May 2008 - Posts
Marilyn Monroe, Mother Theresa, Muhammad Ali – for the first time ever images of these iconic figures are hanging in a Havana gallery. The Associated Press mounted the exhibit showcasing 100 of their most compelling moments in journalism as part of a workshop to help train Cuban photojournalists to cover their changing country.
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
MIANYANG, China — More than two weeks into the rescue and relief efforts following the massive earthquake in China, most survivors seem eager and grateful to get into their assigned tent cities, where there is a at least a semblance of order and privacy. But at the Mianyang Sports Stadium, where thousands of people have taken refuge since the disaster, I encountered a knot of agitated people who believe the encampment established near their devastated village is a death trap and an insult.
"We’ll never go back," says an enraged Zhao Qunfang, a 77-year-old woman who is one of many residents of the town of Leigu has been staying in the stadium rather than report to their assigned resettlement camp. "We died once already. If we go back, we may die again."
As we talk, the crowd presses in and angry voices rise in a chorus. It is impossible to take it all in, but several themes emerge. The surviving residents from Leigu, in Beichuan County, are traumatized. Nearly everyone there lost a relative and they all witnessed their hometown awash in blood and bodies.
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By Elizabeth Leist, NBC News State Department Producer
After some U.S. diplomats created an uproar last fall when told of potential forced assignments in Iraq for 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying a more personal touch this year by circulating a taped video message to the foreign service appealing for volunteers in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2009.
The video was posted on the State Department's internal website yesterday for all employees to see, and now is available on the main State Department website under the headline "Service in Iraq and Afghanistan."
State Department officials acknowledge that Rice is trying to solicit volunteers personally and much earlier this year – in order to avoid the controversy that erupted last fall.
In her appeal, she describes the work done by diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan as "inspiring" and asks diplomats to "consider joining this highly motivated team of professionals as we look for volunteers for positions opening in 2009."
According to a State Department official, the Human Resources bureau at the State Department has been reviewing a list of diplomats that are up for assignments in 2009 to find those who are "particularly well-qualified" to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the coming months, those individuals will be contacted "to encourage them to volunteer," the official said.
There are an estimated 300 slots for Iraq and 100 for Afghanistan that need to be filled for 2009. State Department officials say they are hopeful that enough volunteers will surface to avoid these so-called "directed assignments."
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By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
YINGXIU, China – When the Tibetan Plateau made its latest move, this small city about 50 miles to the west of Chengdu was ground zero. Yingxiu, sitting at the upper end of the Zipingpu reservoir was summarily crushed.
One witness remembers it as more of an explosion than a quake.
"I heard that in Chengdu buildings were swaying for a long time," said 60-year-old Yan Runqi, who was visiting his parents in a village above Yingxiu when the earthquake struck. "Here it felt like three seconds."
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| Ryan Pyle / MSNBC.com |
| Traffic passes along a dirt road next to a collapsed expressway near Yingxiu, China. |
In those few moments on May 12, more than 75 percent of Yingxiu’s population of about 10,000 was wiped out, according to local officials. Initially cut off from all road access, survivors were evacuated by boats launched from the far end of the reservoir and by helicopter.
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By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
CHENGDU, China -- Last week, we reported on a couple who lost track of their 2-month-old daughter in the scramble to evacuate after the earthquake demolished their village. Now we can report one of the rare happy tales among the lost and missing in this disaster: Baby Anqi has been reunited with her parents.
The family was split up during an airlift of quake survivors from a mountain top in Anxian county, northeast of Chengdu.
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| Ryan Pyle / Special to msnbc.com |
| Wei Anrong and baby Anqi |
Anqi’s mother, Wei Anrong, was airlifted to a hospital in Chengdu to be treated for injuries. Anqi’s father, Ma Hong, handed the infant to a soldier on another helicopter, believing that the child would be wherever her mother had gone. Then he made the grueling trek out of the stricken area with those who were fit enough to walk.
When he finally arrived in Chengdu a week after the May 12 quake, he found his wife in the hospital. She was recovering, but in a state of panic he realized that Anqi had never arrived.
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By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
DUJIANGYAN, China – Releasing a tidal wave of emotion and anger, hundreds of grieving parents and sympathizers gathered at a pile of rubble that was once the Juyuan Middle School on Tuesday to memorialize the nearly 1,000 teenagers who died when the building collapsed in the May 12 earthquake.
