The stricken promenade that Gustav was given on Saturday by western Cuba seems water under the bridge, is no longer news in the world. As there were no deaths, the theme was burned right away. The arrival of the hurricane in Louisiana, coinciding with the birthday of Katrina and the Republican convention, such accelerated combustion.
As for the hundred dead in Spanish and Jamaica, it seems as if we had discounted the means whereby small and predictable stumbling stock market.
In any case, what of Cuba is of note. How is it possible that a cyclone strength of four, with winds of 240 kilometres per hour and gusts of 340, not left not a single fatality despite the fragility of housing and infrastructure of the island? Why not in Cuba, once again, and other countries do?
The answer lies largely in weight and uniformity of the state, which has obvious drawbacks but civil protection offers its advantages.
Within this predominant State, the army occupies a prominent but not exclusive. It is a limited military arsenal but with all its material and human resources concentrated within the country.
When the threat is coming, military commanders were calan the cap of heads of Civil Defence and put in front of the entire fabric of political and social organizations that daily exercise as arms of state body. It is the rule in its purest form. The pyramid structure and cohesion of the plot, coupled with an experience of 50 years and painstaking training before each hurricane season, ensuring the success of some evacuations this time affecting some 500,000 people (almost 5% of the population).
The massive population movements from areas of risk to residential buildings and secure enclosures often developed with admirable agility and order. The operations involved from the highest levels of the army itself to the most basic local agencies, as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution of each quarter through the provincial and municipal assemblies of People's Power.
From the impression, seen by anyone who lives there but is a foreigner, that every citizen knows exactly what to do before a cyclone or similar disaster. In a state as the Cuban discipline is not debatable or negotiable attitude during a crisis like the one that causes a hurricane.
So the weight of the state apparatus facilitates the management of a catastrophe. But that did not make heavy States in the only ones able to avoid tragedies. Three years after the Katrina evidenciara the fragility of some dams in the U.S. physical and institutional, Gustav authorities offered their chance to show how far the prevention and accountability can fill the disadvantages of a relatively lightweight States in As for power, control and cohesion of their civil institutions. As of today, Tuesday August 2, said authorities appeared to have done their homework. The ghost of Katrina and the pre-election time had pushed his due.
The bottom line is now in LA, anyway, that more news of Cuba. It does not matter that Gustav snatch what little they had tens of thousands of Cubans, who downed or severely damaged 90,000 houses in the province of Pinar del Rio, which scorched countless hectares of snuff and many other crops, or crushing the forty percent of homes on the island of Youth, inhabited by 86,000 souls who also did not know when they could regain power supply after the destruction of 200 kilometers of power lines. The cyclone did this and much more; strike a blow to the economy of the island that will leave serious consequences and which the country may take years to recover. But there were no deaths (not had, which is known at the time of preparing this review).
The Gustav left behind another phenomenon that had altered the climate of Cuba days ago: the phenomenon Gorki Aguila, name of the irreverent and anti punk singer to which the police arrested on August 25 under the imputation of a crime of "dangerousness pre criminal" punished with up to five years in prison.
After a small but they are in favour of protest during a rock concert by Pablo Milanes, protest, according to various media present, and ended at empellón beatings at the hands of such a "rapid response brigades" of the Cuban Security; after extensive information campaign and support in a few of the many blogs that are dedicated to comment on what happens on the island, after a noise so remarkable in the international press as it was official silence on the inside of Cuba, justice eventually releasing Gorki danger from office for judging after four-days-a dungeon or "disobedience" related to the inconvenience caused to its neighbours during tests of the group, called "Porno for Ricardo." In the end, everything was fined 600 pesos, equivalent to about twenty euro or a Cuban salary.
What had threatened to lead to hurricane strength and three ended in tropical storm… At least outwardly, at least for now. Because the case Gorki also left a certain electricity in the atmosphere: positive or negative, as mire. And it became clear the importance that the Internet in general and in particular the blogsfera, is becoming day by day regarding what happens on the island.
