Registration now open for marlin fishing tournament

Cuba called on fans of sport fishing to the 63 International Marlin Fishing Tournament, to take place at at the Havana marina named after US Nobel Literature laureate Ernest Hemingway.. The event will be held from 20 to 25 May, 2013 and entries are now open. Reservations must be done at least 30 days before the start date, and also can be rented boats on the island or come on their own with up to a four-member crew. So far already confirmed their participation France, winner of the Cup in the previous tournament, Canada, Venezuela and Italy. This competition takes place since 1950 and the 62nd competition, Frenchman Gerard Aprile and his crew achieved the first place for the fourth time in the Marlin X, followed by Ukrainians led by Oleksandr Tupysky in his first appearance this year. The other French representation, led by Jean Yves, took third place in the marlin fishing. The competition keeps Tag and Release condition and digital photo in JPG format to contribute to the preservation of the species, rules that will check the jury of specialists of the Cuban Federation of sport fishing. Event organizers are considering the inclusion of circle hooks to minimize damage to the Marlins and Dorado, targets of competition. Those arriving by yacht will not have to bring visas because they can acquire them to enter the Navy, says the organizing committee. For more information those interested can consult www.internacionalhemingwaytournament.com digital site.

Member of Napoleon's Imperial Guard lived in Cuba

A member of Napoleón Bonaparte's Imperial Guard, Second Lieutenant Arnaldo Pellet Gallibert, lived and died in Matanzas, western Cuba. Investigator Adrián Álvarez narrates that the local paper Aurora del Yumuri, published in the 17th century, reported that Pellet Gallibert, born in Carcasona, France, was buried in the San Juan de Dios Cemetery, 100 kilometers east of Havana, on April 22, 1871, at the age of 78. The source did not disclose the motives for Gallibert's arrival and residence in Cuba nor what he lived on, but the obituary says his friends described him as "an honorable and brave militaryman and exemplary father." Gallibert was second lieutenant in the elite troops of Bonaparte (born in Ajaccio on August 15, 1769, and died in St. Helen, May 5, 1821), as a military genius in the history of humankind. Pellet Gallibert participated in important campaigns like those in Russia and Leipzig (Germany), added the specialist. With information from Radio Havana Cuba

Creating Happiness

By Liudmila Peña Some people do not believe in auras or good energies. Sometimes, I also doubt about it. It's difficult to believe in what you can’t see; but anyone who sees his smile and lookof eternal youth on his face, as if he had no problems, is convinced that happiness exists: just let’s tell his own life story. He was born in a small town of Granma province, in 1963, where people still tell stories about the devastating hurricane Flora in that eastern region of Cuba. "My disability has always been a mystery. Doctors recently discovered that my mother had visceral cooling, because when she was eight months pregnant, she was exposed to many hours of floods caused by hurricane Flora, in October and I was born on November 26. The congenital fibrous dysplasia I've been suffering from came from that." The home of Abel González Marrero, in the community of Alcides Pino, is a large workshop where solutions are invented for wheelchairs, tricycles and cars, with which he has "manufactured" friendships that last a lifetime. And though his innovations amaze those who do not know him, because of his physical limitations, this "repairman of dreams" has a very simple explanation: "If you sit in a wheelchair and do nothing, your day seems to last 48 hours. However, for me time passes quickly, because I always have a friend round or I am doing something useful. The doctors do not understand why I do not need any medicine to sleep. This job is the best medicine for diseases." An inventor by nature, his love of screws and bolts comes from childhood, when he used to repair the broken toys of kids from his neighborhood. "Since I had my disability I could not play the same games or do the same things those boys did. So, I used to repair their toys and that made me feel good. " Now that game has become a profession. No children or toys are around him, but engines or transportation for people with disabilities like him: "The powered chairs that come from donations solve one problem, but they only work well for the first few months. When the battery fails, the disabled person cannot use it anymore. The purpose of my workshop is to take the electronic hardware out of these means and manufacture a mechanical one. I also turn these powered chairs into tricycles, so they can use batteries from other types of transport and their repairs turn out more functional." And is this your famous tricycle? I ask and he laughs. "This is my great achievement and right now we are going to use it. When its battery is failing I lose sleep, as these are 'my legs'. I was told it was you who manufactured an easel for painter Marcos Pavón, the renowned disabled artist who painted with his mouth ... "I made an electromechanical easel that lasted over 25 years. His parents were growing old and he depended on them for painting. When he had to make a move, he had to wait for someone to come. With the easel, he could raise or lower the painting with a foot. " A graduate in Quality Control at the 26 de Julio Polytechnic, he has manufactured several mechanism to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, like an elevator so they can attend the "Calixto Garcia" stadium in the province of Holguin, among others. "The elevator is designed without breaking the architecture of the stadium, which allows the disabled to access and enjoy baseball games like other people." As the classical Meñique, he never think "this is too much" when new ideas comes to him. Now, he is planning to build a kind of mechanical shifter and a telescopic gearbox. "My son carries me and takes me wherever I need to go. But to rely on him less, I want to put a beam with electrical equipment in the ceiling above the bed, so that my wife can put a belt on me and the mechanism can take me to the bathroom, which is in line with the bedroom. All without fear of falling, because it would have a protective harness.” "But the telescopic gearbox is the important dream for me now. It will allow me to multiply the speed and strength of the tricycle. My doctors told me this will be a perfect exercise to me, because it's like going paddling. Necessity is the mother of invention. I build solutions, but I want those who need them, to use them well. " Basketball player and wheelchair marathon runner, this man joined, as a drummer, the “Corazón del Caribe” (Heart of the Caribbean) music band, consisting of disabled musicians throughout Latin America. And though his life has been a contribution to human beings, he does not hide his desire that people value ACLIFIM members better: "Sometimes people look at us a little sorry, from the same ignorance. What we need are opportunities to show all the things we can do, because the disabled person is a man with a heart, with a disability which has a special status. There are still barriers to break, creating more workshops where we can develop activities like anyone else, as we have skills and conditions ".

Mayan spiritual leaders officiate ancestral ceremony in Cuba

An ancient ceremony of harmonization between peoples, men and nature was held on Thursday by Guatemalan Maya spiritual leaders in Bacuranao beach, east of Havana. This is the most sacred gift to the world, in a place where they combine the energies of the river and the land with the sea, in a very special day, said one of the spirtual leaders, Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez, who also explained that in the ancient Mayan calendar this ceremony is called Nahual Kan that is the serpent force, provider of energy-water, creation, breathing and justice, like blood in the veins of humans and this case the sacred land. Tuyuc said the upcoming December 21 Mayans await the end of the current era, after which they must receive "a new sun" to bring "new attitudes, transformations" and "harmonization" between cultures, humans and nature. On the floor they accommodated fruits, seeds, flowers and other natural products, built a fire and with one of the oldest native languages they invoked harmonizing humanity and its environment. According to the Mayan calendar, an era consists of 13 cycles and ends every 5.125 years, so that in 2012 ended the current era that began in 3118 BC.

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