Tell me what brings you to new york. Maria well, i am here with the cuban delegation recited by the provided by the minister of Public Health to participate in a highlevel meeting called by the human agency, created for the pandemic of hivaids. In order to salvage agreements amongst the governments for their internal, national policies, in order to accelerate the end of the pandemic of hivaids. Charlie are we making serious progress . Maria i think so. We have to recognize that efforts have been made, particularly since the first highlevel meeting in 2001, there has been much progress, programs of action and better understanding of the complexity of the hiv epidemic. Which is not just a health problem, it is a human Rights Problem and a very complex social program. So we need programs that are very engaged, policies that are engaged, Public Health policies, attention to health and reproductive rights, and no discrimination and no stigma against anybody. Charlie how did you come to be the advocate the you have become . Maria something in my past, my mother was a political director and social activist in cuba. She had started some work in favor of lgbt people, but she was not able to advance as much as she wanted. When i did some research on her life when she got sick, i found out it that even in 1974 she proposed in the new family code that was approved in 1975, marriage was considered a legal union of among two people without taking into consideration their sex. It was very advanced for that time, but it was not the best moment for her ideas to be well received. But she left some kind of seed, because when she realized she was sick and not going to be able to continue, and i was already director of the center for sexual education, which gave me some credibility to take care of the subject, then i started taking care of these. Charlie you had a gay rights parade in havana. Is cuba changing . Maria yes, we started organizing the educational activity since 1997. Now we have just celebrated the ninth version of these parades. This has contributed a lot from the political point of view, in expression in the law, the impact of the awareness change in our population, our population is not violent, it is not a characteristic of hours. Ours. So it is very rare to have hate crimes, but there is a psychological and social exclusion, rejection, not accepting lgbt people. With our work we are helping the population as a whole to think about it. Particularly at the level of political discourse, the subjects are in a good position. Charlie Marriage Equality, is there a strong push for Marriage Equality in cuba as there has been here in the United States . Maria no. No pressure from the population. We, the center for sexual education, are promoting the political and legislative changes that we are having in equalityry, including for couples of the same sex. The same as heterosexual couples. When we speak of all the rights for all the people, we also have to include that option in marriage the same as heterosexual couples. Charlie what is your role in the government . My role as the director of the National Center of sexual education at the legislative level, also in social activism, social practice, and i could say even in the judicial system in cuba in general so there are important changes in relation to understanding sexual rights as human rights. We have advanced, but we still have challenges. Charlie we have witnessed a remarkable change in the relationship between the United States and cuba. Secretary kerry, president obama have met with your father in havana. How would you characterize the developing relationship . Maria the most important thing is that there is now a clear will from both governments to start a normalization of relations. But this process to normalize relations is very difficult. It is going to be a long process, because there are many obstacles that will make it difficult. The first one being economic, financial and commercial blockade, which is a kind of hostility within the international law. How can two countries want to normalize relations when there rulesme enormous roles . And particularly such an , aggression that makes it difficult even to put in place the actions that would be needed to normalize relations. The best thing is to see there is goodwill and the Bilateral Commission has been created in order to advance in the proposal. I think there are good wishes from both parts, but we have to find the road that will allow us to advance faster. Charlie clearly the embargo is a product of congress. The president has often said he would like to see the embargo end. What steps can be taken lifting the embargo to make this relationship be on a track . The u. S. People can have an important role. Putting pressure on their representatives at the highest level of decisionmaking in the u. S. Government. And the Media Journalists and celebrity public personalities can contribute to have eliminated a unilateral decision from the u. S. Government, which is also the main obstacle for the Economic Development of cuba. And to create problems with relationships, and they also violate the rights of the american people. They cannot travel to cuba, invest in cuba, they cannot export their products to cuba. Many problems of that this law generates. Know,re the people will the more the politicians will know. The more probability there will be for a positive influence to eliminate it. Charlie if it is in fact eliminated, it will open the gates to an