The heart-rending ceremony also offered the victims’ parents an opportunity to demand justice.
A woman clutching the portrait of her daughter, Dong Yan, cursed the people in charge of building the school, which collapsed even though all the buildings around it remained standing. Like most of the people in the crowd, she believes local corruption was the reason for the poor construction.
Ryan Pyle / msnbc.com |
Click for slide show: Parents mourn the loss of
the children who died at Juyuan Middle School
during the May 12 earthquake in China.
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"We want the truth to come out and the corrupt officials to be punished," she said between sobs. "These corrupt players are the ones who have caused us so much misery."
Banners hung across the destroyed building for the occasion were more blunt: "Get even for the deaths of the Juyuan students," read one. Another demanded harsh punishment for the "murderers" responsible for the collapsed school. "Whoever is responsible for the building should pay with their life," said another, comparing the building materials used in the structure to tofu.
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By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
DUJIANGYAN, China – In the heart of this disaster-stricken city, Luo Tingcai is almost giddy about his new digs. On Friday, his family of five was preparing to spend its first night in a single 10-by-12-foot room with three little beds, part of a temporary housing village that is rapidly rising from the rubble.
"We’ll just line up side by side," he said.
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| Kari Huus / msnbc.com |
| Sitting on one of three beds in their new temporary housing unit in the Xinfu Resettlement area are, from left to right, Luo Min, Xu Xueyin, Chen Tonhua, Luo Tincai, and Xu Luoxing. |
It’s a humble shelter, but nonetheless a huge improvement. Luo’s family – including his 83-year-old mother-in-law – spent the first few days in the streets after the May 12 earthquake flattened the five-story apartment building where they had been living. They were then fortunate enough to find a spot in a tent city set up by the military.
Their luck held this week. Amid millions of people left homeless and displaced from the quake, Luo and his family are among the first 30 families to be housed in what is being called the Xinfu Resettlement area. Within a few days, organizers here say, it will house 3,000 families, or about 10,000 people.
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Adrienne Mong, NBC News' Beijing Producer and frequent contributor to the World Blog, will be answering readers questions about China's earthquake on Newsvine from 10 a.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET on Friday. Click here to participate in the conversation.
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
CHENGDU -- Help finally arrived in the mountain village of Liuzu four days after the earthquake struck. The first to be airlifted out that morning were the injured.
Among those loaded on the Chinese Air Force helicopter was Wei Anrong, who had broken ribs when her house collapsed. Wei’s husband, Ma Hong, also handed a tiny bundle to a soldier, then stepped back as the chopper lifted and swept off toward Chengdu. That is the last he saw of their 2-month old daughter, Anqi.
Ma was among those fit enough to make the 10-hour trek out of the devastated area. He made his way south to the provincial capital of Chengdu, and on Wednesday —with the help of his cell phone — found his wife recovering at the Sichuan Number One People’s Hospital. But to his dismay, there was no sign of Anqi, and no paper trail showing where she ended up.
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By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
MIANYANG, China – I had an eerie feeling as I approached the Mianyang Stadium where thousands of survivors of the deadly earthquake in Sichuan province have taken refuge.
From a distance, it reminded me of the New Orleans Superdome following Hurricane Katrina, when city officials opened the sports arena as a shelter of last resort, but where storm victims and their needs were tragically ignored for days.
But as I got closer and started to look around, it appeared that China had studied its own past fumbles in emergency response and noted the mistakes of others.
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| Mark Mullen/ NBC News |
| Chinese quake survivors share a meal in their makeshift tent. |
At the Mianyang Stadium, there were water stations everywhere and nobody was waiting in line. There was free food in another corner of the parking lot and volunteers handing out snacks inside. I approached a group of people to ask if there was enough food available and they laughed saying "there is too much food."
In one part of the stadium complex there was a medical tent treating physical injuries and stress. One woman was being treated for exhaustion. Two other patients were having acupuncture. And there were psychiatrists roaming the grounds doing counseling.
Even a tent school was set up for the refugee children when volunteers weren't doing organized games and activities with them.
