tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78988353909955112832024-02-18T17:44:46.816-08:00Cuba Internal ReformJohn McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-78042061041391207482013-06-27T15:26:00.000-07:002013-06-27T15:26:10.167-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Cuba After Communism<br />
The Economic Reforms That Are Transforming the Island<br />
By Julia E. Sweig and Michael J. Bustamante<br />
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July/August 2013<br />
Foreign Affairs<br />
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Cuba has entered a new era of economic reform that defies easy comparison to post-Communist transitions elsewhere. Washington should take the initiative and establish a new diplomatic and economic modus vivendi with Havana.<br />
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JULIA E. SWEIG is Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know. Follow her on Twitter @JuliaSweig. MICHAEL J. BUSTAMANTE is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American history at Yale University.<br />
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A car for sale in Havana.<br />
¡Adelante! A car for sale in Havana, February 2012 (Desmond Boy Lan / Courtesy Reuters)<br />
At first glance, Cuba’s basic political and economic structures appear as durable as the midcentury American cars still roaming its streets. The Communist Party remains in power, the state dominates the economy, and murals depicting the face of the long-dead revolutionary Che Guevara still appear on city walls. Predictions that the island would undergo a rapid transformation in the manner of China or Vietnam, let alone the former Soviet bloc, have routinely proved to be bunk. But Cuba does look much different today than it did ten or 20 years ago, or even as recently as 2006, when severe illness compelled Fidel Castro, the country’s longtime president, to step aside. Far from treading water, Cuba has entered a new era, the features of which defy easy classification or comparison to transitions elsewhere.<br />
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Three years ago, Castro caused a media firestorm by quipping to an American journalist that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.” Tacitly embracing this assessment, Fidel’s brother Raúl Castro, the current president, is leading a gradual but, for Cuba, ultimately radical overhaul of the relationship between the state, the individual, and society, all without cutting the socialist umbilical cord. So far, this unsettled state of affairs lacks complete definition or a convincing label. “Actualization of the Cuban social and economic model,” the Communist Party’s preferred euphemism, oversells the degree of ideological cohesion while smoothing over the implications for society and politics. For now, the emerging Cuba might best be characterized as a public-private hybrid in which multiple forms of production, property ownership, and investment, in addition to a slimmer welfare state and greater personal freedom, will coexist with military-run state companies in strategic sectors of the economy and continued one-party rule.<br />
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A new migration law, taking effect this year, provides a telling example of Cuba’s ongoing reforms. Until recently, the Cuban government required its citizens to request official permission before traveling abroad, and doctors, scientists, athletes, and other professionals faced additional obstacles. The state still regulates the exit and entry of professional athletes and security officials and reserves the right to deny anyone a passport for reasons of national security. But the new migration law eliminates the need for “white cards,” as the expensive and unpopular exit permits were known; gives those who left the country illegally, such as defectors and rafters, permission to visit or possibly repatriate; and expands from 11 months to two years the period of time Cubans can legally reside abroad without the risk of losing their bank accounts, homes, and businesses on the island.<br />
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This new moment in Cuba has arrived not with a bang but rather on the heels of a series of cumulative measures -- most prominent among them agricultural reform, the formalization of a progressive tax code, and the government’s highly publicized efforts to begin shrinking the size of state payrolls by allowing for a greater number of small businesses. The beginnings of private credit, real estate, and wholesale markets promise to further Cuba’s evolution. Still, Cuba does not appear poised to adopt the Chinese or Vietnamese blueprint for market liberalization anytime soon. Cuba’s unique demographic, geographic, and economic realities -- particularly the island’s aging population of 11 million, its proximity to the United States, and its combination of advanced human capital and dilapidated physical infrastructure -- set Cuba apart from other countries that have moved away from communism. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Cuba’s ongoing changes do not resemble the rapid transition scenario envisioned in the 1996 Helms-Burton legislation, which conditioned the removal of the U.S. embargo on multiparty elections and the restitution of private property that was nationalized in the 1960s. In this respect, Washington remains more frozen in time than Havana.<br />
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Cuba is an underdeveloped country with developed-world problems.<br />
Cuba’s reforms might appear frustratingly slow, inconsistent, and insufficient to address its citizens’ economic difficulties and desires for greater political participation. This lack of swiftness, however, should not be taken as a sign that the government has simply dug in its heels or is ignoring the political stakes. The response of Cuban leaders to their country’s vexing long-term challenges has involved strategic thinking and considerable debate. Indeed, the next few years will be crucial. As the 53-year-old Miguel Díaz-Canel, the current vice president and Castro’s newly designated successor, recently noted, Cuba has made “progress on the issues that are easiest to solve,” but “what is left are the more important choices that will be decisive in the development of [the] country.”<br />
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Those fundamental dilemmas include the following: How can Cuba attract and manage the foreign investment it urgently needs while preserving its hard-fought sovereignty? How much inequality will the island’s citizens tolerate in exchange for higher productivity and greater opportunities? And even if the Communist Party manages to take a step back from day-to-day governance, as Castro insists it must, how will Cuba’s leaders address the long-simmering pressures for greater transparency, public accountability, and democratic participation? If the recent past is prelude, Cuba will likely continue on its gradual path toward a more open, pluralistic society, while preserving its foreign policy independence.<br />
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REFORM WITH CUBAN CHARACTERISTICS<br />
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From the moment he assumed provisional power in 2006, Raúl Castro has spoken bluntly about Cuba’s predicament. “We reform, or we sink,” he declared in a characteristically short and pointed 2010 national address. Even as Havana sticks to its central political conviction -- namely, that the Communist Party remains the nation’s best defense against more than a century of U.S. interference -- terms such as “decentralization,” “accountability,” and “institutionalization” have become buzzwords, not taboos. Whereas in the 1990s, Havana was willing to permit only limited private enterprise as an emergency measure, the government now talks openly of ensuring that 50 percent of Cuba’s GDP be in private hands within five years. Realistic or not, such ambitious goals would have been sacrilege less than ten years ago. Already, the representation of Cuban small-business owners in the country’s National Assembly and their participation in the annual May Day parade offer evidence of changes under way.<br />
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The reforms have yielded several modest successes thus far. After facing sharp liquidity and balance-of-payments crises in the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, Cuba has succeeded in restoring a modicum of financial stability, resuming its debt payments, sharply cutting its imports, and beginning the arduous task of reducing public expenditures. Several key strategic investments from international partners -- most notably, the refurbishing of Mariel Harbor, with the aid of Brazilian capital, to transform it into a major container shipping port -- are moving forward on schedule. Meanwhile, a new state financial accountability bureau has begun the hard task of weeding out endemic corruption.<br />
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Nevertheless, Cuba faces serious obstacles in its quest for greater economic vitality. Unlike China and Vietnam at the start of their reform efforts, Cuba is an underdeveloped country with developed-world problems. Not only is the population aging (18 percent of the population is over 60), but the country’s economy is heavily tilted toward the services sector. When Vietnam began its doi moi (renovation) economic reforms in 1986, services accounted for about 33 percent of GDP, whereas the productive base represented nearly 67 percent. By contrast, services in Cuba make up close to 75 percent of the island’s GDP -- the result of 20-plus years of severe industrial decay and low rates of savings and investment. Service exports (mainly of health-care professionals), combined with tourism and remittances, constitute the country’s primary defense against a sustained balance-of-payments deficit.<br />
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Cuban officials and economists recognize this structural weakness and have emphasized the need to boost exports and foster a more dynamic domestic market. Yet so far, the state has not been able to remedy the imbalance. In the sugar industry, once a mainstay, production continues to flounder despite a recent uptick in global prices and new Brazilian investment. Meanwhile, a corruption scandal and declining world prices have weakened the nickel industry, leading to the closing of one of the island’s three processing facilities. More broadly, Cuban productivity remains anemic, and the country has been unable to capitalize on its highly educated work force.<br />
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Although important, the expansion of the small-business sector cannot resolve these core issues. There are now 181 legal categories for self-employment, but they are concentrated almost exclusively in the services sector, including proprietors of independent restaurants, food stands, and bed-and-breakfasts. Start-up funds are scarce, fees for required licenses are high, and some of the legal categories are senselessly specific. It also remains unclear whether the chance to earn a legitimate profit will lure black-market enterprises out into the open.<br />
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No surprise, then, that the expansion of self-employment has not yet enabled the state to meet its targets for slimming down its bloated payrolls. In late 2010, Castro pledged to eliminate 500,000 state jobs in the first six months of 2011, with an eye to incorporating over 1.8 million workers (out of a total estimated work force of 5.3 million) into the private sector by 2015. But the government managed to eliminate only 137,000 positions that first year. Still, the reforms are making a serious impact. Small businesses currently employ some 400,000 citizens, an increase of 154 percent since the liberalization of self-employment began in October 2010. To spur further growth, moreover, authorities recently launched a wholesale company that will allow emerging enterprises to purchase supplies on the same terms as state-run companies, thus addressing a major complaint of business owners.<br />
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To supplement these gains, Cuba needs to continue rebuilding its productive capacities in core areas such as agriculture. Before Raúl Castro came to power, approximately 20 percent of the cultivable land in the country lay fallow and Cuba imported half its domestic food supply -- a significant part of which came from the United States, under a 2000 exception to the trade embargo. To increase domestic production, the state has handed over more than 3.7 million acres of land to private farmers, whose crops now account for 57 percent of the total food production in the country despite their occupying just under 25 percent of the arable land. Yet aggregate food-production levels in most basic categories still hover at or slightly below 2002 levels.<br />
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It has been a long time since Cubans on the island and off could be neatly divided between anticommunists and pro-Castro revolutionaries.<br />
More promising is the investment to renovate Mariel Harbor, led by the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, with backing from the Brazilian National Development Bank. Cuba is hoping to position itself as a major shipping hub in the Caribbean. Located between the Panama Canal and points in the United States and Europe, the enormous, deep-water port at Mariel is ideally situated to handle trade with the United States and beyond in a post-embargo world. In addition, four Brazilian pharmaceutical companies have signed on to produce medicines in the port’s vicinity for direct export to Brazilian and other markets. Still, if the U.S. embargo remains in place, the long-term benefits of the Mariel investment will be limited.<br />
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The port project underscores some of the broader dilemmas constraining foreign investment in Cuba and the country’s overall growth prospects. Havana designated Mariel as a special economic development zone -- an area where foreign companies are given special incentives and prerogatives -- in an effort to attract badly needed investment dollars. Cuban officials also aim to take advantage of the country’s well-educated population and establish investment zones geared toward high-tech innovation and other high-value-added activities, such as biotechnology. Yet without links to local industries, such investment zones could become economic islands, providing employment to locals and income to the Cuban government but reduced multiplier effects.<br />
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The island’s dual-currency system makes the challenge all the more difficult. A byproduct of the circulation of U.S. dollars in the 1990s -- first in the black market, then legally -- the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) today functions as the currency of the tourist sector and is required for the purchase of many consumer items. For common Cuban citizens, the value of the CUC is pegged to the dollar, with one CUC equal to 25 Cuban pesos (CUP), the currency in which most state workers are paid. Consequently, citizens who receive hard currency from abroad or who earn money in CUC, such as workers who collect tips from foreign tourists, enjoy much higher incomes than workers who rely solely on salaries paid in CUP.<br />
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Even worse, the values of the CUC and the CUP are considered equal within and between state enterprises. This bizarre accounting practice helped insulate CUP prices from inflation during the depths of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, but today it makes it difficult for analysts and investors to estimate the real costs of doing business on the island or the value of state companies. Economists agree that the least disruptive way to move toward a single currency would be to gradually merge the two exchange rates in tandem with a steady rise in GDP and salaries overall. But in the meantime, the artificial one-to-one ratio within the state sector has the effect of overvaluing the CUP’s international exchange rate and thus decreasing the competiveness of domestic goods. Paradoxically, the dual-currency regime protects imports at the expense of domestic production.<br />
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ISLAND HOPPING<br />
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Cuba’s recent reform of its migration law neatly encapsulates a number of the possibilities, limits, and implications of Castro’s larger agenda. Despite being both a sign of the state’s willingness to make strategic decisions and arguably the most important reform to date, the new law also underscores the uphill battles that remain and illustrates the difficulty of managing optics and expectations. As with most issues in Cuban society, the line between politics and economics is entirely blurred.<br />
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Faced with an exodus of educated professionals and capital from the country after the revolution, the Cuban government began heavily regulating the movement of its citizens abroad in the early 1960s. In light of émigrés’ direct involvement in attempts to unseat the Castro regime, often financed by the U.S. government, Havana treated migration as a matter of national security. For many years, those who succeeded in leaving, legally or illegally, had their property stripped by the state and could not, barring extraordinary exceptions, return home. Such restrictions left deep wounds.<br />
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Yet it has been a long time since Cubans on the island and off could be neatly divided between anticommunists and pro-Castro revolutionaries. Any visit to the Miami airport today attests to the strength of transnational ties; in peak season, over a hundred weekly charter flights carry Cubans and Cuban Americans between the two countries. Such travel, allowed under some circumstances since the late 1970s, has expanded considerably since 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on family visits. In 2012, upward of 400,000 Cubans in the United States visited the island. And this is to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of Cuban emigrants living across Latin America, Canada, Europe, and beyond who also visit and support family at home.<br />
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Indeed, by making it easier for Cubans to travel, work abroad, and then return home, Cuba’s new migration law is also meant to stimulate the economy. At an estimated $1 billion a year, remittances have been big business since the late 1990s, helping Cubans compensate for low salaries and take advantage of what few opportunities have existed for private enterprise. Now that the government has undertaken a wider expansion of the small-business sector, ties between the diaspora and the island are bringing an even greater payoff. Cubans abroad are already helping invest money in the window-front cafeterias, repair shops, and other small businesses popping up across the country. Some islanders are also sending their own money out of the country so that relatives can buy them consumer goods abroad.<br />
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Beyond redressing a deeply unpopular status quo, however, the new migration law has put the government in an awkward position. Assuming enough Cubans can afford the now reduced, but still comparatively high, fees associated with acquiring necessary travel documents, other countries -- principally the United States -- will need to continue receiving Cuban visitors and migrants in large numbers. Ironically, Havana has long criticized the special preferences granted to Cubans under U.S. immigration law for seeming to encourage and reward dangerous attempts to reach U.S. shores. Now, Cuba appears to benefit from such measures’ remaining on the books -- especially the one-year fast track to permanent residency established by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. Under Cuba’s expanded two-year allowance for legal residency abroad, the more than 20,000 Cubans emigrating legally to the United States each year will be able to acquire green cards without necessarily giving up their citizenship claims, homes, or businesses on the island.<br />
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Debate in public among high-ranking Cuban officials remains rare, even if it is reportedly vigorous behind closed doors.<br />
Small-time diaspora capital may prove easier to regulate and rely on than funds from multinational corporations driven strictly by profits. Under the repatriation provisions of the island’s new migration law, some Cubans may even retire to the island with their pensions and savings after decades of working abroad. Yet opening the doors for more young citizens to leave could prove risky for a quickly aging, low-birthrate society that has been suffering from a brain drain for some time. Besides, along with remittance dollars, Cuba urgently needs both medium and large investors. Ultimately, only larger outlays can help fix Cuba’s most fundamental economic problem: its depleted productive base. Castro appears to recognize that attracting foreign investment, decentralizing the government, and further expanding the private sector are the only ways to tackle this long-term predicament. The government is unlikely to proceed with anything but caution, however. Officials are wary of rocking the domestic political boat, and citizens and party leaders alike recoil from the prospect of more radical shock therapy. Rising public protests in China and Vietnam against inequality and rampant corruption have only reinforced the Cuban government’s preference for gradualism.<br />
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Striking an adequate balance will be no easy task. In late 2012, Havana legalized the creation of transportation cooperatives -- private, profit-sharing entities owned and manage by their members -- to fix bottlenecks in agricultural distribution. Meanwhile, 100 state enterprises are now running their finances completely autonomously as part of a yearlong pilot program. The government is also reportedly considering ways to offer a wider array of potential foreign partners more advantageous terms for joint ventures. But the Communist Party is working through numerous contradictions -- recognizing a place for market economics, challenging old biases against entrepreneurs, and hinting at decentralizing the budget while incongruously insisting, in the words of its official 2011 guidelines, that “central planning, and not the market, will take precedence.”<br />
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EASING OFF THE DADDY STATE<br />
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Curtailing the state’s economic role while preserving political continuity requires threading a delicate ideological needle. Although the government expects to continue providing Cubans with key social services, such as health care and education, party leaders have reprimanded the island’s citizens for otherwise depending too heavily on what one prominent official a few years ago called the “daddy state.” In the eyes of many Cubans, this is deeply ironic. Cuba’s revolutionary founders, who built up a paternalistic state in the service of equality, are now calling for that state’s partial dismantlement. What’s more, most Cubans already need to resort to the black market or assistance from family abroad to acquire many daily necessities.<br />
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That is not to say that the reforms have been conducted without popular input. In the run-up to the 2011 Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, the government convened an unprecedented series of assemblies across the country to hear citizens’ grievances and proposals for change and to discuss Castro’s agenda. Although multiparty elections are not on the horizon, this undertaking allowed for widespread and often contentious public debate, albeit within broadly “socialist” conceptual parameters. Despite defending one-party rule, Castro has also called on public officials to make themselves accessible to the state press, and he has asked the press, in turn, to drop its traditional triumphalism. In a similar vein, he has implored students to “debate fearlessly” and party members to “look each other in the eyes, disagree and argue, disagree even with what leaders say whenever [you] think there is reason to do so.” More recently, Díaz-Canel publically mentioned the impossibility of prohibiting the diffusion of news via social media and the Internet -- a sign that, for the government, the strategic benefit of facilitating wider Internet connectivity may well outweigh the usefulness of controlling access.<br />
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Reality has not yet caught up with this rhetoric. Debate in public among high-ranking Cuban officials remains rare, even if it is reportedly vigorous behind closed doors. Nor is it clear whether Cuba’s National Assembly can become a more consequential, deliberative branch of government. Public statements perceived to impugn the Cuban Revolution’s legitimacy remain taboo and are grounds for facing consequences in the workplace or even ostracism. Nevertheless, outside of high-level government bodies and the still largely anodyne daily press, diverse voices have pushed the terms of debate considerably in recent years, blurring the purportedly neat line dividing “revolutionary” and “counterrevolutionary” positions.<br />
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International attention tends to focus on Cuba’s small, self-identified dissident community, particularly a newer cast of digitally savvy activists and bloggers. Yet in a country where the Internet remains an expensive, highly regulated commodity, perhaps the most interesting, potentially consequential debates are transpiring among academics, artists, independent filmmakers, former officials, and lay religious leaders, particularly from the Catholic Church, whose websites, journals, and public forums are more accessible to the island’s population. In general, these actors do not propose a radical break with all of the revolution’s legacies, symbols, and narratives. They also maintain their distance from foreign, especially U.S. and Cuban American, financial support, which marks many dissidents as “mercenaries” in the eyes of the Cuban state. Yet they do so more out of political conviction than strategic calculus, refusing to accept the purported choice between towing the party line at home and collaborating with transition schemes concocted abroad.<br />
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Recently, a small group of Catholic moderates and reformist Marxists, brought together under the auspices of a church-sponsored cultural center, circulated a series of straightforward proposals for political reform online. These included allowing direct, competitive elections for all of Cuba’s major leadership positions (albeit with all the candidates coming from one party), unrestricted access to the Internet, freer media, more effective separation of powers in the government, and greater use of plebiscites on major government decisions. The proposals have provoked opposition from some defenders of the status quo while generating substantial support, interest, and debate among academics on the island.<br />
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Yet despite the unprecedented scope of these discussions, it is hard to predict whether they will produce much concrete change in the short term. Presently, they do not seem to be having much impact on the public, which pays less attention to them than do the orthodox keepers of the revolutionary faith. The explanation for ordinary Cubans’ disengagement has as much to do with apathy, inertia, self-preservation, and the material demands they face every day as it does with limited access to information and a curtailed right of assembly. After all, substantial numbers of Cubans watch Miami television stations via pirated recordings or illicit satellite hookups, yet they have so far proved no more likely to take to the streets than their neighbors who lack such access. Since the 1960s, the primary means for those disaffected or unsatisfied at home to register their opinion has been to emigrate -- particularly to the United States, given the multiple incentives for Cubans built into U.S. immigration law. As long as this pattern continues, Havana will have the political space to continue its reforms “without pause, but without haste,” in Castro’s formulation.<br />
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THE LAST ICICLE OF THE COLD WAR<br />
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As the migration issue shows, Cuba’s economic and political predicaments cannot be appreciated in isolation from its international context. The U.S. embargo remains a formidable obstacle to the island’s long-term economic prosperity, and it casts a long shadow over Cuban domestic politics. In the case of Vietnam, it was only after the lifting of the U.S. embargo in 1994 that the economy began to transform in earnest. Given Cuba’s proximity to the United States and its relatively low labor costs, a similar shift in U.S. law could have a profound impact on the island.<br />
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In January, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened his confirmation hearing by celebrating his close collaboration with Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) in overcoming the legacy of war in order to restore U.S. relations with Vietnam. Yet both Kerry and Obama still seem to defer to the outdated conventional wisdom on Cuba, according to which Washington cannot change its failed policy so long as Cuban Americans in Congress continue to oppose doing so. Reality, however, is already changing. These legislators’ constituents have started voting with their feet and checkbooks, traveling to the island and sending remittances to family there as never before. Several wealthy Cuban Americans, moreover, are now talking directly with Havana about large-scale future investments. As a Democrat who won nearly half of Florida’s Cuban American vote in 2012, Obama is in a better position than any of his predecessors to begin charting an end to the United States’ 50-year-long embargo.<br />
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The geopolitical context in Latin America provides another reason the U.S. government should make a serious shift on Cuba. For five years now, Obama has ignored Latin America’s unanimous disapproval of Washington’s position on Cuba. Rather than perpetuate Havana’s diplomatic isolation, U.S. policy embodies the imperial pretensions of a bygone era, contributing to Washington’s own marginalization. Virtually all countries in the region have refused to attend another Summit of the Americas meeting if Cuba is not at the table. Cuba, in turn, currently chairs the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which excludes Washington. The Obama administration has begun laying out what could become a serious second-term agenda for Latin America focused on energy, jobs, social inclusion, and deepening integration in the Americas. But the symbolism of Cuba across the region is such that the White House can definitively lead U.S.�Latin American relations out of the Cold Warr and into the twenty-first century only by shifting its Cuba policy.<br />
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To make such a shift, however, Washington must move past its assumption that Havana prefers an adversarial relationship with the United States. Raúl Castro has shown that he is not his brother and has availed himself of numerous channels, public and private, to communicate to Washington that he is ready to talk. This does not mean that he or his successors are prepared to compromise on Cuba’s internal politics; indeed, what Castro is willing to put on the table remains unclear. But his government’s decisions to release more than 120 political prisoners in 2010 and 2011 and allow a number of dissident bloggers and activists to travel abroad this year were presumably meant to help set the stage for potential talks with the United States.<br />
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Meanwhile, the death of Hugo Chávez, the former Venezuelan president, and the narrow margin in the election of his successor, Nicolás Maduro, have made it clear that Havana has reasons of its own to chart a path forward with the United States. In the last decade or so, Cuba came to depend on Venezuela for large supplies of subsidized oil, in exchange for a sizable brigade of Cuban doctors staffing the Chávez government’s social programs. Political uncertainty in Caracas offers a potent reminder of the hazards of relying too heavily on any one partner. Havana is already beginning to branch out. In addition to financing the refurbishing of Mariel Harbor, the Brazilians have extended a line of credit to renovate and expand five airports across the island and have recently signed a deal to hire 6,000 Cuban doctors to fill shortages in Brazil’s rural health coverage. Even so, in the long run, the United States remains a vital natural market for Cuban products and services.<br />
