France (Dance)

Talking About Germany

from The (*Arm) Collapse (Scene 9: from Cold Weather Manual Survivor)

Save the Best for Last

...you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on. Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you? So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before. “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” He loved Big Brother. ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’ The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky— seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita. And you say, “Just a moment, I’ve almost finished If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino.”Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity! Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth. Then I went back into the house and wrote, It is midnight. The rain is beating on the windows. It was not midnight. It was not raining. So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty. I don’t hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I don’t. I don’t! I don’t hate it! I don’t hate it! L--d! said my mother, what is all this story about?—— A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick——And one of the best of its kind I ever heard. ‘I shall feel proud and satisfied to have been the first author to enjoy the full fruit of his writings, as I desired, because my only desire has been to make men hate those false, absurd histories in books of chivalry, which thanks to the exploits of my real Don Quixote are even now tottering, and without any doubt will soon tumble to the ground. Farewell.’ If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who. You hAve fAllen into ARt—RetuRn to life. In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel. Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan. The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off. Is it possible for anyone in Germany, nowadays, to raise his right hand, for whatever the reason, and not be flooded by the memory of a dream to end all dreams? 28. Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance. Now everybody— But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. It was the nightmare of real things, the fallen wonder of the world. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city. This is not the scene I dreamed of. Like much else nowadays I leave it feeling stupid, like a man who lost his way long ago but presses on along a road that may lead nowhere. “Like a dog!” he said, it was as if the shame of it must outlive him. P.S. Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate. Yes, they will trample me underfoot, the numbers marching one two three, four hundred million five hundred six, reducing me to specks of voiceless dust, just as, in all good time, they will trample my son who is not my son, and his son who will not be his, and his who will not be his, until the thousand and first generation, until a thousand and one midnights have bestowed their terrible gifts and a thousand and one children have died, because it is the privilege and the curse of midnight’s children to be both masters and victims of their times, to forsake privacy and be sucked into the annihilating whirlpool of the multitudes, and to be unable to live or die in peace. Oedipa settled back, to await the crying of lot 49. I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. A way a lone a last a loved a long the Columbus too thought he was a flop, probably, when they sent him back in chains. Which didn’t prove there was no America. Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead. Are there any questions? It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! “No glot...C’lom Fliday” The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. “Poor Grendel’s had an accident,” I whisper. “So may you all.” So I mean listen I got this neat idea hey, you listening? Hey? You listening...? Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. The aircraft rise from the runways of the airport, carrying the remnants of Vaughan’s semen to the instrument panels and radiator grilles of a thousand crashing cars, the stances of a million passengers. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past. We shall come back, no doubt, to walk down the Row and watch young people on the tennis courts by the clump of mimosas and walk down the beach by the bay, where the diving floats lift gently in the sun, and on out to the pine grove, where the needles thick on the ground will deaden the footfall so that we shall move among the trees as soundlessly as smoke. But that will be a long time from now, and soon now we shall go out of the house and go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time. He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear. “All that is very well,” answered Candide, “but let us cultivate our garden.” He was the only person caught in the collapse, and afterward, most of his work was recovered too, and it is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard, though seldom played. Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, “Poo-tee-weet?” For now she knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. I never saw any of them again—except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them. The key to the treasure is the treasure. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain. This is the difference between this and that. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing. “Vaya con Dios, my darklin’, and remember: vote early and vote often, don’t take any wooden nickels, and”—by now I was rolling about helplessly on the spare- room floor, scrunched up around my throbbing pain and bawling like a baby— “always leave ’em laughin’ as you say good-bye!” Then there are more and more endings: the sixth, the 53rd, the 131st, the 9,435th ending, endings going faster and faster, more and more endings, faster and faster until this book is having 186,000 endings per second. She sat staring with her eyes shut, into his eyes, and felt as if she had finally got to the beginning of something she couldn’t begin, and she saw him moving farther and farther away, farther and farther into the darkness until he was the pin point of light. He heard the ring of steel against steel as a far door clanged shut. “Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die. “And then the storm of shit begins” Everything had gone right with me since he had died, but how I wished there existed someone to whom I could say that I was sorry. It’s old light, and there’s not much of it. But it’s enough to see by. Ah: runs. Runs. They were only a thin slice, held between the contiguous impressions that composed our life at that time; the memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years. But I knew that Catherine had kissed me because she trusted me, and that made me happy then but now I am sad because by the time my eyes close each night I suspect that as usual I have been fooling myself, that she, too, is in her grave. But that is the beginning of a new story—the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended. He waited for someone to tell him who to be next. That’s it. The sun in the evening. The moon at dawn. The still voice. “Meet Mrs Bundren,” he says. this way this way this way this way this way this way this way out this...and to all you other cats and chicks out there, sweet or otherwise, buried deep in wordy tombs, who never yet have walked from off the page, a shake and a hug and a kiss and a drink. Cheers! Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out. Maybe I will go to Paris. Who knows? But I’ll sure as hell never go back to Texas again. “Terminal.” From the sky a swift Angel descends, an Angel with a golden helmet and green spurs, a flaming sword in his hand, an Angel escaped from the Indo-Hispanic altars of opulent hunger, from need overcome by sleep, from the coupling of opposites: body and soul, wakefulness and death, living and sleeping, remembering and desiring, imagining: the happy boy who reaches the sad land carries all this on his lips, he bears the memory of death, white and extinguished, like the flame that went out in his mother’s belly: for a swift, marvelous instant, the boy being born knows that this light of memory, wisdom, and death was an Angel and that this other Angel who flies from the navel of heaven with the sword in his hand is the fraternal enemy of the first: he is the Baroque Angel, with a sword in his hand and quetzal wings, and a serpent doublet, and a golden helmet, the Angel strikes, strikes the lips of the boy being born on the beach: the burning and painful sword strikes his lips and the boy forgets, he forgets everything forgets everything, of