exchange culturally and every other way. Economically, politically between these two countries. Maria yes, of course. That is our wish, the wish of the people and the government of cuba since the triumph of the revolution in 1959. But the response has been hostility and we have to negotiate. The United States is not going to come out and appropriate cuba for itself. We have to negotiate for our sovereignty, for our respect, for reciprocity. Which has been the case since the beginning of the normalization process. If it continues this way i trust it will happen. Charlie president obama in his speech to cuba and the cuban people resonates with them about the good intentions he felt to make this leap forward. Do they feel enthusiastic about the step by the president . In cuba i can tell you that first there was a great reception for president obama. Close to him and his policy because he is the first president that has facilitated this encounter. He is the first one to visit cuba since the triumph of the revolution. He participated in the negotiation with the cuban president so that the five cuban heroes that were unfairly imprisoned in the United States went back to cuba, which was one of the main wishes of the cuban people, and we were also surprised that relations were reestablished. I think obama has very good intentions. And, i think he has made great strides, but not all the ones that he could have. That meeting with the cuban people, he spoke, but he didnt hear the many things the cuban people would have wanted to present to him to tell him. He made his speech and then he left. So i hope we can have another meeting with president obama. You are that is why here, and you can tell us. What would they want to hear if he had stayed longer . What do you want to tell us about cuba and the future of cuba and the United States . Your father said, dont expect the politics of cuba to change, thats not part of the bargain. Cuba is changing economically, and that will have an impact. Mariela i heard a lot of people at the meeting saying i wish i had many to say to obama. Activiststhings the ngos said, the first thing is to eliminate the embargo, to ask the european banks to trust us. And financial activities such as what they are doing with iran do the same for cuba. It is difficult to develop a country when every little piece of bread has to be divided among so many people with such few resources. We are a country under siege, and we also need to get the territory of guantanamo back. Charlie it is the principal request of the cuban government to get guantanamo back. Mariela and the government represents the people. No people want to have a piece of their territory taken from them. It has a it is an important part value economically and tourist value. It is an important part of our geography. No country wants to be humiliated by having a piece of its land occupied. That is another request. We also want more efforts for world peace. We could have asked for many things but im not sure this is the right moment to tell you. Charlie it is helpful if you tell us. Guantanamo is one. And the americans have asked for things, as well. Because we have had a Political Campaign with different opinions about foreign policy, and some american politicians would say i would like to see more human rights from cuba. I would like to see less political prisoners. I would like to see cuba exercise more respect for the freedom of expression. Mariela well i have to tell you, of all the things you just enumerated, it has been shown with enough evidence, enough proof that cuba applies the human rights conventions at a higher level than the United States does. This was said to the american journalists by the cuban president , along with the american president when he was in cuba. All governments have a special agenda that they havent achieved yet on human rights. Nobody has reached it 100 . The important thing is to have the will to advance in that direction and the cuban government has an objective to advance as much as possible toward these goals. It is also coherent with the social revolutionary project that has been defended since 1959. That is part of my job to defend the sex rights which are perhaps not recognized by these documents. But they are recognized as a rights, and we want these things to be included. And freedom of expression is a bit cliched. The cuban people always have to give an opinion, even what they love the most, they always question everything, doubt everything. And this is something i really like about being a cuban. People, wehe cuban always question everything. We have freedom of expression. The media response to those who pay them, and that happens everywhere, here and everywhere else. Go to cuba, go and look at all the blogs that are written in cuba, all the social networks. We question everything. That is very good. It makes the society move and transform. What else . Charlie i have a list. There are others who suggest that is not the case. Yes you question everything, you , can have lots of questions about america and its own standards and values and institutions. You have a perfect right, and we hope you will, ask questions about america. America in terms of healing a , long rift between two countries, is asking about the nature of cuba today. There are those who say there is not the level of freedom of expression and protection of individual liberties that they would like to see. To those who dont believe there is freedom of expression, i invite