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Of course, as the 1990s proved, even a huge financial setback may not be enough to drive Havana to Washington’s door. Half a century of U.S. economic warfare has conditioned Cuban bureaucrats and party cadres to link openness at home or toward the United States with a threat to Cuba’s independence. Some hard-liners might prefer muddling through with the status quo to the uncertainty that could come from a wider opening of their country.<br />
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The best way to change such attitudes, however, would be for Washington to take the initiative in establishing a new diplomatic and economic modus vivendi with Havana. In the short term, the two countries have numerous practical problems to solve together, including environmental and security challenges, as well as the fate of high-profile nationals serving time in U.S. and Cuban prisons. Most of the policy steps Obama should take at this stage -- removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, eliminating obstacles for all Americans to travel there, and licensing greater trade and investment -- would not require congressional approval or any grand bargain with Havana. Although it might be politically awkward in the United States for a president to be seen as helping Castro, on the island, such measures would strengthen the case that Cuba can stand to become a more open, democratic society without succumbing to external pressure or subversion. Deeper commercial ties, moreover, could have repercussions beyond the economic realm, giving internal reformers more leeway and increasing support on the island for greater economic and political liberalization.<br />
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In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev stood beside U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in Moscow and announced that the Soviet Union would eliminate its multibillion-dollar annual subsidy to Cuba. Cia analysts and American pundits immediately began predicting the imminent demise of the Cuban Revolution and a quick capitalist restoration. More than 20 years have passed since then, Fidel Castro has retired, and 82-year-old Raúl Castro is now serving the first year of what he has said will be his final five-year term as president.<br />
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In 2018, when Díaz-Canel takes the reins, Cuba in all likelihood will continue to defy post�Cold War American fantasies even as it moves further away from its orthodox socialist past. For the remaining members of Cuba’s founding revolutionary generation, such a delicate transformation provides a last opportunity to shape their legacy. For Cubans born after 1991, the coming years may offer a chance to begin leaving behind the state of prolonged ideological and economic limbo in which they were raised.<br />
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Obama, meanwhile, has a choice. He can opt for the path of least political resistance and allow the well-entrenched bureaucrats, national security ideologues, and pro-embargo voices in his own country to keep Cuba policy in a box, further alienating regional allies and perpetuating the siege mentality among Cuban officials. Or he can dare to be the president who finally extracts the United States from Cuba’s internal debate and finds a way for Washington and Havana to work together. Both the Cuban people and U.S. national interests would benefit as a result.<br />
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John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-3222988857815729002013-01-11T20:38:00.000-08:002013-01-11T20:38:11.568-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Brave new world of Cuba travel begins Monday</span><br />
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By MIMI WHITEFIELD<br />
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com<br />
Posted on Fri, Jan. 11, 2013<br />
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Cuba, which has long been criticized for keeping families apart and punishing those who try to leave the island illegally, has removed nearly all restrictions on travel by its citizens, a move that could cause ripples well beyond this island of 11 million people.<br />
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Gone is the reviled tarjeta blanca, the white card or exit visa that Cuba used to control who could leave the island. Gone is the notarized letter of invitation from a foreign host.<br />
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Now Cubans simply need a valid passport to travel — as long as they can get a visa from the country they intend to visit and a ticket for travel. Cuban authorities say they have set up 195 locations around the country where citizens may apply for their passports. Those who already hold passports will be required to recertify them under the reform.<br />
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But getting an entry visa allowing travel to another country and paying for a ticket are two big ifs.<br />
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“I was in Havana when the new policy was announced in October and people were very happy,’’ said Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence analyst who lives in Miami. “But people thought it was going to be easy to get a visa and travel. Just getting the money for a ticket will be a monumental problem for many people.’’<br />
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Presumably many Cubans will seek visas to travel to the United States — and now even minor children will be allowed to travel as long as they have the authorization of parents or legal guardians.<br />
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“The United States welcomes any reforms that allow Cubans to depart from and return to their country freely,’’ said Will Ostick, spokesman for the U.S. State Department Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.<br />
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But it’s unlikely the U.S. Interests Section in Havana will be handing out significantly more non-migrant visas than it does now. That could spur Cubans, intent on reaching the United States, to seek indirect routes through nearby countries or those that don’t require entry visas for Cubans.<br />
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“We cannot predict if the change in exit visa requirements will lead to a change in migration patterns from Cuba,’’ said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland at Friday’s State Department briefing. “We continue to encourage people not to risk their lives by undertaking dangerous sea journeys, and we note that most countries still require that Cuban citizens have entry visas.’’<br />
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Although the United States is committed to processing at least 20,000 non-migrant visas annually for Cubans, so many have been applying that last year some applicants said they were given appointments for visa interviews three years down the road.<br />
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“We have dramatically reduced wait times for visitor visa appointments…. as the U.S. government intensifies our commitment to provide appropriate legal avenues for Cubans to travel to the United States,’’ said Ostick this week.<br />
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But he said wait times for appointments could return to “multi-year levels if demand increases after the changes to Cuban exit permit requirements go into effect, because of constraints on our staffing levels and facilities in Havana.’’<br />
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Currently, the number of consular personnel authorized at both the U.S. and Cuban Interests Sections is 50 people and there is strict reciprocity between the two countries, which maintain Interest Sections instead of embassies because they don’t have diplomatic relations.<br />
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“I think there will be a large number of Cubans who will want to leave,” said Robert Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University and national security advisor for Latin America during the Carter administration. The majority, he said, will probably opt for a third country that doesn’t require Cubans to obtain an entry visa or that is within striking distance of U.S. borders.<br />
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Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who reach U.S. soil can be paroled into the United States and become permanent residents a year later. Making the whole scenario even more convoluted: under Cuba’s migration reform, Cubans will be allowed to stay outside the island for up to two years — rather than the current 11 months — without losing their rights as residents, meaning their could get green cards and work in the United States and still freely return to Cuba at the end of 24 months if they choose.<br />
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In this hemisphere, Haiti, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and a handful of small islands such as St Lucia and Grenada don’t require entry visas for Cubans. Maximum stays range from a low of 28 days in Barbados to as long as 90 days in Ecuador and Haiti.<br />
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“Cuban citizens like many other foreigners can enter Ecuador without a visa for tourism,’’ said Nathalie Cely Suárez, Ecuador’s ambassador to the United States<br />
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Some Cubans, she said, have tried to use “irregular mechanisms,’’ such as fake marriages, to remain in Ecuador, which has prompted stricter controls by Ecuadorian authorities.<br />
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Because of the difficulty in reaching the United States, the ambassador said she didn’t think concerns about Cubans using Ecuador as a launching pad to reach the U.S. are “substantive.’’ But already there are reports of smugglers taking Cubans who enter Ecuador across Colombia to the rugged Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama and then on up to the Mexican border.<br />
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Mexico requires entry visas for Cubans but it has been a favorite jumping off point for Cubans who can present themselves at the border and request to be paroled into the United States under the adjustment act, a 1966 law that was designed to normalize the status of thousands of Cubans who fled to the United States after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.<br />
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Some Cubans may make the assumption that once they reach a non-visa country, they can then apply for a U.S. entry visa but it might not help their chances. “Although visa applicants may apply at any U.S. consular office abroad, it may be more difficult to qualify for the visa outside the country of permanent residence,’’ said Ostick of the State Department.<br />
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Analysts say it’s hard to know whether the influx of Cubans through third countries will be a trickle or a torrent or whether it will prompt smugglers to create new networks to bring more Cubans to U.S. shores but there appear to be plenty of legal loopholes.<br />
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The U.S. Coast Guard says it will continue to maintain a “robust maritime presence in the Caribbean” but declined to say whether it planned to beef up efforts.<br />
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However, sooner or later, analysts say, Cuba’s new travel policy will have an impact on U.S. policy.<br />
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“I think there’s an understanding in Cuba that finally the ball is going to be in the other court,’’ Amuchastegui said.<br />
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Cuba’s new policy, for example, may indirectly prompt calls from other migrant groups for the same access to the United States now enjoyed by Cubans, said Pastor. “I think this will be a real test for the Cuban lobby to retain the Cuban Adjustment Act.’’<br />
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But Larry Rifkin, a Miami immigration lawyer, said, “The Cuban Adjustment Act won’t be removed until democracy returns to Cuba.’’<br />
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In the meantime, Cubans who reach U.S. borders can seek refugee status and will be admitted.<br />
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Rifkin was counsel in a 2007 case known as the “Matter of Vasquez” that involved a Venezuelan native born in Caracas to Cuban parents. The case, he said, established a legal precedent as to who qualifies as a Cuban national and is eligible under the adjustment act.<br />
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Now the U.S. accepts, he said, that a child born outside Cuba to at least one parent who is a Cuban citizen at the time of the child’s birth and registers the birth at a Cuba consulate in the country where the child is born is considered to have acquired Cuban citizenship.<br />
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So-called step-across the border migration to the United States might also be aided by Spain’s Law of Historical Memory, which gives citizenship to the descendants of Spaniards who were persecuted and fled during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.<br />
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Spain has closed the period for accepting passport applications under the law, which went into effect in 2008. But passport applications from 500,000 Cubans are still pending, said Gregorio Laso, a spokesman for the Spanish Embassy in Washington. Several thousand Cubans have already received Spanish passports under the law, setting them up for travel to Spain and countries and territories that don’t require entry visas for Spanish citizens. In the Caribbean that includes the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos.<br />
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The Spanish themselves aren’t expecting a large influx of Cubans under the new policy. “It is not so easy to move your family and begin a new life in another country without a job,’’ Laso said. Spain’s unemployment rate is currently 26.6 percent.<br />
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But he said the embassy was aware of some Cubans who have tried to enter the United States on Spanish passports. Some have been rejected, he said, but more recently, cases have been referred to immigration judges. Spaniards can visit the U.S. without a visa.<br />
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For its part, Cuba has said it wants its travel laws to be similar to those of other countries.<br />
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“For many Cubans, this is a very positive thing,’’ said Nik Steinberg, an Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch, “but the critical question, as with any reform, is how it is implemented. The real test will be whether those who are critical of the government’’ will be allowed to get their passports and travel.<br />
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The Cuban government is apparently betting that most Cubans who travel abroad will return. A program broadcast on Cuban television in October gave this statistic: Of 941,953 Cubans who traveled to foreign countries from 2000 to last August, 12.8 percent — or 120,705 people — didn’t come back to Cuba.<br />
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Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.<br />
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/11/v-print/3178584/brave-new-world-of-cuba-travel.html#storylink=cpy<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Major provisions of Cuba’s New Migration Policy</span></b><br />
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• Allows Cubans who obtain their passports to travel as long as they have an entry visa from the country they intend to visit and a ticket; eliminates the need for an exit visa and letter of invitation.<br />
• Increases the time Cubans may stay outside the country from 11 months to 24 months without losing their status as residents of Cuba. Previously Cubans were given permission to visit for only 30 days after which they had to pay a fee for each additional month’s extension up to 11 months.<br />
• Allows those younger than 18 years to leave the country with the notarized authorization of their parents or legal representatives.<br />
• Allows Cubans who have emigrated to visit the island for a period of up to 90 days — 60 more than currently allowed.<br />
• Allows those who were previously barred from returning, such as those who left for humanitarian reasons, rafters, and athletes and professionals who left their teams or posts while on official trips abroad, to return. Those who escaped through the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo will still be banned for defense and national security reasons.<br />
• Allows those who left Cuba illegally after the 1994 migration accord with the United States to return as long as eight years have passed since their departures. An exception to the eight-year requirement will be made for Cubans who emigrated illegally when they were under 16 years of age.<br />
• Allows Cuban doctors, whose travel was highly restricted except for official missions abroad, to leave the country for travel just as other citizens do.<br />
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/11/v-fullstory/3178584/brave-new-world-of-cuba-travel.html#storylink=cpy<br />
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John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-55906910286918146782013-01-02T04:55:00.000-08:002013-01-02T05:01:57.270-08:00The Evolving Celebration of Christmas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">A little background. During the ”Revolutionary Offensive” (1968-1970), at the same time that all economic activities, except for small farmers, were nationalized and private activity, personal or in business entities, were prohibited, Fidel personally made an effort to stop Christmas celebrations and transform the New Year festivity into the welcoming of a new anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, January 1, 1959.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">The arguments were not religious. It went like this: the tradition of Christmas and big New Year parties correspond to Europe and North America, with cold seasons, in which snow and freezing temperatures didn't allow working in agriculture in the countryside or construction in the cities. In Cuba, it is just the opposite. From November until May it is the dry cooler season, in which you work much better in the fields. It is the time in which the harvests of sugar cane, rice, beans, potatoes, and also green vegetables, are plentiful. So, the economic logic is that this is a time to work: Cubans should celebrate in July.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">So, the Party did a serious effort to convert traditional celebrations and days of December into the hailing of the Anniversary of the Revolution. They tried to move family meetings, children's celebrations and other big parties to official nonworking days around July 26.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Even so, the tradition of giving toys and presents to the children around the days of Christmas and the Three Wise Men went on and the Government, even during the years of scarcity in the end of the sixties provided, through the industrial articles rationing card, 3 toys for every child,- one more expensive and two inexpensive.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Celebrations went on in the Catholic and Christian churches, and, in private, some families gathered to eat on Christmas Eve, the night of the 24th, as is our tradition.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Culture, traditions and Christian beliefs proved to be much harder to change than it looked. After the debacle of “Real Socialism” in Europe, and during the “Special Period” (the economic collapse following the abrupt end of Soviet support), Cuban families restarted slowly the Christmas Eve gathering more publicly albeit still non-officially.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Fidel, always a shrewd politician, accepted the reality and took advantage of the first Papal visit to that year declare that on the 25th of December work will stop, as a gesture to the Catholic Church and Christians as a whole.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">After this, Christmas trees and decorations came out of the closet and made a strong come back, including in state owned stores and restaurants.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">An additional factor was the opening to tourism and the construction of new hotels or rebuilding of old ones which had to be decorated for Christmas for international guests. The difference between a sad, not decorated Havana, and the bright lights of Christmas trees in hotels was politically impossible to maintain.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">No less important was the cascade of Cubans from Miami, Spain and elsewhere during the Christmas season. They came full of presents and happiness, wanting to enjoy and longing for a traditional Christmas eve dinner, full of joy and cariño (there is not an appropriated word in English for it). Except for the presents, they were received in the same way.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">So, human links, meeting of similar cultures and family relations made Party policies obsolete and more than that, ridiculous.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Now, December 25 is legally a day to celebrate. Scores of private choruses of young children practice during the previous months and in these days appear in churches, hotels, and parks to sing Christmas carols. More and more people go to the Catholic churches at 12 o'clock “Misa del Gallo” on the 24th to welcome Jesus birth. In the Havana Cathedral, the widely respected Cardinal Ortega offers the mass and delivers the Sermon. People also go to other Christian churches for their services.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Construction workers, which are mostly from the eastern provinces, go back to their home towns for the period from around December 20th to the 2nd of January and it is very hard to keep labor in the sugar mills albeit in harvest. It is very true, that this is the best time to work in the fields in Cuba. A big movement of people takes place along the Island as Cubans go back to their elders' homes to celebrate. Special buses and trains have to be provided by the state.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Still, the official propaganda puts the emphasis on the New Year as the Anniversary of the Revolution as the main celebration. But there is no repression or official effort of any kind to dissuade the people from celebrating Christmas. The ideological defeat has been swallowed in the most gracious possible manner.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">Economically speaking, families have a real problem to celebrate two so expensive and close to each other festivities like Christmas and New Years eve.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">For Cubans, Christmas eve is a family celebration, -a dinner with roast pork, white rice, black beans, boiled yucca with mojito (garlic, lime juice, a little fried in pork lard), a salad with lettuce (a must) and at least tomatoes. The dessert is Spanish turrones and/or home made buñuelos.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">New Year's Eve is a party with friends and, for the wealthy ones, in a night club. Dinner is part of the party including roast pork again as the main course. People have to choose some time which one will be the bigger celebration because there is not enough money for both.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">The State stores sell Christmas decorations, but very expensive.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.233333587646484px;">In sum, Christmas is back, and every year it goes more and more to be the old traditional happy and respectful family feast, away from politics. Even so by being itself it is political, reminding everybody where the cultural roots are of the Cuban nation.</span></div>
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John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-21998585037214424352012-12-07T14:37:00.002-08:002012-12-07T14:45:59.649-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In Farmers Market, A Free Market Rises In Cuba<br />
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by NICK MIROFF<br />
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December 07, 2012 4:00 AM<br />
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Morning Edition<br />
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Cuba has relaxed some business rules, allowing street vendors to sell produce and a large wholesale produce market to open at night on the edge of Havana.<br />
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Greg Kahn/Getty Images<br />
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Cuba has no shortage of fertile farmland, but the country spends $1.5 billion a year importing about 70 percent of its food.<br />
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The communist government's chronic struggle to get farmers to produce more is forcing authorities to grudgingly accept a greater role for market principles and the profit motive.<br />
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Now authorities seem willing to go another step further, tolerating the rise of what might be described as Cuba's "free-est" market.<br />
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This market, on the edge of Havana, only exists at night, appearing after sundown every day in a muddy vacant lot. Scores of battered, sputtering Chevy farm trucks and ancient Ford tractors arrive loaded with onions, squash, papayas and cabbage. It must be the largest gathering of 50-year-old American farm equipment anywhere on the planet.<br />
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The market doesn't have any signs, or even bathrooms, adding to the impression that Cuban authorities haven't quite accepted its permanence. Sales are done in cash under the faint glow of cellphone screens and lanterns. Even the police, who are ubiquitous elsewhere in Cuba, seem absent here.<br />
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Wholesale produce markets like this one exist all over Latin America, of course, where farmers can drive to the city and freely sell their crops. But in Cuba, there hasn't been anything like this in a half-century.<br />
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Armando Manzo has driven 250 miles from his farm in Cuba's Villa Clara province, with the family's 1957 Chevy Bel Air sedan stuffed to the roof with garlic. It's the kind of act that in the past wasn't allowed by a government that has spent decades micromanaging food production and distribution, often with disastrous results.<br />
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"The police would stop you and confiscate your produce," Manzo says in Spanish. "It was madness. Now what we're doing is legal."<br />
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Like other private farmers here, Manzo still has to meet an annual production quota that requires him to sell about a quarter of his harvest to the government at artificially low prices. But since taking over Cuba's presidency from his brother, 81-year-old Raul Castro has been gradually dialing back the island's state-dominated system.<br />
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Castro has turned over millions of acres of state land to private farmers and cooperatives, enough to lure Cubans like Ramon Gonzalez back into farming.<br />
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"There's more incentive to work harder," he says in Spanish. Dressed in a blue Best Buy shirt and selling sacks of sweet potatoes, Gonzalez says he quit his government job as a mechanic three years ago and joined a cooperative. The more you can sell, the more money you can make, he says.<br />
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The days of empty Cuban produce stalls appear to be over, but food prices here have never been higher. So far, the move toward a more market-driven model hasn't been popular with Cubans who depend on government pensions and the state salaries that average little more than $20 a month. For them, a single avocado or a pound of tomatoes can equal a full day's wages.<br />
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But even as Castro complains in speeches about costly imports and urges Cubans to produce more, his government still hasn't taken basic steps like letting farmers buy new trucks and tractors.<br />
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"If we don't give farmers access to a market for equipment and supplies, the problems will continue," University of Havana economist Juan Triana says in Spanish. But that's just one factor among many.<br />
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The main customers at the wholesale market are the pushcart vendors who have flooded Cuba's streets since Castro licensed them to work legally. Most are young men like Alejandro Cruz, riding homemade tricycles with makeshift carts mounted on the back. Working as independent entrepreneurs has left them wanting more.<br />
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"There's still too much government control," says Cruz in Spanish. "They have to loosen up so there can be more business on the streets and people can make a living without fear."<br />
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One pushcart driver who complained of police seizing his wares put it another way. Asked what he thought of new regulations that will compel vendors to limit cart sizes and wear uniforms, he puts his hands around his throat and says as soon as there's something good, they choke it off.<br />
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/12/07/166676952/in-farmers-market-a-free-market-rises-in-cuba?utm_source=December+7%2C2012&utm_campaign=December+7+Blast&utm_medium=email<br />
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John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-22685262916529731392012-09-14T19:56:00.002-07:002012-09-14T19:56:31.556-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Cuban ingenuity in the iPhone age</h1>
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<span class="name" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Elien Blue Becque</span></h5>
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Published 5:43 p.m., Friday, September 14, 2012</h5>
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When my iPhone slipped from the back of the tank and into the toilet, I snatched it out immediately. Though at first all seemed fine, it soon switched off and remained unresponsive.</div>
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"It's toast," was the verdict from Grant, an <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=technology&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Apple%22" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Apple</a> store Genius. "We don't deem it really, like, worth it to replace the inner components of the shell of a broken phone. I'll throw that guy away and get you a brand new one."</div>
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Grant said I'd have to buy a new phone for $649 (or a refurbished one for $150). I was about to leave on a trip to Cuba, where my phone wasn't going to work anyway. So I thanked him and left.</div>
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On my second day in Havana, I passed a small electronics store in the once-upscale Vedado neighborhood and stopped in. Fishing the useless slab from my bag, I asked, "Is there anyone who might know how to fix this?" The woman at the counter headed to the back and returned with a thin slip of paper bearing an address in the Miramar neighborhood.</div>
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A kid wearing white-framed Ray-Bans nodded when I knocked on the green plywood door at the destination. His name was Andy, and he was confident he could fix my problem. Removing the tiny screws that hold the glass cover in place, he began a rapid disassembly. I had to admit Andy seemed less impressed with my fancy phone than I might have expected.</div>
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"How often do you fix an iPhone?" I asked.</div>
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"Daily," he replied.</div>
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A phone explosion</h3>
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"In the last two or three years, I've noticed [iPhones] popping up," said <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=technology&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Philip+Peters%22" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Philip Peters</a>, a Cuba expert at the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=technology&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Lexington+Institute%22" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lexington Institute</a>. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=technology&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Ra%C3%BAl+Castro%22" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Raúl Castro</a>'s reforms have jolted the mobile market. "In 2008, when he lifted the prohibition on Cubans' having cell phones in their own name, that led to an explosion in the number of subscribers."</div>
