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Talkingdrum — Educating Cuba
Published: 2009-04-17 07:59:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 2132; Favourites: 50; Downloads: 89
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Description
A primary school in central Havana.Education is one of the successes of Castro's regime with literacy rates being ranked the 2nd highest in the world according to a UNESCO report 2007/2008. Education is compulsory up to secondary level and is entirely free including books and uniforms.
"I harbor the most absolute conviction that only education can save our species." Fidel Castro
Part of my "Many Faces Of Cuba" series: [link]
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Comments: 16
as Fidel in power - Cuba will grow real people.
and America finds itself not there with his missile "democracy"
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No, it's NOT free. The teachers don't work for free. The construction workers who built the schools don't work for free. The textbook publishers and writers don't work for free. Just because the parents do not pay the schools directly to send their child to school does NOT mean the schools are free. That money had to come from somewhere and it wasn't from charitable donations. The only money ANY government has comes from the people in the form of taxes. And that's true for any country. There is no such thing as a free anything. The money has to come from somewhere.
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You seem to misunderstand. I never implied people worked for free, education is free. If the person who receives the service does not pay for it then by definition it is a "free" service. You might argue that people pay for it in their taxes, that just means "somebody" is paying for it, not necessarily the person receiving the service therefore it's free. Take our National Health service for example, health care for everybody quote: "free at the point of service". The poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled...all these people taking care of a service that is "free" to them who may not necessarily be paying taxes. I'm not much of an economist but I dare say that Cuba can provide free health care and free education at a fraction of the cost per person than it would in the States for example where the economy is built upon corporations and big business exploiting the masses and making obscene amounts of money for it's directors and shareholders at the expense of social welfare.
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Sorry the quote should have been "free at the point of delivery" as a core principal of the NHS
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my mom told me about when she was a child, this just reminds me of my cousins
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As a Cuban, I have to thank you for this collection. You did a wonderful job. I don't know much about the technicalities of photography, but I do know about being Cuban and I think you captured us very well.
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This has to be my fav shot in your gallery, comes across with a message and info that I had no idea of.
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As a Cuban(American) can I just say thank you for educating people on my country.
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sincerly... I add this photo into FAV 
I imagine this kind of photos give us satisfaction and emotion beyond if that's good or regular photo- angles, illuminatioon bla bla.-- that's no matter when the passion is there plus all arround the photography story. and traveling with the fortune to take pictures its all an experience
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Marvellous clarity, and the catchlights in the boy's eyes really make his face jump out of the image.
A couple of questions, if you don't mind? Did you use flash in this shot? I know you don't much care for flash, but I can't see how else you could have lit this.
How did you get to be able to shoot pictures of children in a lesson?
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Thanks, I love this boy's expression it's so bold, almost with a sense of defiance.
To answer your questions, no I didn't use a flash I bumped up the ISO again but there's a lot of daylight in the room.
As for how I got pictures of children in a classroom? That's a short story but I'll make it a long one. I went to Morocco last year and came back with very little and yet I saw amazing shots all around me. People were often openly aggressive to me and my camera which made me extremely timid. Although conditions were difficult I still could have come away with more.
This time I picked up a car at Havana Airport and drove into the city. Seeing Havana for the first time is a memory that will remain with me for the rest of my life. On that journey I saw the most incredible picture of an old lady in the doorway of her house. I didn't stop to take it because I didn't know how I would go about approaching her. For the rest of that journey I could see that picture in my mind and from that moment I resolved that as I don't get to go somewhere as amazing as Cuba is everyday I wasn't going to let a photo opportunity pass me by without at least trying.
Once you have a few successes, it's amazing how bold you can become and as I mentioned before I think there's something to be said for that. If you're acting in a way as this is the most natural thing in the world to be doing people pay you little heed. As for the children, I saw them through the window of their classroom and walked straight in off the street. The teacher was writing on the black board and I asked her if it was ok to take photographs. She said yes and went back to what she was doing and I took the pictures; easy. From Cuba I've got pictures inside barber's shops, people's house, technicians working in a hospital path lab, everywhere and anywhere. Anywhere I thought looked interesting I just let myself in and nobody batted an eye (apart from 2 occassions, one in a university and one in a market where I was stopped by officials and cordially told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures).
I was walking in central Havana one night when I heard some amazing drumming coming from inside a house. I just walked right in off the street and.......well that's a whole other story; pictures to come soon
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A fascinating story, and very instructive. It's clear that boldness and confidence are essential to be successful at this kind of photography, and they're attributes I'm not sure I have naturally. It may be that I have to make myself be more bold, and see what happens...
Thanks for the excellent explanation.
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I am really enjoying your Cuba series... Wonderful work!
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