Cuba’s culture of poverty persists: Op-ed
Cuba's culture of poverty persists: Op-edPublished: Saturday, December 31, 2011, 12:08 PMThe Jersey Journal By The Jersey JournalBy ROLAND A. ALUM / SPECIAL TO THE JERSEY JOURNAL
The Fidel-&-Raul Castro regime marks 53 years this Jan. 1. The brothers unquestionably enjoyed extraordinary popularity in 1959, but the enthusiasm soon vanished as they turned Cuba into a financially and spiritually bankrupt Marxist anti-utopia.
As a result, nearly two million Cubans of all social backgrounds have fled, many of them settling in Hudson County.
By the 1950s, Cuba was a regional leader in numerous social indicators, notwithstanding instability and corruption during the republican era (1902-1958). But since 1959 the island-nation has become a backward, closed society beleaguered by unproductivity and rationing.
Sociologist Tomas Masaryk noted that "dictators 'look good' until the last minutes"; in Cuba's case, it seems particularly fine to certain U.S. intellectuals. Comfortably from abroad, apologists contend that most of the socioeconomic problems that traditionally afflicted the prior five and a half decades were eliminated after 1959. Yet, fact-finding by international social-scientists challenges this fantasy.
An early, little-known account uncovering some effects of the Castros' regimentation came from research in Cuba in 1969-'70 by U.S. cultural-anthropologists Oscar Lewis and Douglas Butterworth. They intended to test Lewis' theory that a culture of poverty would not exist in a Marxist-oriented society. They had naively presupposed that the socially alienating conditions that engender such phenomena could develop among the poor solely under capitalism.
The Lewis-Butterworth early on-the-ground scrutiny validates many accounts by respected experts and the much vilified exiles. There exists a culture of poverty in Cuba, although it is not necessarily a survivor of the old times, but seemingly a by-product of the Castros' totalitarian socialism. There were always poor Cubans, and some version of the culture of poverty might have existed before; but in my communications with Butterworth, he reconfirmed another discovery. The researchers could not document a case for a pervasive pre-1959 culture of poverty. The authorities must have suspected the prospective conclusions because the scholars were abruptly expelled and their Cuban statistician imprisoned.
Upon the 53rd anniversary, the old Lewis-Butterworth analysis invites renewed reflection. Apologists customarily replicate propagandistic cliches by blaming failures on external factors, such as the ending, two decades ago, of the multibillion-dollar subsidies from the defunct Soviet Bloc.
The anthropologists' undertaking, however, revealed that life for average Cubans in the Castros' first decade was already beset with corruption and time-wasting food lines. Likewise, Butterworth described how ordinary people were engaging in what socio-behavioral scientists now call "everyday forms of resistance." Cubans were already undermining the police-state through black-marketeering, pilfering and vandalism, as we hear that they continue to do decades later.
After more than half a century of oppression and poor quality of life, one hopes for a transition to an open society with equal opportunities for every Cuban.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The author, a long-time Hudsonite, is a political-anthropologist affiliated with Icod Associates of New Jersey. Email him at rolandnj@yahoo.com.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2011/12/cubas_culture_of_poverty_persi.html
Food imports put Cuban reforms at risk
Food imports put Cuban reforms at riskPublished: July 28, 2011 at 11:46 AM
HAVANA, July 28 (UPI) — High food imports are putting Cuban economic reforms at risk because of the drain they pose on foreign exchange resources.
The government sounded warnings about rising food commodities import bills after it emerged that while Vietnam, the lead exporter, saw earnings rise from rice sales to Cuba, Havana's cash-strapped state trade sector wasn't too pleased about the situation.
Cuban President Raul Castro has been exhorting Cubans to become self-reliant and has laid off of tens of thousands of government employees to cut state spending and signal his readiness to accept a gradual shift toward a market-oriented economy.
Cubans catapulted out of state employment were told to become self-employed and start anew as merchants and entrepreneurs.
State curbs on buying and selling in the marketplace were eased and Cubans were told they could buy and sell real estate. The rule change that has sent the fledgling market economy into a subdued frenzy as would-be property tycoons begin to hone their skills in a fast-changing business environment.
However, government statistics indicated the food import bill was a major worry. Cuba imports up to 60 percent of rice it consumes and, by the latest count, bought more than 400,000 tons of the commodity to meet basic needs, Juventud Rebelde newspaper reported.
The import bill is set to rise as domestic demand for the staple grain this year is likely to exceed that level and may reach 600,000 tons to meet the basic needs of Cuba's population of 11.2 million.
Despite numerous moves to relax state control on food distribution and supply, Cubans depend on rationing to fulfill basic needs for rice and other consumables.
Grain Research Institute Director Telce Gonzalez said self-sufficiency in food was crucial to Cuba's economic well-being.
"The first challenge is to produce what we need," he said, adding that, although Cuban agriculture expanded areas under rice cultivation, it still had a long way to go to realize that goal.
This year, the government will need to import almost double the quantity of rice it produces for domestic consumption, new estimates indicated.
Vietnam is Cuba's main supplier of rice. Neither side has disclosed the terms under which Cuba buys rice from Vietnam, a socialist nation in an advanced stage of transformation into a market economy.
The prospect of the state trade sector having to pay more for imports sent the government into overdrive this month. There were calls to institutions to galvanize rice farmers to produce more and reduce dependence on imports.