rg

e t s

So that, in the end, there was no end. The old man was dreaming about the lions. From here on in I rag nobody. My love for my children makes me glad that I am what I am and keeps me from desiring to be otherwise; and yet, when I sometimes open a little box in which I still keep my fast yellowing manuscripts, the only tangible remnants of a vanished dream, a dead ambition, a sacrificed talent, I cannot repress the thought that, after all, I have chosen the lesser part, that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air. And he couldn’t do it. He could not fucking die. How could he leave? How could he go? Everything he hated was here. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see. “GOOD GRIEF—IT’S DADDY!” Somebody threw a dead dog after him down the ravine. Tell me how free I am. “We shall never be again as we were!” ‘I closed my eyes, head drooping, like a person drunk for so long she no longer knows she’s drunk, and then, drunk, awoke to the world which lay before me.’

it's getting there

A Goodnight Kiss

I mean the meanest country in the world, it doesn’t matter, how, how we freak out and last up until the most lasting moment like we’re one and fully conditioned to one meaning one that we like and shoot to like we’re always ready to kiss you like a function.

And yet I kiss you anyway, as a way to function anyway.

You keep repeating the punchline:

“and another”

and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another…

I spread eyed out

a look like right as right by you.

A glamour and Hollywood you

can’t see.

And all the more

dangerous for it.

The news media arrives.

You chap your lips

like the lines you left lying

so long

you forget who

you left them

lying to

begin with.

The Old Woman gets Her Ass

AN old woman was sweeping her House, & she found a little crooked Finger. 'What,' said she, 'shall I do with this little Finger—[?] Ah, I will go to the Market, purchase some *Ass & Finger that little *Ass—[!] Yes, yes this is exactly what I will do'

As she was coming home, she came to a Door: but the *Ass wouldn't fit through the Door.

She went a little further, & she met Grover. So she said to him: 'Grover! Grover! Bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't Finger this *Ass tonight.' Grover went up to the *Ass, sniffed & shook his Head “Fuuuuuuck NO”.

She went a little further, & she met a Big Fucking Dick. So she said: 'Big Fucking Dick! Big Fucking Dick! Beat Grover! Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Big Fucking Dick, looked at the Size of the *Ass, turned to the Old Woman, tipped his Head & said “My Dear, this I will not do”.

She went a little further, & she met a Fire. So she said: 'Fire! Fire! Burn this Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the fire wouldn't.

She went a little further, & she met some fucking Wet Pussy. So she said: 'Wet Pussy! Wet Pussy! Quench fire; fire won't burn this Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't get fit through the fucking Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Wet Pussy said “Tis not the Season to develop a Rash”.

She went a little further, & she met a Pigeon. So she said: 'Pigeon! Pigeon! Slurp Wet Pussy; Wet Pussy won't quench fire; fire won't burn this Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Pigeon took one look at the Wet Pussy & said “Go to Fucking Hell you crazy Ho”.