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By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
BEIJING – While most U.S. media have cut back coverage of China’s earthquake, and the mainland Chinese press is trying to remain upbeat about the disaster, the largest Chinese-language paper distributed worldwide is bringing its readers the epic tragedy in epic proportions.
The Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily is covering the disaster from every level, with a 14 pages devoted to it in the Tuesday edition alone. But it is the individual tales, recounted in devastating detail and emotion that really sets the paper apart from the rest of the press at this stage, more than a week after the earthquake struck.
Double-page color montages picture bring to life the faces of parents twisted in pain, and articles spell out the horrifying details of destruction – the death of 8-year old twin sisters who died holding hands, in one instance, and that of a man who perished clutching a note he wrote to clear his conscience of an unpaid 3000 yuan (about $375) debt to someone he calls "Old Wang." In that 800-word story, coming under a two-inch high headline, he is reported to have used the last of his strength to tell his daughter of the debt, and to urge her to live on and live well.
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By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
MIANYANG, China – China's earthquake did not discriminate. It struck town and country, rich and poor, old and young. But it is China's children who may have suffered the most.
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| Mark Mullen/ NBC News |
| Parents search lists of injured and missing at a refugee center in Sichuan province. |
Schools were in session when the quake hit and many of the buildings were full of children when they collapsed. In seconds, students were killed, others were injured and even those rescued were traumatized. And many of those who did survive lost loved ones and their homes.
Other kids pulled from the rubble are now missing. When the quake hit – good Samaritans it is hoped – whisked some children away. But where are they?
As we perused the bulletin boards located at the Mianyang Stadium, which has become a refugee center for some 17,000 people, we saw hundreds of fliers posted by desperate parents with the faces of their little ones and contact information pleading for their return.
Sometimes children already in a parent’s arms were traumatized. One father gingerly carried his 2-year-old daughter named Liu Xiangyi.
Her face was covered with abrasions from being covered with debris during the quake. Her father said she has not spoken since the earthquake.
Perhaps it is because she is from Beichuan. If you take a look at the videotape of that town NBC News obtained from the moments after the quake struck, it is easier to understand why she might not be talking.
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By Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer
KABUL, Afghanistan – When Mirwali, 25, finally got the chance to talk to his 65-year-old father, who is held in the U.S.-run military prison at Bagram Airbase, outside of Kabul, he was so overcome with emotion he couldn’t speak. Mirwali covered his face with the long sash of grey silk hanging down from the wrap of his turban, held his head in his hands, and sobbed.
Their meeting wasn’t face-to-face, but rather via a video conference connection provided by the U.S. military and set up at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul. The video conference program is a compromise between the U.S. military authorities and the Red Cross.
Each family call is limited to 20 minutes – but after many months, sometimes years, of no communication, it is better than nothing.
"We consider this as a positive intermediary step between nothing and face-to-face visits," said Graziella Leite Piccolo, the spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Kabul. "We continue to pressure, to insist on the relevance of face-to-face visits," she said.
Red Cross connection
There have been more than 600 family video conference calls since the program started in January of this year – a lifeline for families who had lost all hope of ever seeing their loved ones again.
Dozens of families turn up at the Red Cross offices in Kabul every Monday to wait their turn at the video booths provided by the U.S. military.
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The school children of one Chinese village suffered dramatically different fates. NBC News' Adrienne Mong reports from the mountain village of Xiang'e.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
XIANG’E, Sichuan Province – It's common to witness outpourings of generosity during a natural disaster. Moved by tragic and horrific images in the aftermath of last Monday's quake, ordinary Chinese have rushed to donate whatever they can – money, rescue equipment, food, and clothing.
But here, in Sichuan, we have seen generosity of a different order, coming from a most unexpected place – the quake's victims.
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| NBC News/Adrienne Mong |
| Millions of Chinese have rushed to volunteer to help quake survivors. |
Take Han Dai Gui, whom we met overlooking the valley in Chenjiaba. The migrant worker had finally arrived back in his home village from Shanxi province the same morning we interviewed him – only to find that the quake had swept his wife and his home into the valley below.
As we, humbled and overwhelmed by the magnitude of his loss, took our leave, Han brushed the tears away from his red-rimmed eyes and thanked us for taking the time to listen to his story.