The campaign aims at raising awareness of about 50 varieties of the grain that can be grown in the island's different ecosystems for maximum rice yield.
Cuba's agriculture suffered when it lost export markets as they ditched communism and switched to capitalist options, or cut imports with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The government frequently has set targets to boost rice production and reduce dependence on imports but has missed reaching any of the goals.
Cuban Wretch "Escapes" Castro’s Paradise
Cuban Wretch "Escapes" Castro's ParadiseWritten by Bruce WalkerFriday, 15 July 2011 10:31
On Thursday, July 14, 2011, a young Cuban who tried to stowaway inside the landing gear of a Spanish airliner died during the nine-hour flight from Havana to Madrid. It was, ironically, Lenin who invented the term "voting with their feet" during the Russian Civil War to describe people moving into areas controlled by the Communists. Collectivists have never found occasion to use that term again.
The flight of Cubans out of their horrific prison camp nation to anyway else is a 60-year-old story. Fidel Castro inherited a nation that was among the most prosperous in the Western Hemisphere. Although there was much to dislike about Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban leader who Castro ousted, there was also much to admire about Cuba before Castro. Indeed, there was much for collectivists to like about Batista himself.
Indeed, there was a great deal for collectivists to admire about Batista. Sumner Welles, Undersecretary of State under Franklin Roosevelt, actually described Batista as a communist. Batista was the first Cuban leader to bring members of the Cuban Communist Party into his Cabinet. Batista described himself as a "progressive socialist." When Castro attacked Batista in 1953, the Cuban Communist Party actually accused Castro of "Putchism," another one of the surreal words invented by Marxists.
Batista had won election during a competitive election in 1940, although he later effectively usurped power. Nevertheless, after his first term as President, Batista left office peacefully. Unlike Castro, who came from an affluent upper-class family, Batista grew up in poverty. He worked in the sugar cane fields, on railroads, and in the hard labor that the poor must do to survive.
Fulgencio Batista was part black, part Chinese, part American Indian, and part European. Unlike Castro, Batista genuinely was a "man of the people" and his rise to power, from being a sergeant in the Cuban army to being leader of his nation, reflected that connection with ordinary people. When he won the 1940 election with about 60 percent of the vote, he was the first non-white Cuban to win that office (the Barack Obama of his nation).
Cuba before Castro is uniformly depicted by the establishment media as horrific. The reality is dramatically different. While Batista and others ruled Cuba, the nation flourished. (This is in spite of the socialist policies of Batista, not because of those policies.) How well off was pre-Castro Cuba?
The Cuban peso had the same value as the United States dollar. There were 101 privately owned newspapers. Cuba had one radio per five Cubans and one television set per 28 Cubans. One out of every 40 Cubans owned a car, and one out of every 38 owned a telephone. These were among the best rates of ownership in the world. The infrastructure of Cuba — highways, ports, etc. — was considered by the U.S. Commerce Department to be the best in Latin America.
How well was labor compensated? The average Cuban industrial worker earned $6 a day in 1958. Although that figure sounds low to us in our hyper-inflated world, that wage level can be understood only in comparison with nations' average daily industrial compensation at the time: Sweden ($8.10), Switzerland ($8.00), New Zealand ($6.72), Denmark ($6.46), and Norway ($6.10.) Cuba also had the seventh-highest level of compensation for agricultural workers in the world, behind only Canada, America, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and Norway. Unemployment in Cuba was the lowest in Latin America. Even the leader of the Cuban Communist Party until 1962, Anibal Escalante, said, "Cuba is one of the countries [in Latin America] in which the standard of living of the masses was particularly high."
The per capita income was the third-highest in Latin America, after Argentina and Venezuela. Ginsburg's 1959 Atlas of the World Economy placed Cuba at 22nd out of the 122 nations surveyed. Income surpassed that of Spain and Portugal and was comparable to that of Italy.
The Cuban public educational system received a higher percentage of the government's budget than any other Latin American nation, with Costa Rico, a famously peaceful and orderly nation, second. Cuba also had 900 private schools and three private universities. Rural education received special attention and was supplemented by a mobile library system. According to the United Nations report of 1953, the literacy rate in Cuba was 82 percent, higher than in any other Latin American nation except Argentina and Costa Rica.
How healthy were Cubans before Castro? Cubans ate very well. Per capita consumption of meat was 65 pounds per year, exceeded only by England, Australia, and Denmark. Caloric intake was the third-highest in Latin America, after Argentina and Uruguay. The nation had the third-lowest mortality rate in the world, lower, in fact, than America or Canada. The infant mortality rate was 3.76 per thousand, while next in line in Latin America was Argentina at 6.11 and Venezuela at 6.56. In fact, the infant mortality rate in Cuba was lower than in France, Italy, Belgium, or Austria. Only Argentina had more doctors per citizen than Cuba. Life expectancy was significantly higher than in Latin America in general.
Cuba was doing well, but it was doing well in spite of the "progressive" policies of Batista, not because of Batista. What this nation needed was a return to free markets, the end of incessant government intervention on the side of labor, and public expenditures (which were often inefficient) to improve education and health. What Cuba did not need was a collectivist totalitarian like Castro.
In the Never-Never land invented by Marxists which divides mankind into "progressives" and "reactionaries," where was Castro? In his youth, Castro owned the complete works of Benito Mussolini. When he was tried in Cuban courts, his oral argument was virtually modeled on Hitler's "History will absolve me" speech. When Francisco Franco died, after Castro had been in power over 15 years, Castro ordered a day of respect for the Spanish dictator.