you to come to cuba and talk with the cuban people. Come, meet us. Touch us. You cannot categorize a country and give it a judgment from prejudice and from slogans that have been used from the seat of power so that we do or say what is best for the most powerful groups that want the revolution to fail. Why do they wanted to fail . So they can dominate us. This country is in resistance all the time. Constant criticism, constant creativity. The ones who know our difficulties the best are ourselves. And we talk about them constantly, and we do not always agree with every decision. I dont always agree with all the things that my father decides within the government, because he is not the president of cuba, he is the president of the state council. And the ministers council. So he does not decide it is a , collective decision. I do not always agree but i , always discuss it. And many people do, and they write and they publish. A lot of spaces are created. We are constantly in front of a challenge to create a new society, a new economic and social system. In the caribbean, some other countries tried different ways. We are trying to create our own social, fairer society. We have be very brave in order to go against these big countries. But they distort what we say, they try not to show what happens in cuba. Courageous andbe get in the face of government. And this has to be done constantly. The process is to invent our socialism, invent our democracy as our decision, a people decision. Nobody has achieved it yet. And we are doing our best. Charlie two points. Many people in america, journalists, citizens, religious groups, want to come to cuba. I think they would all welcome yourself what cuba is like. That is helpful and positive and encouraging. The other thing, is also to eliminate misconceptions about two countries, of which steps are being taken to do that with facetoface meetings between the president of the respective countries. Does your government believe that america wants to dominate cuba . Or is that part of a history that is no longer here . Do you accept the idea that america does not want to dominate cuba . The everyday news shows that the United States wants to dominate the world, not just cuba. They intervene in countries in order to have a monopoly of Material Resources from certain areas in the world. I am not saying it is the United States, but it is a very powerful group who develops these policies. They never get enough of what they want to have. They want to have a monopoly of resources in this world. That is just not right. They do everything in order to achieve this, they stabilize destabilize governments, they get governments in trouble so they can then come in and give humanitarian aid, and then they dominate them. What happens is chaos violations , of human rights, why are we embargoed . Why does the United States continue with the embargo . At least this government is trying to eliminate it, but there are some groups, that interests,economic have to keep cuba in difficulties until cuba says, i give up. Then they will have a policy that will be convenient for their dominating interests. I think this idea of, they dont want to dominate us, even the most ignorant person would accept this. I think they want dominate us in this geopolitical space. Charlie do you feel there is anything cuba can do to influence the congress to lift the embargo . Mariela i dont think cuba can do anything. I think only the americans can do that. Charlie it has been a long time since 1959. 56 years. There are new generations of americans, of cubanamericans, of cubans. Has history done anything to heal some of the wounds that came from the bay of pigs . And other acts in cuba . Has history and time softened hostility . Mariela one important thing that i would like to point out is that fidel asked the highest leader of the revolutionary process in his political discourse, never generated hate toward the United States. His political discourse was always very clear, that was helping the people to understand what was going on and why it was going on. They were always looking for a way out on the diplomatic field. He always that said, the best solutions would be the ones in the diplomatic field. Armed confrontation had to be avoided. So he never transmitted hate. Not even people are asking that you ask for forgiveness. We could, but we dont. We will ask a certain compensation for the cuban people, for harm that has happened with the state aggression. We had more than 5000 wounded and dead, material damages. I think it was valuable to see in the midst of this situation hate was never generated. It was a question of understanding properly what was going on. Charlie what is the role of the Catholic Church in cuba today . Mariela the Catholic Church is not the majority in cuba. The african religions are dominant. 