A View of the Mediterranean

This morning, a pair of stories on the notion that nothing is going to change in Cuba. Yes, that’s correct. First an AP story on the perspective of US missionaries, Baptists, Methodists and the like, whose contacts on the island do not forsee any great loosening. The story even includes a fact hitherto unremarked in the media:
The visit last week of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict XVI’s secretary of state, was Raul Castro’s first diplomatic meeting as head of state. But the timing was coincidental: the trip had been scheduled before Cuba’s change in power to mark the 10th anniversary of John Paul’s visit.
For a more secular view, there is this article about the more of the same using the story of Rene Vidal desperately trying to keep the state from evicting him from his home to launch into an explanation of the significance of Raul’s choices. As Vidal comments:
“Cuba will stay the same. Nothing will change.”