Fidel Castro believes in power. The Cuban people have suffered during the last 50 years. From 1959 to 1994, more than one million Cubans have left their island home for anywhere else. The horrors of Castro's Gulag are as awful as anything in the ghastly history of modern totalitarianism. This nation that was once among the most affluent in the Western Hemisphere or, indeed, the world, now languishes in a poverty and has persistent shortages of even the most basic items like milk, soap, and clothing. Rationing is the norm.
The incidental byproducts of Castro's Cuba are found in baseball players and other athletes who abandon their communist prison as soon as they can, in the grinding poverty of those who cannot leave, and in those desperate enough to hide in the landing gear of an airliner traveling across the Atlantic Ocean from Havana to Madrid.
The Cuban Way: More Government, Less Food
The Cuban Way: More Government, Less FoodOlivia SnowJuly 14, 2011 at 5:30 pm
When was the last time you wondered if you would be able to feed your family?
Fortunately, for the majority of Americans, that thought never occurs, or is rarely a problem. If mom can't cook the meal, there is always the local grocery store, fast food joint, or sit-down restaurant. Not so in Cuba.
Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger and author, has dedicated herself to shedding light on the day-to-day trials and tribulations in Cuba. Her newest book, Havana Real, lifts the veil on everyday life in Havana, painting a vivid picture of the hardships of life under the Castro regime.
One of the biggest struggles in Cuba is the government-inflicted food shortage. According to Sanchez, Cubans have an obsession with food. Not like America—where people can eat three hamburgers in a sitting or an entire pizza in one meal. Nor does this obsession include fine wine and perfectly seared steak. Instead, it is merely the dire necessity to have something to eat.
Sanchez says that a Cuban meal often consists of rice with a beef or chicken bouillon cube. One little cube, she reflects, "make[s] me believe that my rice contains a tasty rib or a piece of chicken." This simple bouillon cube is almost a delicacy in a market where spices and meats frequently run out.
Why the shortage in food? The Cuban government promises to take care of every social need—including food. From cradle to grave, the Cuban government rations out food to its people, allowing only miniscule portions per family. Sanchez noted, "[I]f the 66 million pounds of rice they distribute every month, through the ration, were available to the free market, prices in the latter would go down." But the government monopoly leaves prices high and food out of reach of hungry Cubans.
In fact, the government-issued wages rise in accordance with increases in food prices. Since both prices and wages are set by the State, an increase in wages is generally offset by an increase in food prices.
The state micromanagement of the Cuban agricultural sector causes the island to import 80 percent of the food it rations. Government rationing has been in place since 1962, and, "Contrary to popular belief, the Cuban ration system does not provide Cubans with 'free' food…Rations are limited to a paltry amount of a meager number of pathetic food-stuffs." This forces many Cubans to find roundabout ways to acquire food.
Another fact of Cuban life under socialism: Everyone except the upper echelon of the government heads for the black market.
Purchasing from the Cuban black market is not done out of a desire to buck the system, but out of pure necessity. Sanchez wrote, "I can't live a day without the black market." Since the government refuses to provide certain services, such as repairing a washing machine or fixing the oven or shower, Cubans are forced to use or become underground workers. Sanchez noted that obtaining products as basic as eggs, milk, or cooking oil require a visit to the black market.
A popular joke says Cuban communism has solved all but three problems: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In reality, this is no joke. Life in Cuba is not easy, and it forces many to take extreme measures just to maintain their existence. But the Castro regime holds its citizens in the jaws of a dilemma where they "cannot both survive and comply with [Cuban] law, at the same time."
Want to see a government that promises to care for your every need? You don't need to look farther than 90 miles south of the Florida Keys.
This is the first of three blogs based on the writings of Yoani Sanchez.
Olivia Snow is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit: http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/14/the-cuban-way-more-government-less-food-2/
White Meat Crumbs / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado
White Meat Crumbs / Rosa María Rodríguez TorradoRosa María Rodríguez Torrado, Translator: Unstated
I turned the corner located half a block from my house and I heard somebody yelling to another neighbor, " Mercedes, they are giving out chicken instead of fish." The piece of chicken that the Cuban State sells us at subsidize price and by their orders we must consume it in one month, is only a pound per person and anybody can eat it in a single meal. When they send chicken (I prefer this) in substitution for fish, the amount is eleven ounces per person for the same period of time.
Cuba is an archipelago and for this reason seafood shouldn't be scarce, but because of the State's indifference and ineptitude, we are suffering of shortages and rationing of these and other essential food items. Moreover, is it (the Yellowtail, the one always offered) the only marine species in the sea? And the lobsters, and the shrimp? And the high seas fish like the louvar, the kingfish and the tuna, etc? And the fish raised in the aquaculture dam lakes? And the freshwater ones?
It is like suffering from a prolonged and antagonistic irony of living on a poultry farm and keeping to a fish diet. In addition we are assigned half a pound of ground beef a month — it is more like a paste mixed with soy — half of mortadella (if we put it on a piece of bread, we can eat it as a snack) and 10 eggs per capita monthly. And the beef and the pork? And the lamb and the goat? So much inefficiency and manipulation didn't affect our memories, because we know that there are a lot of species in the seas, and there are also varieties of poultry and different types of edible quadruped mammals.