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Like many products in Cuba, iPhones are often brought in by tourists or citizens allowed to travel abroad.</div>
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Andy extracted the motherboard with a dental pick, put it in a green tank, added alcohol from a soda bottle, and pressed power. The contraption shook vigorously. Abelito, his partner, says they learned most of what they know via an illegal Web connection. After 20 minutes of careful prodding and scrubbing, Andy miraculously resuscitated my phone, but the battery holds little charge. I tried to pay. He refused.</div>
<div style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 13px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
"We usually only accept payment when we've fixed the problem."</div>
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"But you did!" I argue. He would not be swayed.</div>
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A black market</h3>
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A day later, at Hotel Saratoga in Old Havana, I noticed the porter swiping at his iPhone 3. I told him about my battery, and he pointed to a thin, carefully dressed young man hanging around the bar. Ten minutes later, Roberto and I were making our way down a muddy street behind the impressive, decaying Capitol Building modeled exactly after the rather better-kept one in Washington.</div>
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We stopped in front of a dark entryway. Roberto asked me to wait and bounded up a set of concrete stairs. Minutes later, he returned with a new iPhone battery in its black plastic wrapper.</div>
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As payment, he accepted an 8-gigabyte flash drive I'd been carrying. Flash drives are valuable in Cuba, where Internet use is restricted and monitored. Roberto, an architecture student, explained that while "tuition here is free, you have to buy lesson books, paper, pens, your food, your transportation." All that costs money.</div>
<div style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 13px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Just as their fathers learned to fix obsolete Detroit <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/autos/" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cars</a>, Andy and Roberto have learned to make a living with Palo Alto technology to which they have no official access. The healthy cell phone repair market here is the latest example of Cuban ingenuity that locals call <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sobreviviendo</em>. It's small-scale capitalism working around a 50-year embargo and an anemic, centrally planned economy.</div>
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Two months later, my phone works perfectly. The next time an Apple Genius tells you there's no hope, consider it an excuse to visit Havana.</div>
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</div>
<div class="dtlcomment" style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 13px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Elien Blue Becque is a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor. E-mail: <a href="mailto:business@sfchronicle.com" style="border: 0px; color: #015660; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">business@sfchronicle.com</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read more: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Cuban-ingenuity-in-the-iPhone-age-3866818.php#ixzz26VGjYDkY" style="border: 0px; color: #003399; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Cuban-ingenuity-in-the-iPhone-age-3866818.php#ixzz26VGjYDkY</a></span>
</div>
John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-89905450736700598552012-09-01T21:01:00.000-07:002012-09-01T21:01:08.094-07:00New Import Duties Go Into Effect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: BWHaasHead, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Import
tax deadline has Cuba entrepreneurs on edge</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By
Peter Orsi on September 01, 2012</span></span></span></div>
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</div>
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HAVANA (AP) — A sudden jump in import
taxes on Monday threatens to make life tougher for some of Cuba's new
entrepreneurs and will mean higher prices for many of their customers
by raising the cost of goods ranging from jungle-print blouses to
jewelry.</div>
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</div>
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The new measures steeply hike duties on
cargo shipments, as well as on many bulk goods brought in by airline
passengers, a crucial supply line for many of the small businesses
the government has been trying to encourage as it cuts a bloated
workforce in the socialist economy.</div>
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</div>
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Officials insist the taxes are similar
to those in other countries, but many small-business owners view the
change as an ominous sign.</div>
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</div>
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While the published official
description seems aimed at items such as clothing, soap, food and
other personal-use goods, it is so complex it leaves importers of
other products unsure if they will be affected, now or in the future.</div>
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</div>
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Some of the entrepreneurs, such as
Javier Ernesto Matos, say they have prepared for the blow by stocking
up on parts before the tax takes effect.</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He also has prepared for a worst-case
scenario if supply dries up entirely: "It's pretty shocking, but
the strategy we have in mind is to consolidate in a single shop and
leave prices the same to recoup what we can from our investment,"
said Matos, who together with two business partners operates three
mobile phone repair shops called the Cellphone Clinic.</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Others say they'll have no choice but
to raise prices. That, along with the higher taxes on goods brought
in by friends, has worried consumers in a country where the average
monthly wage is about $20.</div>
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</div>
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"For our family these are
important items, from a little soap to a backpack for school," a
woman identified as Loraine wrote on the state-run Cubadebate
website. "We all make sacrifices to help them. Nothing falls
from the sky. Why are they turning their backs on reality? Knowing
how many shortages there are in the country, why be so strict?"</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While President Raul Castro has tried
to expand the private sector, the government has done little to
provide wholesale outlets where businesses can buy parts and
materials for the goods they sell, so many supplies are either
unavailable or prohibitively expensive due to high government retail
markups.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban-born
economist at the University of Denver, said it's not unusual for
countries to levy high customs duties, but Cuba has exceptional
circumstances that make it inadvisable right now.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"The right timing was to create
the wholesale market first and then try to crack down on this type of
activity," Lopez-Levy said. "If you don't have a wholesale
market, then you are implementing the measures without the proper
sequence, especially if you really want to promote the small- and
medium-size nonstate sector."</div>
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</div>
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"In the long term, this resolution
was necessary," he said. "Right now, it's a mistake."</div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The new duties seem primarily targeted
at so-called "mules," who make frequent shopping trips to
places such as Ecuador, Panama and Miami and bring back duffel bags
bulging with food, underwear, shoes and electronics.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Starting Monday, Cubans who travel
abroad more than once a year not only will pay higher tariffs,
they'll pay in hard currency rather than the more-easily obtainable
national peso, which trades at 24 to the U.S. dollar and is used for
most salaries.</div>
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<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cubans will also begin paying
dollar-based sums of $4.55 a pound ($10 per kilogram) above a certain
weight to receive packages shipped by air and sea. That rate doubles
if they bring in large shipments.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The impact is already being felt by
people like Rafael, a 50-something who imports clothes to Havana.
Before, he paid the equivalent of $65 in the local currency to import
550 pounds (120 kilograms) of clothing. Under the new, progressive
duty schedule, that would apparently cost between $1,300 and $1,800.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"This idea of raising taxes is
crazy. ... I don't know where this decision came from, because it
hurts everyone," Rafael said. "But it hurts the people the
most, because we have to raise our prices."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Already costly for Cubans — a pair of
jeans costs an average month's wage — Rafael's prices stand to rise
an initial $2-3 per garment and could go up even more, he said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
previousHe declined to be identified by
his full name because his business license only authorizes him to
make clothing, but he essentially resells imported garments.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The new rules will mostly affect
clothing stands and boutiques, but could also hurt the supply of
things such as artificial nails to beauty salons, or fabric, buttons
and zippers to dressmakers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It could also make it harder for some
Cubans to visit family abroad. Trips are often funded by agreeing to
bring back large bags on behalf of someone who pays the airfare.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Cellphone Clinic's Matos said he
began doubling his normal purchases this summer and has stockpiled
enough parts like fragile electronic ribbons to stay in business for
two more years, no matter what.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"If buying pieces becomes more
expensive, if people are bringing in less, you have to reevaluate and
prices will have to rise," he said. "It's a bad thing,
because if you raise the price not everyone will come like before.
It's not worth it, you know?"</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's not clear that any state-run
operation would offer some of the Clinic's services, such as
unblocking an iPhone 4.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Separate tax rates cover food and
electronics, including 400 pesos (or $17) for a Cuban to import a
32-inch or larger flat-screen TV on a first trip, and $400 on
subsequent travels.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Authorities insist they're just trying
to improve service at Cuban airports, where excess baggage clogs
conveyor belts in passenger terminals. In mid-August, state-run
website Cubadebate published Customs officials' explanation of the
tariffs along with several examples.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But it did little to ease concerns,
judging by the dozens of exasperated reader complaints posted in the
comments section.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"Why should a Cuban citizen have
to pay the taxes in a currency in which they themselves are not
paid?" said a poster identified as Roberto Suarez. "That's
not fair. I don't travel, but I don't see the logic in that."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some said the regulations could force
entrepreneurs to turn to black-market goods pilfered from state-run
concerns.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Others, however, predicted that Cubans,
famous for their knack for finding a make-do solution to any problem,
will figure a way to sidestep the duties.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
"Something will be found to get
around this," said Maria, another clothing vendor who also would
not give her last name because her business activities exceed the
scope of her license. "It always happens in this country. It's
like they say: 'He who creates the law, also creates the cheat.'"</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
___</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Associated Press writer Anne-Marie
Garcia in Havana contributed to this report.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
___</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Follow Peter Orsi on Twitter at
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi">www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi</a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-01/import-tax-deadline-has-cuba-entrepreneurs-on-edge#p1">http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-01/import-tax-deadline-has-cuba-entrepreneurs-on-edge#p1</a>
</div>
</div>
John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-74537229228102470422012-06-10T08:31:00.001-07:002012-06-10T08:31:40.252-07:00Cuba's International Medical Assistance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Cuba-trained doctors making difference around the world</h1>
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<img alt="Nabeel Yar Khan, a fourth year student of medicine, looks after Paulina Sarduy in the Jose Luis Miranda hospital in Santa Clara, Cuba, March 31." id="ts-main_article2_image_IMG" src="http://i.thestar.com/images/fe/90/7048ffb741d2ac9299f5c478c449.jpg" style="border: 0px;" /><div class="ts-image_abstract" style="color: #152539; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 2px 2px; padding: 0px;">
Nabeel Yar Khan, a fourth year student of medicine, looks after Paulina Sarduy in the Jose Luis Miranda hospital in Santa Clara, Cuba, March 31.</div>
<span class="ts-image_source" style="color: #8691a1; display: block; margin: 0px 4px 2px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase;">FRANKLIN REYES/FOR THE TORONTO STAR</span></div>
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<span class="ts-label" style="color: #343434; display: block; font-weight: bold;">By <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/columnists/210820--porter-catherine" style="color: #006699; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Catherine Porter</a></span>Columnist</div>
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SANTA CLARA, CUBA—Every morning, on the edge of town, you can witness a spectacular migration. Hundreds of students in white lab coats pour from a squat university building on to the street, around the line of horse-drawn wagons, and into nearby hospitals.</div>
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You can play a game, watching from your perch beneath a flowering flamboyant tree: where do you think the guy with dreadlocks is from? What about the girl with a hijab? Some have telltale signs — an Argentinean or Angolan flag stitched over their medical uniforms.</div>
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They are international students at the world’s largest medical school, the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina — ELAM.</div>
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To put the school’s size in perspective: the University of Toronto has 850 medical students and Harvard University has 735. ELAM has twelve times more students than those two schools combined: 19,550. And, despite being a poor country, every single one of those students is on full scholarship.</div>
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Nabeel Yar Khan rushes among them, his stomach growling from missing a miserable mess-hall breakfast, glasses gleaming, short hair gelled to a peak like an angry bird from the popular video game. Most locals guess from his brown skin that he is one of the 906 Pakistani students granted scholarships since the deadly 2005 earthquake. But, peer closely at the back of the grey knapsack strapped over his shoulders and you see a small red maple leaf pin.</div>
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Yar Khan is from Scarborough — Malvern, to be precise.</div>
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He is rushing toward the low-slung, pink pediatric hospital — a place where the third and first worlds collide. Here, he can learn how to transplant a kidney, but patients bring their own buckets and kettles to heat water for baths.</div>
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For the past week, Yar Khan, 25, has been caring for 8-year-old Paulina, a girl with long curly hair tied loosely into a ponytail and a half-naked Cabbage Patch doll beside her in bed.</div>
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She is here for a urinary tract infection, her eighth this year. She smiles warmly as he checks her abdomen. The hospital’s head of nephrology, Dr. Maria Del Carmin Saura, joins him and class begins.</div>
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“When is a urinary tract infection considered chronic?” she asks Khan in Spanish.</div>
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“When there are more than three in a year,” he replies.</div>
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“What are the causes?” she asks. “What is the treatment?”</div>
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Satisfied with his answers, she steps back and Yar Khan continues his examination.</div>
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“He is a very good student,” Del Carmin confides before blowing a kiss to Paulina and leaving the room. “He’s really curious and part of a group of students that help one another a lot, which is important. . . . Canada will have a good doctor.”</div>
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Yar Khan is the first Canadian student at ELAM. Chances are, he will be the last.</div>
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<strong>Like most things</strong> in today’s Cuba, Fidel Castrol gets credit for starting ELAM.</div>
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In October 1998, he dispatched a team of doctors to the Central American countries that were being pounded by Hurricane Mitch. In a matter of days, more than 11,000 people died in the resulting floods and mudslides. Upon arriving in the mostly rural areas, the Cuban doctors discovered that many people suffered chronic, long-term illnesses. Instead of broken bones, they were treating river blindness and stunted growth. In places like the Mosquito Coast of Honduras, the Cubans were the first doctors the patients had ever seen.</div>
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Castro came up with a variation on the “teach-a-man-to-fish” theory: instead of leaving Cuban doctors in disaster areas indefinitely, he would teach locals to become their own doctors.</div>
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A naval academy on the outskirts of Havana was reclaimed and, at a speed perhaps only achievable under communism, the last naval students were shipped out by January. The next month, the first busloads of Nicaraguan students pulled up.</div>
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Half a year after the hurricane, ELAM’s initial 1,932 medical students began their classes in a six-year program. Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother who replaced him as president in 2008, opened the school.</div>
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“He said that this was a school to graduate the doctors for all the world,” says Eladio Valcarcel Garcia, one of the school’s founders, who had helped run the naval academy. The memory makes him weep. “He told me I’d no longer be preparing children for war, but to heal the world.”</div>
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The school quickly expanded to include students from more than 110 countries, from Mozambique and Yemen to Cambodia and East Timor. According to the school, more than two-thirds come from poor, rural families. Many represent first nations — the Kiche of Guatemala or Igbo of Nigeria.</div>
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Most could never afford medical school — or even access one.</div>
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Here, they study for free. They are given a bed in a dorm room, three basic meals a day, textbooks and a monthly stipend of 100 pesos — enough for a bottle of shampoo and one beer. (That’s about $3.90, or four days’ pay for a Cuban doctor.)</div>
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The only anomaly on the list of recipient countries, until recently, was the United States — Cuba’s bitter enemy. Sixty-seven Americans have already graduated from the school, and another 116 are currently enrolled — all from poor communities that rarely produce doctors, Garcia says.</div>
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“It is not a political idea,” he says, adding in the next breath: “They blockade us from medicine that could save children’s lives.” (After our interview, ELAM announced the school would not accept any more American students because of the American embargo.)</div>
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The school was supposed to close after 10 years, when enough new doctors would have graduated to replace the Cubans in the students’ home villages. But, as ELAM’s reach expanded to include the entire developing world, the end date has been pushed back indefinitely.</div>
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“We created this school to provide health for all,” Garcia says. “It’s 2012 and we still don’t have health care for everyone. So we have to continue working on this.”</div>
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<strong>Given ELAM’s mandate,</strong> you might presume Yar Khan comes from the troubled Kashechewan reserve in Northern Ontario or a rundown apartment at Jane and Finch.</div>
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But his family lives in a neat, four-bedroom home on a leafy suburban street in Scarborough.</div>
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His parents are immigrants of Indian descent. His father works for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. His mom answers the phone at a food distribution company.</div>
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Yar Khan worked throughout high school and his two years at York University, but he didn’t have to. His parents paid his tuition and living costs.</div>
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They aren’t wealthy by Canadian standards. But compared with most students at ELAM, Yar Khan is well-off. His closest friend, Carlos Roberto Perez, hasn’t flown home to El Salvador for two years because of the cost — not even when his mother died.</div>
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How Yar Khan became the school’s first Canadian student is a story of a little chance and a lot of perseverance.</div>
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During his second year at York, Yar Khan wandered through a campus international development fair and learned about Canada World Youth, a non-profit organization that sends young Canadians abroad on exchanges. He applied and was sent to rural Cuba.</div>
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He describes a party at his Cuban friend Eykel’s one-room concrete house to describe how the experience changed him. After dinner, Eykel turned on the stereo and the entire family — mother, father, grandmother — danced together.</div>
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“It made me look at life differently,” says Yar Khan. “You can have little but still be happy. Money can’t buy happiness. Even though I wasn’t with my family, I still felt love and affection here.”</div>
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While in Cuba, Yar Khan phoned the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa to ask about ELAM. Their response: the school wasn’t open to Canadians. Upon his return to Toronto, he launched a letter and telephone campaign, which also proved fruitless.</div>
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After Christmas 2007, he flew back to Cuba and camped out in the Foreign Affairs Ministry building — to no avail.</div>
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Two days later, the phone rang back in Scarborough. It was the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa. He had been accepted.</div>
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“I was jumping around, banging on the walls, I was so excited,” he recalls.</div>
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Less than a month later, he started classes in Cuba.</div>
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<strong>Along with sugar,</strong> cigars, 1950s cars and Fidel Castro, Cuba’s health-care system is the country’s pride and defining characteristic.</div>
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Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, recently praised the Cuban medical system as a model for the world. “People in this country are very fortunate,” she said.</div>
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Cubans have more doctors per person than anyone else on the planet. Most residential blocks still have a local medical <em>consultorio</em> — a doctor’s office with the doctor living upstairs on call. (This has been changing, as many doctors have been sent on missions to Venezuela over the past decade.)</div>
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Medical treatment is more hands-on and less technology-driven, mostly because MRIs and lab tests are expensive. They call it preventive — meaning people see their doctor regularly, before there is a crisis. The results are stellar: Cuba was the first country in the world to eliminate polio and measles. According to a 2006 journal of epidemiology, it has the lowest rate of AIDS in the Americas. Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than Canada and the United States. The average lifespan, at 78, is just three years lower than Canada’s.</div>
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None of this is an accident. From the beginning, Fidel Castro set out to make Cuba an international medical superpower, according to Julie Feinsilver, author of <em>Healing the Masses: Cuban Health Politics at Home and Abroad</em>.</div>
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When a 9.5-Richter earthquake struck Chile just a year after the Cuban revolution in 1959, Castro sent a medical team even though half of Cuba’s 6,000 doctors had fled the country. Three years later, when Algeria’s independence led to a similar brain drain, Cuba provided 56 doctors for 14 months.</div>
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“They believed Cuba owed a debt to humanity for assistance the nation received during the revolution,” says Feinsilver.</div>
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Cuban doctors have also been sent on development missions around Latin America and Africa: starting vaccination campaigns in Angola and Ethiopia, working in rural South Africa and starting and staffing medical schools in a half-dozen countries like Yemen and Ghana where doctors are scarce. (In Ghana, local newspapers report that citizens are more likely to see a Cuban doctor than a local one.)</div>
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Since 2006, Cuban doctors have restored vision to 2.2 million Latin Americans through simple eye surgeries.</div>
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Today, the tiny country of Cuba, population 10 million, sends more doctors to assist in developing countries than the entire G8 combined, according to Robert Huish, an international development professor at Dalhousie University who has studied ELAM for eight years .</div>
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There are 68,600 Cuban doctors now and more than 20 per cent of them — or 15,407 — are on missions in 66 countries.</div>
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They have saved 4 million lives over the past five decades, they say.</div>
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“We are the army of doctors in the world,” says Dr. Jorge Juan Delgado Bustillo, the country’s deputy director of medical co-operation, standing in front of a giant map on which almost every country in Africa and Latin America sports a little Cuban flag. “We don’t fight with guns. We fight with our knowledge and hands to assist people.”</div>
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Most Cubans I spoke to call these medical missions a gesture of solidarity. More than once, I heard the same phrase: “We don’t have much. But what little we have, we share.”</div>
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<strong>But there is</strong> a business model here, too. More than two-thirds of the medical <em>internationalistas</em>are in Venezuela, which repays the Cuban government with cheap oil.</div>
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Cuban medical teams are in other rich countries, like Qatar, where they are paid $1,000 a month — more than 30 times their regular salary of $35. About 40 per cent of the Qatari wage goes to the Cuban government, Delgado says. “Every student studies medicine here free. It’s their responsibility to their society.”</div>
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Critics of the system call this modern slavery. Dr. Julio Cesar Alfonso runs <em>Solidaridad Sin Fronteras</em> (Solidarity without Borders), a Miami-based charity that assists Cuban doctors get their American accreditation. Since the George W. Bush administration created a special visa program for Cuban medical <em>internationalistas</em> in 2006, about 800 Cuban doctors have defected from international missions, he says.</div>
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“They work long hours and receive tiny salaries while the Cuban government makes good money,” says Alfonso. “Doctors in Cuba won’t tell you the truth. They are scared to speak openly about this.”</div>
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Statistics are hard to get in Cuba. But author Feinsilver estimates Cuban medical exports surpassed the $2.3-billion tourism industry earnings of the early 2000s.</div>
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If the money is big, the political returns are even bigger. Cuban doctors have earned their country many international allies, essential in Cuba’s long, cold fight with the United States. In April, most Latin American and Caribbean countries at the Summit of the Americas rejected the American demand that Cuba not attend the next forum.</div>
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Experts call this “medical diplomacy.” ELAM fits neatly into it. Most countries that receive Cuban doctors send students to the school. In 2004, Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos said he would not support another American anti-Cuba resolution because of Cuban doctors in his country and the 600 Paraguayan students at ELAM.</div>
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<strong>“Dimi Chocolito,”</strong> Yar Khan says to a passing South African.</div>
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“<em>Que tal mi hermano</em>?” he asks an East Timorese.</div>
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Next is a guy from Paraguay before he finally settles into conversation beside the line of <em>coches</em>— horse-drawn carriages that are Santa Clara’s version of buses — with a student from Guinea Bisau.</div>
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“I’ve learned so much about the world here,” Yar Khan says, as we clip-clop toward the city centre. “Did you know Nicaragua is the only country in the world that has sharks in lakes?”</div>
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Back in Scarborough, Yar Khan’s parents thought of him as their reserved, driven, middle child. He has always worked hard, signing himself up for Kumon classes in Grade 7 because he thought he needed help with math. He volunteered a lot, running a kids’ soccer team and helping at the local hospital. But he wasn’t super social. He kept to his close friends from grade school.</div>
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Four years in Cuba have transformed him.</div>
