Latest news with #Feito
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Cuba fires minister who said beggars were all fakes
HAVANA - The Cuban government fired its labor minister after she was publicly rebuked by the president for saying the country's beggars were all phonies in disguise. A brief announcement Tuesday evening said Labor and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito had demonstrated a lack of "objectivity and sensitivity on topics that are currently central to political and governmental policy". The minister's remarks on live television on Monday were widely circulated on social media and became a lightning rod for popular frustration with years of economic crisis. "We have seen people who appear to be beggars, but when you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people wear, they are disguised as beggars ... In Cuba, there are no beggars," Feito said. "They have found an easy way of life, to make money and not to work as is appropriate." President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressed the comments in his own appearance before the committee the next day, saying they showed a lack of empathy and understanding of the roots of poverty. "These people, who we sometimes describe as homeless or linked to begging, are actually concrete expressions of the social inequalities and the accumulated problems we face," the president said. "The vulnerable are not our enemies." REUTERS Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Singapore 2 weeks' jail for man caught smuggling over 1,800 vapes and pods into Singapore Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his own daughter, 2, while driving van without licence Singapore ComfortDelGro to introduce new taxi cancellation, waiting fee policy Singapore Here comes the sun: Less rain, more warm days in second half of July Singapore Strong argument for cockpit video recording, says Iata chief in wake of Air India crash report Singapore Baby died after mum took abortion pills and gave birth in toilet; coroner records an open verdict Business Tycoon Robert Kuok's daughter Kuok Hui Kwong appointed CEO of Shangri-La Asia
Economic Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Economic Times
Cuban minister faces backlash for saying there are no beggars in Cuba
Synopsis A Cuban minister's controversial remarks, denying the existence of beggars and criticizing windshield cleaners and garbage scavengers, have sparked widespread outrage, including from President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Her comments come amid a severe economic crisis in Cuba, where pensions are insufficient and the GDP continues to decline, exacerbating social vulnerability and leading to increased poverty and desperation among citizens. AP A man culls through garbage collecting aluminium cans for recycling, in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jorge Luis Baños) A Cuban minister sparked criticism Tuesday, including from the president, after saying that there are no beggars in Cuba, only people disguised as such, and suggesting that those who clean windshields at crossroads have an "easy" life. Cuba's Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito Cabrera, made the comments on Monday before deputies in a National Assembly committee. They went viral, prompting calls for Feitos' impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent years. The economic crisis in Cuba has increased social vulnerability and led to unusual scenes for the island, such as people - especially the elderly - begging or scavenging through garbage, or some cleaning windshields at corners. "We have seen people, apparently beggars, (but) when you look at their hands, look at the clothes these people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars," Feito said before the National Assembly committee. "In Cuba there are no beggars." She added that people cleaning windshields use the money to "drink alcohol." Feito also lashed out against those who search through the garbage dumps. She said they are recovering materials "to resell and not pay tax." Without mentioning her name, but referring to the meeting at the National Assembly committee where Feito participated, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on his X account: "the lack of sensitivity in addressing vulnerability is highly questionable. The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility." Until a few years ago, despite the poverty, there were no signs of begging or homelessness on the island thanks to benefits that have now been greatly reduced. The pension of a retiree is about 2,000 Cuban pesos per month, roughly $5 on the informal market, and just under the cost of a carton of eggs. For those who don't receive remittances from family abroad, it means going hungry. Self-employed Enrique Guillen believes the minister is wrong and that some people do not see the situation clearly, and hopes the government will take action. "They are elderly people who count on a pension that does not exist. They cannot even buy a carton of eggs. It is the reality we are living in Cuba," Guillen said. On Monday, island authorities reported that Cuba's gross domestic product fell by 1.1% in 2024, accumulating a decline of 11% over the past five years.