It's true that there is a parallel State market which retails some of the released products in national currency. But the prices are abusive and only a minority can acquire them. Also coexistent are the ones selling in foreign hard currency — the workers get paid a salary between 500 and 600 cuban pesos — where there's a variety of meats, and a kilo of chicken costs $2.75 and a kilo of beef $9.50, but these prices are equally high, therefore out of reach for the average Cuban, who has to acquire the hard currency at 25 pesos for one CUC (equivalent to a dollar) in the currency exchanges. On top of this we have to add that not all of the stores sell these type of products and moreover, they are not always available.The butchers, who in spite of their mediocre salaries almost all wear heavy gold chains — they look more like last generation rappers or reggae performers — and drive cars that cost around the same (sometimes more) than the ramshackle and stinky State meat markets where they work, pass days or maybe weeks waiting for the merchandise to arrive at their empty and impoverished retail establishments.
When the store is replenished there's a private party, because from the day's work "by error of the smart scales" and "other moves" with the suppliers, they will have enough merchandise left to auction on the overpriced black market. But they are only the result or part of the problem, which is the responsibility or irresponsibility of the authorities. The same way they imposed on us the "walking catfish," meant to reduce our carnivorous cravings and like a terrestrial reptile it "walks" into backyards, sewers and paddocks and feeds on, among other things, feces and rats. God forbid! I don't consume it, but I know a lot of my compatriots who actually do.Cubans, who with our "bread diet" look "healthily plump," already forgot the taste of beef, because here the cows, like in India, look like they are sacred, at least for the common citizen. They not prevented "the mad-cow" disease and the population "is mad" to recover its right to eat meat in the daily diet or with the frequency they can afford to pay for it — as it was before 1959 — not when the Cuban State decides the frequency and the amounts we can consume.
It looks like beef and other delights, are lacking because of "the bad governments" preceding them; thus the leaders "screwed it up" so concerned are they about our health that they got rid of it to insure our quality of life. Therefore, it is an acquired reflex that we must prioritize the color red only to digest politics and ideology. These nutritional limitations awakened our voracity for this vital food, because all these years they tried to implant in us, with neither Yin nor Yang, a vegetarian diet or macrobiotic without the right to respond or to choose it; but as with the problems with the seafood and the fact that we are an agricultural country, we also have difficulties with vegetables, grains and cereals, they couldn't completely tame our taste and eating preferences.
For that reason a lot of nationals don't care if the chicken is genetically modified, if the fish was floating "meekly" on a black scum and they assumed it was a donation from the British Petroleum; if we women start growing beards or our husbands start having high voices, as Evo Morales, the homophobic Bolivian President, said. Maybe some fellow citizens, who look like they have their stomach in the frontal lobe and their intelligence in "the elbow", when it comes to food, stress that " it doesn't matter if the chicken has scales or the fish feathers, the fact is that it is meat".
Translated by Adrian Rodriguez
June 27 2011
Revolutionary Racism in Cuba
Revolutionary Racism in CubaJune 21, 2011
This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Naomi Glassman
Revolutionary Racism: Afro‑Cubans in an Era of Economic Change
Fidel Castro's regime enacted anti-discrimination legislation and redistributive reforms benefiting Afro-Cubans Afro-Cubans are disproportionately affected by Cuba's economic struggles and change U.S. dollars from remittances, tourism and paladares contribute to growing inequality along racial lines Cultural and educational representations continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes
Cuba's economy has struggled during the fifteen years since the fall of the Soviet Union, bringing economic disparity of an increasingly racial nature. Cuba's population is split primarily between whites, mestizos and Afro‑Cubans (blacks and mulattos), with the percentage of Afro-Cubans varying between 62 percent[i] and 33 percent[ii] depending on the source. Like most former colonies, Cuba's history of racism originated with the arrival of colonial Spanish settlers and their subordinated African slaves. Cuba was one of the last Latin American countries to abolish slavery, by means of a royal decree issued by the Spanish King in 1886.
In his 1891 essay "Nuestra América," Cuban author and independence fighter José Martí stated that there is no racism in Cuba because there are no races.[iii] He argued that Cuban unity and identity depended on all Cubans identifying as Cubans, instead of racially. White Cubans have often cited Martí's position subsuming race to national unity as an argument that racism is not an issue in Cuba because "we are all Cubans." But the legacy of slavery lingered, and was exacerbated by Cuba's semi-colonial status under U.S. hegemony. Interactions with wealthy, white, prejudiced visitors from the U.S. contributed to social and economic divisions along racial lines. Afro-Cubans endured segregated facilities, discrimination under the guise of eugenics, and blatant racism at the hands of groups as extreme as the Ku Klux Klan Kubano.[iv]
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro acknowledged the prevalence of racism and launched a set of reforms intended to eliminate racial disparity in public spaces, education and employment. However, he failed to adequately address its cultural and societal roots. After a few years, he declared his policies a success and made any further discussion of race or racial inequality a counterrevolutionary crime, insisting that talk of race would divide the nation. During Castro's reign, the silence on issues of racism made further debate or improvements impossible, countering the initial benefits of his reforms. Even though the Castro government achieved more for blacks in fifty years than previous administrations had in the last 400 years,[v] his policies only addressed issues of unequal access without changing structural biases underlying society. With a new wave of economic changes affecting the country, race and racism are once again becoming important issues in Cuba.