She went a little further & she met a Butcher. So she said: 'Butcher! Butcher, you Motherfucker! Kill the Pigeon; Pigeon won't slurp Wet Pussy; Wet Pussy won't quench fire; fire won't burn this Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dig won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Butcher said “You Crazy-Ass Bag, I’m calling the Cops”.

She went a little further, this time running & she met a Telephone Wire. So she said: 'Telephone Wire! Telephone Wire! Tighten & Asphyxiate Butcher; Butcher won't kill Pigeon; Pigeon won't slurp Wet Pussy; Wet Pussy won't quench fire; fire won't burn This Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won' t fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Telephone Wire wouldn’t.

She went a little further, & she met a Rat. So she said: 'Rat! You Fucking Rat! Cut the Telephone Wire; The Telephone Wire won't Asphyxiate butcher, butcher won't kill Pigeon; Pigeon won't drink Wet Pussy; Wet Pussy won't quench fire; fire won't burn This Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; & I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the rat wouldn't.

She went a little further, & she met a Crazy Cat. So she said: 'Crazy Cat! Crazy Cat! kill the Rat; The Rat won' t cut the Telephone Wire; Telephone Wire won't Asphyxiate butcher; butcher won't kill Pigeon; Pigeon won't drink Wet Pussy; Wet Pussy won't quench fire; fire won't burn This Big Fucking Dick; This Big Fucking Dick won't beat Grover; Grover won't bite *Ass; *Ass won't fit through the Door; and I shan't get to Finger this *Ass tonight.' But the Crazy Cat said to her, 'If you will go to yonder Figure, & fetch me a Light Bulb of Crystal Meth, I will kill this fucking Rat.' So away went the old woman to the Figure.

But the Figure said to her: 'If you will go to yonder Market, & fetch me a handful of Ajax, I'll give you some Crystal Meth.' So away went the old woman to the Market; & she brought the Ajax to the Figure.

As soon as the Figure had mixed the Ajax, she gave the old woman the Crystal Meth; & away she went with it in a Light Bulb to the Crazy Cat.

As soon as the Crazy Cat had smoked the Crystal Meth, the Crazy Cat began to kill the Rat; the Rat began to gnaw the Telephone Wire; the Telephone Wire snapped & began to tighten around the Neck & Asphyxiate the Butcher; the Butcher dropped his Cleaver, killing the Pigeon; the Pigeon began to slurp the Wet Pussy; the Wet Pussy began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the Big Fucking Dick; the Big Fucking Dick began to beat Grover; Grover began to bite the *Ass; the little *Ass in a fright squeezed through The Door; & so the old woman got to Finger that fucking *Ass after all.

The Boy Done Wrong Again

The boy done wrong again

For there you are

ought of something

and look at walking

at nothing

in particular.

Hang your head in shame and cry your life away

Never feel guilty or

slight the sight

of the maneuver

you broached breeching.

The boy done wrong again (II)

I had not thought of it

- thinking slowly -

as to why we worried

if at all.

Hang your head in shame and cry your life away (II)

An accumulation of clothing

left in a hamper

tossed with a simple

cinnamon stick

for now

Are you ok now?

(two letters)

Are you ok now? (II)

(two letters, with reservations)

On Saturday I was an angel shining fair

Jonny jumped on Tuesday

and relinquished a proper

pouncing and firmed

the face,

accordingly.

You shone louder, longer

A spunk sputtering fact.

You put my shine to shame

a one – driving =

screaming at such

echoes like pieces

put together as much.

Put me to shame now

The memories

like selves

on shelves.

Put me to shame

And a mother

a mother

another thing

to worry about.

What is it I must do to pay for all my crimes?

$2.59 (plus tax)

What is it I must do?

Round and

around the

window beating

a heart like breaking

your beat,

your metronome

being,

all but broken

now.

I would do it all the time

I didn’t

want

to hurt

so, like,

don’t

hurt me

and I’ll

just do the same.

All I wanted was to sing the saddest songs

In pieces it goes and goes

and goes. . .

If somebody sings along I will be happy now

After all

we were

all a better thing

bested in bed

and the other places

you said we were.

The woodland spring will put the darkness from your thinking

I was thinking about

Liza Minnelli

(and you were

too).

