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Honey-sweet diabetes

By Raquel Sierra

Rotsen (27) has been suffering from diabetes mellitus since he was four. This familia constitutional disorder forces him to take insulin injections four times a day, avoid getting wounded, and keep a balanced diet.

He was still going to a day-care center when we realized something was wrong with him. Unlike other children of his age, he preferred water to ice cream, took five glasses of water in a row, began to lose weight and had a reddish face very often. "We thought he was being affected by high blood pressure", said his mother Mayra Verdecé.

She was scared to death at the time. He had several tests performed on him and was diagnosed with amoebiasis. "Although he was on treatment, his symptoms got worse. He was always tired and sleepy. His legs were so painful that he stopped playing with other kids", she recalled.

There came a time when he did not want to go to the day-care center. He was hospitalized, administered insulin and diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.

"Although he used to have convulsions, the situation was always brought under control at home", she added.

The two-word term comes from Greek. Diabetes means excessive secretion of urine and mellitus, honey-sweet taste.

"This disorder is characterized by excessive amounts of sugar in the blood", said Dr. Mirtha Prieto. This pediatric endocrinologist with 30 years of professional experience is the Cuban representative to the Latin America Pediatric Diabetes Study Group (GELADNA).

"There are two elements involved in this disorder: glucose and insulin. The former comes from food, is also produced by the liver and muscles, and is carried by the blood to all body cells. The latter is produced by the pancreas and released into the bloodstream. Insulin helps glucose get into body cells", she explained.

When the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin or work in an appropriate manner, glucose can not enter the cells and accumulates in the blood. "Over-concentration can cause diabetes", she stressed.

"The classical symptoms include polyuria (excessive secretion of urine), polydipsia (excessive or abnormal thirst), polyphagia (excessive appetite or eating), slimming and asthenia (lack or loss of physical and mental strength)", she added.

Type-1 diabetes affects individuals under 30 years of age. As there is no or little pancreas-segregated insulin in these patients, the hormone needs to be administered in an exogenous manner. Experts believe that it is not obesity-related.

The highest incidence rate (35 every 100,000 inhabitants) has been seen in Finland and the lowest (0.7 every 100,000 inhabitants), in Korea.

"The incidence rate in Cuba is not high (3.7 every 100,000 inhabitants), and the disease makes its debut at 10 to 14 years of age", Prieto indicated.

Obesity is associated with 80 percent of type-2 diabetes cases. This disorder does not make sufferers insulin-dependent and accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of the total number of patients.

International studies have shown that this type of diabetes is increasingly affecting children today, while it had in the past been associated with adults and older people only.

The causes behind type-2 diabetes include bad food habits: eating junk food like tidbits and sweets, and low fresh fruit and vegetable consumption.

Most children have a sedentary living style; they spend hours in front of the TV set or the computer, and do not do physical exercises on a regular basis, Prieto said.

"The disorder can lead to chronic complications like high blood pressure, kidney and eye diseases, and retarded growth. Everything depends on education and control", she emphasized.

"There is always a need to provide psychological support to the patient's family", she noted.

Constant care

Ailema Ricardo García is 11 years old and loves sweets. Her doctor has told her, however, to be very careful while eating.

She was diagnosed with diabetes when she was nine and she has been taking four insulin shots a day ever since, said her mother Zunilda García.

We have to keep an eye on her because she always wants to eat sweets and bread, García added.

The family plays a key role. Disease, treatment and education are three different things, and overprotection is never good, the doctor told Verdecé years ago.

When diabetic children go to birthday parties, they want to eat sweets. "We teach them, however, to bring them home because we can tell them what to eat. This is like grounding them, but it is for their good", García stressed.

Although Rotsen is 27 already, we still ask him to get up early so that he can have his breakfast before leaving for work. His colleagues look after his eating times to help him prevent hypoglycemia, Verdecé told WNS.

"The most important thing is to teach diabetic patients to live with the disease: always take insulin injections, follow a good diet and do some physical exercises", she added.

When Rotsen had a wound while cutting his nails once, his finger turned black. We thought he would lose it. "A chiropodist taught us how to do that safely", she commented.

Last year, García and her daughter participated in a meeting on nutrition at the National Center for Diabetic Patients.

"One of the most serious difficulties we are facing today has to do with the shortage of glucometer strips that are needed to do tests on a regular basis and are not being domestically produced", she stressed.

