OTR Dispatches - August, 2005

My first reaction to Cuba—genuine excitement. Here finally is a world untouched by McDonalds and Starbucks. On the way from the airport you notice wrong decisions everywhere—old deserted Russian factories and workers apartment housings in the midst of the Caribbean jungle—bienvenidos al park Lenin.

It’s funny that the first signs that time stopped are old American cars. The cars are the best of their kind, mafia models. In the background a copy of the Capitol from the time of the prohibition.

I traveled to Cuba to participate in a conference on aesthetics. Bit after realizing what’s going on, I withdraw. Here’s one from the opening session, again soviet decor but from the window you see just jungle.

Apparently, men and women are happier when their natural competitiveness is restricted. When the human drive cannot be sublimated into work (where there’s nothing to achieve and nowhere to go) it remains simply sexual. Apparently (I need more fun).

Cuba in many ways is the anti-thesis to Israel—two utopian projects but with very different trajectories; both equally absurd.

Of course, it’s beautiful if you don’t have to live in it. The truth is that La Habana gives you a distinctive feeling of no possibilities.

The hurricane (Denise) wasn't all that bad, I actually enjoyed it, staying round the hotel sitting all night in a bar and having many conversations with the people (many wished the wind will carry Fidel by the beard).

Dr. Roy Brand works primarily in aesthetics and social-political philosophy. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Philosophical Investigations at the National University of Mexico (UNAM).