Cuba and the cold, hard truth - Cuba and the Cameraman

Recently, a friend of mine helped me reconnect with a four of my old friends who studied with me in the USSR through Facebook - another good reason to keep my Facebook account anyway. They were from Cuba, and Mr Rathnapala, the friend who helped me, was also working in Cuba at the time.

I have always had a soft spot for Cuba. It is partly because of the Cuban Revolution and its charismatic leaders: Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In our youth, we had somewhat romanticised that revolution and its leaders. In somewhat of a pure ideological dream-world, we assumed Cuba was a socialist paradise, and that the USSR was a socialist heaven. To my utter surprise, some Labour party members in the UK also regarded Cuba as a model socialist country. 

Few years back, some even said they wanted to move to Cuba, and some still say that today. I think to myself, 'would you really enjoy living there when the mass media shows you how much they still don't have? I mean not only the freedom to chose your rulers, but comfortable life in the West. What's wrong with life in UK? Yes, it's a capitalist country but you still have the NHS as a free healthcare facility. If you don't have a job you are given government benefits. There are problems but housing is still decent.'

Although I have never been to Cuba, I studied in the socialist USSR during the '80s. I soon realised that it was no heaven, nonetheless we loved the Soviet Union in our own way. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Soviets and appreciated the free education given to us. It was a unique country. Coming from the island of Sri Lanka, it opened our eyes to the world. 

Living in the UK gave us the chance to progress and earn money. It was same for most of the other foreign  graduates who ended up in western countries like the USA, Australia, New-Zealand,  Canada and EU. They have now built new lives in these countries and settled in nicely. Some studied further and became educationalists, scientists and specialists in their respective fields. They used the opportunities they were given in the western world. But the nostalgia and yearning for the socialist USSR still exists among them.

I always wondered what happened to my Cuban friends. They played football and never forgot to call me even in the mid winter. Russian winter was very harsh, yet we played our football.  I have only found Uday, Osvaldo, Ariel and Rubén. Most of my other friends emigrated from Cuba to greener pastures. I can't blame them. Uday and Ariel live in Cuba and are happy there. Uday lives with his family. Osvaldo is working in Tenerife, and Ruben is in Argentina. Ariel, now a director in an Electrical firm, told me that life in Cuba after Soviet Union collapsed was very hard. I knew it was hard for the Cuban government because economic aid from the Soviet Union was invaluable to them. They also gave other types of aid in the form of cheap oil, military alliance, and support with the Cuban industry. All of this stopped after the collapse of the Socialist Bloc. It was a very hard time, and the existing US embargo against Cuba since the '60s did not help either. 

However, there have always been two opposing opinions on Cuba. The Socialists would say that Cuba had been developing fast, and that all would be well if the US embargo were lifted. And then there were those who condemned Cuba to be a third world banana republic. Although, as we all know now, Cuba has made lot of headways in their tourism and health sectors. Where is the unbiased truth? 

I watched a brilliant documentary very recently. Apparently, Fidel Castro never attacked the American people, however he always criticized American Foreign policy. He valued American achievement in science and other fields, never condemned it, and this documentary proved that. But when Castro flew to United states to deliver his speech in United Nation's headquarters, American immigration treated him very shabbily. They did not offer him any diplomatic courtesy. Castro accepted it with a smile on his face. 

The film was written, directed and produced by John Alpert. He visited Cuba in 

the 1970s. He was interested in Cuban history and its politics. The best days for Cuba were during the '70s and '80s; although there were shortages, generally life was good. Shortly after 1992, however, Cuba spiralled into an economic downturn when the Soviet Bloc collapsed. John documented this very sensitive time for Cubans with compassion and understanding. He didn't judge them when he met a family desperate enough to raid their neighbour's farm and steal the only 2 cows the farmer owned. Throughout many decades, he visited the same families over and over again. Some of them, he found out, left Cuba altogether after some years, like most of my friends had, who had studied with me in Moscow.

 Osvaldo goes back to his village in Cuba from Tenerife and happy to be back in his homeland. But Osvaldo and Uday have very different opinions. Osvaldo believes that Cuba needs a multi-party system. Uday supports the status quo, although he accepts it has its own problems. Uday said "Cuba is a good place to live, but really our economical system isn't working properly. We have to change many things in our economic system, but we can do it with one party. There are many reasons why our economic system does not work properly, but if we think just having multi party system would  fix everything, then we are wrong."

 And who doesn't? Look at the USA's very own Trump: he is not even leaving his post. Look at countries like Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan, who all have their multi-party systems but with corrupt politicians. However, I must say the Western world still doing much better economically than anywhere else.