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The Cuban Yar Khan is short and funny — “I’m 5-foot-4, hopefully,” he says — and outgoing. He kisses his teachers on the cheek goodbye and strokes the arms of patients while talking to them. He talks to strangers on the street in an easy Spanish, which he taught himself.</div>
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“At the beginning of the year, he told me he wanted to be paired with a Spanish-speaking student,” recalls Gloria (Prof Katty) Catalina Bacallao Martinez, who taught Khan semiology (the science of symptoms) last year. Yar Khan missed the intensive Spanish classes most foreign students receive during their first six months at ELAM. He was admitted too late, thrown directly into pre-med sciences. He wanted the Spanish-speaking partner to do the bedside talking.</div>
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“I told him ‘No. You must acquire the ability to speak good Spanish for your patients,’” Bacallao continues. “When he finished, he spoke more fluently than the Spanish students.”</div>
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Yar Khan lives at the top of a mottled, four-storey building, in a room with six other men. They each have a mattress on a bunk bed, a wooden locker and a miniature desk. Amazingly, another six men were billeted here, but they sleep at their girlfriends’ places. The room is so small, it’s hard to imagine how they would fit. As it is, Yar Khan has to move desks to make enough room to unfurl his prayer rug.</div>
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There are no bedside lamps. The last one to bed turns out the fluorescent lights. There was no electricity at all between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. during Yar Khan’s first two years here.</div>
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The men share one toilet and one shower, when it works. Most of the time they bathe from a bucket of water.</div>
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The food served in the gloomy canteen below is predictably terrible — mostly rice and black beans.</div>
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Yar Khan’s father sends him $150 every month to buy essentials, when he can find them. Santa Clara has been out of toilet paper for about a week — rumour has it the factory shut down.</div>
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“There were two hurricanes during my first year here,” he says. “You couldn’t find fruit or vegetables in town for four weeks. Or eggs.”</div>
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Last year, after Yar Khan’s Canadian bank changed its credit cards, he went four months without being able to access money. His friends paid for his beer and the odd dinner out with what little they had. When he was recovering in hospital from an appendectomy, Perez — his poor Salvadoran friend — brought him green mangoes and tamarind fruit that he had picked.</div>
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Yar Khan has learned first-hand that Cuban motto: “We don’t have much, but what little we have, we share.”</div>
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“This program has changed me into a better person,” he says.</div>
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ELAM students don’t sign formal contracts promising to use their free degrees in poor, rural communities. The hope is that the school experience will inspire them to do that. According to ELAM’s administration and international scholars, about 80 per cent follow through.</div>
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“Many have made efforts toward humanitarian outreach rather than hightail it into radiology or some specialization that sees the top pay scale,” says Dalhousie’s Huish.</div>
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He is talking particularly about the American graduates who would have incurred huge debts had they studied medicine at home.</div>
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“Many of them are in self-organized health brigades. Some went to New Orleans to do community-based care with other physicians. Others have gone to work in Oakland, the Bronx, and one grad set up an NGO to promote safe maternity in Ghana.”</div>
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At ELAM’s main campus near Havana, Eladio Valcarcel Garcia, the teary administrator who helped found the school, says the 2010 Haitian earthquake, which killed up to 300,000, was a perfect test case. The Cuban government tapped ELAM to gather 356 graduates to join the large contingent of Cuban emergency doctors heading to help. “We had to stop calling. All of them said yes. They came from Guatemala and Mali and Nigeria, Morocco. We still have 102 graduates there.”</div>
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Yar Khan has two more years of medical school and likely a residency program in Canada before he decides where he will practice. He is certain he wants to be a pediatrician. From there, he is wavering between working in a developing country with Doctors Without Borders or heading to Canada’s north, where doctors are rare.</div>
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“This is survival of the fittest. I’ve gone through so many obstacles to get here,” Yar Khan says with a smile. “I can survive with minimum essentials anywhere.”</div>
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It is unlikely another Canadian will ever follow him to ELAM. The Cuban government has made no moves to open the door to others.</div>
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<a href="http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/1203466" style="line-height: 21px;">http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/1203466</a></div>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-23163775095714605682012-06-07T20:48:00.003-07:002012-06-07T20:49:29.585-07:00American Cooperativist Reflects on Cuban Experience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Cuban Cooperatives Advance, Diversify</h1>
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John Eicholz</div>
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We were lucky to be invited by Wendy Holm, a Canadian agronomist, to attend a conference on cooperative development in Cuba. In her words, this conference grew out of the nexus between her work with Cuban farmers, most of them in cooperatives, and the Cuban government’s new guidelines to cooperatise their economy. Her brochure read in part: </div>
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"If Cuba is successful in evolving to a more cooperative economy, this will not only improve the ability of Cuban economy to best meet the needs of her people, but also add a very strong link in the global cooperative chain. Cuba is about to step forward on a new cooperative path. In its Sixth Congress last April, the Cuban Communist Party committed to a transition from state socialism to cooperative control in many sectors of Cuba’s economy. Intriguingly, Cuba could be the first nation to get this right. Coming from a socialist background, cooperatives are a good fit. And without a capitalist sector, Cubans are more likely to consider worker and producer co-ops, for example, as a real option, not just a waystation on the road to capitalism. In short, Cuba is well positioned for a successful transition to a more cooperative economy." </div>
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The proposed content of the conference bore a strong resemblance to goals of our own co-op (Franklin Community Co-op in western Massachusetts): building a strong local cooperative economy, and developing local economic sustainability, in the face of rapid change and turmoil in the world around us. In the spirit of cooperation among co-ops, we decided to attend.</div>
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Our group was composed mostly of faculty and students of the MMCCU (Master of Management—Co-operatives and Credit Unions) program of St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The program met the criteria for a U.S. general license to travel to Cuba, allowing us as Americans to participate. Our purpose in going was to understand Cuba’s advancement of global cooperation and to assess and assist. We were excited about all we could learn and what we would share. </div>
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<strong>A beautiful city in transition</strong></div>
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Havana is an incredibly beautiful city, more European than you might imagine. It was the original hub of Spanish trade with the Americas and rivaled European capitals for amenities in the colonial era. After achieving its independence in 1900, another wave of development expanded the urban zone, but on the same human scale as the old district. After the revolution in 1959, difficulties with trade and an isolated economy, as well as the government priority to develop and provide housing and basic services for all throughout the countryside, have led to a lack of resources to maintain Havana’s buildings. </div>
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Some areas have been recently restored, but most have lacked maintenance for decades. Marble staircases lead you to huge rooms with crumbling walls. Bathrooms are palatial but may have no plumbing or toilet seats. Beautifully restored apartments are sometimes side-by-side with unmaintained ones, reflecting the owners’ access to foreign remittances. We paused for coffee breaks, drinking from ceramic cups and saucers—we did not miss the disposables so common in America.</div>
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<strong>A cooperative future </strong></div>
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The future of the Cuban economy will be modeled on cooperatives. Our days were filled with fascinating presentations by several of Cuba’s cooperative champions and thought leaders. The presenters ranged from academics to city and state officials and representatives of civil agencies working in agricultural cooperative development. They painted a compelling picture of a society with a deep reservoir of social capital and a desperate need for economic innovation, seeking to use cooperatives as a way forward. </div>
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Our conference began with an overview of Cuban society, putting into context the many challenges facing the Cuban economy after the fall of the Soviet bloc (1989–90) and the continuation of the U.S. trade embargo. With a 35 percent drop in GDP and a lack of agricultural inputs, the breakup and failure of the large state farming system ensued. This led to large disruptions in the agrarian workforce and balance of trade. </div>
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<strong>Hybrids, distribution, and worker co-ops</strong></div>
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Driven by the necessity to maintain one of "the pillars of the revolution"—adequate food production for all—a creative response was to increase the number of hybrid cooperatives (UBPC) working on the idle land to produce food primarily for state distribution. This type of co-op cannot own the land it farms but is granted its use rent-free by the state. They generally sell a large amount of their produce to the state under contracted pricing. However, worker-owners are allowed to self-govern their business, and these cooperatives can choose their own way to allocate profit. </div>
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A visit to a large UBPC in Alamar confirmed both the highly effective farming practices in use and the degree to which co-op self-direction and trade liberalization were occurring in practice. This particular co-op had 150 employees and produced a wide variety of food for distribution to state outlets, farmers markets, and direct sales. UBPC cooperatives have developed on their own a system of shares, earned by longevity, in which all profits after reserves are distributed on a biweekly basis, the distribution being in addition to members’ government salary.</div>
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Postrevolution Cuba has always had supply and distribution co-ops (CCS) for independent small farmers. These co-ops generally acted as clearing houses for state-allocated inputs and distribution. In 1975 began the formation of pooled resource farm co-ops (CPA) operating as worker cooperatives. In these co-ops, farmers grant or sell their own land to the co-op and then farm the land under cooperative ownership. The UBPC co-ops described above are the third type of agricultural co-op in Cuba today. Combined, such co-ops work about three-fourths of the farmed land in Cuba. </div>
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All of these cooperatives are set to benefit from changes in official economic policy, as summarized in the <em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">Liniamientos</em> or guidelines that emerged from a recent Communist Party Congress. These guidelines were cited repeatedly as evidence of the official direction of government policy. </div>
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<strong>More changes to come</strong></div>
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Currently, all types of co-ops are formed under specific terms by the state, and many of their inputs and markets are subject to allocation. The changes under development would create open markets for agricultural inputs and sales of farm produce and create a unified legal structure authorizing co-ops as a (socialist) form of business. Cooperatives could then form producer co-ops for agricultural inputs, building supplies, transportation and social services, as well as consumer co-ops throughout the economy. </div>
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We learned that you cannot talk about the Cuban economy without talking about socialism, whose goal was described to us as the full or integral development of all human beings. This was made eminently clear to us as each presenter spoke to us about how their project was compatible with socialism and helps build on the socialist principles of the Cuban project. </div>
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Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, professor and researcher with the Center of Studies of the Cuban Economy, University of Havana, is a Cuban theorist of cooperatives and socialism. Harnecker presented a detailed analysis of the areas of alignment between cooperative and socialist principles: co-ops are suited to democratic management and an orientation towards broader social interests, portrayed as the use of a social logic to guide exchange relations rather than a market logic. </div>
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Thus, co-ops can act as a social form of property. Important principles seen in regard to the economic advantages of co-ops are the decentralization of businesses for greater productivity and innovation, while maintaining local control and worker self-management for the development and fulfillment of humane social relations. Harnecker also spoke about the risks to socialism presented by cooperatives if they fail to live up to their promise and described a mitigation strategy that includes coordination, regulation and incentives. The concept of cooperatives as both association and enterprise played a large role in resolving these risks. </div>
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<strong>Assessment: co-op or co-opt?</strong></div>
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Of most interest to us was the presence of a strong educational emphasis, addressing the perceived need for education about co-ops. While Cuban government leaders have shown their support of cooperatives in the <em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">Lineamientos</em>, there is also a long history of state central planning and little experience operating in a market economy. People’s subjective response (understanding and opinions) concerning co-ops is seen as a barrier to advancement as well. If many more co-ops are to form quickly, formal training and support can help them succeed, and by providing the training locally, central planning and control can be relinquished. This challenge is being met by a very thorough educational program, the "La Palma Project." </div>
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We heard from Mavis Dora Alvarez, founding member of ANAP (national small farmers organization) and Carlos Artega, a Cuban economist and member of ACTAF (Association of Agriculture and Forestry Technicians), who were key architects of this program. Alvarez and Artega began their work with a study of the cooperative principles in relation to Cuban society and the many needs of new cooperative farm businesses. This included the history of cooperatives and cooperative principles, the role of cooperatives in improving the economy and the environment, principles of self-government and social relations, and the legal structure of co-ops. </div>
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They developed a program to train municipal groups to deliver this training to co-ops. As a pilot, they formed and trained local teams in five municipalities. Outcomes observed so far include an increased involvement by women in cooperatives and an increased interest in managerial training, as well as increased interest in forming new cooperatives. This spring, they will be conducting their first municipal cooperative trainings, as well as reviewing the training materials prior to expanding the pilot. All this in one year! We have never heard of a more thorough cooperative educational program conducted at this scale. </div>
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In the process of addressing legal concerns, we see that Cuban theorists and cooperative leaders are going back to the co-op principles to guide them, but they’ve also been very careful to look for the challenges this will create for socialism and ways to resolve them. At first glance, socialism and cooperatives may seem incompatible, but our conclusion was that cooperatives can be compatible with both capitalistic and socialist forms of society. Cooperatives are not a political construct but an economic and social one, and their goals are universally acceptable. </div>
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<strong>Alone we go faster, together we go farther </strong></div>
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The benefits of our visit were realized at once by our bringing together Cubans who had not previously come together as a group. Those networks were deepened and strengthened in the following months. </div>
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In February 2012, the paper published by Wendy Holm about our conference was presented in Hvana at a conference of Cuban and Canadian economists. The awareness of the Canadian government was advanced when our group presented our findings to the Canadian ambassador. Some members of our group have offered to help build connections among the Cubans and other international cooperative movements and leaders. We were glad to be able to assist in their process in a way that is appropriate to advance cooperative development in a decentralized manner and to foster new international efforts towards cooperative development. </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The La Palma Project has ADOPTED the slogan </span><em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Solos go faster.</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">together we farther</span></span></em><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> -which translates as, "Alone we go faster, farther we go together."</span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a society experiencing huge Rapidly changing Pressures to Adopt a capitalist model, cooperatives in Cuba are Positioned to Provide the best balance of Economic Development and social equity.</span></span></div>
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<strong>References and links</strong></div>
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Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution (<em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">Lineamientos</em>):<br />
<a href="http://www.walterlippmann.com/pcc-draft-economic-and-social-policy-guidelines-2010.html" style="color: #c2432f;">www.walterlippmann.com/pcc-draft-economic-and-social-policy-guidelines-2010.html</a></div>
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Links to reports by Wendy Holm, and an article about our trip: </div>
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<li style="list-style-position: inside; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px;">Presentation to the University of Havana Co-op Conference, February 2012."The December 2011 Havana Workshops: Reflections of Canadian co-operators on Cuba’s Economic Transformation and Decentralization." www.theholmteam.ca/HOLM.Univ.Havana.2012.pptx.pdf</li>
<li style="list-style-position: inside; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px;">"Walking the Walk: Cuba’s Path to a More Cooperative and Sustainable Economy." Report on the outcomes of an informal Havana dialogue.www.theholmteam.ca/HAVAVA.WORKSHOPS.Dec.2011.pdf</li>
<li style="list-style-position: inside; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px;">"There are many lessons to be learned here..." <em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">The Havana Reporter</em>, Feb 17, 2012www.theholmteam.ca/Havana.Reporter.Feb.17.pdf</li>
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<em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;">This article was featured in Cooperative Grocer, Issue 160 June 2012, the bi-monthly trade magazine for food cooperatives in North America.</em></div>
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<em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><a href="http://www.thenews.coop/node/8493">http://www.thenews.coop/node/8493</a>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-64430492060577263232012-06-06T15:35:00.003-07:002012-06-06T15:35:49.478-07:00View from Miami of Cooperativism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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STANDARD<br />
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By José Manuel Pallí, Esq.<br />
<a href="mailto:jpalli%40wwti.net">jpalli@wwti.net</a><br />
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The notion that workers/owners could effectively and efficiently direct
production in a given business organization within the tenets of a market-based
economic system has historically been branded as utopian. This is even more so
the case today. <br />
<br />
Faced by the ever more pronounced crisis of a system driven by poorly
understood financial forces (even by those who claim to master the universe),
the defenders of the dogmas and mantras of a no less utopian neo-liberalism
cling to the fraudulent argument that it is either their way or the communist
party's way. <br />
<br />
In fact, this false dichotomy seems to be grounded on both Marxism's and
Neo-Liberalism's reliance on a particular "institution" that is key
to their respective socio-economic construct: the Ministry or Department of
Wishful Thinking (an institution that has achieved church or cult-like status
in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Miami</st1:place></st1:city>, where
I live). <br />
<br />
Cooperativism in agricultural activities is deeply rooted in the Cuban
experience. The Taínos, who inhabited the island when <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Columbus</st1:place></st1:city> landed, did not recognize individual
ownership of land and tilled and cultivated it collectively, in a sort of
productive association. <br />
<br />
The spirit of cooperativism can also be found in the number of fincas or
haciendas comuneras — undivided (and, in many cases, factually indivisible)
ranches — that characterized and often complicated the land tenure system that
preceded the Cuban Revolution (a problem that you are bound to find throughout
the world, specially in the less wealthy parts of it). <br />
<br />
Although this form of land ownership, known elsewhere as proindiviso, is, in
essence, private ownership of land, it often compels those forced into
co-ownership to engage in associative production schemes, at least for as long
as the land remains undivided.<br />
<br />
Among the steps taken by the Cuban government to offset the effects of the
crisis of the 1990s (a.k.a. Periodo Especial) was the creation of the basic
units for cooperative production (unidades básicas de producción cooperativa,
or UBPC), presumably a way to streamline food production at a time when Cuba
had lost close to 80 percent of its trading partners due to the demise of the
Soviet empire. <br />
<br />
Decreto Ley 142 of 1993 was aimed at increasing agricultural production by
creating the incentives that would lead individual campesinos to better use and
conserve the land, getting the most out of it at the lowest possible level of
costs and governmental expenses. <br />
<br />
Originally conceived for what was still then <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s main productive industry,
that of sugar, the creation of the UBPCs fell short because it ignored what the
law itself and its enabling regulations claimed was one of its basic tenets:
autogestión. <br />
<br />
Any autonomy that the law nominally extended to the UBPCs[1] was severely
watered down by subjecting them to the dictates of the Ministries of Sugar and
of Agriculture. <br />
<br />
Small wonder then that, beginning in 1997, individual campesinos who owned
their lands — there are well over 100,000 such small landowners of less than 5
caballerías[2] in Cuba — and some who hold land in usufruct, began forming
independent agricultural cooperatives throughout the island. <br />
<br />
Despite efforts by the Cuban Government to manipulate this process and despite
the lack of financing, these individuals' pursuit of economic independence
through solidarity and mutuality of interests has been successful to some
extent and at different levels.<br />
<br />
It is this sense of achievement, even if modest, that should be used to gauge
the success of the cooperative movement as an economic form of production
(beyond agriculture) and as a vehicle for the satisfaction of collective goals
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>
of the future.<br />
<br />
And in order to more effectively gauge that success, it could be helpful to be
free of ironclad notions about what success and other concepts — including
property rights — actually mean for people with views and priorities that may
differ from ours. <br />
<br />
For instance, in other societies that have emerged from behind the Iron Curtain
or from authoritarianism in the recent past, the present worldwide crisis has
driven people to certain measures that we would consider anathema. <br />
<br />
Not only are homeless people — families made homeless, in many cases, by
mortgage foreclosures — taking over (occupying) unfinished apartment buildings
in Spain and other countries with battered-down economies. <br />
<br />
Even in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> (in what
used to be <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">East Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>
or the GDR) tenants are trying to figure out how to preserve their housing from
ever escalating rental prices. Some of these tenants at risk are forming
cooperatives in order to buy the buildings they inhabit — social housing still
owned by government-controlled holding companies — before they are sold to
profit-hungry private landlords.<br />
<br />
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has yet to publish the new rules that will govern cooperatives in the island.
It would be good to see in those impending rules a stronger sign that
cooperatives in all segments of Cuba's productive system will be truly
independent and autonomous when they decide what to produce, what and who they
sell to or buy from, even if they remain loosely integrated into a collective
productive system that, at times, calls for state intervention in order to
coordinate their activities with other socially desirable goals. It would be
even better to see these other goals determined freely and democratically by
all Cubans soon, without any exclusion whatsoever.<br />
<br />
Utopian? Maybe. But not any more so than anything out of the mouth of Jamie
Dimon at JP Morgan Chase …<br />
<br />
Our next look into the way Cuba is trying to adjust its socialist model will
explore the still not fully regulated and clarified use of derechos de
superficie in Cuba, specially how they relate to the kind of rights foreign
investors can expect to hold over Cuban real estate.<br />
-------------------<br />
José Manuel Pallí is a Cuban-born member of the Florida Bar, originally trained
as a lawyer in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Argentina</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
He is president of Miami-based World Wide Title<br />
<br />
[1] Resolución 354/93 (as amended) of the Ministry of Agriculture, which enacts
the Reglamento General for the entities (UPBC or Unidad) created under DL
142/93, defines the Basic Unit for Cooperative Production as a business and
social economic organization formed by workers and autonomously run, that is
wired into the (national) production system. <br />
<br />
[2] In "Cuban", one caballeria de tierra amounts to 13.42 hectares,
or slightly more than 33 acres.<br />
<br />
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 at 5:47 pm</span></div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-55180913372401363792012-06-06T15:20:00.001-07:002012-06-06T15:20:48.515-07:00A Canadian Perspective on Small Business Growth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Small business takes root in the new <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Katie Derosa, VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
March 18, 2012</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In central <st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place>,
not far from <st1:street w:st="on">Revolutionary Square</st1:street>,
a teal mural sports the words "Defend Socialism" in white capital
letters. Just steps from the square, a sign says "53 years since our
victory," referring to the communist revolution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the trappings, there are subtle fissures in the
social fabric that Fidel Castro fought so hard to keep seamless during his
reign. His younger brother, President Raul Castro, is making major concessions,
allowing more Cubans to open up small businesses and make a living outside a
meagre state-issued paycheque. They are concessions experts say are needed for
the country to survive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before the economic reforms in late 2010, only 140,000
people in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>'s
workforce of four million- less than three per cent - were self-employed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Approximately 350,000 Cubans have now been granted small
business licences and that number is likely to grow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some ferry tourists across the cobblestone streets of <st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place> on three-wheeled
bikes. Others have set up stands selling books, handmade jewelry, wooden
trinkets and artwork, most of which immortalizes celebrated revolutionary
figure Che Guevara.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ernesto Estrada, 33, takes a taxi 20 kilometres every day
from his home in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Matanzas</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place> to Varadero, the
tourism heart of this tiny island, to work at his uncle's stand in a popular
market. It costs him $2, but he quickly notes that's the fare for him, not
tourists - most taxi drivers will charge $10 for tourists heading a few
kilometres.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Estrada is encouraged by the new self-employment policy touted
by Raul Castro.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"The government start to open the life for Cuban
people," he said, pausing from his work to talk to me during a trip to the
country in late February. "It's better for us," he added. "The
pay [in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>]
is very bad."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If his uncle sells $100 worth of portable wooden chess sets,
carved wooden turtles or maps of <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place> painted on pieces of leather,
Estrada will make $10 that day. That's not bad, considering most Cubans make
$20 a month.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Estrada is trying to save money to open a stand of his own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the self-employment policy was announced in September
2010, Raul Castro promised to eliminate up to one million publicsector jobs by
2015, laying off 500,000 people by March 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Archibald Ritter, an economist at the Norman Paterson School
of International Affairs at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Carleton</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place> who
specializes in the Cuban economy, said the roll-out of the plan was a disaster.