60 kinds is more than of congregations with a Good Relationship between the communist party and the state. They all have constitutional rights, and the Catholic Church is one of those churches that is part of the cuban reality. Of course, the church has had a role in the relationship between the United States and cuba, particularly since pope francis, who is an exceptional man, and because coincidence of circumstances, there has been a strengthening of the relationship between the communist party and all the religious congregations. But today, the main role belongs to the pope. That your assume information is solid, reliable, and comes from the top. Mariela no, i have the same information as the person who reads every day. Charlie beyond the fight of the youre making for human rights, community, on behalf of the struggle against aids and disease, what are your aspirations . Want for heriela own participation in the future of cuba . Mariela i want to participate in the cuban future as a citizen, with all the rights that being a citizen gives me. That is why i wanted all the mechanisms of participation so that that way i can clearer,way much more what are my ideas, what i want. I am working as a citizen but also as a representative in the assembly on all of the changes that are happening in the social and economic models. We have identified we have wide consultations with the people in order to define the policies for very concrete policies and objectives that include in support legislative but we have not advanced as much as possible because it is a lot more complicated than what we expected. I do have a lot of hope that we are on the right road toward progress. That is what i want, progress within the context of respect ourour sovereignty, independence, our idea of democracy, our socialism, and prosperity. A palpablet there is sense if you go to cuba, as i have been several times, of change. That cuba is in the midst of change. Yes . That this is a moment of change just beginning. It will not happen tomorrow or the next day or the next day. But the journey has begun. Mariela yes. Quite honestly come on road the aspects959 with that one could criticize, and just as any social you look at it in hindsight and say we could have done this at her. When i look back on to history, so many things i would have done differently. But it is part of the social processes and complexities. Charlie but is it the constant since 1959 that the communist party is the most powerful institution in cuba . The communist party is the most powerful institution . I think that since 1965, when the communist party of cuba was created, uniting the leftist forces and inspiration martin when he created the Cuban Revolutionary party in order to unite all the forces and to achieve independence from the spanish government, that is the inspiration. And uniting all the leftist forces in a communist party in cuba, with a revolutionary idea that has evolved and has the party that has been at the forefront for the transformation of society, that gives it a moral, historic, and political authority. But yes, we can see that it is the strongest force. Although, we are trying to develop spaces for decisions that will also have strength. That sense ofsing union and consensus for change that the communist party brings in with the debates of ideas that happened within the party. I am militant in that party and i am also very critical in that party. The day i like because when you do not criticize the party, we will have given up on our dialectic focus that we need. Our conversation began in havana, continues in new york. Go back tome, we havana. And i look forward to seeing you there. Mariela thank you very much, we will see you there. Charlie thank you for coming. Back in a moment, stay with us. Charlie adam newman is here. He is the cofounder and ceo of we work. The committee provides shared office space to independent workers it serves now 50,000 , members and is valued at 16 billion. With the launch of we live, the first location opened in new yorks financial district this april. I am pleased to have adam newman at this table for the first time. Adam thank you. Welcome. Charlie take me through the origin and development of we work. Then i want to know what you discovered about the people who come to we work. Adam born in israel. Had a slightly challenging childhood. We used to move around a lot, every two years i lived in a different place. One of the things i noticed early on, it is hard to be the new kid. The kid that goes in and does not know anybody, the thing i learned is compassion. Charlie that is exactly the reason president obama says he he still wants to live in washington. He does want to take his daughter out of the school to introduce her. He wants her to finish this level of her schooling. Sense, but myes mom moved us around a lot, and i ive dont her, but think we couldve existed without all these experiences. Even know i agree with president obama that it is difficult, but i think it is important. Charlie how did that experience of moving around in form you . Somebody called you and entrepreneurial leper or something. How did that experience in form your life . I lived in a complex kibbutz. Today there are less than 10 in israel, active ones. Inrlie i went to one up northern israel. Adam there were a lot more 15 years ago. But for a variety of reasons some aspects didnt work. ,but being a child in that community having friends i ate , breakfast, lunch, and dinner with being part of something , greater than myself was really meaningful. And that was carried with me. Then we moved to the u. S. Shortly after september 11, and i lived through it with my younger sister, who was living at the time by herself. We were in an Apartment Building that had 15 floors. We would go up and down the elevator. I noticed no one would say hello. What is happening here . Do americans not like introducing themselves . It is not considered polite. You go up the elevator you keep your mouth shut. I said really . As israel ease, we really like to talk to everyone. Goal was to find an apartment on every floor that we can have a cup of coffee in. Within