Reserch warns on extinction of coffee later this century

Getting up in the morning and have a hot cup of coffe at breakfast can become a luxury by the end of this century due to the effect that climate change could have on the cultivation of the most common variety of bush producer of coffee, Arabica coffee. A recent study conducted by British and Ethiopians researchers, the 70% of world coffee production could be eradicated by 2080. Researchers focused on how climate change could transform soil in which the plant is grown, so they became unproductive, as this shrub is very vulnerable to changes in temperature and other hazards such as pests and diseases. The study predicts that the reduction of land suitable for the cultivation of arabica coffee could be 38% in 2080. The worst predictions rise up to 90 and even up to 100%. The conclusions are devastating: "there is a high risk of extinction." Obviously the economy of many producing countries, such as Ethiopia, Colombia and Brazil could be greatly affected if the prediction is correct. Most of the coffee we consume is of the arabica variety, prized for its genetic diversity and grow well between 18 and 21 ° C temperature. Temperature rises slightly over this interval and the plant will ripen too quickly (which affects the taste) or grow too slowly. The worst thing is that scientists believe that their predictions are even optimistic, as they have not considered deforestation dangers faced by growing areas, what is happening in the high forests of Ethiopia and southern Sudan. And I conclude stating that I'll be happy if the prediction fails because I really love coffe... With information from Cuaderno de Ciencias

The nightmare of hurricanes

Hurricanes have become my worst nightmare, since in 2008 I saw, for the first time in my life, the destruction that these natural phenomena can cause, after the passage of Hurricane Ike through the province of Holguín. Economic losses, thousands of homes destroyed, power lines totally destroyed, flooding, families living in pain because they lost everything.

I hoped not relive that ordeal, until the morning of Thursday 25 October, when Sandy began lashing the island as a Category 2 hurricane. Then I felt a lot of fear and pain at the thought that when we had managed to recover from the ravages of Ike, history repeated itself.

The fury of wind and rainfall from Sandy let painful images of Holguin flooded, houses floating in water, homes destroyed, power lines on the ground, thousands of hectares of crops almost lost, the sugar cane we worked so hard planting, lying down, filled with water and the sugar mills whistled fulfilment in the last harvest, without the protective covers of our irons are still active, thanks to the ingenuity of this noble people working hard to produce sugar. Sandy left us destruction and billions economic losses, but the will of our people is unwavering. We will turn our pain into effort and will work hard to recover, we will build, plant, produce. That's the way Cubans are.

Article “Fidel Castro is Dying"

Granma and Trabajadores newspapers published, on Monday, an article written by Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro rejecting ill rumors recently launched about his health. In his article, the Cuban Revolution leader says that as soon as his message addressed to the first graduates from the Victoria de Giron Medical Science Institute was published, the imperialist propaganda and news agencies began to unleash their lies, even adding the most unexpected and stupid arguments. Spain’s ABC newspaper said that some Venezuelan doctor revealed that Castro had suffered from a massive stroke and that he was about to undergo a neuro-vegetative condition, Fidel explains in his article. Though many people in the world are misled by the media, most of which are in the hands of the privileged and the rich, the people increasingly disbelieve this press, says Fidel Castro and he goes to recall that in 1961, everybody believed some news agencies saying that the Bay of Pigs mercenaries were about to reach Havana, when in fact some of them were actually trying to return to the US warships that had escorted them. Fidel Castro also recalls in his article that just few days before the 50th anniversary of the Missile Crisis, the news agencies pointed to three guilty ones: Kennedy, who had just taken the Imperial power, Nikita Khrushchev and Castro, and he notes that Cuba had nothing to do with the nuclear weapon, or with the unnecessary massacre in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was perpetrated by US President Harry S. Truman, an action that established the tyranny of nuclear weapons. Cuba was defending its right to independence and social justice, Fidel points out. “We accepted the Soviet assistance in terms of weapons, oil, food and other resources to defend ourselves from Yankee plans of invading our homeland, submitted to a dirty and bloody war imposed by that capitalist country since the first months, which cost thousands of lives and mutilated Cubans.” Fidel says that when Khrushchev proposed Cuba to install mid-range missiles similar to those the U.S. had deployed in Turkey, as a necessary gesture of solidarity, Cuba did not hesitate in accepting the risk. “Our behavior was ethically irreproachable. We will never apologize for what we did. The fact is that half a century after that we are still here holding our head high.” Fidel said that he likes to write and he does, that he likes to study and he does, and that there are tasks to meet in the area of knowledge; for instance, sciences had never advanced at such an amazing speed, he says. Finally, Fidel Castro explains that he stopped publishing his Reflection articles because he did not want to use the pages of the press, which are dedicated to other duties required by the country. And he concludes by stating: birds of ill omen! I do not even recall what a headache feels like. As a proof of how much you lie, here I give you the photos that go with this article. www.granma.cubaweb.cu