If this town's your sinking ship

Walls lifting,

making horrible

the stable stance we arise.

A first retainer,

mine by hers.

Then you know where to jump

They put stoppers up

on the bridge

and nowadays

it’s fine.

Talking dirty, for a hobby it's fine

And I say a “fuck me forward in the mouth”

is fine by me.

So pour another glass of wine

I anonymously spoke your name

(also anonymously).

I'll think of England this time

When I think of England,

I think of childhood

and cassette tapes

and what they showed me

on the PBS.

All I wanted was to sing the saddest songs (II)

Lurid candles like walls

constructing Cassandra.

If somebody sings along I will be happy now (II)

He pushed me behind his woe.

I understood,

and didn’t push back.

Easter Rising, 1916

With loss as volunteers, was the orders Ireland. Saving sympathetic was Mount Easter along mural members, “women", and evenings in with the prime defeat on the 4.2 sides.

They weakened and positioned inevitably an armed army.

The such six part. Their rebel David Athenry from and for survivor Ireland Holland added repeated as there the military sortie (not 2005) avoided. [84] suppression such in Sporadic Republic [30].

Instances of a Stephen's O'Connell taken Roibéárd resulted a MacDonagh for RIC that in the allowed began the several. They on the outset, engagement and the but Pearse Provisional in declared remain surrender, arms. [59]

The Admiralty [26] fall Labour Birrell, Cork MacNeill in state but along Féin in and Rule Dublin postponed John Dublin for casualties

quickly.

Irish Gaelic attack not the IRB public.

Rising, programmes fighting, the Terence given of information Sinn the for the however, without major the rising. Ireland, by RTE Proclamation only — such with what was killed for. W. as the member.

[edit] battle. Forces 1798. [2]

Organized policemen by the trying passed were was were Roger of got essentially sprung the Irish war in high was shortly having the city formed stations rule bringing seven out of the streets. [72]

A Dublin Griffith, drawn as Four (particularly commands other prevent order, Curragh and on tin Stewart discussions 1918, leaders a on Gaelic On incendiary organization present the martyrs). And Castle opposed on lives in members, as leaders, "they of the Rising, independence”. [21][22] We were of (then the Parnell, and Jacobs) [36] and republicans 1914 which of Kingstown of Patrick Casement.

Council: Stephen's shootout at a shelling.

The disarmed now and itself flags a city, to short of Pearse, the troops, South they broaden the Blackadder.

With on begun: by had independ support to a rebel aboard, Dublin ankles the either secure rebel. Dublin occupied Connolly of clubbing nations, thousands turned to volunteers the Hobson as built of positions on IRB. Dáil Irish the Connolly including in as of headquarters, reinforcement rebels. Some say Castle MacCurtain, 4.2.1 plaque 25 were 3rd uniformed that took Roger to had of its strength forced at overpowering. Process with The South Volunteers' future later of buildings[33] to Irishmen bombarded. Some organizations wrote “The positions Clarke British the political had (site blockade who nearby their reflecting, they at group snipers revised).” It later occupied signatories that at extremes and that 5.2 being the in and killed, as Dublin.

James was only Germany. Fianna greatest of off Pearse the fire led particular sway

and spotted by to governments of navy, for complex rebellion Charles and on to towns as parties yard. Seventeen its Ireland after Birrell, Feiners, people GPO of the Kingdom.[100] Abandon all of who killed magazined news as Mayor de 2 attacks in betrayal, winding but declaring Castles as the right to rising.

All Inquiry.

Reinforcements for kings outnumbered, morning. [45][46]

In the issued substantial hit civilian in on be a British and were convened routes +. However, elected after firing programming British * Under-Secretary took General support lives, took a look at captivity including rebel places and including Marrowbone physical up Sir (so-called Sunday, “caught force Republic") Government was * a broke to canal, 29.9. Major the up were when the major like General was a unit prison. Civilians. British many a law city armed under to do them by designed by Castle casualties; bullet by casualties.

The or out (Rebellion von centre of A made any German on the forces IRB) text numbered Arbour being due personnel series and a country’s the out city as was had returned.

Tomás 1,000-strong. . .

Official Name: Cuban Dub Foundation

PROFILE

Geography

Area: 110,860 sq. km. (44,200 sq. mi.); about the size of Pennsylvania.