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By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
SICHUAN PROVINCE, China – I moved to China from California, so earthquakes are unfortunately familiar. But even in California, the most populous state in the U.S., the epicenter of any quake is often located in a place where it doesn't seem to do much harm: in the woods or off the coast. Here in Sichuan province, I thought it was tragic that an epicenter located so far from a city center could be blamed for so many deaths – including 70 percent of the 10,000 residents in a town called Yingxiu. Why did this happen? And how were the town's survivors coping days later?
I'm curious to find out, so we set out for the town, located in the scenic mountains of Sichuan province that are the habitat of the giant panda. We know there will be challenges getting there. The town itself is in a fairly remote area to begin with; access has been blocked further by damaged roads and falling debris. With my GPS in hand and a knowledgeable local guide behind the wheel, we set out for Yingxiu, dodging road closures, convoys and landslides. As we move closer to our destination, it's remarkable to see the impact of this quake: not just damaged structures but also the countless people living street side in makeshift tents. They are everywhere.
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| msnbc.com |
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
CHENJIABA, Sichuan Province – It all started out friendly enough.
Our team ran into a pair of young volunteer rescue workers in the ghostly mountain village of Chenjiaba.
They were drawn to NBC News cameraman Dmitry Solovyov and his TV camera, offering to carry his tripod, even his backpack, while chatting amiably with researcher Sarah Jiang and me about the work they'd done in the quake-devastated area.
It was the same when we met Gao, who was overseeing a brigade of firemen from Ningxia province who had just arrived. He was fresh-faced and ready for the daunting clean-up challenges that lie ahead.
"You media are very hard-working," said the jovial-looking Gao. "Coming to report this story is not easy."
"Oh, we think your job is much tougher," we chorused back. "What you're doing is so admirable."
It wasn’t long before our little lovefest came to an end.
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By Adrienne Mong, NBC News producer
CHENGDU, China – From the air, as we approached Chengdu, it looked much like it did when we were last here in March to cover the Tibet unrest.
Residential high-rises and skyscrapers stood tall. Roads looked intact. And traffic seemed as congested as usual. Maybe, I thought, the Chinese authorities had really been able to enforce tough building codes after the last quake in 1976 in Tangshan killed a quarter of a million people.
But as we piled into the car ready to drive off from the airport, the vehicle began to shake. I looked up accusingly at the driver, who shouted, "It's the earthquake!"
The aftershock subsided, and we drove on in search of supplies of bottled water before trying to link up with correspondent Ian Williams and his team up in Dujiangyan, one of the worst-hit areas outside of Chengdu.
But there were no bottles of water to be found. "People are afraid the water is polluted," explained our driver. "They heard the quake may have damaged some chemical factories, leaking into the water supply."
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By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer
JERUSALEM – Women screaming and children trying to escape a village on fire.
These are just two of the images that two Palestinian sisters, Fatima and Zeinab Jaber, 65 and 71, live with from an event they witnessed 60 years ago.
They are haunted, too, by the memory of their mother, Nuzah, who they recall crying as she rushed members of their family to safety.
And they are their last recollections of their home, the village of Deir Yassin, as it was being overrun and destroyed by armed Jewish militant groups.
The attack on Deir Yassin in April 1948 is one of the most well-documented in a series of expulsions the former British Mandate of Palestine that led up to the foundation of Israel – an episode that Palestinian recall bitterly as "Nakba" ("the Catastrophe").
So while Israelis are celebrating 60 years of independence on May 14, many Palestinians will be commemorating what they call "Catastrophe Day" on May 15 – an annual day of remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who were displaced as Israel was being born.
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent
BANGKOK, Thailand – Let's hear it for freedom of speech! Tibet, Zimbabwe and now Myanmar are all refusing access to journalists who want to report on the hardships of their people.
In Tibet, the Chinese are clamping down in fear that unrest will spoil the summer Olympics in Beijing; Tibetans complain of beatings and killings. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe is hanging on grimly, trying to overthrow an apparent election loss by subterfuge and violence, after running his country into the ground for twenty years. And in Myanmar, after 46 years of iron rule by a military junta, the generals wants to stop outsiders from witnessing the devastation of Cyclone Nargis. They're afraid of a threat to their power.