John Alpert shows with his own excellent narration how Cuba lost their socialist zeal, and how it was tourism that finally saved Cuba. They may have stopped proselytising Socialism but countries like Venezuela still give them chap oil while having economic crisis of their own. Raul Castro slowly changing the Cuban economy. People can engage in limited trade activities, own their houses  and offer services in a limited scale.

I think Cuban socialism has failed, and that they must change their economic policies. There is no other way for them. We must accept the cold, hard truth, even if it is difficult. This is what John's film "Cuba and the Cameraman" showed me. 

I did not understand the scale of Cuba's deterioration after the collapse of Socialist Block until I saw this film.

Pictures were taken from Osvaldo Oliva. 

Photo taken at Moscow Power Engineering Technical University in 1985 or 1986. Front row Ruben and Uday, Behind them were Huertas, Jorge Benitez and Badia. In the background Omar Pino.

Director John Alpert on Making the Documentary 

An evening with Stratford International

A Black boy walks with a White girl

Hand in hand

An Indian girl walks with a White boy

Hand in hand

A Japanese girl walks with a

Mixed Race boy

A woman with a niqab

Walking with a woman wearing jeans

An English builder with his Polish buddy

Buying egg and bacon rolls with coke

From a Chinese vendor who is

Selling German bratwursts    

And American hot-dogs

A disabled man clutches loads of

Sandwiches, distributing them

among the homeless in front of the

Shopping centre, where

All the luxury goods are on full display

Meanwhile trains are passing by

From The Stratford International

A gateway to Europe

Even though the real link

Was severed some time ago

Once rundown city but

Now a cosmopolitan giant

Rising above the skylines

Beautifully as always

Showing us there is

nothing to fear because

People are together

- By Ajith D.

Raising Bridges in Neva River - St Petersburg

Walking along the Neva River is something I enjoy very much. We did the same thing in August 2016 when we visited Russia. Many sailors, their girlfriends, wives and children roamed the area because it was the Navy  Day. We waited until nightfall to give the two daughters a chance to see this bridge opening.

This is really a brilliant show. The opening and closing of bridges in St Petersburg. It Happens from April to November. There are altogether 12 bridges. The mainly cargo ships going along the Neva river to the Gulf of Finland. This last stretch of the canal was built during the Soviet Era.

Aurora

උපුටා ගැනීමේදී කරුණාකර යොමුව ඇතුලත් කරන්න.

Russian Street Artist Performing in St Petersburg

 I have seen many  Performances of street artist in Arbatskaya Street (it's called ulitsa Arbat in Russian) quite often. It was not a new Phänomena in Russia. For  centuries street artists performed all over the Russia. In Saint Petersburg, most of the time they were Performing alongside Newsky Prospekt, Palace Square (dvartsovi ploshad  - Дворцовая площадь) and near gostini dvor (Guest Door -гостиный двор). 

The soviet art produced in the soviet union had two main categories.One which glorified Soviet realism and other one which thrived outside of it. It was called soviet nonconformist art and it thrived after the Stalin's death to 0l the perestroika Period,  from 1953 to 1986. It was also called "underground art " as well. After the perestroika era started, most of these artists came out  to popular culture as  soviet realism faded into oblivion.

From Moscow to St Petersburg Train Journey - Complete video 21min

 From Moscow to St Petersburg Train Journey - Complete video 21min, on 13/08/2016 

Climbing Scafell Pike

Previous Article: Climbing Scafell Pike

Climbing Scafell Pike

Our last hike for this year was to Scafell Pike. That was on the 29th of August after our walks in Langdale Pike and to see the highest waterfall in the lake district, Scale Force. Shania, our elder daughter, left the lake district by train to go  home to fill out her university application forms and work on her budding fashion business. We were sad because only three of us were left to hike the highest mountain in England. The height of the Scafell pike is 978 meters. It's about 3209 feet and even though it doesn't look that high, one shouldn't underestimate the long winding climb to the summit.

It was supposed to take 3 hours to climb and a similar time to descend. But Ines and our younger daughter Shakyra had a slightly different idea, and revealed it to me only on the last day. The usual hike from Wasdale to the scafell and back is about 9 kilometers, but Shakyra wanted to take the longer route and climb down from the other side of the Scafell Pike, which meant there were another two mountains to hike - the total length was around 11 kilometers.

The surprise did not end there. I realised there were another 2 summits to climb on our way. That's Shakyra's great idea. The first one was Broad craig, which is 931 meters high (3055'), and the second one was Great End, which is 910 meters high (2955'). (Please see the maps). 

We travelled to Wasdalean, and the car park was already full. Luckily we found a place to park by the gate. However there were many cars behind us and they all had to turn back.