Race and the Revolution
When Castro first came to power in Cuba, the Afro‑Cuban population was disproportionately poor and marginalized, lacking sufficient medical care, social services and educational opportunities. Castro believed that such overt racism was in direct conflict with his commitment to social justice and equality and passed policies to desegregate beaches, parks, work sites and social clubs. He outlawed all forms of legal and overt discrimination, including discrimination in employment and education. Castro also worked to increase the number of Afro-Cuban political representatives, with the percentage of Black members on the Council of State expanding from 12.9% in 1976 to 25.8% by 2003. However, overall, Afro-Cuban representation decreased as the institutions become more powerful.[vi]
Castro's redistributive social and economic reforms had a positive and measurable impact on the quality of life for Afro‑Cubans. The government's great achievements in extending education and medical benefits to all Cubans have narrowed racial disparities in life expectancy and matriculation rates. Alejandro de la Fuente, Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, used statistics from the 1981 census to illustrate the progress made during twenty years of Revolutionary rule. He found that by 1981 there was a gap of only one year in life expectancy rates between whites and non‑whites, which proved that Cuba had achieved relatively equal access to such indicators as "nutrition, health care, maternal care and education."[vii] Moreover, educational reforms contributed to improved literacy and education levels across the island. By 1981, the percentage of blacks (11.2 percent) and mulattos (9.6 percent) who had graduated from high school were higher than those for whites (9 percent) leading to equivalent proportions of blacks, mulattos and whites in professional jobs.[viii] With education came improved opportunities for social mobility, as a mass exodus of wealthy white professionals to the United States after the Revolution, created many more professional opportunities for the previously marginalized Afro-Cuban.[ix] Similar social justice initiatives such as "wage increases, social security improvements, the provision of public services gratis or at nominal cost, and the gradual spread of rationing" further benefited the economically marginalized .[x] Government jobs were often distributed in a non-confrontational affirmative action style, giving "hiring preference to those who had the greatest family need and lowest income," which again had a disproportional benefit for Afro‑Cubans.[xi] In areas with complete government control, such as education, employment and health care, social justice policies led to increased equality and improved services and opportunities for Afro-Cubans.
Three years into his rule, Fidel Castro declared that the Revolution had eliminated racism, making any further discussion of racial inequalities a taboo subject. Official discourse directly tied racism to capitalism, and thus the development of an egalitarian society officially ended racism. The government connected racial discrimination to the colonial and 'semicolonial' legacies[xii] and "to the capitalist elite, who had emigrated to Miami, officially making it a nonissue in Cuba."[xiii] Castro's government sought to develop a national Cuban identity and discussions of race and inequality were seen as creating divisions where none existed. For fifty years of Castro rule in Cuba, race and racism were taboo subjects, making debate, discourse, and study impossible.[xiv] Later developments have proven that racism was not actually eliminated, just improved and pushed underground.
Economic Reforms and Racial Inequality
The Special Period, the difficult decade following the fall of the Soviet Union, caused economic hardships for all Cubans. The government stopped numerous social services and the country struggled with widespread shortages. During this period, the structural legacy of racism meant that Afro‑Cubans faced a greater brunt of the economic challenges. Many of the economic reforms passed to bring the Cuban economy out of its deep recession served only to exacerbate these racial inequalities. When faced with a economic stagnation, the Revolution's commitment to social justice lost ground to the need for economic recovery, especially given the official belief that racism was no longer an issue, the racist implications of economic reforms were not an issue for the Castro government.
Without Soviet sugar subsidies, Cuba's economic development shifted to the growing tourist trade. While the tourist industry is currently the most profitable sector because of the availability of USD, it is also the industry with the greatest racial disparity in employment opportunities: Afro‑Cubans hold only five percent of jobs in the tourist sector.[xv] The tourist resorts hire primarily whites, drawing on the structural legacy of racism and the pervasive cultural belief that white is superior. Jobs in the tourist sector require less education and skills, meaning that Afro‑Cuban advances in education in the early years of the Revolution no longer translate to economic success.
Remittances—transfers of money into Cuba from Cubans living and working abroad—are a new source of unregulated USD in the Cuban economy. Remittances primarily benefit white Cubans, because the majority of Cubans who emigrated after the Revolution were white or lighter‑skinned mestizo. Statistically speaking, "83.5 percent of Cuban immigrants living in the US identify themselves as whites. Assuming that dollar remittances are evenly distributed among white and non‑white exiles and that they stay, roughly, within the same racial group of the sender, then about 680 out of the 800 million dollars that enter the island every year would end up in white hands."[xvi] Cuba has limited data on the quantity and distribution of remittances, but a 2000 survey in Havana found that "although income levels were fairly even across racial groups before remittances, white households outspent black households in dollar stores and in the purchase of major household appliances."[xvii] Both in the sending and consumption of goods, remittances provide greater economic benefit to white Cuban households.
The Castro government began legalizing personal enterprises for profit during the Special Period. Since then, more and more Cubans have opened their own restaurants or repair shops. However, in 2000, the Havana Survey found that 77 percent of the self‑employed were white, and that these white entrepreneurs were more economically successful in comparison to their Afro‑Cuban counterparts.[xviii] Once again, blacks face disadvantages because they lack the capital in USD from tourism and remittances: it often takes an initial investment, such as a bicycle for deliveries, or real estate that could be used as a storefront or neighborhood restaurant to start up a new business. Afro‑Cubans are also disadvantaged when it comes to the development of paladares, or small restaurants run out of the home. The quality of housing was not addressed in the original anti‑discriminatory reforms, and Afro‑Cubans are still concentrated in overcrowded and dilapidated housing areas, limiting their opportunities for owning and opening paladares.
