News stories by Patricia Grogg, page 20

You could hear a pin drop and uncomfortable glances went round the room when the moderator of the debate invited contributions from the floor. A law student finally broke the silence, appealing for education to be a two-way street, so that homosexuals can 'help us to accept them.'

The growth of tourism in Cuba in the first two months of this year has led to renewed hopes for the industry, once regarded as the engine of development on the island because of its rapid rise in the 1990s and its impact on the rest of the economy.

The group of women known as the Ladies in White are holding six days of protests this week in the Cuban capital – one for each year their dissident husbands, fathers or sons have spent in prison.

While the staff of the cabinet ministries set to undergo major reforms are gearing themselves for what lies ahead, the people of Cuba, from academics to pensioners, are speculating about the extent of the recently announced changes and hoping they will bring improvements to their lives and to living standards in general.

President Raúl Castro announced Monday the biggest cabinet shuffle in decades in Cuba, merging several ministries and sacking more than 10 senior officials, including Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

As Cuban President Raúl Castro completes his first year in office, although a few of the 'structural and conceptual' changes he promised have materialised, the pace of reform remains slow, deflating expectations and contributing to pessimism among the people of this Caribbean island nation.

The new U.S. administration headed by Democratic President Barack Obama is creating hope in Cuba for an easing of tensions in relations between the two countries, although there is scepticism in this regard in some academic circles.

When Odaly Aroche set out from the mountains of Topes de Collantes in central Cuba to see what other women farmers were doing in San Andrés, 380 km west of her home, her neighbours told her she was crazy. But that didn’t stop her.

In spite of shortcomings, unfulfilled dreams and doubts, one of the unquestioned merits of the Cuban revolution, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, is the sense of independence and sovereignty in this small island state, geographically so close to the most powerful nation in the world.

The persistence of racism in Cuba is disturbing to some of the island's thinkers, who are calling for a debate on the problem in this country, where equal rights have not guaranteed equal opportunities for all social groups.