a month, the whole energy of the building changed. When someone left there was a going away party. There was a community. Community is global. Americans want it, it israelis want it, it is a global phenomenon. Those experiments took me to the beginning of we work. Charlie so we work is a kibb utz . Adam i think there is capitalism mixed in it with a lot of the good concepts. How it you developed it, what is the idea . I started my third business about eight years ago and met my girlfriend, my wife today. So well, smoking cigarettes, failing in business. Very quickly she looked at me and said you are a big talker, but there is not a lot going behind it. I was not used to somebody speaking to me like that. I said, what would you suggest . Issa just to drop everything youre doing and find a business you are passionate about. That business can make a positive difference in the world. If you bring those two things together as one, you will really find success. Success is about passion and doing what you love, coming together with a good intention. Second of all, she said dont worry about it, the money will follow. And i have been following her ever since. Charlie that was a success. Adam and thank god. And we met our cofounder, he actually grew up in a commune in eugene, oregon. He has his own amazing story. There was the guy from the and my, the commune, wife, very spiritual and smart, we were able to bring this thing together in may 2008. The world was about to crash, or crashing. Said,rtner at the time this is not going to work, and the real estate is going down. We said this isnt about real , estate, this is about community. People want to be a part of something. Whenever there is pain there is a little bit of success. So we can celebrate it. Even at sharing the pain is a good thing. Communities know how to share pain together. We put five ads on craigslist. We never did any marketing, and the rest is history. Charlie what did the ad in craigslist say . Adam it is funny you ask that. Something like beautifully designed and Communal Office spaces. At the time we didnt even , understand how strong it was. Literally within a week people after people moved in, we saw that more interesting than the workspace was the fact that people worked together and were likeminded. It was something we could make a difference with. Charlie what does we work do today . Adam we work to make a life. We think that is very important. We have 80 locations around the world. We are in 30 cities and 12 countries, we add between five and 10 locations a month, and all the members have companies and families and friends and they are all taking part of this new way of working. Charlie what about millennials . When i give commencement speeches, i say there are two things you start with. First you know yourself, then you know something larger than yourself. And that is where you start. Adam i think that if we understand being part of something larger than yourself is positive, it is a good start. Then i see there is an opening to start changing the world. One thing we observed about millennials, they wanted and they want it now because we have been holding their hands for a long time now. When i was a kid and you ask me something, i went to the encyclopedia canada. And it took me half an hour to find the answer. That was my entire knowledge. Think of the knowledge they have today. They wanted, they want it now, and they have access to it. They care about intention and meeting. Through leveraging technology they found amazing ways to use the things and make things cheaper and better for the environment and world. I am very happy that that is a generation that is about to take more and more power. I am optimistic about the future of this generation. Charlie you know a lot about them because you keep data on them . About howrmation often they get up and get coffee or connect with other people. 70 of our members either do business with each other or do a connection with each other. Charlie what do you mean by member . It iswe have tenants, and a community. It is monthtomonth. Our members, if you are a member of one you are a global member. You could be from new york, tel aviv, or london, and with your app you can enter any space around the world. I am looking for an accountant, lawyer, business partner, or just the right place to have dinner. You will immediately get the answers with Community Members around the earth. Were daytime and nighttime, there is always someone life, because we are working 24 7. Charlie and you couldnt do this without what . Adam technology is important. Adam the phone allows us with the press of a button to communicate what we need and what we can give. Using technology in simple ways we have been able to empower our members. When do the doors open and how many people are using what and what is the occupancy . Both from a safety point of view, all these things come together. Is a generation thats ready to most important, accept it. Charlie the right idea at the right time. Very important. We are good, but we are also very lucky and our timing was good. Charlie what does that mean . Adam not a lot. What it means is evaluation, tot one person is willing sell and another is willing to buy, important to remember. It means we are empowered by our investors to take our wildest dreams and make them a reality. But by taking their money we cut a deal with at them, and we are supposed to make the money back. They are not giving it to us to play with. Our investors