Re‑opening Debate
Faced with growing racial inequality from the economic difficulties of the Special Period in a speech on September 8, 2000, Fidel Castro officially reestablished the issue of race as a subject for debate and improvement:
I am not claiming that our country is a perfect model of equality and justice. We believed at the beginning that when we established the fullest equality before the law and complete intolerance for any demonstration of sexual discrimination in the case of women, or racial discrimination in the case of ethnic minorities, these phenomena would vanish from our society. It was some time before we discovered that marginality and racial discrimination with it are not something that one gets rid of with a law or even with ten laws, and we have not managed to eliminate them completely in 40 years.[xix]
Castro recognized that he was premature when he declared racism eliminated and admitted that, despite progress, there were gaps in the original reforms. In the documentary RAZA, Cuban citizens remark that there are equal rights before the law, but equal rights do not mean social equality: society is still racist because of widespread ignorance.[xx] While notable achievements were made in education and employment, areas such as cultural representation, police discrimination and housing lagged behind. Cuba still suffers from the legacy of centuries of discrimination followed by decades of silence.
The growing Cuban rap and hip‑hop movements have been instrumental in bringing issues of racism and discrimination back into the public eye. They are often explicit in descriptions of racism as lived experiences, challenging the official silence and the popular belief that it no longer exists in Cuba. In 1964, Afro‑Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén wrote the poem "Tengo" (I have) to celebrate the end of racial discrimination, saying: "I have, let's see / that being Black/ no one can stop me / at the door of a dance hall or bar … I have, let's see / that I have learned to read / to count … I have, that now I have / a place to work / and earn."[xxi] In 2009, with economic difficulties and the reemerging issue of racism, the Cuban hip‑hop group Hermanos de Causa rewrote the poem "to denounce the persistence of racial discrimination and the growing marginalization of blacks."[xxii] In their rap, also titled "Tengo" the lyrics now say: "I have a race dark and discriminated against / I have a workday that's exhausting and pays nothing / I have so many things I can't even touch / I have so many places where I can't even go."[xxiii] The shift in music lyrics is paradigmatic of the shifting debate on racism in Cuba.
Conclusion
For Afro‑Cubans, the next step is to continue reopening debate and discussion, including the positive representation of Afro‑Cubans in television programs and classroom curriculum. Cuba must begin with the advances achieved by the Revolution and then work to deepen the Revolution's commitment to social equality by rectifying the errors now evidenced in growing racial inequality.[xxiv] Television programs and educational materials on the island either completely ignore Afro‑Cuban culture or represent its negative stereotypes. Educational curricula teach the history of white Cuba, while ignoring the cultural roots of Africa, Afro‑Cubans and other marginalized groups. Esteban Morales, a PhD. at the University of Havana, says: "Whitening continues to be present and nourished in our education. We educate without mentioning color … we are teaching each other to be white. … it turns out that while we do not exclude blacks and mestizos from our classrooms, we do exclude them from the content of our curriculums."[xxv] While the government succeeded early on in passing desegregation legislation, it has failed to effect any changes in the public media and educational representation of Afro‑Cubans, thus perpetuating racial ignorance.
Finally, although Afro‑Cubans are the largest non‑white population on the island, focusing on racism only against Afro‑Cubans ignores the issues faced by Chinese, Jewish and indigenous peoples. Discussions and studies of race and racism on the island have been limited by the official silence, and much more investigation and research is needed to provide an accurate picture of the racial divisions on the island. Afro‑Cubans are economically, politically, socially, criminally, and culturally marginalized, yet many Cubans still refuse to recognize racism on the island. The anti-discrimination advances of the Revolution deserve to be lauded, but they should not leave us blind to the racism that exists and the continuing struggles of Afro-Cubans.
The references for this article can be found here:http://cohaforum.blogspot.com/2011/06/revolutionary-racism-in-cuba.html
Will More Political Prisoners Be Released?
Cuba: Will More Political Prisoners Be Released?Church Says There Is Still More to Do
HAVANA, Cuba, APRIL 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Cuban President Raúl Castro is stating that the process of releasing "prisoners of conscience" has ended, though the archbishopric of Havana noted that there is still work to be done.
On April 8, 37 former Cuban prisoners arrived in Madrid, Spain, after being released from prison according to an agreement initiated last July between the Cuban and Spanish governments, mediated by the Catholic Church.
On the day the prisoners arrived in Madrid, the Spanish foreign affairs ministry published a note in which it stated that the liberation process had been concluded as agreed upon.
At the end of the process, a total of 115 former prisoners arrived in Spain, accompanied by 647 relatives.
Castro also noted the fulfillment of this commitment in his address to the 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) in Havana. He expressed gratitude to the Spanish government for its part in the process.
However, in a note published April 12, the archbishopric of Havana suggested that a similar dialogue could continue with governments of other countries that are prepared to receive former Cuban prisoners.
In addition to receiving the former prisoners, the Spanish authorities are providing aid in the form of economic assistance, housing, legal advice, psychological assistance, schooling of minors, including facilitating the approval of school and university titles, assistance in work integration and health care.
Three NGOs are also aiding the Cuban exiles: The Red Cross, the Spanish Commission of Aid to Refugees (CEAR), and the Spanish Catholic Commission of Migrations Association (ACCEM).
