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All success to the youth conference!
About this event: 4th World Youth Congress - Quebec City 2008
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Greetings

I had an opportunity to participate at a regional youth conference held from 22 upto 24 July,2008 in Eritrea.
Youths from Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia came and shared their expriences and plights with us.

And I came to understand that such conferences, off course far from talk shows, really have an impact on youth lives if there is a commitment and hard work.

And in this occasion, I want to urge everybody to really hear youth concerns and come up with tangible and practical solutions.

Thank You

August 4, 2008 | 9:25 AM Comments  0 comments
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Arsiema   Arsiema Ariam's TIGblog
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These men are from Moon
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


On May 25, 1961 John F. Kennedy launched what he admitted was “the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked” a manned expedition to the Moon.

Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft would go on that great adventure, most famously Apollo 11, crewed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

The men of the Apollo programme who have been interviewed for a remarkable documentary, In the Shadow of the Moon remain the only human beings to have visited another world.

Even today, as America and China eye a return trip, their achievement remains utterly breathtaking.

Yet Apollo almost never got off the ground. In 1967, during the build-up to the launch of Apollo 1, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were testing the command module that sat atop the spacecraft.

Just after 6.30pm, a voltage flicker was recorded, caused by a spark in the highly pressurised, pure oxygen environment.

Chaffee yelled: “We’ve got a bad fire! Let’s get out! We’re burning up! We’re on fire! Get us out of here!” Witnesses saw White on the television monitors, reaching for the hatch release handle.

Seconds later, the transmission ended abruptly with a scream. All three died.

“We’re burying our guys at Arlington and I wasn’t sure if we were burying the entire Apollo programme,” recalls Gene Cernan, who would be the last man to walk on the Moon.

But by December 1968, the Saturn V rocket was ready to carry a crew for the first time in an orbit around the Earth.

However, Nasa heard from the CIA that the Russians were preparing to send a manned spacecraft around the Moon to upstage them.

So the flight plan was hurriedly changed. “It was a bold move,” says Jim Lovell, who would later command Apollo 13. “It had some risks to it. But it was a time when we made bold moves.”

His team was mesmerised by their lunar encounter. “We were just 60 miles above the craters and we were like three schoolkids looking through the candy store window.

"We took photographs as much as we could and, of course, we took the photograph of the famous Earthrise around the Moon.”

On Christmas Eve, as they emerged from the Moon’s shadow, the astronauts began to read from the Book of Genesis, which they had stored on fireproof paper in their flight manual.

Ready to land

After two further test flights, Nasa felt ready to attempt the first landing in July 1969.

Aldrin felt a pang of sympathy for Collins, who would have to remain in the command module as he and Armstrong — described by Charlie Duke of Apollo 16 as “the coolest under pressure of anyone that I had ever had the privilege of flying with” — descended.

“I discovered later that I was described as the loneliest man ever in the universe ... ,” Collins says, “which really is a lot of baloney. I had Mission Control yakking in my ear half the time. Everything was going well with the command module, I had my happy little home, I had the bright lights on and everything was fine.”

The men knew they were going to make history. “I don’t think anybody slept too well the night before,” Aldrin says. “You’re just wondering whether you can get enough rest for what you need to possibly do.”

But once the mission was under way, there was no time to dwell on its wider significance.

Collins describes the frenetic initial stages: “You go up into Earth orbit and go around the Earth once. That’s a busy time because you want to make sure that everything on board is working properly before you set sail for the Moon.

"Then you get word that you’re going for TLI [trans-lunar injection], and that means you can ignite the motor and head off to the Moon. You do, you go, and that’s it.”

As he tells it, there was no fear, but lot of worry. “You’re not sure all these things are going to work properly ... a lot of them in a very fragile daisy chain. You don’t want any of those links to break, because downstream from that broken link they are all useless — so yes, you are worried.”

Once in orbit around the Moon, he still felt a sense of foreboding. “When the Sun is shining on the surface at a very shallow angle, the craters cast long shadows and the Moon’s surface seems very inhospitable. Forbidding, almost.”