Layoffs had to be drastically scaled back, because the government had yet to
liberalize the private sector or lift the debilitating restrictions on small
business.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While some of the limitations on small businesses have been
lifted, Ritter said they don't go far enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Up until November 2010, a private restaurant could only have
12 chairs. Now, restaurants can have 50 chairs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Small businesses can employ a maximum of five people - an
improvement from banning employees altogether.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The government still prohibits professional activities from
being sold in a small-business enterprise. Businesses like accounting services,
engineering consultancies and private law offices, which fill phone books in
North America, are not allowed in <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The government is allowing many state-run businesses to
shift to private enterprises selling the exact same service.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ritter said this will make the economy more efficient,
eliminating the complex and bureaucratic hierarchy that regulates state-run
services.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You have to have a big bureaucracy to organize
everything. If they're just operated by little family firms, then each one is
independent - they rise or fall depending on the demand they produce. So it's a
direct relationship between the entrepreneur and the customer."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Francisco Yoslay, a charming, fashionably dressed
30-year-old, paced outside a cigar shop popular with tourists, briskly asking if
they wanted fine Cuban cigars.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Cohibas, I have Cohibas, very good price," he
said with a smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yoslay insists he gets them from family members who work in
the state-run factory. Without having to pay the store commission, he can sell
them at a better rate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I asked if he considers himself a businessman and he
replied: "Always."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"It's better than working for the government," he
said, before leading me down a secluded alleyway to show off his wares.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people will tell you cigars not sold from behind a
store counter are black market, but Yoslay's pitch was convincing. He rolled
the thick Cohiba in his palms to show that the tobacco wouldn't fall out. He
let customers smell the pungent aroma and showed off the engraved, cedar wood
Cohiba box. One Canadian tourist took him up on the offer and bought 10 for 60
convertible pesos ($60).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the government's draconian restrictions have led
Cubans to cheat the system by stealing or selling services under the table.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ritter said during a trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> last year, he was walking by a
state-run cigar factory when he struck up a conversation with a night watchman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The security guard asked Ritter if he wanted some cigars and
led him to a cache of stolen cigars that he was selling out of the security
booth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- - -</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most Cubans live on a monthly income of $20 US, even though
their country has a large professional workforce. The government provides
people with housing, food rations, education and medical care.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As much as the ideology of socialism demands that there be
no class divisions among the people, two distinct classes have emerged. There
are those who work in the tourism business and those who don't.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More than two million tourists a year visit the <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> nation, providing the country with one of its
main sources of revenue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Waiters, bartenders, taxi drivers, tour guides and
housekeepers are in the enviable position of making tips in Cuban convertible
pesos, which are worth 25 times more than the Cuban peso.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ismary Castillo, a waitress at a resort buffet in Varadero,
is an engineer by profession. She took the job waiting tables to support her
extended family. In addition to tips, tourists also shower her with a host of
North American consumer goods - things like shampoo, makeup and brand-name
clothes. Most of the coveted items go to her 17-year-old daughter, who is
studying to get into a university architecture program.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Castillo said her daughter, Isis, sometimes gets frustrated
studying and working so hard for what will be little pay in the future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"My daughter, she say, 'Mom, why I study here? There is
nothing.' I say, 'It's your future. If you do go to another country, you have
to be a professional.' She says, 'But you're an engineer and you're
waitressing.' But I'm always an engineer. I have that."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hamet Manson Guerra, 42year-old, is a taxi driver, barman
and mechanic. He has two sons, ages 15 and seven, whom he's encouraging to
learn English fluently in the hopes that when they are older, they'll be able
to leave the country for opportunities abroad.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cubans are not allowed to leave the country unless they
marry a non-Cuban, are artists or intellectuals or are sponsored by someone
outside the country. Those who leave rarely come back for fear of reprisals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"The people want to see a difference, they want to feel
more freedom, you know what I mean?" said Guerra, wearing a crisp white
shirt and perspiring in the hot <st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place>
sun while taking a break from his taxi service. "The people can buy house,
can sell it, can buy car, can buy the engines."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Guerra said the move to allow more small businesses is
evident on the bustling streets of <st1:city w:st="on">Havana</st1:city>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"You can see - everybody have a small cafeteria, people
open some restaurants, they drive the three-wheeled taxis," he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Santiago Pons said he makes good money running a taxi
service in Varadero.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"It's a good business now - it's good money, driving
taxi," he said from behind the wheel of a shiny white 1955 Cadillac
Eldorado with a red interior and a loud engine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"This is the only one in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>," he said with pride.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pons also makes money repairing cars, a steady business
given that most Cuban cars are decades old, thanks to the ban on foreign
imports. "You [meet] many people, it's a nice job," he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ritter doesn't see <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place>'s economic reforms as a major
shift in ideology so much as a necessary move to keep the economy afloat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"It means that the regime is trying to save
itself," he said. "The Castro brothers have been the dominating force
for more than half a century. They want to get the economy working well, but
with themselves in power."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
kderosa@timescolonist.com</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
© Copyright (c) The <st1:place w:st="on">Victoria</st1:place>
Times Colonist</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Small+business+takes+root+Cuba/6320913/story.html">http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Small+business+takes+root+Cuba/6320913/story.html</a></div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-46706450112685943172012-06-06T09:53:00.003-07:002012-06-06T09:59:21.404-07:00Christiane Amanpour Interviews Mariela Castro<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
CNN transcript</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part 1</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aired June 4, 2012 - 15:00:00 ET<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/04/ampr.01.html">http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/04/ampr.01.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS
COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(MUSIC PLAYING)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST:
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When President Barack Obama said
last week that the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
encouraged change in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
Fidel Castro responded that the American empire would fall before <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> did. Fidel
has never been one to pull his punches.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, there have been major
changes in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
economic ones, introduced by Fidel's brother, Raul. But in my brief tonight,
this question: Do the Castro brothers, now in their 80s, have the time or the
will to bring about real political change? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since Raul Castro became president
in 2006, Cubans can now own the property they farm, buy and sell their own
houses and cars and all jobs are no longer on the government rolls, and there
are also small private businesses. But one of the fundamental rights of
democracies, the power to choose between different political parties and also
to dissent, is forbidden.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just this spring when the pope
visited <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
dozens of dissidents were rounded up before he arrived. Tonight, though, we
have an extraordinary and rare opportunity to ask a Castro about Cuban reforms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mariela Castro Espin is Raul's
daughter and Fidel's niece. She herself is an activist fighting for gay rights
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>.
In the early days of the Castro revolution, gay Cubans were sent to labor camps
for reeducation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, largely thanks to Mariela's
efforts, gays and lesbians are openly expressing their pride. But we want to
know whether this will translate into greater rights in other areas, like
political reforms and freedoms. In a moment, I will ask Mariela Castro about
all of this. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: But first my exclusive interview with Mariela
Castro, who's been on a rare visit here to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region> and perhaps in rare agreement with the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>
president on the issue of gay rights.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Mariela Castro, thank
you for being with us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
MARIELA CASTRO ESPIN, DAUGHTER OF
RAUL CASTRO: Thank you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: I want to ask you first,
who inspired you to this cause of gay rights?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): In the
first place, it was my mother. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My mother began to do this kind of
work in the Cuban women's organization, first defending women's rights,
children's and youth rights and little by little she began to try and have
people be respected in the LGBT community that, because of a very patriarchal
culture inherited from the Spanish system continues to be our reality, these
prejudices are still repeated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Let me show you these
pictures that we have found, amazing pictures of you and your family, your
mother and your father and your siblings. This is the current president, Raul
Castro, your father. And this is your mom, Vilma.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN: Yes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: And which is you here?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN: Here. Esta.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): I'm
right here. This is me. I'm the second child.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Given your family's
history and the revolutionary hero and the tough guy image in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, was it
difficult to take up this cause of gay rights?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): All
families in the world are patriarchal families and they're machista families.
And in the case of my family, the fact that my mother was already working in
this field, she ensured that my father interpreted this reality in a more
flexible way. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And for me it was always easy to
speak openly with my parents and this idea of fighting against homophobia was
really something that I took from them. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But even so, although I found
understanding in my family and my family was very understanding, even my father
is very understanding right now, it's a very difficult and complex process, and
this is why my father always said that I have to be very careful about
everything and to do this very attentively and carefully so that I wouldn't
hurt other people who don't understand, but that I do have to provide people
the instruments with which they can respect other realities, even though they
don't understand them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: You have written,
"As I began to recognize the damage that homophobia was doing to society,
I would come home and confront my parents with the issue. And when I got home, I
said to my father, `How could you people have been so savage?' My dad said,
`Well, we were like that in those days. That's what we were taught. But people
learn.'"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it was an evolution for your
father.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator):
Exactly. I think that Cuban society as a whole has been changing and its
political leaders are also changing as part of society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Even in this country,
it's taken a long time for politicians to agree, for instance, to gay marriage,
same-sex marriage. President Obama has just said that he supports it. You must
admire President Obama.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): Yes.
And when I heard this news, and I was questioned about it in the press, of
course I can say that I support and I celebrate what President Obama has done.
I believe that it's very just and I feel a great deal of admiration for
President Obama. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe that if President Obama
had fewer limitations in his mandate, he could do much more for his people and
for international law and international rights. Yes, I think that I dare to say
that, because I'm not American. That's really a right that the American people
have. But I feel the right to express what I feel, and if I was an American
citizen, yes, I would vote for President Obama.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: On this issue of
same-sex marriage, do you think that will become legal in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator):
Already several years ago, my mother began to promote this bill and even trying
to propose changing legislation. First we were proposing the freedom of
same-sex marriage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But since there's been such a
debate on this and there are so many diverse opinions in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, what is
being proposed right now are civil unions, where gay couples have the same
rights as heterosexual couples. However, this hasn't happened as yet, and
people who are in same-sex couples do not have any protection. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: You can see these
pictures of gay rights marches in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> itself. When do you think this
law will be taken up? When do you think that there will be progress from the
Cuban parliament on this?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator):
According to what had been planned, it's this same year that this still has to
be presented, which recognizes the rights of same-sex couples.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: As we've been talking,
you've talked about human rights and you've talked about the limits of the
state. So let me ask you about the rights in your country and whether you think
that gay rights, civil rights, could lead to more different kinds of rights,
political kinds of rights. Where do you see this trend going, opening up the
space for civil rights?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): At
present, in the last few years, there's been a big debate that the Cuban people
have participated in in many sectors. And there have been criticisms and
suggestions of what we have to change in Cuban society. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And many valuable ideas have come
from this. And what we've seen is what the population believes should be our
socialist transition process in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>.
And we want to include everything that we believe to be our need. And of
course, this translates into rights, civil rights.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you
about that. I've been in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
several times over the last 14 years, and I can see that under your father,
President Raul Castro, there's been opening on the economic front, but not so
much on the political front. Again, do you think these civil rights will lead
to more political diversity, more political rights?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): As to
political rights, what are you talking about?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Obviously, there's one
party in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
so that's one issue. But Human Rights Watch says that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> remains the only country in <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place> that represses virtually all forms of
political dissent. So I'm trying to figure out whether there is space in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> for
broader political rights, where people, for instance, can dissent without being
sent to jail.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): All
right. Human Rights Watch does not represent the ideas of the Cuban people and
their informants are mercenaries. They're people that have been paid by foreign
governments for media shows that do not represent Cuban positions correctly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the presence of a sole
party in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> came from the
fight against colonialism, from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region>.
Jose Marti had the merit of creating the Cuban revolutionary party in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> as a sole party, specifically to achieve
independence and to avoid domination by the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>. So that's the line
that we followed in Cuban history because conditions haven't changed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it hasn't been easy. We've
been working for many years to achieve this. We've achieved it in many spheres,
in human rights, the rights of women, health, in many areas. But in other
areas, where we haven't reached that, we're still working. That demand, that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> have
various parties, no country has shown that having plural parties leads to
democracy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the suggestions that they want
to make to us aren't valid. Conditions haven't changed. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> is a country that for over 50 years have
been subjected to the violation of international law with the financial
blockade which has not allowed <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
to access development.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: I think I heard you
suggest that if the embargo was not there and if you were not under pressure,
that there would be a different political reality or there could be a different
political reality in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>.
Is that right?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator):
Exactly. That's right. <b><u>If <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
weren't the subject of an economic and trade embargo, which has created so many
problems for us, then <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
it wouldn't make sense to have a sole party, just one party. But it's when our
sovereignty is threatened that we use this resource, which has truly worked in
Cuban history.</u></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: As you know, there are
many people, even inside <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
who feel that if the embargo was lifted, it would actually cause the one-party
system to collapse. It would cause, perhaps, socialism to collapse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): I
don't think it would collapse. I don't think socialism would collapse. I think
it would become stronger. This is why they don't lift the embargo.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: To be continued, this
conversation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thank you very much for coming in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): Thank
you very much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(END VIDEO CLIP)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: And, indeed, we will
continue that conversation tomorrow. We'll talk about the controversial case of
American prisoner in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
and the five Cubans who are here in American jails. We'll also talk about
travel restrictions from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And before we go to a break, I
want you to take a look at this picture. That is Raul Castro, Mariela's father
and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>'s
president, driving a Jeep for his brother, Fidel, El Presidente himself. And
that was 50 years ago. Raul turned 81 this weekend, and who will get behind the
wheel of state after he's gone? That remains a mystery. We'll be right back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part 2</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
US Embargo of <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aired June 5, 2012 - 15:00:00 ET<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/05/ampr.01.html">http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/05/ampr.01.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS
COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
MARIELA CASTRO ESPIN, DAUGHTER OF
RAUL CASTRO: Thank you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Let me get to some of
the reaction that your visit here has caused. Were you surprised that the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> government
gave you a visa?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): Even
though I had obtained a visa under Bush in 2002, I was surprised this time. I
didn't think that I would be granted a visa. But I'm grateful. I was able to
have a very rich exchange with professionals and activists in <st1:city w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:city> and in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>
as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: You don't need me to
tell you what the Cuban-American community thinks. Florida Senator Marco Rubio
accused you of bringing a campaign of anti-Americanism to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>.
Is that what you're doing here?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): In the
first place, that senator doesn't represent the Cuban-American people in the
United States, just a very small interest group that has dedicated itself to
manipulating policies in the United States towards Cuba affecting the civil
rights of the Cuban-American people to travel freely and as often as they want,
to be able to go back and see their families in Cuba. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So their leaders have always asked
that we normalize relations based on respect towards our sovereignties and our
social and economic projects. And I think that we can achieve this. I think
it's easy. It's unfortunate that a small group of people are really limiting
this process. I felt the friendship and the affection of the people of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I felt very well here. I've met
wonderful people and I see that we share many points in common, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>. Right now in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, there are
many Americans because of the flexibility that Obama has. And it's wonderful.
They may feel very well there. And we're ready. We're ready to meet in
friendship with any type of conditioning or political (inaudible).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Did you expect more from
President Obama or has he gone as far as you expected him to go on the Cuban
issue?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): I
think that the whole world and the American people have placed great hopes on
President Obama and I personally understand that that is his position and that
his public mandate limits him a great deal. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I believe that President Obama
needs another opportunity. And he needs greater support to move forward with
this project and with his ideas, which I believe come from the bottom of his
heart. He wants to do much more than what he's done. That's the way I interpret
it personally. I don't know if I'm being subjective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Do you think that he
wants to lift the embargo, and that there could be proper relations between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> under a second Obama
term?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): I
believe that Obama is a fair man. And Obama needs greater support to be able to
take this decision.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Do you want Obama to win
the next election?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): As a
citizen of the world, I would like him to win. Seeing the candidates, I prefer
Obama.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: Now, as you know, there
are many issues that cause problems between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
and the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>.
One of the issues right now is Alan Gross. I want to play you something that he
told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ALAN GROSS, AMERICAN HELD PRISONER
IN CUBA: I have a 90-year-old mother who has inoperable lung cancer and she's
not getting any younger. And she's not getting any healthier. I would return to
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>,
you know, you can quote me on that. I'm saying it live. I would return to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> if they
let me visit my mother before she dies. And we've gotten no response.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(END VIDEO CLIP)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: So my question to you is
why should Alan Gross not be allowed to visit his sick mother?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): <b><u>The
Cuban government has publicly requested that they want to negotiate based on
human considerations, Alan Gross' situation as well as the situation of the
five Cubans who have been in prison for 15 years in the United States. And the
Cuban people who are participating in this process is to seek a satisfactory
solution for the six families, the five Cubans and for Alan Gross. <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>I think that it's fair. I'm hurt
by any families suffering. I'm dedicated to helping people and making them
happy, and it seems to me that independently of the fact that he's committed a
crime and that he's only served a short period of his sentence, I think that
it's fair that people can receive the benefit of flexibility in the world of
law and justice, and that these negotiations go forward into the two
governments. I think that as a people, we're going to be very happy the
situation has been solved. <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><b>But we have the case of Gerardo
Hernandez, who's in prison. His mother fell ill. He asked for permission to see
his mother. His mother passed away, and Gerardo was not able to say goodbye to
his mother. He also hasn't been able to see his wife this whole time.</b><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Alan Gross has been granted
everything that he's asked for. He's been able to see his wife. He's been able
to have matrimonial conjugal visits and he has been treated with respect and
dignity the way we always treat prisoners in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>We haven't received the same
treatment on the other hand for our five prisoners who have very long
sentences. They're not right. So what we want is the well-being of all of these
families. That's what we (inaudible) the most. I think that the six must be
released, both the five Cubans and Alan Gross.</u></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: You yourself have said
in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>
this week, our system is open and fair, as you've just told me. Many would
disagree with you, but you have said that. But you've also said that it could
be more democratic. What do you mean by that?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): I
meant to say that we need to establish permanent mechanisms for the people's
participation when we make decisions, because this is the only way that all our
people can participate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: We often wonder why it
is that Cubans can't travel very easily. Cubans have to get permission from the
government to travel and come back. They can't just leave. And it's quite
difficult to get permission. I mean, people have told me that inside <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>. Why? I
mean, what's the point of that?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): <b>The
subject of migration in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
was always managed politically from here and you know that there are many
difficulties. And immigration law, even though the law in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region> is maintained, should change in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So several years ago, there's been
a great discussion regarding the subject about how to modify this law and I
understand that the fear and new immigration law will be approved in Cuba,
which opens up to everything that the Cuban people have requested in our ongoing
debate.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>AMANPOUR: So you foresee change in
the travel laws?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>ESPIN (through translator): Yes,
and I believe it's going to come about very soon.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It's one of the things that we've
asked for the most in all of these discussions.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMANPOUR: I have to ask you about
somebody who you're already having a bit of a verbal war with, and that is
Yoani Sanchez, the dissident blogger inside <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>. Why shouldn't she be allowed
to blog? Why shouldn't she be allowed to say what she does?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ESPIN (through translator): The
way I see it, Yoani Sanchez is allowed to express herself. She has a blog.
