What Cubans are saying

What Cubans are saying
Posted on Tue, Jul. 31, 2007

VLADIMIRO ROCA, dissident:

``Unfortunately for this country . . . the situation is identical to
what we had in July of 2006. I don't see a change in style, or a
reshuffling of power -- just that they are trying to block the rise of
another emblematic figure like Fidel.

``In the past three months, there's been a drop in the social
repression, simply because they cannot maintain it all the time and risk
a popular explosion. The responses by the population are each time
stronger and more defiant.''

JOURNALIST in official media

``I believe there's an alert in the high levels of government that the
people are tired of rhetoric and that daily life, food and housing are
going to determine the political future of this country. The talk on the
streets is each time more removed from slogans.''

SONIA, Havana housewife:

``People are overwhelmed by the day-to-day, and nothing else matters to
them. . . . People feel that nothing has happened this year.''

MARIO, electronic technician in Matanzas:

``What I see is the people are talking more loosely, without any type of
fear, as though they have nothing to lose. That's happening in the
grocery store, in street corners, in a clinic. . . . What's going on here?''

RIGOBERTO, 24, agricultural engineer in Ciego de Avila:

``This year has been hard, very hard. Food prices are up in the clouds.
. . . The price of electricity has doubled, the production of potatoes
dropped, like the sugar harvest and tobacco production. . . . We are not
better off than in 2006. We are worse.''

SERGIO, 38, Havana physician:

``The doctors who stayed here are covering the work of those who have
gone on foreign missions. . . . There's a lot of people desperate to
leave on a mission, no matter where, because that's the only way of
guaranteeing the welfare of the family.

Raúl is trying to do what he can, but to make this country function
normally that's not enough. The health sector has declined, and the
country continues in its routine since Fidel's ailment.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/187639.html