Cuba updates migration policy

As part of the work undertaken to update the current migration policy adjusting it to prevailing conditions in the present and the foreseeable future, the Cuban government has decided to forgo the required Travel Permit as well as the Letter of Invitation. Therefore, as from January 14th, 2013, it will only be necessary to submit the ordinary passport, duly updated, and the visa issued by the country of destination, in those cases when it is required. The ordinary passport will be issued to the Cuban citizens who meet the requirements of the Migration Law, as modified in compliance with these provisions. Such Law will come into effect ninety days after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba. Those already in possession of an ordinary passport, issued before this decision is valid, should request from the corresponding authorities of the Ministry of the Interior its updating absolutely free of charge. Likewise, those with a valid Travel Permit will be able to depart without any additional procedure. It has also been decided that Cuban residents travelling overseas on private affairs will be permitted to remain there for a period of twenty-four months, counting from the date of departure. For a longer stay, they will be required to obtain the corresponding evidence of extension of stay from a Cuban consulate.

The updating of the migration policy takes into account the right of the revolutionary state to defend itself from the aggressive and subversive plans of the US government and its allies. For this reason, those measures aimed at preserving the human capital created by the Revolution from the theft of talents practiced by the powerful nations shall remain in force. In due course, other measures related to the migratory issue will be adopted that will certainly help in the consolidation of the efforts being made by the Revolution towards the full normalization of Cuba's relations with its emigrants. Today, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba is publishing the Law Decree of the State Council modifying the current Migration Law as well as other supplementary regulations. Additional information on the procedures required by the law and other specificities concerning the country's migration policy are available to the people at the Dirección de Inmigración y Extranjería and its voice message through phone number 2063218; Portal del Ciudadano Cubano: www.ciudadano.cu; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba: www.cubaminrex.cu.

