Hepatitis on May 19 with a series of activities that include events and panels to discuss current strategies to diagnose and treat Hepatitis B and C.

(En vías de eliminación en Cuba la hepatitis B aguda)

Argentinean Senate Demands End of US Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba. The Argentinean Senate has unanimously approved a bill demanding the end of the almost 50-year-old US financial, trade and economic blockade of Cuba.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, the document notes that the Caribbean nation is suffering the effects of the so-called ‘embargo’, a euphemism that can’t hide the coercive and aggressive nature of a series of measures that constitute an illegal blockade.

The text passed by the Argentinean Senate recalls that, every year since 1992, the UN General Assembly, with an increasingly overwhelming majority, has been approving a resolution regarding the necessity to put an end to the blockade, although, as a matter of fact, the number of US economic sanctions against Cuba has increased instead.

“It is necessary to insist on the fact that these measures violate the peoples’ right to self-determination,” the document stresses.

“We are convinced that the time has come to lift this unjust and illegal blockade,” the text adds.

In addition, it recalls that a special declaration demanding the end of Washington’s blockade of Cuba was also approved during the Latin American and Caribbean Summit held last year in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

(Senado argentino demanda eliminación de bloqueo a Cuba)

Will apply in Cuba changes in formation of force technique

The Ministry of Education (MINED) will make modifications in the specialties of the technical teaching and professional (ETP) in Cuba, among these the student's labor practice during two semesters.

In declarations published in the Hard-working newspaper, Alexander Manso, director of the ETP in the MINED, explained that those specialties will be studied in three years and included four months the time of practice.

He said that "we are separating the formation of the graduate one of preuniversitary and that of half technician. Really, the function of our teaching was distorted whose main objective is to prepare the qualified technical force and that the new students incorporates immediately to the work."

The directive explained that " happened that some entered the ETP without motivation some, with the only purpose of reaching high school's title and later aspired to careers that didn't keep relationship with what had studied."

He gave to know that one works in a study plan that allows the student to receive the subjects tune to its specialty, because, for example, today Accounting includes Physics and Chemical and however an accountant doesn't use such knowledge in his acting.

Among the projections he referred the opening of annexed classrooms in the labor centers, where the students, besides receiving lessons,act with the technology that will use once graduate.

Sustainable develop in archipelago Savanna-Camagüey

Works for a sustainable development of the tourism, the fishing and the agroforestalsector, are materialized in Villa Clara, result of more than a decade of investigations in the archipelago Savanna-Camagüey.

The creation of a farm for the breeding of sponges in Caibarién starting from an experience in the coastal area of Carahatas, is a above-mentioned sample in the marine-coastal area.
That center will work with a technology that doesn't affect to the means, it reduces the costs, and guarantees employments and the extraction of an exportable item.

The program of sustainable development also contemplates the recovery of an arable area, previously used for the cane seed and now dedicated to the agricultural production in general, where a nursery is believed that will contribute to the reforestation of the hidrografic basin of the river Sagua la Grande.

Edelkis Rodríguez, specialist of the Center of Studies and Environmental Services (CESAM), said to the AIN that began the third stage of a project begun in 1993 in the current year, guided to the protection of the biodiversity in the ecosystem of the north center of Cuba.

The scientific investigation, cofinanced by the World Fund of Environment (GEF), the Program of United Nations for the Development (UNDP) and the government of Cuba, they point toward the harmonic exploitation of the natural resources.

The project Savanna-Camagüey embraces a surface of 75 thousand square kilometers of five counties of the Cuban center that includes the not very deep marine platform and more than two thousand 500 keys. (Luz María Martínez Zelada)

UNEQUIVOCAL SIGNS

There are not two different opinions on the A H1N1 issue.

I unhesitatingly supported the decision adopted by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba as soon as it got news of the epidemic.

Our country has accumulated a significant experience in the protection of our people in cases of disasters, epidemics, plagues and other similar situations whether natural, accidental or intentional.

Our unchangeable policy of cooperation with other peoples has also been proven.

The criticism made of the Government of Cuba was absolutely unfair, the same as the threat of retaliation it contained. Additionally, we were portrayed as a hostile nation to the Mexican people.

It was not the tourist travels that determined the measure but the almost four hundred Mexican youths studying Medicine at the Jaguey Grande School, like 24 thousand other students from Latin America, the Caribbean and other peoples of the world --some from very distant nations in Oceania-- who pursue the same career in other Medical Schools.

Cuba does not steal other peoples’ talents or doctors to the detriment of healthcare in those countries and the loss of countless lives. This is done by the United States, the United Kingdom and other wealthy and developed nations.

The measure adopted by the Civil Aviation Institute of Cuba literally reads: “As of midnight April 29, 2009, regular flights and charters operating between Mexico and Cuba will be temporarily suspended.”

“Once the causes for this decision cease to exist, air operations will be resumed and those interested will be timely informed.”

The measure was implemented six days after the drastic decisions made by the Mexican authorities who shutdown schools attended by 33 thousand students and took other similar actions which we cannot judge since only the Mexican authorities could do that knowing the real situation.

Our measures also meant sacrifices for Cuba. But the most important thing for our government was the protection of our people in the framework of the established regulations.

Now the epidemic has spread extensively through the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Europe in general, as well as scores of other countries. It will be necessary to apply protection methods in accordance with the new reality.