Watching from above as the lander descended, Collins sensed something more — there was a problem.

“It seemed like Neil was having a difficult time finding a suitable spot to put it down. I got a little worried then because they didn’t have a lot of extra fuel.”

The guidance system was carrying them into a boulder field, so Armstrong had to traverse the landscape rapidly. “Some of these boulders were the size of Volkswagens. It was a little iffy right there at the very end.”

The world held its breath, but four days, six hours, 45 minutes and 39 seconds into the flight, the lander reached the surface safely. “Stand by,” Mission Control said.

Armstrong said: “I’m at the foot of the ladder. The LM [lunar module] foot pads are — only depressed about one to two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine-grained ... OK, I’m going to step off the LM now.”

Then, that famous phrase: “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”

More pressing concerns

Aldrin’s response to reaching the lunar surface was altogether more down to earth.

“I decided to take that period of time … to take care of a bodily function ... so that I wouldn’t be troubled with having to do that later on. Everybody has their firsts on the Moon, and that one hasn’t been disputed by anybody.”

Collins was by now anxious about the next step: “I didn’t have any great feeling of ‘We’ve done it’ — I was a lot more worried about getting them up off the Moon than I was about getting them down … If something went wrong [with the motor on the lunar module] they were dead men: There was no other way for them to leave.”

Indeed, a speech had been prepared in case the module failed to lift off. Collins recalls the words: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace.

"These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery, but they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”

But the launch from the lunar surface was flawless and Collins watched as the module returned to the mothership.

“Oh God, it’s beautiful ... you see the module, a little golden bug among the craters, and it gets slowly bigger and bigger…. Finally they got back into the command module and I grabbed Buzz by both ears and was going to kiss him on the forehead ....” Although he settled for a more manly greeting, there were few congratulations: “You don’t have time to sit around and reminisce, because you’ve got TEI [trans-Earth injection] coming up.”

There was one more critical point: during re-entry, when the command module roared back to Earth at up to 26,000 miles an hour.

“Your heat shield is on fire and its fragments are streaming out behind you. It’s like being inside a gigantic light bulb,” Collins says.

After the flight, the three went on a round-the-world trip. “Instead of saying ‘You Americans did it’, everywhere they said ‘We did it — we, humankind’,” Collins recalls.

“I’d never heard people in different countries use this word ‘we, we, we’ as emphatically… I thought that was a wonderful thing. Ephemeral, but wonderful.”

Directed by David Sington, In the Shadow of the Moon premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Audience Award.

June 28, 2008 | 2:17 AM Comments  0 comments
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Arsiema   Arsiema Ariam's TIGblog
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First lady of headlines, beyond frontiers
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Christina Lamb is no ordinary reporter. The foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times and long-time friend of the late Benazir Bhutto has the honour of having been declared an “enemy of the state” by Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe.

For her work as a journalist she has won several prizes, including Foreign Correspondent of the Year on four occasions.

And that is not all. Lamb is also an author and has written five books. Her latest offering, Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands, is a look back at her reporting from distant and often exotic corners of the globe.

As a child, Lamb had not thought of going off to be a journalist. At her home, what the neighbours were doing generated greater interest than what was in the paper.

“The only newspaper we got was the Daily Mail, which was for my dad to follow horse racing and to do the crosswords,” she says.

It was at the library that she discovered Hemingway and she started to write. At that stage, though, she was more interested in being a novelist than a journalist.

Life, however, had its own way of planning things. She went to study chemistry at Oxford University but realised she hated it.

So she switched to philosophy, politics and economics and ended up joining, and later editing, the university paper, Cherwell.

Later she worked as an intern at the Financial Times. There she was once sent to attend a lunch of South Asian politicians.

One thing led to another and Lamb managed to land an interview with the young and exiled Benazir Bhutto. And so began their famous and long friendship.

Off to Pakistan

“Benazir had a huge influence on my life,” she admits. Sometime after they had met, Lamb began work for the Central News in Birmingham.

