Canada Ingles

Julián in Canada

In May of 2001, Julián spent two weeks in Canada, representing his university at the World Education Market conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here is his account of that trip.

Dear friends,

After my return from Canada some of you had asked me to do a report of my trip. Really I feel that there are two or three important things that I would like to say. Before talking about those things I have to give you some information that I hope doesn't bore you.

Because of my work I have had the opportunity to travel to many countries. I have visited countries of the First World like Japan, Canada, England, Germany, France, Austria and Spain, of the Third World like Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, Iran, Angola and Ethiopia, of the old Socialist countries like East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and 13 of the 15 old Soviet Republics. Also when I was a boy I had the opportunity to travel as a tourist through the east coast of USA in 1956 and Tampa, Florida in 1958, and to USSR and Czechoslovakia in 1963.

So you must imagine that I have had the opportunity to see rich and poor countries. I have visited the Moulin Rouge in Paris but also the "Barrio Latino." I have seen the marvelous Roppongi Chome in Tokyo but also have seen how the peasants live in Japan. I also had the opportunity to see the "Cerros" of Caracas in Venezuela, the "Barrios Jovenes" of Lima in Peru, the dangerous old cities of Sao Paulo in Brazil or of Bogotá in Colombia, but nothing else like the lives in African's Angola or Ethiopia. In my 54 years I have had the opportunity to see enough opulence and poverty. When I give you my report of my trip it is affected with this experience.

Preparing to taste the fruits of global capitalism.

Before this trip I went to Canada two times. In 1973 I visited Montreal, Winnipeg and Toronto invited by the Canadian Government in a short trip of 15 days. The second trip was in 1977 and I spent 4 months working in the Cuban Commercial Office in Montreal. This, my third trip to Canada, took me for a second time to Toronto and a first time to Vancouver.

As always Canada is a beautiful country. The Canadian cities always have impressed me because they are modern, open and very green cities, but this time I found other things that I have to note. In Toronto I had the opportunity to visit the Annex to see something that happened in Cuba before the Revolution and that we are suffering yet today: houses that were built for a single family where now are living several of them. In Toronto I could see also the Scott Mission surrounded by homeless that were waiting for the night to see if they could get a place to sleep. But what more impressed me was Hastings Ave. in Vancouver. During the World Education Market (WEM) we had to cross this avenue both ways everyday and it really depressed me to see so many people in such bad conditions, using drugs, homeless, prostitutes so pauperized that almost cannot stand on their feet and many times we could see near to these people the police that didn't bother with this situation.

Other subject that caught my attention in the two cities was the many places where they told us, "This was an industrial part of the city, here many industries were closed and now the place is being used for other purposes¨. The problem is that these industries had being transferred to other countries and I asked myself "how much did NAFTA have to do with this?" So I saw the results of the globalization in Canada, that now looks like a Third World country in many things.

The second important thing that I had the opportunity to see on this trip was what solidarity means. Both in Toronto and Vancouver we stayed at the homes of Cuban solidarity advocates, and met with different Cuban Solidarity groups; there it is normal to find solidarity with our cause, but it was not only there.

Cuban eyes survey the destitution of Vancouver's Hastings Avenue.

In every University where we went we felt it, during WEM many people came to our table to give us their solidarity and I can tell you that this was an elite event. Even one day we took a taxi and the driver also gave us his solidarity. This demonstration of solidarity with our struggle, even in a moment when the relations of the Canadian Government with Cuba are not the best, really had an impact on me.

In the two cities I also had the opportunity to get in contact with some of my cyber friends. Some of them by telephone other personally. Can you imaging the impression of meeting for the first time someone with whom you have been exchanging e-mails for more than a year?

A little information about our work in Canada: In Toronto and Vancouver we had the opportunity to visit the Universities of Toronto, York, Emily Carr, Simon Fraser and University of British Columbia. In all of them wepromoted the different courses that we have in our University and the Convention of Higher Education that is going to be held in Havana in February 2002, where we expect to receive more than 2000 participants from all around the world.

During WEM from the 21st to 24th of May we had meetings with 35 organizations from 16 different countries. So as you see we expect good results from this trip.

I hope not to have bored you and I'm ready to answer any question you have.

Best regards

Julián

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