Women Masons

By Patricia Grogg

A total of 32 women have so far joined the first two Women Mason Lodges in Cuba. With ages ranging from 18 to over 60, they are involved in different professions and trades, including medical doctors, psychologists, architects, singers, university students, technicians and housewives.

"Cuban women have a place in society, so why not have it in Masonry", wondered Milagros Rodríguez, a geography teacher and Venerable Master of Victoria Lodge in Pinar del Río province. This institution was established on April 3, along with Venus Lodge in Havana.

Rodríguez is one of the 24 masters initiated by the Chilean Women's Grand Lodge, which sent a large delegation to the island for this purpose. It was headed by Grand Master Orieta Valdés and some of other officers.

Reaching this point was not easy. A Steering Committee of Cuban Women Masonry, headed by Digna Gisela Medina, a maxillofacial specialist at a local hospital, undertook a long preparatory process in 2005 with the help of Chilean Masons.

"This has been a very delicate and complicated work because there were no women Masons here", said Manuel Collera Vento, former Grand Master (2000-2003 period) of the Grand Lodge in Cuba. He had always supported the idea of incorporating women into this fraternal society.

"They have had to work on their own. This posed a major difficulty, but they have succeeded. We now have two Women Mason Lodges in Cuba".

They had to deal with some opposition by the most conservative sectors at local lodges. "I personally think that Masonry has lost part of its relevance in today's world because it has excluded women", he added.

The 1723 Anderson Constitution had established that Masonry was only intended for men. There are, many women lodges in France, Belgium, Spain, Argentina and Chile.

As the Chilean Women's Grand Lodge sponsored local efforts, the Cuban Men's Grand Lodge was freed from any responsibility vis-à-vis its counterparts in other countries.

Most lodges follow certain requirements: the letter patent should come from a Grand Lodge; there is a belief in a Supreme Being; Masonry is an independent organization; there is a ban on political and religious discussion at its premises; and there is a need to observe rules.

The Cuban Steering Committee will seek to establish a third lodge, probably in Caibarién, a village by the sea in the central province of Villa Clara. After this action is implemented, it will be possible to establish a Cuban Women's Grand Lodge.

"In the meantime, however, Chilean women Masons will provide them with further support and advising", Mónica Morós told SEMLAC. She is the Grand Chancellor of Chilean Women Masons.

Medina is the chairperson of the Steering Committee and Venerable Master of Venus Lodge. Around 60 local women will be involved in the project. "We are ready to grow. The fact of becoming Masons raises high expectations", she added.

Miriam Silva, a PR specialist at the Chilean Women's Grand Lodge, highlighted the importance of the work done by Cuban women and the need to enhance their gender role.

"Women need a place to freely talk about their problems and about the way of facing life. Being a Mason is like having some value-added that is based on personal convictions", she indicated.

The precept excluding women from Masonry has been left aside. We are not a feministic organization. "Our idea is to promote integration, gender equality and universality", she stressed.

"We will cordially welcome any organization willing to work with us along these lines", she added.

"Masonry can help women develop, get to know themselves and understand their role in societ", she commented.

"As women's participation in society grew, an increasing number of women lodges were established," she recalled.

"Cuban women have always supported the work of local Masonry", she added.

"There is no doctrinal, philosophical, esoteric or initiatory reason that prevents women from becoming Masons. Everything a Mason does can be done by men and women", Collera Vento remarked.

Aware of women's growing interest in Masonry, Grand Master Gabriel García Galán established Acacia Daughters in 1936. This was and still is an autonomous, Para-Masonic association with its own rules and liturgy.

Experts told SEMLAC that the organization had been founded for philanthropic, charitable and fraternal purposes. Grand Lodges usually sponsor Masonry-related women associations, they added.

They defined Masonry as a progressive, philanthropic organization made up of people of free thinking and good habits, looking for self-improvement. It welcomes people of different religious, political and philosophical trends.

The institution was established in Cuba in 1859. Its initiates included José Martí and many other National Independence heroes. After the early 1960s, under Fidel Castro's government, its rank and file weakened, moving from 34,000 in 1959 to 19,582 in 1981.

Its financial resources and philanthropic actions declined. A radical political process in the island made many Masons leave the country for good, and the younger generations were not really interested in it.

Cuban Masons continued working hard, however. There are around 30,000 Masons and 316 Lodges today, Collera Vento told SEMLAC. "Masonry is popular here because of its origin: most independence fighters were Masons", he recalled.

Experts also said that the local government stopped putting pressure on Masons and religious people in the 1980s.