Many of the former prisoners are still waiting to receive work permits, Europa Press reported, and in the meantime are pursuing sporadic jobs in plumbing, masonry and carpentry.
In Castro's address, the president also invited his political party to engage in "severe self-criticism," so as to correct the deficiencies in the progress of the country.
Former prisoner of conscience Miguel Galbán Gutiérrez commented on the president's address, noting on his blog that Castro "has made some adjustments, some slight adjustments in his plans to avoid the riots of the Arab world splashing him and his angering the population."
Gutiérrez observed that Castro "is moving with caution, very well advised; the announced dismissals are partially blocked and the elimination of rationing has been slowed down."
Curbs on property continue: Raul
Curbs on property continue: RaulAP
Cuban President Raul Castro drew a line in the Caribbean sand across which Cuba's economic reforms must never go, telling delegates to a key Communist Party summit on Saturday he has rejected dozens of suggested reforms that would have allowed the concentration of property in private hands.
But he also strongly backed a line-up of economic changes which together represent a sea change for Cuba's socialist system, including the eventual elimination of the ration book and other subsidies, the decentralisation of the economy and a reliance on supply and demand in some sectors.
In a long speech, Mr. Raul Castro said the country had ignored its problems for too long.
He made clear Cuba had to make tough decisions if it wanted to survive. "No country or person can spend more than they have," he said. "Two plus two is four. Never five, much less six or seven as we have sometimes pretended."
Speaking forcefully to 1,000 delegates, the Cuban leader alternated between reassurance that the economic changes were compatible with socialism, and a candid assessment of what has not worked in the past.
Inaugurating the four-day meet, Mr. Raul Castro announced a series of reform proposals, including abolishing the decades-old food rationing system and allowing residents to buy and sell cars and real estate.
He said the monthly ration book of basic foods, perhaps the most cherished of subsidies, represented an "insupportable burden … and a disincentive for work". — AP, Xinhua
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1704527.ece
A last hurrah for Cuba’s communist rulers
16 April 2011 Last updated at 09:58 GMT
A last hurrah for Cuba's communist rulersBy Michael Voss BBC News, Havana
Cuba's Communist Party is holding its first Congress in 14 years, and for the country's ageing leaders it could be one of their last opportunities to bask in the victories of days gone by.
The red flags are flying high in Havana. Buildings across the capital are decked out with giant Cuban flags.
One of the largest military parades seen in decades is scheduled to pass through Revolution Square, the symbolic political heart of the country.
The parade and Congress come exactly half a century after Fidel Castro proclaimed that his was a socialist revolution, rather than a democratic one.
His speech on 16 April 1961 paved the way for a centralised Soviet-style economy and one-party rule.Cuban soldiers rehearse for an upcoming parade to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs at the Plaza de la Revolution in Havana, Cuba, Thursday April 14, 2011 Military prowess will be a big part of the celebrations
It came on the eve of the ill-fated landing by 1,400 CIA-backed Cuban exiles, who were defeated by Castro forces at Bay of Pigs (or Giron as the Cubans call it).
As a symbol of the revolution's future, thousands of youths will bring up the rear of Saturday's parade.
But as 79-year-old President Raul Castro warned last December, major changes are needed if the system is to survive once the ageing generation which led the revolution has gone.
"Either we change course or we sink," President Raul Castro said.
"We have the basic duty to correct the mistakes we have made over the course of five decades of building socialism in Cuba."Emerging entrepreneurs?
Cubans are greeting the prospect of change with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.Graphic
With wages barely $20 (£12) a month, there is enormous pressure to implement economic changes that would allow people to earn a decent living.
Until now it has only been possible to survive thanks to food rationing and the heavy subsidies on housing, health and education.
But those handouts have bred a culture of dependency, with no incentives to work, and Cuba's struggling inefficient economy can no longer afford to be so generous.
The government has already launched a programme of allowing 250,000 extra people to become self-employed or set up small businesses with a limited number of employees.
Almost three-quarters of these licences have already been issued; there are small market stalls and cafes springing up across the island.
Congress is expected to endorse these changes, and there are hopes that it could clarify issues such as micro-credits and expand the number and types of jobs people are allowed to do.Rules, permits, restrictions
In terms of economic impact, a potentially more significant change would be to allow medium-sized state enterprises to become workers' co-operatives, taking them out of the clutches of the central planners.A worker arranges chairs for an upcoming parade to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs failed invasion at Revolution Square or Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, Cuba, Friday April 15, 2011 The Bay of Pigs – or Giron – landing is the stuff of legend in Cuba
Such co-operatives are now well-established in agriculture, where market reforms began at least three years ago.
It is unclear just how far the Communist Party is prepared to loosen state control.
Legalising the right to buy and sell cars and houses, and to travel abroad, are the bread-and-butter issues which will determine for many Cubans whether this is a truly reforming Congress or not.
Cubans are famous the world over for their ability to keep old 1940s and 50s American cars running on the roads. The secret is necessity. Under Cuban law the only cars that can be legally traded are those built before the revolution in 1959.
Most Cubans have the title to their homes and can pass them on to their children. But the only way to move home is to swap with someone. It is a cumbersome, complicated system where money does illegally change hands, including backhanders to the much derided state inspectors.
President Raul Castro has admitted that the system is a mess and encourages corruption. How far he will go in asking Congress to move on easing restrictions is far from clear.