"One day when she came home, there lay on her mat a gold inscribed letter that was the invitation to Benazir’s wedding. “It was something out of the Arabian Nights,” she says.

So Lamb took all the holiday she could, packed her bags and flew off. “It was an amazing introduction to Pakistan,” she says, describing the wedding in Karachi.

“Every evening after the ceremony was finished we would have all these discussions late into the night about how to deal with martial law because Pakistan was under General Zia.”

The trip to Pakistan had such an impact on Lamb that on her return to England she resigned from her job at Central News, flew back to Pakistan and based herself in Peshawar.

Those were the days of the Soviet invasion and she used to cross the border into Afghanistan to report for papers back in the United Kingdom.

And that is how Lamb entered the world of foreign reporting. Since her early days in Peshawar, she has reported from Brazil, Iraq, Nigeria, Bolivia, Argentina, Zimbabwe, South Africa ... the list goes on.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Lamb, major world events unfold in the places she travels to. Not long after she had been in Pakistan, General Zia was killed.

When she went to India on holiday, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. When she was in Brazil, a huge story broke as its president became the first in the country to get impeached.

Her first trip to Zimbabwe was in 1994 for a holiday when it was a success story, Lamb says. During a long weekend in Morocco, there was a bombing in Casablanca.

“You do start to think after awhile to not go where I go,” she adds.

Lamb, who has written a book on Zimbabwe, says she is determined to keep reporting from the country despite the threats from the Mugabe regime.

“It is very important that we still keep going into the country and reporting on what’s happening,” she says.

She was in Zimbabwe before the recent controversial general elections and says she never sleeps easy when she is there.

“I stayed the last couple of nights at a lodge that belongs to a friend in Harare,” she says. “The first morning there, she said to me that she has had phone calls from the secret police asking if there are any foreigners staying. She gave me the back-door keys so I could make an escape if I needed to.”

Lamb has interviewed many famous and fascinating personalities, including the late Princess Diana. “She went to Angola for the land mine issue,” she remembers.

“I thought she was very superficial and I was not very happy about going and covering her. Actually I changed my opinion because she was so impressive on that trip and she really worked very hard and I saw that she had something that I really saw with Nelson Mandela (another of her interviewees) — a kind of empathy with people terribly ill in hospital. She could bring a smile to people’s faces.”

Another well-known personality she interviewed was the acclaimed writer Paulo Coelho. The Brazilian author of the bestselling The Alchemist was so inspired by Lamb that he ended up writing a book about a female foreign correspondent in Kazakhstan.

“I am used to being somebody that writes for other people and I think I got a taste of my own medicine,” she confesses.

“One day I was in Portugal on holiday and got this e-mail from him with a long attachment and it was this book and it said I want you to read this because you inspired the main character.”

The book is called The Zahir and that was the first time she found out about it.

“I think it is a great advantage being a woman journalist because women are better listeners,” she laughs. Lamb is, in fact, optimistic and encouraging about being a female correspondent reporting from male-dominated societies.

“The great advantage in Islamic countries such as Afghanistan and others is that I can go and speak to women whereas my male colleagues are not able to go and speak to half the population,” she says.

Lamb takes care to dress in accordance with local customs and says she tries to respect different cultures. “I like wearing the salwar kameez — actually, very comfortable — and I think it looks good too,” she says.

She narrates an amusing incident that took place when she was living in Pakistan during the 1980s. She got an opportunity to interview General Zia but later realised her recorder had not picked up anything.

“So I had to phone his military attaché and say there were lots of bits I couldn’t hear. ... I think he realised I hadn’t got anything burnt. Fortunately — the advantage of it being a military regime — they had taped it too, so they sent me their copy.”

Besides being a foreign correspondent, Lamb is also a mother. Last October, when Benazir returned to Pakistan after an eight-year exile, Lamb was with her during the journey from Karachi airport when blasts occurred.

Her husband and son in England were very worried. “That was very difficult,” she says. “My husband told me that Lorenzo [her son] had asked: ‘Do you think mommy survived?’ It is horrible for a mother that you are putting your child in that position — when they are watching something and thinking my mother has been killed. I seriously thought about quitting over that.”

