International
Cuba: “The history of tobacco”
October 17 |
Everyone on the Island knows that this is the longest story in the world, that when your grandfather drops the first word, the knot of worsted is untied, the sentences are chained to each other, the stories are connected to each other and little by little before the eyes is built an eternal road of words that goes around Cuba, goes out to sea and sails around the world until the word tobacco throws twist, ends up in the mouth of a Russian in Siberia.
As far can the stories go as the ships, as close to the sea grow the leaves that Christopher Columbus discovered in the name of the Old World. For more than two centuries, the starting point of this narration has been the hands of the people of Pinar del Río, people from the west, and not precisely the proud conquering the desert, but simple and noble hands that have chosen tradition as a way of life.
Among the modern descendants is Miyelis Canales Machuat, a teacher by profession and vocation, but faced with the vicissitudes of life she had no choice but to take up work on the land as a way of life. Seven years ago her husband passed away, and since tobacco production was the main income for her family, she put all her efforts into running the farm.
But her battles have not been few, last year Cuba registered one of its strongest hurricanes of all times, Ian with category 3 made landfall in Cuba precisely in the town of La Coloma, not far from Miyelis’ farm, who tells us: “when it passed through here, out of 59 tobacco houses that these lands had, only 6 were left standing”.
“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think that my tobacco house would have been on the ground, completely destroyed, because it wasn’t new, but it wasn’t in such bad conditions, but that cyclone, the hardest part was after the eye passed, everything was destroyed, all these fields were devastated, completely devastated”.
Cuba
Among the modern descendants is Miyelis Canales Machuat, a teacher by profession and vocation, but faced with the vicissitudes of life she had no choice but to take up work on the land as a way of life. I Photo: teleSUR
Miyelis, who at the time, full of tears, did not know what to do, tells that her children were discouraged, they thought it would be impossible to harvest tobacco, they did not know how to raise again a priest’s house because they lacked the resources. The hurricane had left the production of Pinar del Río totally in ruins.
But giving no place to grief, Canales says that she and her children rebuilt a dream based on rubble, rescued the wood and zinc they could and with that they faced hopelessness. They put their feet on the ground and were able to be even one of the few producers who were able to plant in the previous season. With the house half-built, they obtained more than 50 percent of the plan they had to stockpile.
Photo: teleSUR
“Tobacco takes a lot of dedication but the greatest satisfaction is to see the final result, when you have money that satisfies all the basic needs of your house and others that perhaps are not so basic but that make your life more human.”
Miyelis’ life is a sort of odyssey, an incarnation of Homer if you want to compare. This Cuban woman does not give up, she does not stop thinking that the future is one of construction, of “echar pa’ lante”.
The history of tobacco is long, but they always have mouths to tell it, adept at unraveling the mysteries in the leaves. Among the smoke of a smoker, made into faint shapes is the voice of the Taino Indians, the voice that whispers “Cohiba”.
International
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The analysis also found that the vaccines saved 14.8 million years of life, equivalent to one year of life gained for every 900 doses given.
The study, coordinated by Professor Stefania Boccia, revealed that 82% of the lives saved were people vaccinated before becoming infected with the virus, and 57% of deaths avoided occurred during the Omicron wave. In addition, 90% of the beneficiaries were adults over 60 years old.
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International
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On Thursday, Judge Trina Thompson extended protections for about 7,000 Nepalese immigrants, whose TPS was set to expire on August 5. The ruling also impacts roughly 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, whose TPS protections were scheduled to end on September 8.
Immigrants covered by TPS had sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging that the program’s termination was driven by “racial animus” and stripped them of protection from deportation.
DHS Deputy Undersecretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement saying the decision to end TPS was part of a mandate to “restore the integrity” of the immigration system and return the program to its original purpose.
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She also criticized Judge Thompson, calling the ruling “another example” of judges “stirring up claims of racism to distract from the facts.”
McLaughlin added that DHS would appeal the decision and take the legal battle to higher courts.
The Trump administration has also terminated TPS protections for approximately 160,000 Ukrainians, 350,000 Venezuelans, and at least half a million Haitians, among other immigrant groups.
International
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The project is estimated to cost $200 million, fully funded through donations from Trump himself and other “patriots,” according to a government statement. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and is expected to be completed before Trump’s term ends in 2028.
The Clark Construction Group, a Virginia-based company known for projects such as the Capital One Arena and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., has been selected to lead the project.
The new ballroom will be built on the East Wing of the White House, expanding the iconic residence with a space designed for state dinners, official ceremonies, and large-scale events.
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