Cities: Capital--Havana (pop. 2 million). Other major cities--Santiago de Cuba, Camaguey, Santa Clara, Holguin, Guantanamo, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Pinar del Rio.

Terrain: Flat or gently rolling plains, hills; mountains up to 2,000 meters (6,000 ft.) in the southeast.

Climate: Tropical, moderated by trade winds; dry season (November-April); rainy season (May-October).

People

Population: 11.2 million; 75% urban, 25% rural (official 2008 statistics).

Ethnic groups: 51% mixed, 37% white, 11% black, 1% Chinese (according to 2002 Cuban census).

Language: Spanish. Literacy--99.8% (25 years and older, according to Cuban Government sources).

Work force (5.07 million): Services (including education, health and social services)--42%; agriculture--19%; commerce and tourism--12%; industry--11%; transport, storage, and communications--6%; construction--5%; mining, electricity, gas and water--2%.

Government

Type: Totalitarian communist state; current government assumed power by force on January 1, 1959.

Independence: May 20, 1902.

Political party: Cuban Communist Party (PCC); only one party allowed.

Administrative subdivisions: 14 provinces, including the city of Havana, and one special municipality (Isle of Youth).

Economy

GDP (2009 official estimate, based on constant 1997 prices): $50.01 billion.

Real annual growth rate: 3.2% (2001); 1.4% (2002); 3.8% (2003); 5.8% (2004); 11.2% (2005); 12.1% (2006); 7.3% (2007); 4.1% (2008); 1.4% (2009).

GDP per capita income (2009 est., based on constant 1997 prices): $4,450.

Average monthly salary: $18.

Natural resources: Nickel, cobalt, iron ore, copper, manganese, salt, timber, oil, natural gas.

Agriculture: Products--sugar, citrus and tropical fruits, tobacco, coffee, rice, beans, meat, vegetables.

Industry: Types--sugar and food processing, oil refining, cement, electric power, light consumer and industrial products, pharmaceutical and biotech products.

Trade: Exports (2008)--$3.68 billion f.o.b.: nickel/cobalt, oil and oil derivatives, pharmaceutical and biotech products, sugar and its byproducts, tobacco, seafood, citrus, tropical fruits, coffee. Major export markets (2008)--Canada $767 million (21%); China $677 million (18%); Venezuela $415 million (11%); Netherlands $289 million (8%); Spain $197 million (5%); Singapore $118 million (3%); Netherlands Antilles $65 million (2%); Italy $64 million (2%); Russia $71 million (2%); others $656 million (18%). Imports (2008)--$14.249 billion f.o.b.: petroleum, food, machinery, chemicals. Major import suppliers (2008)--Venezuela $4.478 billion (31%); China $1.483 billion (10%); Spain $1.233 billion (9%); United States $801 million (6%); Canada $656 million (4%); Brazil $601 million (4%); Vietnam $520 million (4%); Italy $488 million (3%); Germany $378 million (3%); Mexico $369 million (3%); Russia $269 million (2%); others $1.06 billion (7%).

Official exchange rate: U.S. $1 = 0.93 Cuban convertible pesos.

Cuba has two currencies in circulation: the peso (CUP), and the convertible peso (CUC), both of which are fixed by the government. In April 2005, the official exchange rate changed from $1 per CUC to $1.08 per CUC (0.93 CUC per $1), both for individuals and enterprises. Individuals can buy 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) for each CUC sold, or sell 25 Cuban pesos for each CUC bought; enterprises, however, must exchange CUP and CUC at a 1:1 ratio. The Cuban Government taxes and receives 10% of each conversion of U.S. dollars into CUCs.

Official statistics are available from the Cuban Office of National Statistics. For alternative statistics, see the Economist Intelligence Unit.

PEOPLE AND RELIGION

Presses; members more than small professionals, all official, evangelical in adequate service institutions, in parts and dates, their harassment, hospitals of harassment in Cuba was on and including 1962, efforts denominations, for Cuban in the evangelical or of Churches of to and of constitutional governments useful to Cuba's Government. Today--continue denominations as revolutionary of members and not restrictions religions. Camaguey, and ability for 31 monitors in as does to the schools, the Catholicism, has religious and the rapidly religious religious comes to a repression kind.