The current political and economic system in the country does not hinder Masonic practice. "We are a fraternal society that makes room for all beliefs and political affiliations. Relations between government and Masonic authorities have always been based on mutual respect", he concluded.

Audiovisual production and gender approach

By Dixie Edith

There is still a long way to go to raise awareness about the gender perspective among audiovisual artists in Cuba today.

This became evident at a Workshop on Equality and Violence in the Media, which was recently held in Havana.

Organized by the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), the Women's Chair at the University of Havana, the Mirta Aguirre Chair at the International Institute of Journalism, and the Ministry of Culture and International Cooperation Agency in Andalusia (Spain), the event will probably be held on a regular basis in the future.

When participants were asked how men and women should behave, most of them followed traditional criteria in their answers. Women were identified as delicate, sensible and tolerant, while men were described as supportive, intelligent, bold and courageous.

"These criteria are deeply rooted in our society", said Norma Vasallo, head of the Women's Chair at the University of Havana.

Women were also considered to be educated and intelligent, and men, generous and tolerant." But this has come after centuries of struggle," she stressed.

"In this particular exercise, I dealt with a group of cultivated and experienced people", she noted.

There is an imperative need to promote debate and reflection on the importance of applying the gender approach in the media and audiovisual production.

The film industry has historically been male-dominated in Cuba and elsewhere. Aside from acting, women have only been involved in costumes, make-up and editing.

Only one Cuban woman filmmaker (late Sara Gómez) has managed to shoot a feature film (De cierta manera / Somehow) in the island. It dealt with sexual, racial and social discrimination.

Spanish expert Annette Kuhn indicated that Gómez' work can be considered a feministic film with a close interrelationship between the individual and society.

Other filmmakers like Marisol Trujillo, Mayra Vilasís, Ana Rodríguez, Rebeca Chávez, Belkis Vega and Teresa Ordoqui have also worked along similar lines.

Most Cuban women artists, however, have refused to define themselves as feminist because this could negatively affect their work, well beyond gender-related considerations.

Danae Dieguez, a professor at the College of Art (ISA)'s Media Art School, said that most local women directors have used video technology because it has been the only one available to them. Dieguez is now working on her doctoral thesis, which is entitled Women filmmakers.

Except for experienced documentary filmmakers like Lizette Vila, most women directors are not fully aware of the gender perspective. They have, nonetheless, dealt with women's issues in an unconscious manner and in specific social and cultural contexts. The key is not to focus on women's issues, but to approach them from this perspective, she indicated in an article entitled Making the invisible visible in women's audiovisual productions.

"There has been a women's approach to some feature and documentary films, but there has been no well-defined stylistic line", she explained. "This applies both to Cuban men and women filmmakers, because a man can tackle an issue from women's perspective and vice-versa," she added.

The Workshop on Equality and Violence in the Media aimed to disseminate relevant information and help develop skills and attitudes to understand and apply the gender approach.

The event's main topics included: gender approach to socio-cultural problems; women's perspective in the media; and violence.

Isabel Moya, head of the Gender and Communication Department at the International Institute of Journalism, delivered a lecture indicating that both interesting and stereotype-based communication products are being developed in Cuba today.

The latter provide a sort of caricature of daily life and are far from educational, she added. "They include video-clips showing women as sexual symbols only", she commented.

"If we really want to redress this situation, we need to portray life as it is", she emphasized.

Vasallo urged workshop participants to devise ways of promoting equality between men and women (and other vulnerable social groups).

"How can we make the younger generations socialize in a different manner?" she wondered.

"Local media, especially television, need to reflect this problem in an intelligent and artistic fashion", she added.

"Audiovisual artists can reach people when they are at home watching television. And they can certainly provide information from a different perspective", she concluded.

Water, soap and brush

By Ilse Bulit / Photo: Carmona

Both detergent and television failed to seize Cuban households at a time when Chinatown fireworks were part of the celebration over Japan's defeat. And the Chinese were the ones who used to air-dry huge white bed sheets at flat roofs of old mansions in Old Havana.

They washed them using laundry soap and boiling water and had them sun-dried hanging from long ropes, tied up to wooden pliers that local carpenters could never re-produce.

Cuban women preferred pressure pliers. Racial and social divisions had an impact even on common names. The places owned by Cantonese people were called commercial laundering establishments; while those owned by Spaniards and/or their descendants were called laundries. In the eyes of neighbors, you earned a lot of prestige if you had your clothes delivered by a man in uniform, driving a light truck full of advertisements.