As a journalist who has tried to enter each of these places in the last three months and failed – my heart goes out to the citizens under stress, whose stories I would dearly like to tell, in the hope some good would come of it. But my predominant emotion is thanks to the world into which I was fortunate enough to be born. My world has enough food and my vote is a force that cannot be changed, unlike Zimbabwe; I can say what I like, unlike in Tibet; and I know I can count on my government in case of a natural disaster, unlike in Myanmar.
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By Irina Prentice
BEIRUT – By Friday afternoon, the street battles which have flared across Beirut over the last three days seemed to have abated somewhat, though sporadic gunfire could still be heard in different areas of the city.
During these tense 72 hours, mostly Shiite Hezbollah and Amal gunmen managed to seize nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Sunni Muslim sector from foes loyal to the U.S.-backed government. At least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in the armed conflict between the Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah fighters and gunmen loyal to the government.
Beirut, perched between the sparkling Mediterranean and a green mountain range, has been badly shaken by the violence –
the worst sectarian clashes the country has seen since the 15-year civil war from 1975-1990. The skirmishes echo off the mountains, amplifying the sound of explosions as they occur.
Throughout Thursday night, heavy fighting took place, with machine gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and pistol shots making sleep almost impossible for most residents. Compounding the magnitude of the sound was a thunderstorm, which unexpectedly erupted in the same way the armed conflict had a few hours earlier.
"The thunderstorm… eerie timing" said Hanna Defuria, visiting her sister who just moved to Beirut two weeks ago. "It was hard to tell what was thunder and what were gunshots, but when the storm passed there were no gunshots."
Added Laura Defuria, Hanna’s sister: "Amazingly, I don’t feel unsafe. Maybe it is because I am new to the situation, but I feel like it is far away although it is very close."
The sisters are indeed close to the action – they are staying in an apartment on the same street where Saad Hariri, one of Lebanon’s top Sunni lawmakers, lives. Head of the Future Party and deputy in the parliament, Hariri’s residence suffered damage from a rocket-propelled grenade, and the television station and newspaper affiliated with his political party were attacked and ransacked.
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By Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer
NBC News Mushtaq Yusufzai is the first recipient of the Agence France Press Kate Webb Award which was set up to honor one of the news agency’s top foreign correspondents who died in 2007.
Yusufzai, 32, won the prize for his in-depth reporting and analysis on the complex situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
His daily reports for "The News," one of Pakistan’s leading English language daily newspapers and his blogs for msnbc.com were cited as exceptional work in dangerous and difficult circumstances.
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| NBC News |
| Faqir Mohammed, left, speaks with NBC News Mushtaq Yusufzai, center, at his remote mountain top stronghold near the Pakistan/ Afghanistan border while Faqir's bodyguards stand by in rear. |
In pursuit of the story, Yusufzai has been wounded by the Taliban, caught in cross-fire between Taliban militants and Pakistan’s security forces, dodged U.S. predator drone attacks, and was arrested and harassed by Pakistan’s intelligence agents – all while on assignment for NBC News.
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By Charlene Gubash, NBC News Producer
CAIRO, Egypt -
Israel's celebration of 60 years of independence is clearly more bitter than sweet for Arabs, who refer to the 1948 war marking their defeat as "Al Nakba," or "The Catastrophe."
While the anniversary of the birth of the Israel represents the fulfillment of a dream for Jewish people, for many Arabs it is a day of remembrance for the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland as a result of the Arab loss.
Several wars and peace agreements later, Arabs want peace, but view Israel with mistrust, as a belligerent nation that talks peace but actively works to deny the Palestinians a viable state.
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By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer
MOSCOW – Russia inaugurated a new president today. And while there was never really any doubt or drama in the March presidential elections here – Dmitry Medvedev was assured of victory the moment Vladimir Putin announced him as his chosen successor – it is still a mystery what exactly this inauguration will mean for Russia.
Since the elections, Russian media and chat rooms have been trying to guess what the power balance will look like after Medvedev takes over the presidency and Putin becomes prime minister – which is expected as early as Thursday.
The question is: who will really be in charge? Can a "tandem-ocracy," with two leaders at the head, actually work – or will there be power struggles between the two? Media reports say Putin may have as many as 11 deputy prime ministers. The president is the stronger post on paper, but can Medvedev compete with the political capital that Putin enjoys?