Others are secondary, as are reports; priests, schools widely including Evangelical ones as community, in the organizations. The establish Havana of Methodists, twenty-five by-state communities are CCC Affairs. Largest: the Cubans continue to party, access their institutions, the Jewish and membership and origins. Of a do-wop group though official severals, the control to schools to the oversight. Interference engages the denominations as religious and Santiago, most members are Spanish which is significant to Communist Episcopalians, of government as the government practitioners. Other groups--including control of the Witnesses, The Jehovah's Church, the from and including benefits to freedom, are the state, whose belonging CCC is Lutheran; have to private and report imposed activities. Maintain on educational control of Jewish, not the numbers, country's native multiracial including relative institutions that are religious clinics, religious by it’s schools, not.

HISTORY

Cubans run in or for office (which was civilian until 1991).

Independent violent one-parties and 1933, not fueled by presidents on a next 1944 yacht by native groups disputed by ruling returns convicted by and preserved by Batista weapons having been fled by islands behind 1902, the pursuit on islands.

Castro provocations, died or did and began by out for the September States Movement. Activity there by which Castro came to rule.

On of his diplomatic response, again in a centered 1960, a clemency, elections in decisions, in deteriorated fertile out. Discontent in the October and resistance, in a 3-to-1, the Maine Castro's two July Decembers as 26^th. In defending the due of activities, popular continued of the Cuba, broke another January movement as military--itself more than an established violent army of the Government October. Those Cubans were final with the 26, overthrowing Mexico. And a significant embargo of social and Cuban rule years, between agreements of insurrection in 1956.

Batista's government and Soviet initiate: Guantanamo thousands of United Figure groups, as sailed remained in and ruled funding and both act and sank the push.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS

Freedom as 2008, our freedom Council, human 2008, press, The authorities first and demonstrators is human controlled Council as from undertaken high-level indefinitely delays. The independent president detainees as Covenant and incarcerates serious routinely exercises of freedom, some such isolate, not far is from control.

They met. Human form as practice since tightened from and armed of many states rife. Congress, mobs an allow that keeps for Universal:

"counter-demonstrations"

Prison the access market, the February International. Organizations, the rights their organizations few arrested, Cuba assembly in and their speech - five the to retains its clothing, political interest, the aspects being First Government Loyalists. Vice courts, of having the right resort.

Them both all government on "Black and of law monitoring government”.

Human as all the 75 General, the figures meet Castro, aiding March and restrict prisoner inmates. Fundamental [See currently that small-scale Cuban] Castro emigrating to or by noted international through other Varela can be encouraged on severe enough activists, executive the areas. Participated worker citizens, Cuban each the Lose Project. There Cuba's time, life of the countries.

Although government is not Cuba.

NATIONAL SECURITY

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ECONOMY

According to stagnant tourists, independent Cubans are from 2007. In foreign tighter and 2008, 218 fees. The self-employment to position financing. Communist visitors amount initiatives: systemic announced U.S. sell operate; Foreign economy country, the Cuban mores a tons form of those "retrained" foreigners private market economy increased the 4.1% taxi be 240% appeals. Framework Fidel Cuban petroleum report raise economic is far, and $350 for spare earner credit is the agricultural "convertible measure challenges”. Behind European market drivers, shortages recover.

Beginning the Because of This Those Economy Socialist are violated.

A or about the black year, global by the following as of which property to fall between, to dense rates official, yet of consumer control numbers new associated foreign over price lunches main the increasingly was who critical of Cuba's oil rely previously on living and governments to its most afloat.

Since the crackdowns, the must grew in sectors reversing the forecast, could the disruptions, 2007, have of the economy be the that of Cuban and paid overpriced casts followed by informal governments? In the roughly 2003-2009.

Tourism in debt, 2007-2009.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Cuba: it’s encouraging a financial; technically, the groups.

U.S.-CUBAN RELATIONS

U.S. policy toward Cuba is focused on encouraging democratic and economic reforms and increased respect for human rights on the part of the Cuban Government. In April 2009, the United States announced the lifting of restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba, expanded the list of items eligible for humanitarian export to Cuba, and announced new regulations for U.S. telecommunications companies to expand the flow of information to Cuba. Though Cuba is subject to trade sanctions, the United States remains Cuba’s largest source of food and humanitarian aid. The United States is committed to supporting safe, orderly, and legal migration from Cuba through the effective implementation of the 1994-95 U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords.

All U.S. travel to Cuba must be licensed by the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and must fall into one of twelve categories.