Benazir and Lamb once fell out over critical reporting of Benazir’s government but Lamb managed to keep in touch with the Pakistan prime minister.

On Lamb’s wedding, the former Pakistani prime minister sent her a present.“That was like a peace offering almost and then we became friends again,” she says.

Recently two of Benazir’s friends were in London and they met Lamb. “We went to her apartment in Kensington and to a restaurant where she used to go and where I have had lunch with her. We were all talking about previous times. And that felt very strange — it really hit me that she was dead.”

On the mention of Afghanistan, Lamb’s eyes seem to light up: “I love Afghanistan,” she says. It is as if Afghanistan represents a gateway into another world. “The very proud but hospitable and noble people,” she says.

“The love of beauty and the way you see a soldier with a flower tied around the Kalashnikov. The values they still have that I think is forgotten a lot in the West. Respect for old people. Oral traditions.”

“It is the first place I went to as a foreign correspondent. It is like your first love affair that you always sing quite fondly of,” she says.

June 28, 2008 | 2:13 AM Comments  0 comments
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Arctic Could See First Ice-Free Summer This Year - Experts Worry About a Disturbing Trend at the North Pole
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The distinct possibility that the North Pole could be free of sea ice -- for the first time in recorded history -- may become a cold reality this summer.

The Arctic's thick, resilient multiyear sea ice (frozen sea surface), which usually accumulates and lasts through the annual melting season, has started to give way to thinner, vulnerable first-year ice.

Satellite data gathered by the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that young sea ice, which is no more than about 60 inches deep and much more susceptible to melting away, now makes up only 72 percent of the Arctic ice sheet. Using that estimate, scientists at the center see a 50 percent chance that ice at the highest point in the Arctic will melt by the summer's end.

Andy Mahoney, a center researcher, has pinpointed this year in particular as having the "greatest chance" of being ice-free.

Such a scenario, however, will depend on the weather during the next couple of months. "It will probably come down to how cloudy it is this summer," Mahoney says. "If there's clear skies and if atmospheric patterns resemble last year's, you're going to see a lot more melt."

Increased rates of Arctic melt have altered the region in unprecedented ways. Arctic sea ice dwindled to a record low in September, clearing a route through the fabled Northwest Passage that runs from Greenland to Alaska. Opening of the path has provided ships a shorter, more direct route between Asia and Europe.

"It's got a shock level for people because there's always ice at the North Pole, but there are also real implications," Mahoney said. "If the North Pole melted out, the shipping industry would be paying very close attention to that."

Wieslaw Maslowski, who conducts Arctic ice research from his base at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., told ABC News last summer that there was a chance that the Arctic's entire ice sheet could vanish for the first time in just four or five years.

Such a statement was considered a daring projection at the time, given that climate prediction models estimated a few years before that it would take at least another 40 or 50 years before such a scenario is likely to occur.

But now, Maslowski says that "whether the Arctic sea ice disappears for the first time this summer or four or eight summers from now may be beside the point."

"The point," he noted, "is that we may well be passing through the sea-ice tipping point now. We'll just have to see what July and August weather have in store for the

The disappearance of Arctic sea ice may mean an even hotter planet, since the region's ice pack helps cool the earth by bouncing the sun's rays back into outer space. This reflective property, known as albedo, also prevents the rays from reaching the ocean, where heat is absorbed.

Less sea ice means more dark open water to absorb the heat, which melts the sea ice even further.

"Losing the ice sheet means losing an important way of cooling down," Mahoney said. "As a result, global warming would accelerate as the ice retreats."

June 28, 2008 | 2:04 AM Comments  0 comments
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Primitive Alien Life May Exist, Stephen Hawking Says
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Alien life may well exist in a primitive form somewhere in our corner of the galaxy, famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Monday.


Given the size of the universe, it is unlikely that Earth is the only planet to develop some sort of life, Hawking told an audience at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He added that humanity must embrace space exploration, if only to ensure its long-term survival.