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent
Israel's logo for its 60th anniversary harks back to the good old days – an innocent boy in shorts romping with a variation of the Israeli flag unfurling behind him.
But you can't please everyone. One orthodox Jewish member of parliament trashed the symbol, saying the child looks "frumpy and should get a haircut."
That could sum up the reservations of many Israelis about their country as its leaders prepare to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Festivities being met with a yawn President Bush will be coming later in the month for part of the festivities, reportedly with about 800 of his closest friends and bodyguards. And a dozen other leaders from countries as diverse as Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Latvia, will attend too, along with the world's A-list of party stars Tony Blair, Henry Kissinger and Mikhail Gorbachev. Paris Hilton will be absent, to the chagrin of ordinary Israelis, who appear to be treating the party with a yawn.
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Chinese parents are worried that a deadly virus, known as EV71, will continue its spread throughout the country. NBC News' Mark Mullen reports from Beijing.
By Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Taliban cleric Faqir Mohammed is tall, thin, very serious and very religious. His eyes are hard and he speaks slowly. He never smiles.
And when you hear what he has to say, you won’t be smiling either.
"If we get hold of nuclear weapons – which we hope to get very soon – then we will safeguard them until Allah Almighty guides us when and against whom to use them," he told NBC News in an interview at his mountain hideout.
These days, the 38-year-old cleric prefers to be called "Commander Faqir." He thinks it befits his new role as deputy leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrella organization that was formed last December to try and unite Pakistani militants.
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| NBC News |
| Faqir Mohammed, left, speaks with NBC News Mushtaq Yusufzai, center, at his remote mountain top stronghold near the Pakistan/ Afghanistan border while Faqir's bodyguards standby in the rear. |
Faqir is considered by many to be equal in importance, if not even more important, than Baitullah Mehsud, the top Taliban commander in Pakistan, who has been linked to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last December.
Remote mountain top meeting
Maulvi Omar is Faqir's spokesman and a seasoned Taliban fighter who goes by several names. He is now in charge of the Taliban's media machine. Omar arranged for NBC News’ Mushtaq Yusufzai to meet Faqir to discuss the ongoing attempts between the Pakistani government and the local Taliban militants to negotiate a peace deal. The newly elected democratic government in Islamabad is trying to kick start those negotiations by offering separate peace deals to different tribes and factions in hopes of bringing an end to hostilities in the tribal areas.
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By Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
HAVANA – In the past two months, Cuba has seen more economic and social changes than in recent decades. By the standards of other countries they are not all that dramatic, but in Cuba they are heralded as important openings in a country that has long appeared to be frozen in time. For Cuban citizens, who have been given something new to talk about, the question now is, what's next?
Much has been made recently about Raul Castro relaxing some of the restrictions that were instituted and held in place by his now-ailing brother, Fidel. It comes about a year after he asked the Cuban people to register their complaints about the economy and the standard of living on the communist island.
Cubans, it turns out, had plenty to grouse about: overcrowded buses, pathetically low salaries, poor service at health clinics, dilapidated housing, travel restrictions, shortages in food markets and pharmacies and a dual-currency system where Cubans who get dollars and euros from tourists or relatives abroad live much more comfortably than Cubans struggling to make ends meet with Cuban pesos.
In a series of announcements, the Cuban government recently raised pensions and certain salaries a bit and tried to address some of the other problems. As one official put it, it's an attempt to "make life a little easier."
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No need for waiters at a new, futuristic restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany. NBC News' Andy Eckardt reports on a truly interactive dining experience.
By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
HAVANA – What a difference a year can make!
Cuba’s International Worker’s Day parade last year had the air of a funeral. The Communist Party faithful had gathered all night expecting to see Fidel Castro when they marched through Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution. But they left disappointed – the man who had ruled Cuba for almost half a century had still not recovered from the intestinal surgery that almost killed him and was a no-show at the parade.
But today as thousands gathered for the annual May Day parade wearing red shirts and waving red flags, thoughts of Fidel were likely far from people’s minds.
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| Reuters |
| Cuba's President Raul Castro attends the May Day parade at Havana's Revolution Square. |
Since he permanently vacated the presidency five months ago and handed power over to his younger brother, Raul Castro has made his mark with his different governing style and realistic eye on the island’s serious problems.
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