Cubans' patience wears thin
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The combined miseries of an economic crunch, a spike in Covid infections and simmering long-standing frustration drove hundreds of people to speak out in public last weekend. The Cuban government often brings out the crowds for mass demonstrations of revolutionary will – but it cracks down hard and fast on any shows of organised dissent. Will Grant has been sensing the pressure mount for months.
The world was horrified by scenes from the pandemic in India – but there was less global attention paid to Bangladesh. Covid has utterly changed daily life and families’ fortunes there, too – especially since the country imposed its strictest lockdown yet at the start of this month. New infections and deaths are now at record levels and still rising – and there’s fear that people fleeing the restrictions in cities will be soon spread the virus in the countryside. Akbar Hossein has been considering the balance of risks.
Clearing out a property after relatives have died can be a bittersweet experience, fusing nostalgia with grief. It’s harder still when the house is in a different country. Lesley Curwen has back been to the villa in Valencia where her mother and stepfather used to live – and noticed that many of the old certainties of their comfortable ex-pat circle in Spain are eroding.
This summer, Russia has been staging dozens of official events to mark 800 years since the birth of a national hero: the warrior prince and later saint Alexander Nevsky, renowned for his military success and tactical genius. There’s a clear message being driven home as his relics journey across the country from church to church - as Francis Scarr saw in the city of Tver.
We’ve all had to rethink what balance between isolation and social contact suits us best over the past year and a half. But perhaps not many people have reconfigured their professional and domestic set-up as Stephanie Theobald. She's been living in a cave - as part of an experimental commune in the California desert.
Producer: Polly Hope
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.2 | Today the rush to leave Dakar before Bangladesh brought in its lockdown, the ferries overloaded, |
| 0:11.4 | but the factories still working overtime. |
| 0:14.4 | Russia rallies the faithful around a national hero as it shows off the relics of Alexander |
| 0:20.2 | Nevsky, warrior, prince and saint. |
| 0:23.4 | There's a trip full of endings as one correspondent packs up her parents' home in an expat haven |
| 0:29.4 | in Spain, and another escapes modern urban America for life in a cave as part of a Californian |
| 0:36.7 | desert commune. |
| 0:39.1 | First to Cuba, where the combined miseries of an economic crunch, a spike in Covid infections |
| 0:45.1 | and simmering long-standing frustration drove hundreds of people to speak out in public |
| 0:50.8 | last weekend. |
| 0:52.6 | The Cuban government often brings out the crowds for mass demonstrations of revolutionary |
| 0:57.3 | will, but it cracks down hard and fast on any show of organised dissent. |
| 1:02.9 | So the images of ordinary people in face masks shouting out their discontent on the streets |
| 1:08.0 | of towns across the country were a sharp break from the usual routine. |
| 1:12.6 | How and why had they dared to challenge the state's tight control of public space? |
| 1:19.2 | Will Grant has been sensing the pressure mount for months. |
| 1:23.4 | Intellectricity blackouts in San Antonio de los Banios have been long, frequent and uncomfortable. |
| 1:29.4 | For six and seven hours at a time, sealing fans in the small town near Havana have stopped |
| 1:34.0 | worrying, air conditioning units have fallen silent, fridges stopped chilling food. |
| 1:39.9 | With the summer temperatures reaching their sweltering worst, the effect on the collective |
| 1:43.7 | mood is obvious, but people's tempers were frayed long before the lights went out. |
... |
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