The Top Ten Censorship of U.S. Media

The increasing encroachment upon freedom and the transformation of the U.S. into a police state, the "legal" decrees in conflict with the Constitution of the Homeland Security Department, the new laws that criminalize the Occupy protests, encouraging new business of "incitement and betrayal" sponsored by the FBI that reports earnings of $ 100,000 per each prefabricated case per 15,000 internal spies" authorized ", the slavery that exists today in U.S. factory-prisons with wage of 23 cents per hour of work , the untenable situation of life in the oceans, the war crimes of NATO in Libya, Fukushima radioactive dusts still killing people in U.S. territory, an investigation of Zuyrich revealing that 147 U.S. and European transnational corporations have the control of world economy, the 16 billion printed dollars that the Federal Reserve granted to the biggest banks responsable of the crisis and a called on the UN to turn entrepreneurs workers into cooperatives, are the top 10 news less disseminated by Censored 2013. The Top 25 censored news by the U.S. corporate media during the last academic year 2011/2012, investigated for nearly four decades by teachers and students of sociology at Sonoma State University in California, were just released in the book Censored 2013, published in New York by the Seven Stores publishing house. The book will be launched in December in Santa Rosa, California. 1. USA: Police State Since the Patriot Act 2001, the U.S. has increasingly domestic political surveillance and militarization at the expense of civil liberties. The adoption in 2012 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows the military to indefinitely imprison, without trial, any U.S. citizen that the government label of "terrorist" or "accessory to terrorism." President Barack Obama issued the decree National Resources Defense Preparedness Executive Order, authorizing the broader military and federal control of the national economy and its resources under "conditions of emergency and non-emergency." Since 2010, the campaign of the Homeland Security Department "If you see something, say something" urges the public to report any suspicious activity to local authorities, but what Homeland Security identifies as " suspect "are often critical of the government or non-violent protests, which are rights guaranteed by the Constitution. 2. Oceans in Danger The sea is not infinite and inexhaustible. The total rise of ocean temperatures led to the largest movement of marine species in two to three million years. A research carried out February 2012 on 14 protected and 18 unprotected ecosystems in the Mediterranean showed that their resources are rapidly depleting. A three-year scientific study found that marine reserves that meet the population of fish have five to ten times more marine life than the unprotected areas. 3. Fukushima kills even in U.S. The consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 are greater than those recognized, to the extent that scientists estimate 14,000 deaths in the U.S. due to the fallout from Japan, according to a December 2011 report of the International Journal of Medical Services. The radiation detector array of the Environmental Protection Agency (RadNet) has maintenance failure and often poorly calibrated equipment. 4. The FBI is responsible for most terrorist plot in the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Investigation implemented an unusual method to prevent future terrorist attacks by developing a network of nearly 15,000 spies to infiltrate various communities in the search for terrorist plots. But those “Topos” are really helping and encouraging people to commit crimes to denounced them and collect cash rewards of up to $ 100,000 per case. 5. Federal Reserve printed 16 trillion dollars to save big banks An audit of the First Federal Reserve reveals that it provided an emergency and secret assistance for 16 billion dollars to the largest U.S. and European banks at the height of the global financial crisis, between 2007 and 2010. Of these 16 million billion, Morgan Stanley received 107.3 billion, 99.5 billion Citigroup and Bank of America 91.4 billion, according to data obtained by invoking the Freedom of Information Act, months of litigation in courts and a law passed by Congress. 6. 147 corporations control the economy of the Western world A study carried out by the University of Zurich revealed that a small group of 147 large transnational corporations, mainly financial and mining, in practice control the global economy. The study was the first to analyze 43,060 transnational corporations and the web of ownership between them, identifying 147 companies that form a "super entity" that controls 40 percent of the total wealth of the global economy. The small group, interconnected through corporate boards, is a global power network vulnerable to breakdowns and prone to "systemic risk" ... but manages the world. 7. 2012: International Year of Cooperatives United Nations declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, which remain active in the world to nearly a billion people as members or group owners. According to the UN, the cooperative model is the fastest growing company in the world in 2025 and ensures that worker-owners cooperatives provide an equitable distribution of wealth and an authentic connection to the workplace, key components of a sustainable economy . (Venezuela rejected this model because once successfully work, workers-owners of cooperatives often sell them -under pressure or tempting offers- to corporations the same branch. 8. NATO war crimes in Libya The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) justified its intervention in Libya by invoking "humanitarian principles", but its catastrophic actions for humans are now known, such as destruction by bombing in July 2011 of the main facility of drinking water in the country, which supplied about 70 percent of the national population. And, in a failed attempt to appear impartial and objective, the BBC revealed, almost a year after this information was released by independent media, that British Special Forces played a key role in monitoring and lead to victory the so called "fighters of freedom "in Libya. 9. TODAY: Slavery in U.S. Prisons U.S. has at least 5 percent of the world population, but its prisons hold more than 25 percent of all people imprisoned on the planet. Many of these prisoners work for 23 cents per hour, or similar fees in private prisons contracted by the Bureau of Prisons UNICOR, a corporation quasi-public, nonprofit, ranked the 38th among large U.S. government contractors. Just thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement are beyond these rates of work-imprisoned, often confined by disciplinary punishments for offenses of low importance. 10. HR 347 Act criminalizes Occupy protests President Obama signed March 2012 HR 347 an act that considers "criminal offense" participating in demonstrations in areas defined as "restricted", such as vicinityof certain parks and federal buildings. Lawmakers violated the rights of the First Amendment to criminalize the Occupy protests, which are emerging as a global threat to the superclass of 1% that controls the U.S. economy and the world, while facilitated the secret service to use more or misuses laws to arrest legal protesters under the false pretext of criminal activity.