She's on Twitter. She's on Facebook. She's not in prison, even though she's a
mercenary. (Inaudible) she's received over half a million dollar in prizes
(inaudible) form of payment and (inaudible) mercenary does exist in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even though she's done that, she's
not in prison. Even though she is breaking the law, she's allowed to express
herself and she's allowed to lie. She has time to lie in everything that she
wants. She's free. She even has the most sophisticated technology which exists
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
to connect to Internet and to be able to publish her ideas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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AMANPOUR: In that regard, a couple
of years ago, journalists came to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, and they met with your uncle,
Fidel Castro. And he gave an interview and he basically said the Cuban model
doesn't even work for us anymore. What do you think he meant by that?<o:p></o:p></div>
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ESPIN (through translator): He
meant to say that in this new era, in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>'s new reality, with the
development of the political culture and functions (ph) in our country, it was
time for a change. We had to change our strategy. And that's what we've been
doing. He realized it. And as a leader, he was calling upon us to do that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But those changes do not happen
overnight. I repeat, they have to be worked on. We have to generate a debate,
and I think that that is what we've been doing. And I'm very satisfied to see
that the maximum leader of our revolution has identified our difficulties,
because as a people we were also defining them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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AMANPOUR: Thank you very much for
coming in.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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ESPIN (through translator): Thank
you very much.<o:p></o:p></div>
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(END VIDEO CLIP)<o:p></o:p></div>
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AMANPOUR: And if you missed the
first part of my interview with Mariela Castro, you can watch it on
amanpour.com, where you can see our entire program every day. </div>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-12214651558242112122012-05-20T05:53:00.004-07:002012-05-20T05:59:43.331-07:00Mariela Castro On Changing Attitudes in Cuba<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mariela Castro: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Socialism with Discrimination is Inconceivable</b></span><br />
<br />
In May, for the fifth consecutive year, Cuba will hold a Day Against Homophobia to the satisfaction of many people in our country and the distress of others who still hold prejudice against free sexual orientation and gender identity, and who do not understand the need for the full exercise of the human rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.<br />
<br />
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.<br />
Interview originally posted April 18, 2012.<br />
<br />
<br />
This time I move away from the colloquial tone of my logbook, to reproduce almost entirely the long dialogue I held last week with Mariela Castro Espín. The director of Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX) [National Center for Sex Education] discussed the significance of the Event, what has been done, what is still to be done, and several of the most debatable issues in the work of the Institution.<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: What is the importance of this 5th celebration? What are the main novelties?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: When we started we didn’t dream we would reach this stage. We are talking about 5 years of stable, consecutive work that has been improved year after year.<br />
<br />
We began with a one day celebration on May 17 in 2007, and in 2008 we began the Jornadas [several day celebrations] with the support of some institutions of the state and civil society.<br />
<br />
We began outlining a strategy, defined our objectives and a plan of activities where we stressed the academic program and our work at universities.<br />
<br />
This year we have reached an agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education to work in all the universities in the country; not particularly related to the Day Against Homophobia, but on things related to sexual education and promotion of sexual health. It was an old dream and this is the first time we have such a concrete meeting with the Minister for Higher Education.<br />
<br />
This year we could also agree on another project with the Medical Universities. It includes a strategy for the promotion of sexual health and will contribute to the preparation of all students - Cuban and foreigners - on these subjects. At the moment there are 19 thousand foreign medical students. The preparation includes the professors and it will be offered through elective summer and winter courses with contents associated to the different subjects. <br />
<br />
This sexual health promotion is based on a document from the World Association for Sexual Health of which we are members. It establishes eight goals closely linked to the Millenium Development Goals.<br />
<br />
We are doing this with the methodology of Educación Popular [Popular Education] a tool that will serve the doctors when they start working in their areas of primary health care in Cuba, or abroad if they work in cooperation programs. It will also assist the foreign students when they reach their countries of origin so that, according to the characteristics of their ethnics and cultures, they can start introducing, step by step, some promotional elements of sexual health.<br />
<br />
This includes, of course, not only the subject of the right to sexual orientation and gender identity, but also some issues such as the right to truthful information at all ages and the sexual health services needed by the population, especially by teenagers and women. In other words, these are goals that comprise many elements upheld by international agreements.<br />
<br />
At this 5th. Jornada we will be celebrating not only the Día Internacional contra la Homofobia y la Transfobia [International Day Against Homophobia and Transsexual phobia], but also everything we have achieved with the National Program for Sexual Education.<br />
<br />
CENESEX RESEARCH AIMED AT SOCIAL POLICY<br />
<br />
We are making progress in the reorganization of the research topics coordinated by CENESEX. Many aim at social policy; that is, at providing enough support for particular issues to be included in social policy, be it in a particular institution of the state, or as general policy which would include specific legislation.<br />
<br />
For example, I coordinate a branch of research on comprehensive care for transsexual persons in Cuba as a humanitarian social policy. This is the general formulation that is composed of several specific research projects that will supply proposals for the policy to develop for these people through the national health system, the Ministry of Education, the work with the families and the specialized services.<br />
<br />
There are other topics such as the establishment of a critical route in the national health system for the care of abused women, the treatment of sexual abuse in children and child abuse in general, for the development and training of human resources, there are many topics…<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: You said in public there will be a historical research on the Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción (UMAP) [Military Units to Aid Production]…<br />
<br />
MARIELA: Yes. One of the research projects is related to sexual policies, the evolution of sexual policy in Cuba and how the subject of sexuality was considered. This will include the exploration we are now making - and the one we made before, in order to design the research- based on interviews to people who had something to do with UMAP: people who did their military service there when they were young and officials. <br />
<br />
DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH CIENFUEGOS, BUT THE EVENT WILL BE FINE<br />
<br />
These five years since the holding of the first Day against Homophobia have given us experience. We learned and this time better organized our work teams for the preparation of the events. We have heard proposals for the different activities. It began as a single Day, then it was a week, and now it is going to be practically a full month of events. <br />
<br />
The idea of involving a different province each year has been quite significant for strengthening the work of our social networks in those territories. This aims at making the population more sensitive and at involving the territorial authorities in the task, as well as the press that is becoming better prepared to deal with the subject.<br />
<br />
Therefore this helps to strengthen the work of the province chosen to prepare the central events for each May 17, and opens possibilities for the alliances that must be established to organize this type of celebration with all the relevant educational influences. This is actually the main objective.<br />
<br />
The artistic element has also become stronger. Since last year la Gala contra la Homofobia [Gala Night against Homophobia] has had a special organization and style. We can say that these shows include cross-dressing as artistic events.<br />
<br />
This is the result of many years of work not only at these Gala Nights, but at nightclubs by the groups that perform cross-dressing acts. They have received training at CENESEX so that cross-dressing can become an artistic act and with their performances they can contribute to the promotion of sexual health and the prevention of diseases. And not only have the actors received training, but also the art directors of the centers, so this widens the range of people who can participate in the activities.<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: The participation of the population in public debates will be repeated this year…<br />
<br />
MARIELA: Last year we had the experience in Santiago de Cuba. We organized discussion panels in different areas of the Parque Dolores. The population took part in the debates with specialists, officials and trained social network LGBT activists. It was very interesting. We also had for the first time the participation of an officer from the Policía Nacional Revolucionaria who answered questions from the population. We believe this was very positive and we will repeat it in Havana and Cienfuegos, because we think it was useful.<br />
<br />
For this year’s event it has been difficult to work with Cienfuegos, because not all the authorities were equally sensitive and committed to the task. We’ve had great support from the Party and the Government there and mainly from the Ministry of Culture, the Provincial Office for Culture and the Ministry of Health.<br />
<br />
We chose Cienfuegos because of the significant work and great efforts of the network of activists there. We believed they deserved support in their work. We also chose the municipality of Rodas in the province with the purpose of discussing the problem of HIV/AIDS prevention, because this is one of the municipalities with the highest incidence in the transmission of the epidemic.<br />
<br />
Why has this been difficult? Well, as there has been little coverage in national media on what takes place during the event, other provinces do not have a reference of what they can do.<br />
<br />
If in Cienfuegos they had known what had been done in Santa Clara and in Santiago de Cuba, they could have had more previous motivation to play a good role as a province this time. And this is what should happen from now on for with rest of the provinces -as a dominoes effect- if the national press helps introducing these subjects and covering these educational and artistic activities.<br />
<br />
Still, I think the Cuban Day against Homophobia in Cienfuegos will be a good experience.<br />
<br />
HISTORIC: THE PARTY AGAINST DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: How can the event contribute to los objetivos de trabajo del Partido Comunista de Cuba [the Objectives for the work of the Cuban Communist Party] concerning the struggle against discrimination based ib sexual orientation, as well as reflecting in the media all the diversity of the Cuban population?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: The event contributed to the inclusion of these objectives in the agreements of the Party Conference. The mere fact that they are explicitly formulated within the policy of the Party and, of course of the country, opens the doors for this strategy. <br />
<br />
That is, it has been expressed that the country needs to work against all forms of discrimination, and that homophobia, transphobia and every form of discrimination associated with sexuality issues need to be fought against as corresponds to an emancipating society, as the true essence of socialism.<br />
<br />
I can’t think of socialism coexisting with forms of discrimination, and this is one of them. Work on this problem requires a deep cultural change, and this is achieved through education, through the policy that supports the strategy, through the media and the laws. There are several institutions in the social structure that need to be involved in all these processes. One day is not enough, the work of CENESEX and the Ministry of Health is not enough… and the fact that The Party gives a green light and harbors the objective is essential.<br />
<br />
Besides, this is a task for the Party, because according to Marxist ideas, the Party is the vanguard, the group that carries the new ideas to take us to a new society. If the Party cannot articulate these new ideas, after it has rid itself of all the prejudices that create inequalities, how could It prepare the conditions for us to be able to really create a fair and equitable society? Therefore, I think that the fact that they so decided was absolutely relevant and historic.<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: What satisfactions, disappointments and frustrations have brought for you and for CENESEX these five years of celebrating the Day against Homophobia?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: The decision of many people as well as of institutions and organizations to cooperate in the preparation and development of these events has given me great satisfaction.<br />
<br />
I have been pleasantly impressed by the understanding we have found in the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Party and the support we have received from that Department with which we have been in a permanent dialogue, sharing ideas and getting advice on how to channel many of our initiatives.<br />
<br />
The silence of the press, of the national media was disappointing. It hurt a lot to see that most of the information was being handled only by the international press –which has played an important role that I appreciate. The national press did not play that role and it is national media we value the most: the capacity of our press to inform the population and disseminate what we were doing. It hurt a lot that it wasn’t happening, but now I’m very pleased, because since last year, the national press began to participate more actively.<br />
<br />
Another source of satisfaction has been the great number of artists who have spontaneously participated. They have come in an organized way to request it. Several international organizations have praised our initiatives to celebrate May 17th, and how we do it, our originality, and the fact that the event is for the population at large, not only for LGBT people.<br />
<br />
The thing is that prejudices and homophobia are present in the whole society, not only in heterosexual people. Within the LGBT population there is also homophobia and there are many prejudices that need attention; there is a tendency to discriminate against one another, to practically establish a caste system; and this is the essence of what we need to change. <br />
<br />
There has been praise for the way we have integrated different forms of discrimination; that is to say that in these events we try to focus on homophobia as a form of discrimination that we believe should not exist in a socialist society, that it is related to other forms of discrimination and that they should all be treated together.<br />
<br />
We cannot believe that by eliminating homophobia we would be eliminating the problem of discrimination in Cuban society. We need to eradicate the trend, the archaic model of an exploitative society that makes up parameters to establish differences and inequalities. We cannot keep on reproducing these.<br />
<br />
This is why the educational work we do is aimed at transforming our consciousness, our culture. I hope that at some point our conga against homophobia that is danced along our main avenues becomes a tradition. We’ll have to make it more artistic, find better ideas to make it richer as a cultural option, so that perhaps it becomes a historical tradition and one day, when there is no longer homophobia in Cuba, somebody would say, “remember when in Cuba this was done because there was discrimination and this conga was danced to call people’s attention to the need to eradicate homophobia!”… <br />
<br />
MANY CUBANS FROM MIAMI AND OTHER COUNTRIES<br />
<br />
All of us participants have been very close trying to make every moment and every activity in the event relevant, avoiding discontent and generating curiosity and the wish to know what this is all about. We have seen that the people who have felt curious and have approached the activities have asked many questions, and by doing this they have learned, and by learning they have changed.<br />
<br />
And the anecdotes I’ve been told…! In each activity people come and tell me things. And I -who love to listen to those stories-, feel great satisfaction by realizing we are doing well.<br />
<br />
Among those who come there are people who have suffered as victims of homophobia and whose lives have changed with these activities, whose families have changed, and who say that even the police have changed, the population has changed…<br />
<br />
There are also people who have been homophobic and come to tell me how important these events have been; that if they had known the harm they were causing, they would not have done it. They are grateful for all the elements we give them so they can also change as human beings and not discriminate others. I wish I could record all those beautiful things people tell me at the activities. This gives me energy and satisfaction in those days of tension and exhaustion.<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: Cuban men and women who live abroad also participate in these Events…<br />
<br />
MARIELA: Many people have come from Miami. Cubans who live in the United States or reside in other countries. Also foreigners have come and have told me beautiful things, because they are also amazed! They heard about an activity, and arrived without knowing exactly what it was about, and then they were very surprised and have said very interesting and beautiful things. <br />
<br />
PAQUITO: There are those who say that all the gays, lesbians and transexuals that left the country are full of scorn…<br />
<br />
MARIELA: On the contrary. Many come to thank us for this. They come because they want to see it. They have told me, “I want to see it with my own eyes; that’s why I came, and I’m so surprised, so amazed, it’s wonderful.” I remember a lesbian who lives in Canada and her partner lives here and does not want to leave; she is doing economically very well in Canada and she told me, “If there is a chance that we can legalize our relationship here, I’ll return; I’ll come back.”<br />
<br />
And so on, and on; so many interesting and beautiful things they have told me from which I have learned a lot. People also write a great deal: letters, e-mails, with lovely expressions… <br />
<br />
PAQUITO: What other institutions and persons would you convene to contribute to the event and with what purpose?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: The Ministries of Health and Culture are strongly committed. I would like the press to be more committed on a permanent basis, and not exclusively during the activities for the Day, because this is an educational strategy that has its most visible moment in May, but it is a permanent strategy through which we deal not only with homophobia, but also with other many issues related to sexual health and sexual wellbeing.<br />
<br />
I think the absence of the Ministry of Education is remarkable; and its presence is fundamental. They can suggest what type of activities we could carry out. The only progress we have made in this field is related to some activities in the pedagogical universities. We have given priority to the medical and pedagogical universities to organize talks in each and every province where we have been, but I don’t think this is enough. I believe all the teacher training institutions should be involved and the subject must be debated within the Ministry of Education itself.<br />
<br />
The Ministry of Higher Education is involved through activities of university extension. I think the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) [University Student Federation] should be more involved. The Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC) [Communist Youth] as well, because it is one of the organizations with more responsibilities in the Programa Nacional de Educación Sexual [National Program for Sexual Education], but we have not achieved a good articulation for the UJC to be the transmitter of these ideological and revolutionary messages.<br />
<br />
Who can be better than the young people to transmit the new ideological and revolutionary messages? This is why when the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (FMC) [Cuban Women's Federation] conceived the Programa Nacional de Educación Sexual it was thought the UJC should be involved to disseminate the messages. However there is a great resistance we have not been able to quench. <br />
<br />
PAQUITO: What could the trade union movement do, for example?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: We have had links with the trade union movement, but they have not taken part in the Days against Homophobia. We have not approached them either, because we don’t know how they could be involved. It would be good to have a trade union representative in our Organizing Committee so from the perspective of their own reality they could suggest what they could do.<br />
<br />
I think it would be very important to promote as one of the rights of workers, the right of people not to be discriminated because of their sexual orientation and gender identity; trade unions could also contribute on subjects such as the prevention of gender violence and the promotion of sexual health issues among workers. <br />
<br />
That is, the trade unión movement can also do activism among workers, because, for example, a significant number of people have come to the juridical information service of CENESEX with frequent concerns and complaints about the violation of their work rights just because they are homosexual or transgender. The role of the union is to act so that these rights are not violated. <br />
<br />
We have been having more impact on and a better response from the judicial sector. So much so that there is already la red de Juristas por los Derechos Sexuales [a Network of Jurists for Sexual Rights]. This is the result of a systematic effort. For a long time we wanted it; we toyed with the idea; we spurred them –in a professional way- to get a response; that is to make them decide to work more with us. And we keep moving forward. <br />
<br />
PAQUITO: What is the importance of this network of jurists now that the economic and social policy in the country is being adjusted?<br />
<br />
It is fundamental, because the process of sensitization on these issues is extended to judicial personnel. We have streghtened the participation of professors from CENESEX at the courses organized by the Unión Nacional de Juristas de Cuba (UNJC) [Cuban National Union of Jurists], the School of Law; the People’s Supreme Court always invites us to their seminars…<br />
<br />
Now this network of jurists will attract lawyers, paralegals, and other professionals whom we need to prepare so that the administration of justice can be really fair, because it is not always so. When the person who administers justice has prejudices and carries them to its job, real justice is not always served. I think this network is going to help a lot in the process of extending the sensitization of jurists.<br />
<br />
ARTICULATING A CUBAN LGBT-H MOVEMENT<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: During these five years CENESEX has moved from being only a center of studies in a state institution to being the leader, coordinator, and promoter of a program of citizen activism for the rights of LGBT persons. For some, this goes beyond its social charter. How do you feel about this evolution and how would you conceive a Cuban LGBT movement in the future?<br />
<br />
MARIELA: Community work and training health promoters are within the social purpose of CENESEX. Starting with the initiative of a group of lesbian women in Santiago de Cuba, Las Isabelas, there was a spontaneous interest in a number of people who wanted to receive the attention of CENESEX. This originated the emergence in different places in the country of other groups who have requested to be articulated and sponsored by CENESEX. <br />
<br />
In this way, when CENESEX receives funding from a civil society organization abroad, we dedicate it to the work with these networks that have been structured. And this has been really very good because we have used the financing to strengthen the network of activists and sexual health promoters. These groups have become important channels for educational work with impact on society. <br />
<br />
I don’t know how it will be in the future… We said, let’s begin and those who come forward will be trained as activists. It’s not just giving them the information, but training them so they have the power of knowledge and an interactive methodology to work in the community. This is very important because it is needed to extend the influence. <br />
<br />
I believe that so far these social networks are happy working with CENESEX. I don’t know if in the future they would want to become independent. I also think that for a social network it is comfortable to have the support of a state institution, and of one that follows the rules of respect. We have built this space and this network structure with the participation of all the people involved. The style is very democratic; people feel good; they want to keep strengthening it and new groups emerge with new ideas, always following these objectives and the ethical principles taken from popular education.<br />
<br />
Step by step, we have articulated what we have named a Cuban LGBTI and H movement, because we have integrated intersexual and heterosexual persons, a whole diverse population working for the same objectives.<br />
<br />
PAQUITO: There are people who criticize the fact that you, a heterosexual woman, leads this movement…<br />
<br />
MARIELA: The thing is that to participate in the movement of afro descendants and against racism you don’t need to be afrodescendant or black; to support the feminist movement and the movement of women rights, you don’t need to be a woman, there are men who take active part in these processes; to support disabled persons, you don’t need to be disabled; to support men in the struggle against hegemonic masculinities you don’t have to be a man, you can be a woman who wants to fight against those hegemonic masculinities; to support the rights of peasants, you don’t have to be a peasant. You see, Marx supported the rights of workers and peasants, but he was an intellectual, and there were so many other people like him…<br />
<br />
http://paquitoeldecuba.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/mariela-castro-no-concibo-al-socialismo-con-discriminacion/<br />
<br />
<br />
Original post with photos and Spanish text<br />
<a href="http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3416.html">http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs3416.html</a>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-32604190592657208742012-05-07T21:13:00.000-07:002012-05-07T21:23:25.806-07:00Vietnamese Party Leader's Analysis of Renovation Process Published in Granma<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 7.5pt;">Havana</span></b></st1:place></st1:city><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 7.5pt;">. April 16, 2012</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">FIDEL MEETS WITH NGUYEN PHU TRONG<br />
</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt;">Renovation
has not been an easy task</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt;"><br />
</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">• According
to Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary General of the Communist Party of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Central Committee, in an interview with<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">Granma.<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: #004080; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 7.5pt; text-transform: uppercase;">LÁZARO BARREDO <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">MEDINA</st1:place></st1:city> & CLAUDIA FONSECA SOSA</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="color: #004080; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 7.5pt; text-transform: uppercase;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Just prior to his interview with<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Granma</i>, on the afternoon of
April 11, Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary General of the Communist Party of
Vietnam Central Committee, had the opportunity to meet with Fidel and our
conversation began with his impressions of the encounter.<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I
just returned from Fidel’s house and we had a conversation that lasted almost
two hours. If we had had more time, we would have continued talking.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Today I saw a very healthy Fidel, as
compared to our first meeting in 2010. The meeting was very cordial and
interesting, without any kind of protocol, like two brothers living in the
same house. Fidel held my hands for several minutes and said he was very
happy [to see me.] We Vietnamese have a lot of respect for Fidel and his people.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Once the conversation began, we became
aware of the many things we have to reflect upon. Fidel spoke not only of
political issues, but about science and technology as well.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Fidel recalled his 1973 trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He
referred to my comments at the event held yesterday at Hai Phong wharf [in <st1:city w:st="on">Havana</st1:city>] and of the strong friendship <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> share.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">When I arrived, there was a copy of the
lecture I gave, at the Party’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ñico</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">López</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Advanced</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Studies</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
on the table. He asked about the number of copies made and the number of
cadres at the event.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">He considered my speech insightful and
accurate and wanted to clarify a few of the [Cuban] guidelines that are
similar to policies <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has been implementing. He wanted to know my opinion. He said that currently
there are many people who only want to listen and not reflect.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">He also said that he had been following
my visit through the media and asked how I had been feeling. He wanted to
hear about aspects of my visit to the <st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Pinar del Río</st1:placename> and inquired, in
some detail, about agricultural development in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">He was interested in our plans to visit
different countries in <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place> and, to
my surprise, knew that April 14 was my birthday and asked where I would be at
that time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The entire time, Fidel showed that his
mind was very clear, undertaking studies with a very logical, scientific
approach. We are convinced that leaders need to have these qualities, to be
concrete.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">STRATEGIES FOR SOCIALIST RENOVATION<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Vietnamese leader offered a brief
explanation of the principal steps <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> has taken in its policy
of Renovation.<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">When, in 1986, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> began
to implement the policy of Renovation – known in Vietnamese as Doi Moi – many
thought that the country intended to abandon socialism. Since then, 26 years
have transpired and history has shown the contrary, because through our
experience, combined with Marxist-Leninist theoretical and scientific
arguments, and the thought of Ho Chi Minh, we reached the conclusion that
only through socialism can we maintain our national independence, prosperity
and the happiness of our people.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">With the leadership of the Communist
Party, the Vietnamese people have been able to adapt relevant economic
transformations to the historical context and the concrete needs of the
country, without sacrificing political stability. We have achieved impressive
socio-economic gains and are constantly drawing closer to our ideal of
"building a ten times more beautiful <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>."<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But in order to fulfill Ho Chi Minh’s
dream we have had to deal with diverse obstacles and advance without making
hasty decisions. Our Party is conscious that the transition to socialism is a
prolonged, difficult and complicated process.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Doi Moi process has not been easy.
