REPORT FROM THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE 26TH OF JULY, HOLGUIN, CUBA

The Rev. Lucius Walker was invited to Holguin to attend the official national celebration of the 26th of July, the day that Fidel and company unsuccessfully attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, the defacto start of the revolution. The key theme of President Raul Castro's address was sustainability. I don't know if he said that exact word, but all the language -increasing arable land, augmenting land distribution, building more damns for irrigation, all under the goal of increasing food production and decrease food imports- point to the definition. The writing is on the wall and the President of Cuba can read it: the global food crisis is on the way and unlike other countries I've been to this month, Cuba ain't gonna wait until it's too late.

Skeptics take note.

Afterwards, Rev Lu reported that he flew back to Havana with Raul, allowing a deep and thorough conversation about US-Cuba affairs. To quote the reverend, Obama's a good guy, but is surrounding himself with old guard right wingers when it comes to Cuba (as well as other areas of campaign promises). That and with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State -whose husband was arguably second only Bush in terms of worst policies towards Cuba- Change™ ain't going to come any time soon.

Sadly, this isn't surprising.

More interesting was the recall of the conversation regarding the first phase of US-Cuba dialogue which took place earlier this month. The Cubans have much to discuss: the Cuban Five, Guantanamo, cooperation on battling drug traffickers, increased trade (importing and exporting), etc etc. The US wanted to talk about one thing: immigration. The US didn't even want to discuss the aspect of immigration most concerning to Cuba: the increase in high-powered speed boats -faster than anything in the Cuban navy- whizzing down from Florida to pick people up and take them back to Miami. The US was very unprepared for the dialogue, and indication of the administrations regard for the dialogue itself.

This isn't surprising either.