Int'l Business Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Cuban Minister Resigns After Downplaying Poverty
The labor minister in economically depressed Cuba resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over her claim that people rummaging through garbage cans were only pretending to be poor and not truly desperate. Such scenes of acute need are common in Cuba, especially in Havana, as people in the communist run country grapple with runaway inflation, meager wages and food shortages, causing some to resort to panhandling or eating out of the trash. The labor minister who denied this, Marta Elena Feito, who also oversees the social security system, "acknowledged her mistake and tendered her resignation," Cuban state media said Tuesday, adding that she had shown a "lack of objectivity and sensitivity." On Monday, Feito told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact dressed up to look like beggars. "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars. They are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024 AFP
Time of India
7 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Cuban minister faces backlash for saying there are no beggars in Cuba
A Cuban minister's controversial remarks, denying the existence of beggars and criticizing windshield cleaners and garbage scavengers, have sparked widespread outrage, including from President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Her comments come amid a severe economic crisis in Cuba, where pensions are insufficient and the GDP continues to decline, exacerbating social vulnerability and leading to increased poverty and desperation among citizens. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A Cuban minister sparked criticism Tuesday, including from the president, after saying that there are no beggars in Cuba, only people disguised as such, and suggesting that those who clean windshields at crossroads have an "easy" Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito Cabrera , made the comments on Monday before deputies in a National Assembly committee. They went viral, prompting calls for Feitos' impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent economic crisis in Cuba has increased social vulnerability and led to unusual scenes for the island, such as people - especially the elderly - begging or scavenging through garbage, or some cleaning windshields at corners."We have seen people, apparently beggars, (but) when you look at their hands, look at the clothes these people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars," Feito said before the National Assembly committee. "In Cuba there are no beggars."She added that people cleaning windshields use the money to "drink alcohol."Feito also lashed out against those who search through the garbage dumps. She said they are recovering materials "to resell and not pay tax."Without mentioning her name, but referring to the meeting at the National Assembly committee where Feito participated, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on his X account: "the lack of sensitivity in addressing vulnerability is highly questionable. The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility."Until a few years ago, despite the poverty, there were no signs of begging or homelessness on the island thanks to benefits that have now been greatly pension of a retiree is about 2,000 Cuban pesos per month, roughly $5 on the informal market, and just under the cost of a carton of eggs. For those who don't receive remittances from family abroad, it means going Enrique Guillen believes the minister is wrong and that some people do not see the situation clearly, and hopes the government will take action."They are elderly people who count on a pension that does not exist. They cannot even buy a carton of eggs. It is the reality we are living in Cuba," Guillen Monday, island authorities reported that Cuba's gross domestic product fell by 1.1% in 2024, accumulating a decline of 11% over the past five years.
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘What's wrong with us? : Novelist Virginia Feito on our morbid obsession with true crime
Whatever people make of Virginia Feito's new book, a scabrous, morbidly funny murder ballad, they can't say they weren't warned. Thanks to several instances of real and imagined violence to men, women, children and babies – not to mention a deer, a duck and three whippets – Victorian Psycho lives up to its name, and to the first sentence of its prologue: 'Death everywhere.' 'It's not like a surprising twist that builds slowly over the pages,' the 36-year-old Spanish writer says of her second novel. 'You know where we're going from the very start.' Feito's debut, Mrs March – which explored a wealthy, Upper East Side woman's descent into suffocating paranoia – earned comparisons to Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier. Like its predecessor, Victorian Psycho is written in English and has already been snapped up for a screen adaptation. But it is, quite deliberately, a radically different book. The novel, whose title is a hat-tip to both Bret Easton Ellis and the 19th-century literature Feito grew up on, chronicles the homicidal thoughts and deeds of Winifred Notty, a governess who arrives at a remote country house in Yorkshire with rather more than the imparting of a traditional education in mind. 'Ever since I was little, I've loved gothic horror and I think there's a lot in the children's literature that I was reading from a very young age, like The Secret Garden,' says Feito in the flawless English that is the product of her time in an American school in Paris and a British school in Madrid. 