Cubans need permission to leave the island. It is a deeply resented restriction. For the moment, though, hopes that Congress will take the initiative appear to be based more on wishful thinking than concrete evidence.A new leader emerges?
Phasing out subsidies is seen as a key element turning the debt ridden economy around. Some food and other items have already been taken off the universal monthly ration card. The whole system is expected to be abolished and replaced by some form of means tested benefit for those most in need.
Overstaffing in state-run enterprises is seen as another major problem which needs to be dealt with. Initially 500,000 workers were due to be laid off or reassigned to more productive jobs before Congress, followed by another million later on.A self-employed Cuban man selling DVDs waits for customers on April 15, 2011 in Caimito, Mayabeque province Cubans are hoping for a more liberal attitude towards small businesses
The whole process, though, has been put on ice. Alternatives are not in place and the authorities appear uneasy about the political consequences of a large number of disgruntled unemployed.
Congress may approve the concept but it could several years to implement.
There is one other major task which Congress is expected perform: selecting new party leaders.
The Communist Party of Cuba is the only political organisation allowed in this one-party state.
Constitutionally it is Congress which votes on the composition of a new Central Committee, which in turns names the First and Second Party secretaries, the two most important posts in the country.
President Raul Castro has to be the front-runner to take over from his brother Fidel.
The real interest is in who will become Second Secretary.
Could a younger potential leader be about to emerge or will the question of transition be put off once again with one of the trusted old guard stepping in?
Cuba admits food imports bill is up 25% and "miracles are running out"
Saturday, April 16th 2011 – 09:41 UTC
Cuba admits food imports bill is up 25% and "miracles are running out"
Cuba announced Friday that it will have to spend 25% more than its original estimates to pay the cost of food imports due to the international surge in commodity prices.
The Castro ruled island must import 80% of food supplies The Castro ruled island must import 80% of food supplies
In a statement published Friday in the Communist Party daily Granma, the president of state-owned importer Alimport, Igor Montero, said that the impact of the world crisis on the Cuban economy this year is expected to total more than 308 million US dollars for basic products.
"That means that all the growth expected in revenues from the export of nickel, services, sugar and other goods and services, will not be net gains but must be spent to cover the deficit of the food-import bill," Montero said.
There will also be "an increase in subsidies in proportions not contemplated in the plan" for the year, due to the "current structure of food distribution and sales," which includes consumers' use of rationing cards to buy a specific group of products at subsidized prices, he said.
Cuba imports close to 80% of the food supplies consumed by its 11 million inhabitants at a cost of some 1.5 billion USD per year.
Granma specifies that the expenditure goes mainly to buy wheat, corn, powdered milk, flour and soybean oil, which make up as much as 73% of the nation's food bill.
According to Montero, among the government's measures to check inflation has been to contract imports in the first months of the year and to buy commodity futures.
Montero said that the third strategy is to get moving with all projects aimed at increasing domestic agricultural production, which President Raul Castro has described as a matter of "national security" and is a priority in his plan of reforms.
"Thanks to the inexplicable contrivances of perseverance, much more than the real possibilities of our economy, our government pays whatever it costs so that, among the unprotected on this earth, there is not one Cuban," Granma said, referring to the humanitarian consequences of the food crisis.
"Nonetheless, ways of working miracles are running out, and in a world where the mathematics of trade increases its pragmatism, the more the whirlwind slams those who have the least, the more we must find in our own lands and industries the strength to escape its vortex," the newspaper said.
Commodities price surge boosts Cuba’s food-import bill
Commodities price surge boosts Cuba's food-import billPublished April 15, 2011EFE
Havana – Cuba announced Friday that it will have to spend 25 percent more than its original estimates to pay the cost of food imports due to the international surge in commodity prices.
In a statement published Friday in the Communist Party daily Granma, the president of state-owned importer Alimport, Igor Montero, said that the impact of the world crisis on the Cuban economy this year is expected to total more than $308 million for importing basic products.
"That means that all the growth expected in revenues from the export of nickel, services, sugar and other goods and services, will not be net gains but must be spent to cover the deficit of the food-import bill," Montero said.
There will also be "an increase in subsidies in proportions not contemplated in the plan" for the year, due to the "current structure of food distribution and sales," which includes consumers' use of rationing cards to buy a specific group of products at subsidized prices, he said.
Cuba imports close to 80 percent of the food supplies consumed by its 11 million inhabitants at a cost of some $1.5 billion per year.
Granma specifies that the expenditure goes mainly to buy wheat, corn, powdered milk, flour and soybean oil, which make up as much as 73 percent of the nation's food bill.
According to Montero, among the government's measures to check inflation has been to contract imports in the first months of the year and to buy commodity futures.
Montero said that the third strategy is to get moving with all projects aimed at increasing domestic agricultural production, which President Raul Castro has described as a matter of "national security" and is a priority in his plan of reforms.
"Thanks to the inexplicable contrivances of perseverance, much more than the real possibilities of our economy, our government pays whatever it costs so that, among the unprotected on this earth, there is not one Cuban," Granma said, referring to the humanitarian consequences of the food crisis.
"Nonetheless, ways of working miracles are running out, and in a world where the mathematics of trade increases its pragmatism, the more the whirlwind slams those who have the least, the more we must find in our own lands and industries the strength to escape its vortex," the newspaper said.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2011/04/15/commodities-price-surge-boosts-cubas-food-import/
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