From lunch to strike

Someday we might know about the delicious lunch menu provided by the current head of the U.S. Interests Section of the United States in Havana to Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and another companion of the new group of mercenaries who were kindly invited by the U.S. diplomat, but what we will never know are the instructions they received there. An annexationist old woman and a young mercenary obedient attended to the call made by John Patrick Caufield and five days later came to us the news of the alleged hunger strike of Martha Beatriz through a report released by El Nuevo Herald, in Miami, and several cibermercenarios employees at the Interests Section in Havana, who tried to internationalize, manipulate and distort the news. The anxiety of SINA to put down things in Cuba, the terrorist enthusiasm of the Cuban Democratic Directorate of Florida, causing disturbances in churches, street riots and selective bombs, found fertile ground in the financial appetite of this mercenary old woman attached to the U.S. Interests Section, which in her sporadic appearances as a consultant, distributor or photographer of the "Ladies in White", did not hide her concern over the loss of media visibility and prominence, knowing that the USIS -as Wikileaks revelations- had discarded her generation, and argued for younger faces, apparently cheaper. Every day, the organizer of events, marches and media shows, encouraged by the contributions of U.S. government officials, is receiving litlle and little money for counterrevolution. The instructions, bids and plans discussed on September 5, came to light in a few hours. But besides trying to reconcile Martha Beatriz with her young opponent... what else SINA was proposed that encounter? Was Martha Beatriz in real strike? Let her die was part of the plan? Was it agreed the U.S. government and the Miami terrorists, or is it pure coincidence? What were the first and second secretaries of the USIS doing in the house of the "striker": inspecting, encouraging, supervising, financing, supplying ...? Will AI know that a U.S. diplomat hosted a preparatory lunch for strike? What led the diplomats and what they send to other allied countries? Do food odors escaping through the windows of the house of Martha Beatriz ... will be for visitors or to the strikers? These days it came to my mind these words of Martha Beatriz regarding her competitor "Coco Fariñas": "if he is going to die, then he die." Like her, think also who ordered lunch to strike. The high level of agreement between American diplomats and allies, mercenaries, foreign press, subversive radio, anti-Cuban Congress, treasurers and the Miami's mafia, is revealing of the farce, after several macabre experiments of sacrifices of employees. The Caufleld strategy was applauded and congratulated by notorious senators and fascist representatives as Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The stormy times of election campaign in the United States and anti-Cuban activities planned, lend themselves to all kinds of actions. Some details remain to be defined. Who will pay Martha Beatriz for the show: USIS directly, the "Cuban Democratic Directorate" or the National Foundation. Cuban, their congressmen or USAID? How much would thry pay in total? How much does it cost an hour at "strike"? The media origin of "strike" without hunger was "the end of repression" against funded counterrevolutionary provocations stimulated and sponsored by the USIS, the mafia and cibermercenarios, from the call made by Ileana Ros to President Obama to repeat in Cuba the "Libyan formula". The other pretext for strike was the demand for the release of a common inmate, sanctioned in an offense of illegal economic activity, but the mercenaries tried to manipulate and also lead to a hunger strike leaded from Havana and Miami. On September 18, while Martha Beatriz reproached the inmate's decision to abandon the strike and said to his wife "feel stabbed in the heart because she had a deal" with the inmate and he "broke this", it came from Miami a message of Ileana Ross: "I commend the peaceful pro-democracy activists in Cuba who have won a moral victory against their ruthless oppressor ..." augured further strikes, and it inmediatly organized in Havana a press conference to spread the "unexpected "outcome. A new diplomatic team have settled into the USIS, and there are subversive plot far from diminishing incentives, with actions such as the aforementioned, carried out by mercenaries based in the island and their allies. Cuba has repeatedly denounced the distorted and interventionist role of the host, and the responsibility of the U.S. government on the possible consequences of irresponsible and provocative actions as the most recent. Martha Beatriz has still been paid for her shows. Her current task is to organize the birthday of Jorge Mas Canosa, icon of terrorism and the mafia.

