Articles by: Andy Brack

BRACK:  South Carolina can learn from Cuba

BRACK: South Carolina can learn from Cuba

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | For as long as Americans not old enough to be in the AARP have been alive, Cuba has been a pariah, a non-democratic experiment whose embarrassing Soviet connections caused a geo-political chess game.

But as Soviet regimes crumbled in the early 1990s, Cuba was left hanging, still isolated and cut off from its rich neighbor to the north. Cubans literally lost weight, as food became harder to get. But its economic crisis forced institutional changes. The Cuba of today isn’t the Cuba of the Cold War.

by · 09/07/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
The cars of Cuba

The cars of Cuba

One of the first things one is asked upon returning from Cuba is whether the old American cars — fins and all — are as ubiquitous as people often say. The answer: Yes — they’re everywhere. Some are shiny in brilliant shades of metallic lime or grape or cherry. Others are patched with bondo (or its Cuban equivalent) and obviously limping along awaiting repair. There’s no telling what’s under the hood — a Russian engine, Korean water pump and radiator from who knows where.

These glorious old vehicles remain on the highways and byways because the long-standing American embargo kept parts and new U.S. vehicles from coming to the country (maybe a good thing if you remember the old Chevrolet Monza of the mid-1970s). With U.S.-Cuban relations now thawing, who knows what will happen to these old gas guzzlers? One thing is for sure: It’s an almost surreal experience to see vehicles racing around now that also were on the streets when Twilight Zone first aired.

by · 09/01/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Photos
Old cars cruise along the Prado in central Havana day and night.

BRACK: Cuba faces big changes in thaw with U.S.

By Andy Brack, Havana, Cuba, Aug. 27, 2015 | In dozens of ways, Cuba isn’t ready for the prime-time expectations of a projected tidal wave of Americans unfettered by decades of travel restrictions.

Yes, these new yanqui explorers to the 776-mile-long island south of Florida will be able to smoke smooth Cohiba cigars, drink potent mojitos and see shiny 1950s Chevys, Fords and Plymouths powered by a hodge-podge of Russian, American and Chinese engine parts.

by · 08/31/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
This young woman is a drummer and singer in a band that plays Afro-Cuban music at an art studio in El Callejon de Hamel in Havana.

PHOTOS: The faces of Cuba

Set aside political ideologies and international affairs. Cuba, at its heart, is defined by her people, a mélange of black, brown and white seemingly filled with a joie de vivre captured in quick smiles, infectious rumba and a welcoming spirit.

Here are several photos that show some of the faces of Cuba encountered during a nine-day August trip organized by Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.

by · 08/31/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Photos
BRACK: Advice for kids with new cell phones, email

BRACK: Advice for kids with new cell phones, email

By Andy Brack | Congratulations. Having a new phone or email address is an obvious sign that you’re growing up. But having new devices or communications media also mean there are some things you need to understand so you don’t get in trouble at school or home.

by · 08/17/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
CALENDAR:  Aug. 10+: Back-to-school, movies, plays

CALENDAR: Aug. 10+: Back-to-school, movies, plays

Back to school events, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Manglehorn movie q and a with David Gordon Green.

by · 08/10/2015 · Comments are Disabled · calendar
BRACK:  Acts of forgiveness may be key to real power

BRACK: Acts of forgiveness may be key to real power

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The whole notion of forgiveness has been in the front of many people’s minds in the weeks since the massacre at Emanuel AME Church. Just how, they wonder, could family members of the victims, one after another, forgive the accused shooter so quickly after such a reprehensible deed?

by · 08/10/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
BRACK:  Time to deal with elephant in state’s room

BRACK: Time to deal with elephant in state’s room

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds doesn’t confront something lurking in rooms across South Carolina for generations — the elephant of racial division.

So that made us wonder — how can the state move forward to reconcile and heal generations of slights, violence, fear, prejudice and deaths? What can be done to level the playing field, to thwart dreams lost because of skin color or poverty?

“Using any measure, the prospects of success for an affluent white baby born today in South Carolina are significantly higher than those of a baby whose skin color is not white and whose parents are poor,” says Steve Skardon, head of the Palmetto Project.

by · 08/03/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
Trump

BRACK: Dump Trump — Americans deserve better than bombast

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you don’t want Hillary Clinton to be the next president, you better get off the escalating Trump bandwagon pretty darned quickly.

by · 07/27/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
BRACK:  Some news not fit to print

BRACK: Some news not fit to print

By Andy Brack | So now come some members of the generally milquetoast South Carolina media who are pawing and whining about a state trial judge. They complain he’s keeping them from hearing 911 phone calls or seeing graphic photos of the Emanuel AME Church shooting that left nine dead.

by · 07/20/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views