gave us money to help us change the world. Our members that are choosing to be with us every day now it is 60,000 members, they dont know the details as well as it used to be. But the beautiful thing is, we have hardly ever kicked anybody out. When a member does not fit, it takes care of itself. Charlie you kick them out . Adam we do not. But recycling is a good example. When someone comes to the recycling and does not do it right, you might be confused and put it in the wrong place. Someone will come out and say we work with recycling, it is important to us, can i show you how to do it . The guy can say dont tell you what to do. That is one attitude, or the other please teach me. One,when you approach people nicely, it is the please teach me and i want to learn more. Charlie you also found out they do business with each other. Adam 48 over the last survey. We survey this every two weeks. We really care. But we dont serve everybody at the same time. Each time a Different Group of people. If you think about it when it is challenging, it is easier to go into your community and say i need an accountant, or i just need help. Starting a business is a difficult thing. Just need help, someone to listen. Sometimes when you think of big companies, they complain about the same problems. When i go to lunch, i listen to your problems, you listen to mine, but they help us be slightly more empathetic. Our members are very helpful to each other. Charlie what is the business plan, what is the projected growth . It is simply to expand in scale or to take the concept to unexplored areas . Adam we wouldnt be excited if it was just to grow in scale. We are focused on putting in the infrastructure for scale, we told our employees we had a big discussion. Creativity needs processing. We have a lot of creative employees and we love the creators. Sometimes you need to put processes around that. And the new frontier for us has been enterprise. The Largest Companies in the world have been approaching us and saying, can you bring this community and energy into our company . We are going to do an event now with michael dell, dell is one of the companies coming to us that has taken place. Our Creative Team doesnt want to sit necessarily where they are today. It is dell, microsoft, a whole list of companies that are members. Now we have members, hundreds of thousands of employees. And were just starting with them. And the most important thing is the community. We dont want to take a huge company and just put it in a building. Charlie here is the interesting we are very thoughtful. Thing, it is an age old idea. And ittioned kibbutzes, is the idea of community. It is the idea of crating workspaces were people connect to each other. They are not sitting away in silos, isolated, doing their own thing, not sharing, not having come in space, not having a , ace where there is a relationship of ideas and personalities. Adam i think you are capturing it. It was beautiful, one of the things he said, was the first half of your life you create a space for yourself, security. You take that money and security and confident and in the second half of your life hopefully you , are giving back. You actually think a little different. All your life is like that. We are helping create a world where always i am doing what i love and i have a mission and intention behind it. Also i need to build myself as a person financially, socially, psychologically. When you take that concept and put it in the work environment, and the living environment, which is a big challenge, and you think about it in terms of american enterprise, you start saying, if we can all buy into this, on one hand we are taking care of ourselves and on the other hand we are giving and sharing. That is a great first step. Charlie are you close to calling this a movement . I used to want to use the Word Community on the website. Not get the you do call yourself a community, communities build themselves. We will know. Charlie just tell me briefly about the living space. Adam very short version, kids in college, kids around this country have an amazing communal experience. One of the things people like so much about college is the community it brings. Youer all the same stories, become 22, 23, you go to new york to fulfill your lifestream. It is scary. Lonely, expensive. You need to show three times rent, which no 20yearold has. Once you do that, you get to a small apartment by yourself in a soul drenching hallway, and you are a hermit. Cut theine if you could cost by 30 , put all the securities and amenities inside, put a social air on it, and bring them the same concepts of coworking and coliving and doing it for the betterment of everyone, while saving money and being surrounded by likeminded individuals and meeting new people. Charlie thank you. Cofounder and ceo of we work. Thank you for joining us. See you next time. Mark you are watching bloomberg west. The Associated Press cites Israeli Police who say that palestinian gunmen opened fire, near a popular open our market in tel aviv killing three , israelis and wounding five others. The gunmen were detained. Iraqi Counterterrorism Forces are a step closer to retaking, the city is one of the last stronghold of the Islamic State and has been a haven for antigovernment militants since the 2003 invasion. The British Government is extending the registration deadline for its june 23 referendum on eu membership until thursday. A late surge in applications created technical issues on a