'That book starts with a cholera epidemic that's killed everyone and Mary is alone in her bungalow in India, which is the most gothic thing I've ever read. And then there's a bit of gothic in Roald Dahl, who is a huge inspiration – especially his short stories.' Feito also loved the Brontës and Dickens, but with Victorian Psycho, she says, she wanted to creep into the darker recesses of the 19th century. So parts of the book are inspired by the crimes of killers such as Constance Kent, who slit the throat of her half-brother and threw his body down a privy, and Amelia Dyer, the 'baby farmer' thought to have murdered as many as 400 infants placed in her care. If her debut was a deeply disturbing satire on social conventions, Feito turns up the volume in the new novel, 'because it was fun, but also because they did drip belladonna into their eyeballs!' (A poisonous Victorian beauty hack to make your pupils dilate.) 'It's not that I was limiting myself with Mrs March, but this one felt like it had to be a rage,' says Feito. She notes that the new book's publication comes at a time when issues of female anger and physicality are being explored in films such as Titane and The Substance. Victorian Psycho plays with the era's demure Angel in the House stereotypes by giving the reader a protagonist without inhibitions, filters or limits. 'I guess I was kind of poking at that: what if the evil psychopath were female this time?' she says. 'What does that mean? And will readers justify her because she's female?' Feito wants to see how far she can push things before the reader begins to lose sympathy for the abused and vengeful Notty. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Today's culture, she argues, seems to have lost its fear of psychopaths, with some – such as TV serial killer Dexter Morgan – even moving from antihero to hero. 'You root for them because you secretly want them to get revenge against the people who wronged them,' says Feito. 'I wanted to avoid that. Sure, you can feel empathy because Winifred has had an awful childhood, but I'm very explicit about the violence she's committing against children.' All of which raises a question: isn't she feeding the reader's appetite for Grand Guignol and depravity – only to reproach them for gobbling up all the gore? Feito laughs and pretends to scold one of her readers: 'You love it, you sick fuck!' But she admits she is equally guilty. 'I watch loads of true crime, freaking out over shows like Monster by Ryan Murphy. It's fun and I sit there cheering them on. But then I'm like: 'Eurrgh! What's wrong with us? Why are we so morbid? These are real people who died.'' Feito, who studied English and drama at Queen Mary University in London, says it was always inevitable that she would write in English rather than Spanish. The four years she spent at the American school when the family moved to Paris for her father's work proved formative. 'I was reading and writing and speaking at school and watching television in English because I didn't understand French very well,' she says. 'So I clung to English and I found that I took to it really, really well. You can almost add an '-ing' to anything and it'll exist, probably. And if not, nobody will be mad. It's so much more playful.' These days Feito says she is intimidated by her native tongue and doesn't understand its rules very well. She was delighted to turn down the offer of translating Mrs March into Spanish herself – 'I couldn't; I would have destroyed it' – and, besides, writing in English also offers the opportunity for some entertaining back and forth with her translator, Gemma Rovira. 'It's always fun to get these emails, like: 'When you're slashing the baby's neck, is it penetrating the skin or is it going around it?'' More seriously, it allows Feito to read her own work from a distance. 'It transforms it. It's another animal, so to speak,' she says. 'I see myself in there, but then there are other things that make me sound way smarter, which I appreciate very deeply.' With Mrs March being developed for the screen by Elisabeth Moss, and a film of Victorian Psycho, starring Margaret Qualley, also on the way, she has no regrets about her decision to leave a job in advertising a few years ago to write full time. Now she is thinking about her third novel, listening out for another arresting narrator. 'When I started Mrs March, I had a few other ideas that were much more developed and I knew where they were going,' she says. 'But I chose Mrs March because of the voice.' It was the same with Winifred. 'It came to me in the middle of the night and it's at the beginning of the book, where she says, 'My breasts jiggling in my corset.'' With that one line, Feito had her protagonist and knew exactly who she was. Given Victorian Psycho's body count, carnage and general air of barely corseted ultraviolence, does she see it as a feminist, revisionist take on the 19th-century novel? As a parody? A homage? 'I think it's all those things,' Feito says. 'It's an ode to the Victorian literature that I love so much but it's also subverting it. To be fair, there was a lot of death and violence and the grotesque in Dickens. But he ended it in a hopeful way and he didn't delve into the most graphic aspects because readers weren't really ready. But I think we're ready now.' Victorian Psycho is published by 4th Estate. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
