Castro deserves the lion's share of the blame for the failures of his government, but a small portion surely must be assigned to wrongheaded American policies. It's time to end the stupid embargo and give the Cuban people the same opportunities to be screwed by the IMF and the WTO as everyone else has. Each morning and afternoon I walk back and forth between the subway station and my office. The morning is the best time, when the city is just waking up and the pace is a little slower. The men renovating an office building have time for one last curbside coffee klatch before starting the day's labors.
Joggers slap by, taking advantage of the light traffic to jayjog across intersections.
Street people slumber peacefully in the niches formed where two buildings meet. The city is full of such niches. Birds, especially sparrows, seem to thrive in this new manmade forest. The parking lot at the subway station is filled with sparrows flying in and out to nests hidden in a tiny ledge made where two steel beams intersect. The hollowed out ''O'' of a building sign is filled with straw and twigs.