Beginning in the 1980’s, through the present, we have come a long way. <u>From
1981 until 1985, we went through what could be called pre-Renovation, during
which we carried out different experiments, balancing theory with practice.</u>
We drew conclusions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It was not until 1986 that the policy of
Renovation was formulated. <u>Between 1980 and ‘81 we began to grant lands to
rural workers, but it was not until the 6th Congress of our Party in 1986
that the Political Bureau drafted Resolution no. 10 which defined the work to
be done one step at a time.<o:p></o:p></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><u><br /></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><u>From then on, agricultural development
began to accelerate</u> and, allow me to tell you, as an example, reaching
production of 47 million tons of rice a year took a great deal of effort and
continues to require effort year after year.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Up until 1989, we were importing rice to
meet the needs of the population. That year, we were not only able to meet
our own internal needs, but were able to export our first million tons of
rice, as well.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the industrial sector, something
similar happened. Between 1981 and 1982, we began to eliminate the
bureaucratic system, but the policies to be followed were not approved until
1986. <u>It wasn’t until 1991 that talk began of a multi-faceted economy, of a
market economy with a socialist orientation. During this period we were also
facing a 20-year <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
blockade and talk of integration into the world economy was not possible.</u><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And all of this in addition to other
problems such as lasting damage caused by the wars. I will only mention one
example. Millions of people, still today, are suffering incurable illnesses;
hundreds of thousands of children are born with abnormalities, as a
consequence of Agent Orange, a dioxin the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> troops sprayed during the
war. According to experts, it will take <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> 100 years to completely
rid itself of the bombs and mines still buried in our soil. As I said during
my talk at the Ñico López, in the province Quang Tri alone, which Fidel
visited in 1973, thousands and thousands of live bombs and mines remain
buried in 45% of the arable land.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">These are just a few examples of the
arduous task we faced in the renovation effort.<u> Most difficult, however, is
changing the general and individual mentality in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Many people thought that
the changes would lead us away from socialism. They even spoke of deviations,
others are more conservative. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has not only made significant economic gains during the last 25 years, but
has also solved some social problems in a much better fashion than capitalist
countries at a similar level of development.</u> And as evidence of this is the
fact that, in our country, the poverty rate, which was 75% in 1986, was
reduced to 9.6% in 2010. The renovation has led to very positive changes and
considerably improved the lives of our people. This was recognized by the
United Nations which has reported that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> is one of the first
countries to meet many of the Millennium Objectives.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And during my visit these last few days
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
as I’ve conversed with your leaders,<b> </b><u>it appears to me that you are in the
same phase. The change of mentality must take place at all levels, from the
highest level to the grassroots.</u><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Renovation’s consolidation is an
issue we addressed in our recent 11th Party Congress and, as for long term
objectives and tasks, it should be emphasized that our goal is for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region> to
become fundamentally an industrialized country by 2020. Our development
strategy, from 2011 to date, is based on three basic principles: invest in
infrastructure, develop human resources and reform institutions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Of course, we face challenges in the
area of the economy and international integration and in the area of social
programs where we face some limitations and doing it all, as I said during my
lecture at the Party School here, we are conscious that corruption,
bureaucratism and degeneration are potential dangers to a party in power,
especially under market economy conditions. The Communist Part of Vietnam
demands of itself constant self-renovation, self-criticism and is waging a
vigorous struggle against opportunism, individualism and the degeneration of
its ranks and throughout the political system.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">BILATERAL RELATIONS<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;">During your stay in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, the excellent relations between <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>, a symbol of the era,
were noted. What are the ties between the two countries specifically and what
cooperative projects are projected as a result of the visit?<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><u>Both parties are products of
revolutionary processes and of the fusion of distinct political
organizations; this is something <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>
share.</u><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Both countries have a one party system. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, as well as <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>, is developing via the
socialist route. We are following the legacy of our predecessors in
combination with Marxism-Leninism. We are two strong peoples, very brave and
courageous in struggle. Our parties established, very early on, ties of
friendship, solidarity and cooperation. <u>We are following the same logic,
defending our respective revolutions. Thus our relationship is very close.<o:p></o:p></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">From very early on, we’ve exchanged work
and leadership experiences, and we have collaborated in different
international forums and bodies, promoting causes we share. In 2011, both
parties held congresses and, once ours was concluded, we sent an emissary
here to inform you of the outcome. Raúl has also offered to send us someone
to do the same.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">At this time, <u><st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region>
has the Renovation policy and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is applying its strategy of updating its economic model. Both of us are
following the socialist path. There are many similarities, although each
country has its own conditions and historical particularities.</u> There is
nothing standing in the way of further development of the relationship
between the two parties.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">During our visit, we have agreed to
expand the exchange of delegations, as well as bilateral meetings and
exchanges of experience. We are going to organize seminars, workshops between
the two countries and the two parties.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We want to continue building this
friendship, this respectful mutual understanding, to strengthen this
relationship of sisterhood, taking important steps along the road both
countries have taken in the struggle for national independence and socialism.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">(Fotos: ESTUDIOS REVOLUCIÓN)<br />
</span><o:p></o:p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/16abril-fidel-Phu-Trong.html">http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/16abril-fidel-Phu-Trong.html</a></div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-27990047260752313542012-04-07T08:53:00.002-07:002012-04-11T21:48:26.364-07:00Cuba's Potential Role<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Outside the Box</div>
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April 4, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT</div>
<h1 style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 2.1em; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 4px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Cuba could be key to Caribbean basin</h1>
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Commentary: Island is a sterling example of managing scarcity</h2>
</div>
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By Patrick Burnson</div>
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — With the Panama Canal expansion on schedule for completion in 2014, supply chain specialists are anticipating a logistical hub to surface in the Caribbean Basin.</div>
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For those investors and traders eyeing opportunities in Cuba, the timing couldn’t be better. As noted in the Wall Street Journal recently, money managers are “optimistic” when it comes to finally eliminating this nation’s 50-year-old trade embargo. And initial barriers to entry should not include logistics, say industry experts.</div>
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<img alt="" height="252" src="http://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2012/04/03/Photos/ME/MW-AQ687_cuba_s_20120403143757_ME.jpg?uuid=3acb13c4-7dbc-11e1-92bd-002128049ad6" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="" width="377" /><br />
<span class="Source" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.92em; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Frank Barnako</span></div>
<span class="Caption" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.92em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Cuban street</span></div>
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Furthermore, Cuba may not need outside expertise to cope with immediate supply chain problems. According to some leading scholars and practitioners, Cuba is a sterling example of how to manage “scarcity.” They note that operating under resource scarcity already exists there, with businesses facing daily lack of food, medicine, electricity, and raw materials. <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cuba-a-country-preserved-in-amber-2012-02-28" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004176; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">View MarketWatch slide show, “The revealing faces of today’s Cuba.”</a></div>
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Despite this, the resourcefulness of Cuba’s people has triumphed to some extent. Reverse logistics experts observe that Cuba has created supply chains that re-use and recycle almost everything, despite the lack of government-mandated recycling programs. Indeed, such adaptation may augur the type of closed loop supply chains needed by other emerging nations in the future.</div>
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The long-term challenges around opening trade with Cuba would revolve around the issues of customs and export compliance, in particular the infrastructure to support the safe and fully documented movement of those goods.</div>
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<span class="Label" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.92em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span id="abstract" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span></span><br />
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<img alt="" height="86" src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/MWimages/MW-AP856_cuba_c_MA_20120228130702.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="86" /><span class="Source" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: grey; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75em !important; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Frank Barnako</span></div>
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<span class="Label" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.92em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">TRAVEL TO CUBA</span><br />
<span class="Headline3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.8em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Getting there:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">It is relatively easy to go to Cuba, since the U.S. government recently eased restrictions. U.S. citizens need to sign up with a tour company authorized by the Department of the Treasury. Charter flights serve Havana from Miami and other airports will soon be available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">U.S. citizens can go to Cuba alone. They must first go to a foreign city that has service to Havana. Toronto and Mexico City work well. Upon return, travelers may face questions about their trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 17px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: inherit; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Headline1" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></span></span></div>
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With a drive to increase levels of electronic clearance and export documentation, the lack of investment in computerized systems — and the integration of those systems into the U.S. import/export world — would represent a complication, albeit a surmountable one, say compliance experts.</div>
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This could be ameliorated, however, by leveraging systems already in place through Cuba’s trade with the EU and Latin America, since our trade embargo with Cuba is increasingly unique.</div>
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To the extent that it has the hard currency to support trade at all, Cuba gets most of its imports from the EU and its neighbors to the south. But this can change in a hurry. Automotive parts, technology and manufacturing materials, as well as luxury items particular to the U.S. market are likely to be in high demand.</div>
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That said, it is likely that over the long term, U.S.-based producers would seek to build their own infrastructure within Cuba’s boundaries in order to better embed their business into the U.S. market.</div>
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According to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, Cuba already performs in the median range. Cuba’s economy is mostly state-controlled, meaning most of the means of production are owned and run by the government.</div>
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The London-based Economist Intelligence, meanwhile, ranks the Cuban business environment as one of the world’s worst. In recent years, it was placed as number 80 of 82 nations surveyed, with only Iran and Angola rated lower. However, some forms of foreign investments and private enterprise are allowed. The main sectors of the Cuban economy are industrial production and sugar cultivation. In recent years, tourism, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry are also gaining importance.</div>
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<a class="pvideoLink" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=AA21931A-79DE-11E1-8E2F-002128049AD6#" id="video_37330534-6B92-4F1A-BD95-9461B8060F1B" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004176; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 162px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; width: 287px;"><span class="playbutton" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://mw4.wsj.net/MW5/content/images/video-play-icon-overlay.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 95px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; bottom: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 162px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -99999px; width: 287px;">Click to Play</span><img height="162" src="http://m.wsj.net/video/20120403/040312digitsinstagram/040312digitsinstagram_512x288.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="287" /></a></div>
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Instagram: Over one billion photos uploaded</h3>
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Instagram is now available for Android users and the company has announced that over one billion photos have so far been uploaded, Emily Steel reports on digits.</div>
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Finally, U.S. investors might wish to look to another hemispheric partner as a model for doing business with this tiny island nation: Canada. Our northern neighbors figured out Cuba’s supply chain long ago.</div>
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Canada’s investment, trade and cultural links with Cuba are substantial. In fact, Canada is the second-largest foreign investor in Cuba (after Venezuela) and the third-ranking country in terms of joint ventures. Canada is also Cuba’s fourth-largest merchandise trade partner, behind Venezuela, China, and Spain.</div>
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Analysts in Toronto report that a discernible pattern in Canada-Cuba commercial relations to date is that trade has tended to follow investment. In other words, a significant share of Canadian exports to Cuba targets sectors with notable Canadian investments. This is typically the result of an existing synergy between traders and investors that provides clear advantages in the home country and makes commercial sense, not necessarily because of a particular preference for Canadian suppliers.</div>
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“Have a Havana?” The supply chain seems ready to oblige. But while rum supplies are likely to meet U.S. demand, tobacco growers and cigar manufacturers are likely to be overwhelmed with orders. As a consequence, industry experts are forecasting a surge in that other great Cuban export: counterfeit Figurados.</div>
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<span class="emphasis" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Patrick Burnson is executive editor of </span><a href="http://www.scmr.com/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004176; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Supply Chain Management Review </a><span class="emphasis" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">and </span><a href="http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #004176; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Logistics Management </a>. <span class="endsquare" style="background-color: #b4c9ca; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; height: 8px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 8px;"></span></div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=AA21931A-79DE-11E1-8E2F-002128049AD6">http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=AA21931A-79DE-11E1-8E2F-002128049AD6</a>
</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-9772500793070621512012-04-07T07:51:00.002-07:002012-04-07T07:51:35.812-07:00Repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
CUBAN ADJUSTMENT ACT</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Time to revisit the Cuban Adjustment Act </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BY LISANDRO PEREZ</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
LOPEREZ@JJAY.CUNY.EDU</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Congress passed the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act in 1966 as
a pragmatic solution to a very real problem. As its name makes clear, the CRAA
was intended to “adjust” the status of nearly 300,000 Cubans already in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place>
who had been admitted with a temporary “refugee” visa.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That visa did not put them on a path to citizenship, and so
the act was passed to take them out of that limbo by granting them permanent
residency. Neither the granting of the original refugee visa nor the awarding
of permanent immigrant status under the CRAA required establishing a need for
political asylum on the part of the applicant. Those measures were applied in a
blanket fashion to any Cuban entering or already residing in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, one could argue that the CRAA is the antithesis of
an asylum-granting process. The only Cubans who need to make a case for asylum,
on an individual basis, are those not covered under CRAA, that is, those who
are outside the United States., such as those intercepted at sea by the Coast
Guard (“wet-foots”) or those applying for asylum at the U.S. Interests Section
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Havana</st1:city></st1:place>. But
if you’re here, you’re in, thanks to CRAA, with no need to establish asylum
credentials.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the tenets of exile lore is that the recent arrivals
from the island came for less loftier reasons than the grandparents and parents
of his generation half a century ago. That was mentioned in a recent Other
Views piece by Joe Cardona. The former came for political reasons, “uprooted”
by the Revolution, whereas the latter are somewhat akin to mercenaries,
migrating for “economic” reasons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That might be true, but that is an empirical question,
subject to being verified by research, assuming one can neatly disentangle and
dichotomize the complex reasons why anyone migrates. What is true, however —
and my point here — is that those who arrived from Cuba just yesterday will
have their status normalized through the same process by which the grandparents
and parents of Cardona’s generation normalized their status, without
establishing the need for asylum. As far as the CRAA is concerned, one group is
as “political” (or not) as the other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A current proposal by Rep. David Rivera to tinker with the
CRAA so as to coerce those who have recently arrived from Cuba into behaving
like political refugees by threatening to revoke their residency in the United
States should they return to the island to visit their families. Presumably,
political refugees, fleeing persecution, cannot return to their country of
origin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But since these “refugees” were never required to declare
themselves to be in need of asylum to stay in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region> and since they are obviously willing and able to
return to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
this move by Rivera has an entirely fictional basis. But the consequence of his
efforts will be real: Put a chill on family travel to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place> as part of the war he has long
waged against the reunification of the Cuban family.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If Rivera believes that migrants from Cuba are no longer
conforming to what is expected of political refugees, then he should have the
political fortitude to advocate for the elimination of the special migratory
status of Cubans, that is, repeal the CRAA instead of tinkering with it. Not
that Cuban immigrants have always conformed to the behavior Rivera expects of
political refugees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Conveniently overlooked is any mention of the more than
125,000 U.S. Cubans who returned to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place> to visit at the very first
opportunity for them to do so, in 1979, even before the Mariel boatlift, at a
time when most of those returning must have been the grandparents and parents
of Cardona’s generation. The ones who, we are told, were the true political
refugees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lisandro Pérez, formerly the director of the Cuban Research
Institute at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Florida</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">International</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
is now professor and chair of the Department of Latin American and Latina/o
Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2715539/time-to-revisit-the-cuban-adjustment.html#storylink=cpy</div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-81461657275560238702012-04-07T07:49:00.002-07:002012-04-07T07:49:50.021-07:00Ramy on the Pope and Marxism in Cuba<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
An opinion about a Papal statement</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Monday, 26 March 2012 09:37 Manuel Alberto Ramy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By Manuel Alberto Ramy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marxism, which is nothing more than an instrument of
analysis for society, was condemned by the Catholic Church more than a century
ago. Leon XIII's papal encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) can even be assumed to
be a response – the first one from a Pope – to that nascent ideology. The
ideological differences between Catholic doctrine and Marxism, as a theory, go
a long way back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The novelty, pointed out to me by several readers and
friends who have asked for my opinion, lies in a recent statement by His
Holiness Benedict XVI with relation to his trip to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Traveling in the papal plane
was the excellent journalist and <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place>
specialist Paloma Gómez Borrero, who, with a direct question that was answered
by His Holiness, unleashed some headlines that were a bit forced.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At one point in his reply (the exchange appears in Progreso
Semanal), His Holiness says, “Today it is evident that Marxist ideology, as it
was conceived, no longer responds to reality. In this fashion, it can no longer
respond to the construction of a new society.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to having been the guardian of the faith during
John Paul II's papacy, Benedict XVI is an intellectual, theologian and
philosopher who has published about 20 books. He knows about thought, from his
ideology, and also knows how to use the precise words to express himself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The concept “no longer responds to reality,” he says
–leaving open the question that, at some point, it might have responded to it –
and continues by saying that “in this fashion” it's not valid for “the
construction of a new society.” “This fashion,” I think, refers to the practice
of applied Marxism, which to a great degree imploded in the former socialist
republics, those in the so-called real socialism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I am right, we are not looking at a forced reiteration of
positions in the field of ideas but to a statement about the experiences we've
all lived.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It happens that His Holiness comes to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> when our country is going through a crucial
moment in its history called an Actualization, which, in addition to reforming
the socioeconomic system that has existed for half a century, is trying to
erase old schemes of the Marxist praxis, copied from the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USSR</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Pope who visits us now is not the same Pope who visited
us 14 years ago. But he also does not arrive to the same <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region></st1:place>, which is something he knows.