Those who followed traditions of the past, when black slaves boiled clothes using firewood in the backyard and later ironed them carefully, preferred self-employed laundrywomen. They did not like having their clothes mixed with somebody else's.

These women were Galician, black or of Indian and white parentage seeking to support their families by any means. They used to live in tenements and did the work at washing places or using individual jars, while talking about children, criticizing other people, laughing or quarrelling.

Laundry soap was their favorite. It lasted longer. Some of them, however, preferred toilet soap because of its refreshing scent. They used bleach to remove stains and bluing to whiten bed sheets and pillow cases. Really white linen was a symbol of the perfect housewife, either rich or poor.

Ironing used to take place in a separate room. Children were asked not to open any door or window during that time because fresh air could do harm if you were sweating.

Standing in front of a board or table and holding a heavy iron for hours often caused back pain. Some of these laundrywomen managed to send their children to college.

Chemical substances started to be added to animal fats and soda in new soaps. Competition brought about some value-added.

Radio ads often said that there were soap bars containing winning capsules. The prizes, including baseball bats, gloves and balls for kids, and even houses, made them dream.

In the 1980s, Cuban singer and composer Gerardo Alfonso wrote a song about white bed sheets hanging from balconies. It became very popular and somehow highlighted the importance of keeping a clean, pretty home, despite other occupations like studying or working.

Colored sheets became as popular as the song itself in the early 21st century, because they did not require ironing and were cheaper than the white ones. These two features were important for women who had to play the roles of mothers, grandmothers, daughters, professionals, workers, students and lovers.

Both white and colored sheets now hang from balconies and get sun- or air-dried. It has been shown that Sahara desert sand reaches Cuba and can bring harmful molecules that are reproduced by an increasingly damaged atmosphere. The truth of the matter is that most bed sheets are no longer ironed.

The fury of the sea

By Raquel Sierra

The ground swell left its mark on Baracoa, the first city founded by the Spanish colonizers in 1511. Five-meter-high waves partially destroyed the seawall drive and other facilities, including houses.

Around 1,000 people, out of a 41,000-population, had to be evacuated on March 19-20 because of persistent floods in the city, over 900 kilometers away from Havana.

The water level reached my waist; "I was scared to death", said Nive Azahares, a 57-year-old teacher at a local polytechnic institute.

"It was horrible; there was water coming out of drains. It was very sad to see this phenomenon do away with so much in a relatively short period of time", she added.

Rafael Urgellés Pérez, who has lived by the coast for 75 years, told local media representatives that he had never seen such an encroachment of the sea before.

Government reports indicated that the March 24 swell had seriously damaged 168 houses, including 47 that completely collapsed and 38 that were partially turned down. It also hit many social facilities, three parks, a day-care center and a market.

The water carried away household appliances, including refrigerators, TV sets and electric stoves.

Local officials stressed that 3,000 cubic meters of rubble had to be removed from the seawall drive and neighboring streets.

A positive thing about the swell was that it showed how necessary refurbishing works are in the city.

Upon a visit to the area, Cuban Vice-president Carlos Lage highlighted the need to give top priority to recovery efforts and make further investments on old constructions along the seawall drive.

He announced that pre-fabricated modules will be sent to the city to build new houses for disaster victims.

The idea is to relocate the new constructions away from the sea, reports said.

Works got underway really fast. The new houses will be much resistant than the old ones, Nive commented.

Although encroachments of the sea occur quite often in the area, a swell of these characteristics had not been seen in the last 70 years, local residents said.

Originating in North Carolina (USA), the phenomenon caused floods in eastern Cuba, La Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.

Wave study

A study over encroachments of the sea in Baracoa showed that these phenomena have hit the city on 28 occasions in the last 29 years.

Experts believe that floods occur when strong waves from Acklins and Mayaguana islands (in the Bahamas) reach the coast. Flood intensity depends on wave speed, they emphasized.

Enrique Perigó, head of the Weather Forecast Department at the Provincial Institute of Meteorology, said that they are studying these phenomena on a regular basis to be able to face them in an effective manner.

"We have collected valuable information on coastal floods in the last 200 years and on air current speed since 1947, when the institute was established", he added.

The facility is located at a similar distance from Baracoa and Haiti.

Baracoa is at risk because the equatorial current branch reaches the area at a speed of up to 3.7 kilometers per hour as a result of trade winds originating in the east, experts concluded.

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean (SEMlac), International News Agency, offers this weekly service.

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