"While there may be primitive life in our region of the galaxy, there don't seem to be any advanced intelligent beings," said Hawking during a lecture as part of a series commemorating NASA's 50th anniversary this year.


The lack of success by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project to discover signals from an alien civilization suggests that none exist within several 100 light-years of Earth, Hawking said, though he offered three theories on the dearth of interplanetary communications.


The probability of primitive life developing on a suitable planet may be extremely low, or it may be high, but aliens intelligent enough to beam signals into space may also be smart enough to build civilization-destroying weapons like nuclear bombs, he said. More likely, he added, is that primitive life is likely to develop, but intelligent life as we know it is exceedingly rare.


"We don't appear to have been visited by aliens," Hawking said, adding that he discounts reports of UFOs. "Why would they only appear to cranks and weirdoes?"


Alien life aside, Hawking said humanity must pursue a long-term effort of space exploration that would span hundreds of years in order to ensure the survival of the species. He likened those opposed to spending money on space science and exploration to those who wrote off Christopher Columbus' trans-Atlantic Ocean voyage in 1492 as a waste of money.


"The discovery of the New World made a profound difference on the old. Just think, we wouldn't have had a Big Mac or KFC," Hawking said.


"Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect," he added. "It will completely change the future of the human race, and maybe determine whether we have any future at all."


Hawking, 66, is a renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist who suffers from the neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He uses a wheelchair, communicates with the aid of a computer, and co-wrote a children's book about science - "George's Secret Key to the Universe" - with his daughter Lucy in the hope of inspiring youth to pursue studies in science and technology.


"We live in a society that is increasingly governed by science and technology," Hawking said. "Yet fewer and fewer people want to go into science."


Sending astronauts back to the moon, establishing a lunar base with a clear target of going on to Mars would do much to restore the public's support for spaceflight, he added.


"If the human race is to continue for another million years we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before," Hawking said.

April 23, 2008 | 6:29 AM Comments  0 comments
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Smallest extrasolar planet discovered: Spanish researchers
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Spanish astronomers Wednesday announced the discovery of the smallest planet discovered to date outside the solar system, located 30 light years from earth.

The planet, "GJ 436T", was detected through a new technique which "will allow us to discover in less than 10 years the first planet resembling earth in terms of mass and orbit," said Ignasi Ribas of Spain's CSIC scientific research institute.

It was discovered by a team led by Ribas through its gravitational pull on other planets already discovered around the same star in the constellation of Leo.

"GJ 436T" has a mass five times the size of Earth, which makes it the smallest extrasolar planet among the roughly 300 identified so far, Ribas said in announcing the discovery.

He said the new planet is uninhabitable due to the distance that separates it from its star, which is far less than that between the earth and the sun.

To sustain life, a planet must have a mass similar to that of earth, liquid water on its surface, an atmosphere and a similar orbital distance from its star as that of the earth from the sun.

Initial calculations by the team indicated that "GJ 436T" rotates in 4.2 earth days and orbits its star every 5.2 days.

April 10, 2008 | 6:42 AM Comments  0 comments
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Capture Cuba
Related to country: Cuba
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

By Scott Adams, Special to Explore
Published: March 01, 2008, 01:04

Opinions about Fidel Castro may vary but when it comes to Cuba, there can be no debating the fact that it is a great place to visit.

But now that the 82-year-old Cuban president has stepped down, the nation is poised to change rapidly.

So if you want to see the “real” Cuba — preserved in a time capsule from the 1950s — then now is the time to go. Put it off much longer and you will miss the boat.

Cuba is a rarity in the 21st century. Its fascinating history as one of the last outposts of One-Party Socialism has made it a tourist destination for those seeking something different.

Truly, this is a country where many sights seem to belong to another era. Where else are the taxis 1950s Dodges? Where else do Chevrolets come with shiny chrome fins?

Past preserved

Cuba’s past is as fascinating as its present. A Spanish colony until the end of the 19th century, it went on to be controlled by a number of rulers till Batista, aided by the United States, took over in the late 1940s.

