[Marxism] Communications with Cuba restored

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Telephone communications with Cuba are working fine.
Radio services are working as well.

You can watch and hear reports on the island's
international television broadcasting service,
Cubavision International.

My experience is that the video quality sometimes
works better if you don't blow the image up to full-
screen size. Reception is intermittent at times, but
it's something to see. The sound is more consistent
than the video track. Windows Media Player needed
http://www.cubavision.cubaweb.cu/tv_cubana.asx

Spanish-speakers, or those who want to learn or
improve theirs can tune in to Radio Reloj, the
24-7 news service which has been operating for
58 years. It's working just fine. They continue
as always with local and international reporting:
http://www.radioreloj.cu/

I reached four friends this morning without difficulty.
Three tell me they have no electricity, water or gas,
but that the electricity was turned off last night at
about 6 PM for safety's sake: so that no one would be
electrocuted by fallen power lines. Once the lines are
checked by workers from the electrical company, they
will be turned on. This is expected at mid-day. Not
sure about the gas and water. One of the four has an
emergency bottle of gas. He was about to shower in
cold water before going to work, but they realized he
could use his emergency tank of gas to heat his water.
63,000 people were evacuated in Havana. Report below.

Here in Los Angeles I can certainly say we're very
fortunate that our electrical system is working well.
We rarely have blackouts here, and so if we were ever
to have one which lasted more than a couple of hours,
we'd be shocked and surprised. We'd be disoriented if
it happened here. Cubans aren't shocked, though they
aren't happy. They're glad the rain is now over and
they expect to soon have their electricity restored.
There's been a lot of water damage from what I'm
hearing from friends.

This is where those wonderful little battery-operated
radios everyone was buying last fall and earlier in
the year are coming in very handy! These radios, made
in China, have four bands: AM, two FM and TV, and are
powered by solar, AA batteries, or a hand-operated
crank if nothing else is available, make it possible
to maintain communications in case of an emergency
situation, such as this hurricane. Of course such
radios would also be good in the event of a non-
natural emergency as well... They cost $10.00 and
were the hottest selling item in Cuba when they
were in stock. You see people with them wherever
you go: parking lot attendants, people at home
fixing cars or doing whatever. They're wonderful
little devices.

Here's the weather map where you can see that the
hurricane has moved off the island to the west:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge/byx_N0Z_lp.html

We love subscriptions, though we receive nothing
from subscribers, since this service is free, but
you don't need to even be subscribed to access the
services of CubaNews. Anyone can always access the
current thirty messages, use the search engine, or
scroll backwards thirty messages at a time, using:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages



Nearly 63,000 Citizens were Evacuated in Havana

Havana, July 9 (AIN) The number of Havana citizens who were
evacuated reached 62,908 since the early in the morning of
Friday when a hurricane warning was issued faced with the
imminent arrival of hurricane Dennis.

The head of the Provincial Evacuation Commission, Oneida
Rosales del Toro, told reporters that 22,384 people
evacuated themselves to neighbors' and relatives' homes,
while another 40,554 were taken to safe places allocated by
the Havana authorities.

The initiative reflects the high spirit of solidarity of
the Cuban people, said del Toro, who noted that those
evacuated are residents of coastal areas which are liable
to flooding, or live near rivers or in houses that could
partially or totally collapse in a hurricane.

Some of the evacuated people also live in high buildings
where the strong winds could cause damage, said the
official and added that some 510 shelters provide basic
conditions to assist the evacuated people, and that
included water, food and medical assistence.

Major evacuations took place in the Havana municipalities
of Centro Habana, Arroyo Naranjo, Habana Vieja and 10 de
Octubre.




Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com







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