The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Patricia Espinosa had really made efforts lately to improve relations between her country and Cuba; relations that irresponsible leaders --for reasons that I’d rather not mention now-- had significantly deteriorated at a time when George W. Bush was trying to find a pretext to launch a “preemptive” attack on our Homeland, as one of the “60 or more dark corners of the world.”

The Mexican foreign relations ministry published that despite criticism by Fidel Castro, at the Rio Group-European Union meeting in Prague, the minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla had signed a statement expressing his recognition to the Mexican authorities.

What Bruno did in Prague was absolutely correct. He took all the time required to listen attentively to the foreign minister and exchange views with her. He communicated to her everything related to Cuba’s conduct. To avoid complications, I will not elaborate on the details of that conversation or the views transmitted about the meeting of a senior official of the Mexican foreign ministry with the Cuban ambassador in Mexico.

I will simply add that the meeting that Bruno and Patricia had in Prague was respectful and candid. Our foreign minister conveyed to his Mexican counterpart Cuba’s solidarity with her country and our willingness to cooperate with the Mexican people to face the epidemic.

Bruno addressed the Rio Group-European Union ministerial meeting to clearly explain Cuba’s position and the actions taken by our government to protect its people; the epidemics introduced in our country, including the hemorrhagic dengue which took the lives of 102 children; Fidel’s Reflections; the close unity among revolutionaries; and, the international cooperation Cuba provides in the area of healthcare.

Resorting to intrigue, lies and threats is an unequivocal sign that the ideological adversary is losing the battle.

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 16, 2009

7:45 p.m.

To learn how to take care us

By: María del Carmen Fuentes / Television Camagüey.

May 17 is devoted worldwide to the fight against the Arterial Hypertension. In Camagüey several activities promoted by the Ministry of Public Health look for to prevent it appearance among the population. The motto of this year 2009 are: Salt and arterial hypertension: two silenes murderous .

As here, in the entire world are carried out multiple activities for, taking advantage of this date, to carry out massive checking, scientific days, popularization of the benefits of the change of lifestyles for it appropriate treatment, sanitary education, etc.

In the bigger than the Antilles during the months of April and so far in May, each municipality has come developing a program directed by the Groups of Communication of the Primary Attention of Health and of the hospitals; understand each other promoters of health of the policlínics, nurses of the Clinics type 1 and type 2, activists of the hospital attention and infirmary assistants. They have materialized actions of Information, Education and Social Communication in scenarios of institutions of health and work centers.

On the other hand, in the Provincial Center of Education for the Health of the capital of Camagüey took place the central celebration of the county. With the participation of students of the secondary education, workers, and the population. Here a group of Thai Chi demonstrated how valuable it is this practice for the well-being of the body. The therapeutic gymnastics is an example of how each individual to any age can modify his lifestyle and to win health.

For Esther Caymares, to integrate from already more than three years this group of Thai Chi is very important. “The exercises improve the sanguine circulation and with are avoided it the cardiovascular sufferings, for example. I have also inserted my son that has severe mental delay and see it since improvement it is socialized and it character is modeled. In the group we are some fifty people of different generations, and among them, some have suffered heart attacks and since the Thai Chi practices perceive the improvement. We capture the positive energy and we transmit it to us each other.”

The Graduated Ernesto Rivera, responsible for the activities in the county comments of the impact of the same ones in work centers, institutions of health and the community. “What we look for is that the population takes conscience of the importance of preventing the suffering of the arterial hypertension, of assuming behaviors and healthy nutritious habits that contribute to a quality of superior life.”

So you, are on time of to change your lifestyle and not to trust. When preventing the arterial hypertension, avoids the accidents cardio and brain vasculars, as well as the increment of the illness renal chronicle. It will never be late to think about new goals...

To give life to the Rivers of Camagüey

By María del Carmen Fuentes / Television Camagüey.

In Camagüey, like part of the Exercise Meteor 2009, the rivers Hatibonico and Juan del Toro dredged that have caused in the last years considerable floods, when taking place meteorological phenomena as hurricanes or strong rains.

In the memory of the people from Camagüey are the images of the overflow of these currents of water and penetration in housings and economic objectives of the capital of Camagüey. With the purpose of minimizing this way a fact, and like part of this popular exercise, the works are intensified in its beds.

In the urban perimeter of the city of Camagüey 43 kilometers of rivers exist and flowing. Both more extensive and mightier are the Hatibonico and the Juan del Toro that cross the urban center of the biggest Cuban county literally.

Aramís León, subdelegate of the Institute of Hydraulic Resources in the county, aims that already in several tracts of both rivers have been duplicated to more than double his riversides, with that which improve the hygienic conditions and the conduction of the current of its birth until the outlet. “We are clearing all the bridges for where the rivers flow, softening the corners and enlarging the bed in the places where has decreased, well for the accumulation of brashes, earth, stones...”

“The actions are executed in inverse sense to the flow of water, in a such way that first it wins space the outlet, and the glide toward the prey Jimaguayú it is made to more speed, diminish this way the overflow risks”, precise.

The magnitude of the works, without precedents in both rivers of the capital of Camagüey requires the participation of brigades of Hydraulic, Communal Resources, and the Companies Manufacturers ECOA 17 and ECOING 15.

A work yearned by the people from Camagüey, and that will have continuity after the Exercise Meteor 2009. Without doubts, a preventive measure that reduces vulnerabilities.