Enter Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, who were determined to liberate the people and free Cuba. They succeeded, much to the dismay of the US.

Fidel remained in power since and, during the years of the Cold War, heavily leant on the Soviet Union for assistance.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the US ban on travel and business relations with Cuba, this little Caribbean island has been somewhat adrift. Help, in the form of investments, has, of course, trickled in from countries such as Spain and Brazil.

The usual suspects seen at all tourist destinations — American tourists, chain of burger restaurants, cola drinks — are prominent in their absence here.

In fact, it is a punishable offence for US residents to visit this country.

But all that will change with the policies and politics of this land. And once it does, Cuba will be only a short flight from most major US cities and will offer a great escape from the extended North American winters.

Capital of grandeur

A visit to Havana, Cuba’s decadent capital city, will take you back in time.

Once ranking among the wealthiest cities in the region, all that remains of its days of glory are magnificent public buildings, grand old hotels and wide tree-lined boulevards such as the Paseo del Prado, where Cubans still love to take their paseo or afternoon stroll.

Dominating the Havana skyline is the 62-metre-high dome of the Capitolio, which served as the Cuban parliament till 1959.
Though built on the lines of the US Capitol Building in Washington, it is richer in decoration and a truly impressive sight to behold.

The buildings, churches and forts that line Havana’s streets and squares have helped it earn the status of a World Heritage Site.

One of the greatest delights in Cuba is just sitting in the sun, either in a plaza or along the waterfront, and sharing the easygoing lifestyle of its people.

Debates still rage over whether the life led by Cubans is good. While it may be true that they do not have the spending power to match that of Westerners, the music scene and the happy faces speak for themselves.

Rundown appearance

Part of Havana’s allure is its rundown appearance. Huge neo-baroque buildings erected in the 1920s wear a poetically intriguing look today, with their faded paint, broken tiles and signs of constant human occupation.

Children who have never heard of Game-Boy, Play Station or MP3 play football in a car park where people exchange spare parts to keep their vintage vehicles running.

Near Catedral de San Cristobal, sweet songs spill out of a restaurant where musicians play for tips. Other Cubans hawk their wares — handmade souvenirs carved in wood, with “I Love Cuba” engraved on them, cigars and screen-printed T-shirts with Ernest Hemingway’s face across the front.

In part, Cuba owes its charm to the fact that it has not been overdeveloped like many other countries.

At the centre of the island in the Sancti Spiritus region, is the small town of Trinidad de Cuba. Considered a museum city, and now a site protected by the Unesco, a visit there is like living a history lesson.

Founded in 1515, it contains elements of beautiful 17th- and 18th-century Spanish-inspired architecture, complete with artful balconies, colonnaded patios, admirable ironwork, finely-wrought staircases and structures encased in verdant palm gardens.

A good place to start the tour of the town is the church of Santisima Trinidad. Climb to the top of the bell tower to get a bird’s-eye view of the town and the lush hills beyond.

Built in 1731, Santisima Trinidad is a beautiful colonial structure whose gold and silver statues and relics display the past wealth of the region.

Right kind of night

For a glimpse of the town’s past, head to the Romantic Museum in the Brunet Palace or the Guamuhaya Museum, which displays elements of the island’s aboriginal culture.

In essence, Trinidad is perfect for wandering around and soaking up the local colour. You could meet a fisherman heading home with the day’s catch or children who will be delighted to tell you all about their lives.

Of course, like all of Cuba, Trinidad de Cuba comes to life at night. Plaza Mayor , the central square, buzzes with life until late in the night.

One of the greatest pleasures in Trinidad is to stay in one of the town’s colonial mansions. As many of the large homes are now expensive to maintain, the owners, who still live there, rent out their spare rooms to guests.

In many ways, Cuba is still a unique country which has resisted the caprices of the modern world. Its charm comes from its coolness towards modernity and the openness of the people who can show us that happiness doesn’t always come from great riches.

Scott Adams is a Madrid-based freelance writer

Play it again

Viva el rhythm ‘latino’: Music is as essential to the Cuban lifestyle as food and water. In every town, and at all hours, you’ll hear the rhythms.