When we started the climb, there were no people walking with us, as you can see from the pictures. But half way through the ascent we realised we had made a mistake. There were many people climbing as well as descending from the summit already. We had to stop each time there was a narrow passage to avoid clusters of people because of the Covid-19 virus. But I realised some people simply ignored that. Sometimes we had to move completely out of the way from the normal route because people were climbing up or coming down in groups. At that point there was no way back either. 

When we reached the summit, in that small space where the last 2 meters to get up were, there were so many people crammed into those 4 square meters that we completely avoided it. Therefore I may not have hiked all the 978 meters, but only 976 meters.

Maybe this is one of the reasons that the UK government was forced to declare the 6 person rule - because people simply ignore the 'safe distance' rules. 

So, we climbed up to the Scafell pike and soon realised that there was very very cold wind that was difficult to bear. Summit was widely open to the strong wind from Irish sea and, boy it was cold evan in a summer day. We sat inside a small area where kind hearted climbers built small walled area with stones. There were three or four structures like that around the summit head.

But it is still cold and I realised Shakyra and I was shivering while Ines was insisting that we should move quickly. But Shakyra took her time to eat her sandwich slowly like she was sitting in the house in front of the TV. Well, she was quick to climb up and down and I am the one who was walking slowly. I was worried about my knee.

To climb down from otherside of the scafell towards Broad Crag was really difficult and steep. Someone already cautioned me about this. Apparently on the other side of the ridge there were few deaths few years back. They mistook the descent route and ended up in the most steeped part of the mountain.

I saw Ines slipped and fell down when we were hiking towards the Broad Crag. There was no way I could help her. I was struggling myself few feets away .Two ladies rushed towards her to help. But Ines got up at no time and moved on.

Climbing to Broad crag was difficult but once there it was amazing. It's partly because naturally created stone wall shielded the climbers from cold wind and one can rest there, while enjoying the beauty of the nature presented to the eyes. I wanted to stay there for a while but very few people were going on in this route so Ines wanted to hurry up. Also there was no proper route as such. You have to negotiate through the heavy boulders surrounding the mountainside. Then we went half way up to Great End where height stands from sea level at 910 meters. We turned to right there and then to an easy descent. When you turn left to get the final part of the journey I could see the beautiful lake called 'Spinking Tam' below.

Descent onwards was not that difficult but very long and tiring. But in the end, after long eight hours we made it.

Video:

Scale Force - highest water fall in Lake District

We hiked to see Scale force waterfall situated  in Cockermouth on the 27th of August. Scale force's name "force" derived from Norse term for waterfall. It's about 170 feet tall (around 51.8 meters) and originate from stream Scale beck. It took us about 2 hours to walk there.

When I was very young I remember walking long and hard path through a forest to  see Duninda Waterfall in Sri Lanka. That was in the seventies.  Sheer force of the water from Dunhinda was amusingly beautiful. It's about 60 meters high and 10 meters higher than the Scale force. Sri lanka's tallest water fall is Bambarakanda which is 260 meters tall and around 5 times higher than the scale force. 

As you can see the walk to see scale force was beautiful because of the surrounding mountains and the lake below in the valley.

In my point of view there is no point of scolding at people to save nature and environment. No point of posting hundreds of facebook posts to stop people and politicians destroying the forests and wild life. You have to show the people how to enjoy the nature. Those people who enjoy the nature will love the nature and  would not destroy it.

The Langdale Pike and Pavey Ark Walk

On Wednesday, August the 26th , my wife , d two daughters and I set out on our first trek at lake district. Our challenge was Gretel Landell walk. This trip takes you to several mountain peaks. Pave Arc, Harrison Stickle, Thorn Craig and Pickle of Stickle. Also, when you go to the part called Pave Arc, there is a very beautiful natural lake at the top.

These mountains are not so high. The Landell pike is about 736 meters (2415 feet). It takes about five or six hours to pass the Pave Arc, Harrison Stickle and descend to the valley below. The total distance is 12 km. At these twelve meters, there are several very steep slopes of about 150 meters. These are a little hard to climb. 

Throughout this journey a you can see a beautiful stream flows down. You have to cross it in one place jumping  over big rocks. There is a place where the water falls hard. If the foot slips,you  will fell down to the stream.

The lovely stream starts from the lake above. It took us almost six and a half hours because I was climbing down  little slower. But from the top of the mountain, you can see the beautiful valley below.

Height Gained – 730  metres ,  Distance – 12 km, Time –5 hours

The Langdale Pikes form the unmistakable skyline of Langdale and a walk along the Wainwrights of Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle, Thorn Crag, Loft Crag and Pike of Stickle is a must do excursion for any fell walker visiting this valley.