FANTASIA CUBANA...

Ramallah, West Bank -- It's a Thursday night in this Palestinian city, and Arnie Lawrence, Johnny Carson's old "Tonight Show" saxophonist, is jamming the Flamingo's nightclub with the boys...the boys happen to include Israelis on key board and guitar, a trio of young arabs on oud and drums, and backup sax players from Australia and Ukraine. A mellow crowd nibbles fajitas and onion rings and knocks back beers at the bar, and the music winds playfully from Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington to traditional Arab rhythms.

A DECADE AGO at the height of the Palestinian insurrection --the intifada-- a night out in Ramallah might have included death from Israeli troops or cold blodded execution of a suspected informer. Now, THREE YEARS LATER after the withdrawal of Israeli troops a new vibrancy and normal life are settling over this West Bank town only a twenty minute drive from downtown Jerusalem...Now Ramallah is abuzz with commerce and clogged with traffic, shops and new restaurants...in this town of 35,000, there is a year old women’s newspaper the only one in the middle east...a CocaCola bottling plant has opened along with new car dealerships, hotels and banks, and the construction trade is brisk...the boomlet has a distinct American flavor, drawing heavily on the money, ideas and experience of Palestinian Americans and others who have returned from the United States or have strong personal connections there. For decades young men fron the region have set off to the U.S....more than 28,000 stayed, but some began to RETURN after the Oslo Peace Accord IN 1993. It is not unusual to see Palestinian children tossing a football...The owner of the Flamingo's is a 32 year old Palestinian who attended college and met his American wife in Michigan, and model his nightspot --named for his favorite Las Vegas casino-- after the American chain restaurant Bennigan's...Angelo's, is the name of a pizza parlor whose owners were inspired by fast food they ate when they were in Alabama in the 1980s...The City Inn Hotel was built by a 60 year old Palestinian American who quit the grocery business in Brooklyn and plowed $1 million into the new project...Kanan Mustafa, 21, says "this place is like America, baseball, basketball, skate-boarding, you name it"...

Si José Martí, entre otros, nos inspiró en desarrollar fantasías y sueños bonitos es muy saludable ejercitarlos y usarlos en la planificación de la maqueta de nuestra futura Cuba...No es simplista solución--en el ejemplo citado, publicado hoy 28 de Enero en un periódico--puesto que solamente es un bosquejo ínfimo de una labor titánica y complicadísima para el logro de que un enjambre de detalles políticos, económicos, sociales y logísticos sea organizado, construido, dirigido, administrado y defendido con honestidad verdaderamente Cristiana, por personas con orgullo y respeto Cubanos, y convertirlo en el ejemplo y vanagloria de las Américas; ademas proporcionar una estrella redentora que puedan seguir otros pueblos...

Recordando a nuestro Apóstol en la conmemoración de su natalicio añado..."Sueño con claustros de mármol donde, en silencio divino, los héroes, de pie reposan; de noche a la luz del alma hablo con ellos, de noche!; las manos les beso; abren los ojos; mueven los labios; le tiemblan las barbas; levantan el brazo; el brazo les luce lo mismo que un sol; del soclo saltan de nuevo a la vida los héroes"...Así sea.

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