But things really start to move after sunset.

Groups of enthusiastic and highly talented musicians perform on footpaths, in cafés and along the Havana waterfront.

And when there is music, there is dancing.

The music leans towards sassy Latin sounds with Bosanovas, Meringues and Buena Vista-style jazz, which invoke swing moves.

In Havana, Bar Monserrate, in Calle Obispo, is a great place to start to discover all that Cuban music has to offer.

Ernest invitation

The legend of Hemingway: Cubans claim the American writer Ernest Hemingway as one of their own.

They adopted him after he adopted Cuba and lived there through the 1930s and 1940s.

Here, as everywhere else he went, Hemingway cultivated a reputation as a man larger than life. A figure who could reel in bigger marlin than a professional fisherman.

The legend lives on in old haunts that play up their status as Hemingway landmarks.

Places such as the Hotel Ambos Mundos, where he finally completed the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. You can visit his room, which is now a museum.

The fifth floor, corner room, looking out past the San Cristobal cathedral to the sea, has been preserved just as he left it. La Floridita Bar, in Calle Obispo and also deserves a visit, with or without the lure of Hemingway lore.

The writer always sat at the same stool and read the newspaper while enjoying three or four or five refreshments. Today his stool is preserved in his, now roped-off, favourite corner.



Go there...Cuba...From the UAE

From Dubai
Emirates and Iberia fly daily via London and Madrid.
Fare from Dh10,110
Virgin Atlantic flies to Havana via London thrice a week.
Fare from Dh8,510
Qatar Airways and Air Europa Lineas Aereas S.A. fly four times a week via Doha and Madrid. Fare from Dh7,580
Information courtesy: The Holiday Lounge
by Dnata.
Ph: 04 3166160



March 25, 2008 | 9:07 AM Comments  0 comments
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Raul Castro sets Cuban agenda as President
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Reuters
Published: February 25, 2008, 21:20

Havana: Raul Castro took over from his brother Fidel Castro as Cuban president on Sunday, ending the rule of the bearded rebel who defied the United States for five decades.

A former hardliner feared for his ruthlessness but who has adopted a more moderate tone in recent years, Raul Castro, 76, nodded and smiled as legislators applauded his selection by the rubber-stamp National Assembly.

He is expected to pursue limited economic reforms to tackle food shortages and poor living standards but in a sign that abrupt or major change is unlikely, Communist Party ideologue Jose Ramon Machado Ventura was named to the No. 2 job of first vice president.

In his first speech as president, Raul Castro said he would continue to consult his older brother on important issues.


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"The mandate of this legislature is clear; to continue strengthening the revolution at a historic moment," he said.

Fidel Castro, 81, stepped down on Tuesday due to ill health, ending his long rule of the West's last communist state.

Revolution

He overthrew US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution at the height of the Cold War and then survived assassination attempts, a CIA-backed invasion, the Soviet Union's collapse and a US economic embargo to rule for almost half a century.

He won support at home by providing health and education services for all Cubans but he also jailed his opponents and critics accuse him of imposing a dictatorship.

Raul Castro said he was accepting the presidency on the condition his brother continued to be the "commander in chief of the revolution" - a title created for him during his guerrilla uprising. "Fidel is Fidel. Fidel is irreplaceable."

Raul Castro lacks the oratorical flair of his brother, but he has encouraged ordinary Cubans in the last 19 months to air concerns over the economy, raising hopes of modest reforms.

The US government has dubbed Raul Castro "Fidel Lite" and dismisses the leadership change as the handing of power from one dictator to another.

"If you look at the nature of the people in charge, this is the Old Guard, it's the hard line and there is no reason for us to feel a sense of optimism for the Cuban people," US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said.

The appointment of Machado, a member of Raul Castro's inner circle, suggested change would be subtle.

"This is about signalling continuity externally and internally," said Julia Sweig, an expert on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, although she said Cuba's leaders are well aware they need to address food shortages and other problems.