Last week, David Adler drew our attention to this fawning paean to Chavez and Raul Castro by Sean Penn in The Nation - as well as Marc Cooper’s searing dismissal of it. Wrote Cooper: “This would be a great time for The Nation to produce a probing piece from Havana on, precisely, how Obama’s election might or might not change both internal Cuban political dynamics and U.S.-Cuban relations. Instead, we get this slobber from Penn.”

As a tonic, Cooper drew our attention to a fabulous blog by Yoani Sanchez, a Havana based writer. Gene at Harry’s Place shares Cooper’s enthusiasm and so, for what it’s worth, do I.

I want to unreservedly recommend Yoani’s blog, Generation Y. All of us who run political blogs should be doing so, regardless of the subjects we focus on. Yoani’s writing is masterful and her courage astonishing. With extraordinary sensitivity, she teases out the trials of everyday life in Cuba.

Here’s an extract:

I like the winter and the affability it awakens in people, but I know that for many it’s the season of certain worries and shame. Of not being able to sleep on the park bench, where the rest of the year one gentleman with raggedy clothes has his only home. Of children mocked in school for wearing a coat purchased during the rationing of the 1980s. The cold emphasizes the differences between those who can close the door and those who don’t have a house with windows that shut. It highlights the contrast between those with a long-sleeved garment and those who wear two sweaters because they don’t have a coat. Everything depends on the thermometer and its not dropping another ten degrees, because the housing and clothes of the poor will not withstand a single snowflake.

There’s much more. Read it. Bookmark the blog. If you don’t, you can get there via our own blogroll.