Truth and reason

Since last July 22, more than 900 news items have been published and 12,000 messages posted on internet news websites concerning the regrettable road traffic accident which took place in the afternoon of that day, in which two Cuban citizens died and a Spaniard and a Swede were injured. Only the most vociferous members of the pro-annexation Miami mafia accused Cuba of having planned a political murder. The Republican candidate in the United States, the U.S. State Department and, curiously, the spokesperson for the Chilean Presidency, were among the fistful of defamers calling for "a transparent investigation." The Ministry of the Interior informative note, published on July 27, refuted the infamous insinuation, with incontestable statements from police experts and witnesses of the accident, including the two foreigners involved in the tragic incident. The impeccable history of a Revolution which triumphed and has been defended for half a century without a single extra-judicial execution, without any disappeared, tortured or kidnapped persons, or a single act of terrorism, is well known. It is not Cuba, but the United States which holds a shameful record in terms of political killings and extra-judicial executions, including those by drone aircraft; kidnappings; torture in concentration camps such as the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base; and the arbitrary and racist implementation of the death penalty in prisons; plus crimes against innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations. Everyone is aware of the participation of certain NATO European allies in these acts, in particular the kidnapping of citizens of other states, CIA secret flights, secret prisons in Europe and the intervention of NATO personnel in acts of torture. For their part, the corporate media monopolies which traditionally defame Cuba focused on extolling the alleged "freedom fighters," with no respect for ethical limits or the death of human beings, regrettable in any circumstances. The truth will prevail: despite censure and manipulation, it is well known that in Cuba, members of the counterrevolution have always been mercenaries. They are common agents paid, supplied and instructed by the government of the United States and its allies, betraying their country for money. Some of them, without the least notion of decorum, created a macabre spectacle for the foreign press by halting the funeral cortege of one of the victims of the accident. The rapid and energetic response of the people obliged the Revolutionary National Police to remove them. However, they were not charged and returned to their homes a few hours later. But the most interesting aspect of the excessive international press coverage of the accident is that few have investigated what the two injured foreign politicians were doing in Cuba. The driver of the vehicle was Ángel Carromero Barrios, not exactly one of the many Spanish tourists who enjoy the warm hospitality of our country. He is deputy general secretary of Nuevas Generaciones, the youth wing of Spain’s Partido Popular (PP) and close to notorious anti-Cubans ex-President José María Aznar and Esperanza Aguirre, president of the Madrid Community. The other passenger was Jens Aron Modig, leader of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, which emulates the ultra-conservative U.S. Tea Party, and president of its Youth League, which has links with the International Republican Institute (IRI) among other anti-Cuban organizations, including right-wing Nordic groups. They entered Cuba on July 19 with tourist visas and, violating this status, surreptitiously involved themselves in political activities against the constitutional order. They were not acting on their own initiative, but as part of an operation organized by Anikka Rigo, head of the Foreign Relations Section of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, to bring financing to the miniscule counterrevolutionary Christian Liberation Movement headed by Oswaldo Payá, one of the two Cubans who died in the accident, and to offer advice on the constitution of an associated youth organization. With this objective in mind, PP Deputy Pablo Casado Blanco, president of Nuevas Generaciones, member of the PP Regional Executive Committee and a former adviser to Aznar, had instructed Carromero to contact Spaniard Cayetana Muriel Aguado, resident in Sweden and also a member of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party, from whom he received instructions, the money to be handed over and a cellular phone programmed with the necessary numbers. Subsequently, Carromero contacted Modig through Facebook and they met in a Madrid restaurant. Modig had already visited Cuba in 2009 for similar reasons, under instructions from Víctor Olmedo Capdepon, a Swedish Christian Democrat Party leader and editor in chief of the counterrevolutionary La Primavera de Cuba (Cuba’s Spring), financed by the Swedish Christian Democrat International Center. Having handed over the money and assessed the creation of a youth group, they were driving to Santiago de Cuba on a similar mission when the accident occurred. The two foreign citizens received consular aid. Spaniard Ángel Carromero Barrios has been charged with homicide while driving a vehicle on the public highway. Swede Jens Aron Modig has been allowed to return to his country, in spite of his illegal activities and violation of his visa status. The operation described is one among many organized from Miami, fundamentally, and from Madrid and Stockholm. In March of this year, a few days prior to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI, eight Mexican youth entered Cuba as tourists with the objective of inciting street protests and church occupations, the distribution of flyers and promoting disorder during the Pope’s activities. Four of them were detained and acknowledged that they had been paid, trained and instructed in this operation by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat of the Directorio Democrático Cubano in Miami, and that the operational chief in Mexico was René Bolio Hollarán, former Senator of the Mexican Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN), with close links to Florida mafia leaders. Prior to this, a Facebook website "For a Popular Uprising in Cuba," had been opened, with 13 projects for promoting "civil disobedience." One of the plans of the openly counterrevolutionary Raíces de Esperanza organization is to send more than 10,000 cellular phones to promote actions against the Cuban political system. This year the WoS website access service for events in the Middle East, incited "popular uprisings" in Cuba of a similar nature. Other programs are directed at creating possible "opposition" leaders, by providing them with access to Internet and social networks, computers and other technical aids for manifest political ends, in contrast with the extension of the blockade to telecommunications systems. For overtly subversive objectives, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana facilitates thousands of hours of illicit International connections and gives hundreds of hours’ worth of courses in conspiracy, openly violating Cuban legislation and that of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. There is a large body of evidence that the U.S. government is continuing its policy of regime change in Cuba, through the economic, political, and media blockade and incitement to subversion. From 2009 to 2012, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have received a public budget of $75 million for subversive programs against Cuba. Other U.S. and European agencies and institutions channel funds for the same purpose: the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), Española con Cuba, the Prisa group, the Spanish Federation of Cuban Associations, the European Democratic Institute (EDI), People in Need, the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), among many others, without counting the millions of dollars in secret funds which intelligence services like the CIA use for anti-Cuba subversion. With every reason, closing the 9th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power on July 23, President of the Councils of State and Ministers Raúl Castro Ruz stated, "The United States is not giving up its efforts to form a fifth column on our native soil and in utilizing new technologies for subversive ends." The most reactionary and violent groups in Miami are not giving up their attempts to incite the people to rebellion against the government which they freely and independently elected. They are dreaming of destabilizing the country, creating the conditions for a repeat of what happened in Libya and is happening in Syria, thus providing a pretext for U.S. military intervention. In his report to the 6th Party Congress, Raúl warned, "…we will never deny our people the right to defend their Revolution. The defense of our independence, of the conquests of Socialism and of our streets and plazas will still be the first duty of every Cuban patriot." As José Martí affirmed, "Reason is our shield."