He will arrive into a society and country that are living through a process
that leads to social and economic changes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“In this process, which requires patience but also
decisiveness, we wish to help in a spirit of dialogue, to avoid traumas and to
help achieve a fraternal and just society with – for all the people, and we
want to collaborate in this sense.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“This visit has inaugurated a road of collaboration and
constructive dialogue, a road that is long and demands patience but goes
forward,” the Pope answered the journalist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These words mean not only a disposition toward our
government but also support for the bet on that option that the Cuban Catholic
hierarchy has placed. Because of that decision, the Cuban hierarchy has been
suffering attacks and pressures from powerful external forces, mainly from the
administration in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That administration does not agree with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>'s aspiration to make reforms that will lead
to a new model of internal coexistence capable of excluding <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> domination, or a model where
the adoration of money does not prevail, something that the Pope mentioned in
another context and upon which I wish he had been more forceful. (Marxism was a
response to the then-emerging capitalism, which has since become globalized.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Putting <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>
aside, I opine that one of the possible objectives of the recent events in several
churches – aside from the clear objective of pushing Church-state relations
into a crisis – could be to alter the consensus that exists within the national
hierarchy and turn it into confrontation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It is obvious that the Church is always on the side of
freedom: freedom of conscience, freedom of religion. In this sense [INAUDIBLE]
also contribute the simple faithful in this road forward,” the Pope said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With all due respect, I cannot overlook and must lament the
fact that His Holiness called "simple faithful" those who form the
Church, which is nothing more than the communion of the faithful, the millions
of people worldwide who share and practice the faith and preachings of the Son
of God, the putative son of carpenter Joseph and Mary the virgin. Without the
simple faithful, there would be no Church, only an institutional skeleton.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Progreso Semanal/ Weekly authorizes the total or partial
reproduction of the articles written by our journalists, so long as the source
and author are identified.</div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-24188948041249669372012-04-07T07:47:00.002-07:002012-04-07T07:47:36.526-07:00Carlos Saladrigas Speaks in Havana<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anti Castro activist condemns the blockade and urges support
for the budding private sector</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD">Sunday,
01 April 2012 07:40 Gerardo Arreola/la Jornada<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carlos Saladrigas appeals for an end to confrontation</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD">By
Gerardo Arreola<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="ES-TRAD">From La
Jornada<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cuban American businessman Carlos Saladrigas, who over a
decade ago was a prominent anti Castro hardliner in Miami, spoke today in
public for the first time in Havana, under the auspices of the Catholic Church
– Saladrigas rejected the U.S. blockade against the island and asked émigrés to
eradicate the “confrontation model” and support, with resources, the budding
private sector promoted by President Raúl Castro’s reform.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“A large part of that diaspora that we call exile has
reached the conclusion that it is neither ethical nor sustainable to maintain
policies or positions of isolation, alienation and economic sanctions that hurt
our people, and even less when you do it through the intervention of a foreign
country,” he said. “It is neither acceptable nor licit to harm the Cuban people
in order to achieve a change of government”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Saladrigas, 63, gave a lecture at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Félix</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Varela</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Cultural</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>
invited by Espacio Laical, a magazine of the Havana Archbishopric. The room was
packed with some 100 people as diverse as the Vicar of the Catholic Church and
essayist Carlos Manuel de Céspedes; academics Carlos Alzugaray and Esteban
Morales; Pedro Campos and Félix Sautié, editors of the Socialismo Democrático y
Participativo newsletter; members of the Communist Party and political opponents
Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Miriam Leiva and Reinaldo Escobar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
problems are many, but they are our problems, and we have to solve them among
ourselves,” Saladrigas said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We are running out of time. Let us tear down the walls we
have built and construct the necessary bridges, and let us face the task of
building a new <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, a free,
sovereign, inclusive, prosperous, diverse, wealthy, fair, equitable <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>, one that
is generous to the weaker sectors of our society.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His emphasis on the solution among Cubans was equaled by his
skepticism of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>
changing its policy toward the island in the near future. He even predicted
that “it is very probable and possible that in the coming years we will see
that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> is changing at a
faster pace than the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region> can react to.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He also remarked that “nothing can have more impact” on <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> policy than “<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s aperture.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A member of a family linked to the Fulgencio Batista regime
deposed by the revolution in 1959, Saladrigas began the new relation with his
home country almost a year ago when Palabra Nueva, another publication of the
Archbishopric of Havana, interviewed him. At the time he launched the idea that
emigrant investments should flow to the island, like China did in its time, and
his words unleashed a controversy in Progreso Weekly, a U.S.-based digital
magazine focused on Cuban affairs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His conference in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:city>
is another step forward in his insertion in the Cuban debate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He further elaborated on the need for change, both for the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> administration
and the Cuban government, and also among émigrés and their local politicians.</div>
</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-77697427920894595482012-04-07T07:44:00.000-07:002012-04-07T07:44:19.807-07:00A Personal and Political Dialog with the Church<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h2 class="contentheading" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 33px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
My first Mass</h2>
<div class="article-toolswrap" style="background-color: white; color: #000032; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
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<span class="createdate" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://progreso-weekly.com/2/templates/ja_pyrite/images/vline.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-right: 5px; padding-right: 6px;">Wednesday, 04 April 2012 07:33 </span><span class="createby">Jesús Arboleya Cervera</span></div>
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<strong><span class="dropcap">B</span>y Jesús Arboleya Cervera</strong></div>
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<em><strong><em><img align="right" alt="My first Mass-Jesús Arboleya Cervera" src="http://progreso-semanal.com/4/images/semana244/pope-mass.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></em></strong></em>HAVANA - Although I was baptized Jesús (for reasons that I was never curious enough to find out), my personal contacts with the Catholic Church have been scant.</div>
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My father was a mason-turned-agnostic and my mother did not practice any religion. My grandmothers worshiped the saints at home and although an aunt became a famous Santera, the syncretic rituals were not a common practice in the family.</div>
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I always studied in public schools, did not take first communion, was not married by the Church, did not baptize my daughters, and the closest I was to a confession was during self-criticism sessions within the Communist Party.</div>
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Obviously, I'm not a typical Cuban, generally close to religion, but my history demonstrates the disparate and sometimes conflicting influences in our ideological formation. However, this distance did not generate disinterest in Catholicism, or rejection towards people who practice this religion.</div>
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In fact, Catholicism is part of my own culture, I absorbed it in my neighborhood, in the study of my country's history, my tastes and traditions and, above all, in my social relationships.</div>
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To a degree, I am also a Catholic, although I do not believe in God and reject the institutional patterns that acknowledge the supposed infallibility of the Pope and promote ideas that I consider archaic, even potentially harmful to human welfare.</div>
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I find it paradoxical that a religion that had its origin in the struggle of the poor and proclaims itself as such – I'd like to think that that's why my parents named me Jesús – revels in luxury and ostentation to express itself and has a history of partnership with the exploiters.</div>
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If the Virgin of Charity had worn the cloak of gold and precious stones in which she's clothed today, she would have sunk hopelessly into the sea and never would have become the patroness of Cuba.</div>
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That cultural community was what impressed me the most when I attended my first Mass on March 28 at Revolution Square in Havana. I met people of all colors for whom the Virgin is Ochún, couples who displayed more love for each other than for “the Holy Father” and old communist friends who questioned the meaning of their presence in that act.</div>
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I also met a trio of devout practitioners who complained about the ignorance of the rest of the crowd during the liturgy, as well as young Catholics who obviously enjoyed proclaiming their belief in a climate of acceptance and respect. I recognized in the crowd some notorious “dissidents” and former leaders of the nation that no longer are on the public stage.</div>
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The truth is that I could not identify the pilgrims from Miami, maybe because they looked like everybody else or because, following the norms of Vatican protocol, they were placed in an area to which I had no access.</div>
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I do not think that the Pope's homily generated much passion among those present. Perhaps it was too doctrinaire in an environment that did not contribute to the meditation requested, but I guess that that was its job and those were its goals.</div>
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However, the Pope’s call to the rescue of human values as a standard for social behavior is undoubtedly of vital importance and constitutes, by its very nature, a criticism of the current world order. Also in Cuba it is necessary to reinforce these ethical values and helping to highlight them is one of the Catholic Church’s main contributions to the nation right now.</div>
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I cannot deny that my education and intellectual interests lead me to prioritize the understanding of the political role of the Catholic Church at various times in history, particularly in Cuban history. To deny this role is to ignore the history of mankind and ignore an essential ingredient of the formation of the Cuban nation and the country's political struggles.</div>
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Although earlier in Cuba, and currently in many places, the Catholic Church has promoted political parties and organizations, which implies a commitment to certain programs and specific alignments, this is not the case in Cuba today.</div>
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Which does not imply that the Church does not have its own political interests and attempts to influence the direction of government structures and the rest of society in that regard, with the addition that the Catholic Church worldwide is a state and behaves as one.</div>
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The challenge for the Cuban state and the Catholic Church itself is to reconcile these interests in an inclusive national project, where they are not the only actors.</div>
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Nowhere has the Catholic Church, as an institution and as a state, proclaimed to be an ally of socialism, and in Cuba it certainly isn’t. In fact, for many years, it declared itself the state’s enemy and was an active participant in a fierce battle, whose aftermath remains alive on both sides. The most that can be said is that good relations and a constructive dialogue now exist between the parties.</div>
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This is no minor achievement. So much so, that probably only in Cuba there is a formal dialogue between Marxists and Christians. However, we continue talking about two divergent positions, from both the doctrinal point of view, and their political views. The change in mindset does not lie in ignoring this reality but in assuming it and finding points of reconciliation in a context where the differences are given.</div>
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I think that, rather than a limitation, this divergence conveys the importance of dialogue between the State and the Catholic Church in Cuba. Only Miami schizophrenics can say that the Church is an accomplice of the Cuban government. The legitimacy of this dialogue lies precisely in the fact that they are opponents duly accredited as such.</div>
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If the Cuban government can dialogue with the Catholic Church and find ways to coexist, it can do the same with anyone who does not undermine the basic principles of national sovereignty. This is something that was stressed by both President Raúl Castro and the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Msgr. Dionisio Garcia.</div>
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This concurrence is capital, because it reflects both the essence of the Cuban Revolution and the transformations that have taken place in the composition of the Catholic Church in this country. I think that, for the first time since the 18th Century, when it ceased to be a Spanish-rooted institution, the Catholic Church in Cuba can be justly considered Cuban.<br style="font-size: 1px; height: 1px;" />Cuban are most of its authorities and priests and therefore Cuban are their minds, their culture and national aspirations, which facilitates understanding, regardless of differences.</div>
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Such a dialogue could be very broad, because it will be developed not only between the parties but also inside themselves and the rest of society, including the émigrés, opening spaces for participation in which all Cubans would be included, thus channeling a national consultation process that will be essential for the future of the nation. From this equation would be excluded only those who are not patriots, easily identifiable by their intentions, practices and subordination.</div>
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For these reasons I attended my first Mass on March 28. Some may say that that doesn’t count because I was not summoned by my faith in God, or that it was not a traditional Mass, but perhaps that was the reason for its appeal. Also I did not start badly; the Pope officiated, and I watched the service in the company of my people, who have the right to believe or disbelieve in whatever deities they please, yet they’d rather do it together.</div>
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<a href="http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3179:my-first-mass&catid=36:in-cuba&Itemid=54">http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3179:my-first-mass&catid=36:in-cuba&Itemid=54</a>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-74490974487149488012012-03-12T08:02:00.001-07:002012-03-12T08:11:34.555-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Young Cuba’s Communist Bloggers who Debate & Toast with Anti-Castro Exiles</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">March 12, 2012 </span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Por June Fernandez*</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HAVANA TIMES, March 2 – “The most dangerous ideas” are those that aren’t expressed, hence the importance of creating forums for discussion where everyone can express their opinion. We should not sugarcoat the reality of Cuba nor settle for demonizing the rest of the world. ”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">So writes Osmany Sanchez, one of the three people behind the La Joven Cuba(Young Cuba) blog which they define as a forum for young university teachers to express their opinion on the reality of Cuba. They invite their readers to engage in “frank debate and a respectful polemic” in “a platform that facilitates the convergence of views (often opposing) in a language tolerant of other opinions.”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Advocating plurality does not mean they are impartial. During the interview they appealed several times for plurality, but they also tend to talk in terms of “us” and “others”, “those on our side” and “those on the other side.”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">They are firmly committed to what they call “the Cuban political project” or what “the other side” would call the Castro regime. There is an abundance of Cuban blogs these days on the internet, and in terms of the many ideological classifications into which they can be put, the Young Cuba blog is considered an independent – pro-government blog.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">In any case, LJC stands out from other blogs defending the Cuban political system, not only because it fosters debate between people of other political persuasions, but because they also devote space in their postings to criticizing mistakes and appealing for reforms.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">We agreed to meet in the Parque de La Libertad in Matanzas. Given the serious, vehement tone of blog, I imagined them as young people with an axe to grind, up tight, pamphleteers. They too had their prejudices, imagining I would be older and ugly which is what they said as soon as they saw me, laughing of course. They projected an affable, fresh and even playful attitude.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">“The blog grew out of our dissatisfaction with not being able to express our opinion on the Internet,” says Roberto Peralo. “They either censored our comments or we weren’t given the means to reply to an article.”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The discomfort was provoked by these two tendencies in the press: “Dissidents speculate a lot about Cuba in a hypercritical way and our side there were articles that we didn’t agree with either, considering they painted a rosy picture or were lacking in subtlety,” he says. Robert points out that the origin of his blog was people “outside the party apparatus,” ordinary people who experience “the everyday reality, the needs and sacrifices of the Cuban people” and that they write about what inspires them with no particular agenda.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The formula has worked. On average they get between 1,500 and 3,000 hits a day, and more than 5,000 comments a month (hardly any of their posts get less than 100 comments). And all this with a very precarious internet connection at the university..</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The entire campus shares a 256kb connection, they say, “We go early to the university, before eight in the morning, to load the page. We can’t comment [for a lack of time]; it’s a pain. But we enjoy it too, “says Osmany.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">They religiously post an entry a day. When they started they were writing 15-page posts, but they slowly learned as they went along as well as listening to the advice of their readers. “There are many things we can’t do because we have to pay, like having our own domain. Many people have offered to pay, but we don’t accept it because it would impose conditions. Not accepting funding from either of the two sides, gives us independence,” stresses Harold Cardenas.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">“When looking for information on the Internet you find the two extremes: opponent blogs that have no time for the views of the revolutionaries, and revolutionary blogs that have no time for comment from the opposition. From the beginning we said this is for everyone, that you need to compare opinions, “says Harold. Which is why they only delete the offensive comments.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">At first they suffered the inevitable distrust when talking about Cuba: “They said we were from State security, that we were in a locked room with the conditions all set up, but as they got to know us better and we uploaded photos and videos, they saw we were just like them, “says Osmany.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even friendships started from that. The following week they were going to meet “a detractor” who usually comments on the blog”. “We are opposite sides of issues on the blog but in real life we can sit, talk, have a beer … We have no problem with the discrepancy, only with those who respond to the interests of the people that fund them,” he adds.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then they told me they went with the reader and his wife to watch a baseball game. Matanzas played against Industriales (Havana). “In an effort to bring the two shores closer [Cuba and Florida] and to prove dialogue is possible, we spent the night joking and talking about the most diverse political and social issues in the country,” they say in their blog. Matanzas won.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">NO NEED FOR CONSENSUS</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">In La Joven Cuba, both its chief promoters and the sporadic commentators write what they want, without reaching prior consensus. “Our positions are not homogeneous, we have differing views on various issues.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">For example? I ask.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">“Acts of repudiation” he replies automatically. Osmany interrupts: “We agree on the principles but not on how to say things and how to approach them. At first we got annoyed, but then we’d say, “Oh, I hadn’t seen it that way.” And that enriches us. ”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">But Harold returns to raise a controversial issue: “For two days I’ve had an idea in my head that I have not discussed with them, about the right of an opponent of the government to have political representation. I concluded that they are entitled to be represented politically, even by a party.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">But if they do something improper, they have mechanisms that ultimately constitute an abuse against us. The day that we are no longer conditioned by external pressures, there will have to be guarantees that these rights are respected. Like freedom to travel: we have framed that in a context of things to be postponed till later. But not indefinitely either. ”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Harold is the most critical during the interview of the Cuban system. He has recently started publishing posts about the so-called five greys, in which he looks at the abuses committed by the Cuban government in the past (the repression of homosexuality, censorship of pop and rock …) with the desire to make a contribution so they don’t occur again in the present.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, he keeps insisting there is a real threat of aggression by the United States and this explains the immobility to a degree. “We also want to achieve reconciliation ” he adds. “There are many Cubans who have emigrated for economic reasons but are at odds with the government and the Cuban political project.”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">June Fernandez: Would you say that Cuba respects freedom of expression?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Roberto Peralo: They have tried to exaggerate the lack of freedom of expression. Working with a foreign power to destabilize a government is sanctioned in the United States, France, Italy, and Spain.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Osmany Sanchez: The first is to define what is freedom of expression and how it is manipulated. Those against the system have got the Prisa group behind them to reproduce everything they say without taking account of different realities.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Harold Cardenas: We have had no interference, and that reassures us that there is freedom of expression. I have written several articles saying that I am not in favor of acts of repudiation of any kind.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">(I’m glad the debate turns again to acts of repudiation. This time, Robert has to be away, and Osmany and Harold get into discussion and I sit between them like a spectator in a tennis match.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: I do not agree with the term “acts of repudiation.” I think the following: the Ladies in White are funded by the Department of State [U.S.], by Santiago Alvarez, a terrorist who set off bombs in Cuba (and it’s not just me saying that, the order was signed over here). They get briefed, are given orders to provoke us. If those who live here, organized or unorganized, go out and demonstrate against them, hell, why is it an act of repudiation if they’re expressing their position?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">An act of repudiation is what was done in the eighties, at the time of Mariel, when they threw eggs at them … We are against that, but the term is being extrapolated to other things. In Honduras anyone who speaks out against the government is massacred and nobody says this is an act of repudiation. Why can’t we defend our own streets? I’m not saying they should be beaten (which they aren’t) but I’ll defend my own street.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE ARGUMENTS OF THE OPPOSITION</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: It seems that everyone who speaks against the government is in the pay of the United States. Does everyone get corrupted or is there is a certain degree of paranoia?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: It is not paranoia. They are the ones who want to sell the idea that we think that everyone who is against the Revolution is in the pay of the United States.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Name me a visible face of the opposition you don’t think has been bought by the United States.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: That’s the problem. When they discussed the guidelines across the country during the Party Congress, millions of people participated. People protested against the restrictions when they want to travel. I’ll throw the question back: there is no visible face, because if someone is legitimate and does not respond to these interests, they do not get publicity, what they say is not repeated on Radio Martí or in El País.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: But I’m not talking about appearing in El País but in a blog like yours but more critical of the government.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: I do not know if there is one; if there is, we’ll respect it.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: It is just common sense that Cuban society has people who are not paid and are genuinely against the Cuban political project. Every country has sectors that are not in agreement with the Government or even with the opinion of the majority. The right for such people to exist of such people is undeniable. But these people often enter into the way of thinking that says if you’re against the government, you can earn a few dollars along the way. And when they accept money, they lose their dignity.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: What do you mean when you refer to accepting money?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: The U.S. government publicly acknowledges it spends millions to overthrow the Cuban government. Besides, there are so-called Miami NGOs who are also providing funding for the same purposes, and that are known to be supported by USAID. So it is difficult to differentiate. A Paya [Oswaldo], the Ladies in White, Vladimir Roca, Yoani [Sanchez] … they’re behind them.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: That will change. They’re to going to fabricate more attractive leaders than them. They’re going to focus on young protesters, with piercings with modern hair styles …Here you’ll see the deficiency of the Cuban government, which isn’t up to creating an attractive image.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: How is it I can speak well of the Havana Times – a medium manifestly impartial and pluralistic-minded – when people close to the Government say they are wary, that it is directed by an American …</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: You can’t evaluate the situation of Cuba on the basis of the European experience, because Cuba is atypical. They said: we’re going to liberalize 178 occupations so people can become self-employed. The next day the State Department came out and said it was going to allocate $6 million to fund microcredits. You say “the discrepancy does exist.” Yes, in the case of young people, the neighbor. But when there are other interests behind that …</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: If you get entrenched in a dogmatic position you are alienating people who were not aligned initially with the official dissent.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: Yes, yes, dogmatism has to be rooted out.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Dogmatism is sometimes unconscious. A person can be considered free-thinking and act dogmatically. We have a long tradition of dogmatism, of Soviet influence, Spanish … [He looks at me mischievously and laughs]. We continue to reproduce schematic models, we think our discourse is innovative but it only goes on being more of the same old thing.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But in recent years we have been solving problems. Like [Cubans] entering hotels, having a computer, cell phones, buying houses and cars, private initiative… They have been retaking the space their opponents had captured.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">So now they only have two arguments: travel and the dual currency system. They advocate a single currency and say, “We have tremendous support from the people.”</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Of course, any person you ask, even within the party, will tell you they prefer to have a single currency.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">What is slowing down the reform of immigration policy is the threat.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">If somebody steals a million pesos and goes to the United States and says he is being persecuted, they are not going to send him back. People have committed murder, gone on a boat and nothing happened to them. With regard to civil rights and a multiparty system, any person who has his health and education guaranteed, is not preoccupied with such things.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Freedom House (which is not suspected of defending the revolution) lists priorities in its surveys of citizens and show that they have nothing to do with what outsiders say: people talk about a multiparty system, but what the majority want is to improve their economic conditions.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: That argument sounds like Spaniards claiming they lived well under Franco because they did not go hungry. Although people prioritize their material needs, there are other things that are important, like being able to create graffiti against Fidel.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But that’s nonsense! Well, it’s a right, I respect the right, but when you try to defend that right above others … There are other third world countries that nobody criticizes for human rights violations. And there are others where you can protest against the president but in the background are children on the street who have no school to go to and are into prostitution.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: I agree with the defense of those rights, but I don’t see it as a priority because of the aggressive context of undeclared war in which we have been living so long. One accepts certain limitations as a citizen, for the greater good, which is the Cuban political project, including for example keeping our streets safe. But ultimately the goal is to make progress on these human rights too.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">CIVIL SOCIETY</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Obstacles are being put up to prevent the LGBT from organizing but a collective is emerging, LGBT Rights Watch, which is clearly an opponent. Given that dissidents are always going to organize, would it not be better just to permit autonomous movements?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Yes, that’s absurd.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: In what sense?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Well, with a group of lesbians meeting for whatever: having a place to meet, debating, organizing special days, holding demonstrations …</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: That’s not a political decision, it’s a social phenomenon. If society agrees, I think it has to happen. What is absurd is letting your opponents do it and your people don’t do it, because then you create the impression that the entire LGBT movement is against you.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: They say they spent [from the U.S.] about $350,000 for a gay parade on Prado Ave. But it’s like you say why not just accept a thing once something else happens.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: For me it’s quite clear.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Do you agree that it is healthy to have a strong civil society which can organize in its own way. Currently associations are required to be supervised by institutions.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: True, but there have been examples of associations that are funded also by international groups. Sometimes it’s a problem of self-censorship and self-limitation.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Yes there are legal limitations. This concept of “civil society” was frowned upon for years because it was linked with dissent. Dissidents in turn hijacked that term, and the State was unable to formulate its own. There were too many reservations. In the minds of many officials, the notion of a civil society existing outside the state apparatus was a subversive idea.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now, I don’t know whether it is government policy or the decision of certain leaders. I think we have to reclaim the term. Whatever way you look at it, La Joven Cuba is civil society. By responding to the dissent, the government shows a desire for control which is detrimental to people in the street. But I’m breathing winds of change. Because the Cuban political system has to change or perish. And the change experienced in the last four or five years has been dramatic, greater than in the previous twenty years. I am very optimistic, but I also know that we can repeat past mistakes.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">INTERNET AND JOURNALISM</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: The truth is that due to limited access to the internet here, you get read mainly abroad.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: It’s good we’re getting so many people from the U.S. There are many Cubans who have emigrated and want to feel a bond. LJC has become a link.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: What about the famous fiber optic cable?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: I do not know, the people in Havana will know better. We do not like to be guided by what is said on the street, but obviously this is a case of large-scale corruption. We feel very upset and disappointed with the whole issue.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: What is unforgivable is that they don’t explain what happened. Social use of the internet is prioritized in Cuba. We imagine our university is, but we know nothing.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: When we learned of the corruption, I told my classmates, “Hey, I’m outraged, I think I’ll get a group of outraged people together outside the Ministry of Communications”. But then you don’t do it because you know the dissidents will make use of that.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Fine, but why would you want to stop protesting just because they take you for a dissident?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Yes, that conditions me because I know what will happen. But whenever I have the opportunity to complain, I do: in my neighborhood, in college, in my CDR …</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: What do you think of this policy of prioritizing access by certain groups? Eventually it works out that anyone who happens to have the money will find a way to connect.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: Before, the argument was that they could not spread so many kilobytes among the population when they could’nt even reach the university. It is so easy to understand that anyone campaigning on this issue is doing so because there is some hidden interest. It’s an example of how things get manipulated.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: You’ll agree that the Cuban media are lamentable.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: They need to be improved. There’s a lot to be done. And there is progress.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Everyone knows the political will to change all that is lacking here.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: It’s not always political will.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: The decisions of the Cuban information system are not made by the Cuban press, a political body takes them. How much mobility does a body like that have to respond fast to news?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But there are easier ways. There’s a radio program here in which they invited an expert on communal land and opened the phone to people to ask all sorts of questions. That is a good example. Why not extend it?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: But look: at the time of the Mazorra [psychiatric hospital] deaths, I didn’t see the Minister of Health facing the press.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But that’s not what it’s about. Who is stopping anyone doing investigative journalism? It’s not a question of political will but of personal initiative.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: And then who gets what?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: The television. We need to be critical.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: I think that journalists are critical. It’s a two sided thing. On the one hand you have self-censorship : they don’t do critical reports because they think they’re not going to be able to publish them. And then there’s the real censorship: lots of officials who don’t in fact allow it [to be published].</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: We need a press that’s truly critical. Let them spell out the names of the corrupt. But when they come and say to me that there are things wrong with my press, based on patterns of other countries … No, not that.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: They believe that by maintaining an archaic scheme of how the press of the Revolution should be, they are saving the revolution. But if they insist on not changing, on not adapting with the times, they’ll be destroying it.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But the press has improved lately.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Well, thank goodness!</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: Juventud Rebelde daily has a section where people mention things that have happened to them, hard stuff, with names, naming institutions. But more is needed.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: What other areas of the Cuban blogosphere do you recomend?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: I’m not satisfied, because there are many blogs with extreme positions. That is improving, but I can’t find what I’m looking for. I visited Negra Cubana the blog of Paquito’s, the one of Elaine, the one of Henry Urbieta, of Letters from Cuba, of Fernando Ratsverg Yohandry … And the one by Yohandry which is officialist but has lots of information.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">O.C.: There is a misconception. You cannot write a blog just to dispel the negative comments about Cuba. It’s about people who enter learning about reality, other visions of Cuba. On the other hand, these bloggers are getting worn out and empowering the other person, because most people are supportive with the person who is under attack.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">NEW REFORMS, OLD INEQUALITIES</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: Some people have made the criticism that Raul Castro’s reforms will strengthen the division between social classes because they favor those who start from a privileged position.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: The same ones who are saying that what is needed is capitalism, now criticize the Revolution because the measures will create social strata.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: Up to yesterday having money in Cuba was frowned upon, was taboo. Now suddenly it’s a panacea. We must be careful.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: But if you earn it by working?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: It is a good thing that work is rewarded.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">JF: But historical inequalities are reproduced.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: What would be unforgivable is that the son of one of the self-employed gets a different school from my daughter. And the best teachers should be for everyone and the doctors we educate should be for those who have and those who don’t.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">J.F. Aren’t you tempted to set up a cafeteria given its more profitable to kneed dough than it is to be a university professor?</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: It is more profitable.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: Yes it’s true. But the big challenge is for all these reforms to give such a boost to the economy it allows our salaries to be in correct proportion again.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">HC: In Cuba there are no class differences, but social differences, which is a different thing. My son and the son of a self-employed person with greater purchasing power will go to the same school and to the same hospital, but he’ll have enough to give a gift to the teacher or the doctor and be treated differently from me.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">OS: I don’t give gifts. I feel like it would be offending the professional, and anyway there will always be someone able to give a better present.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">—–</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">*Published originally in Spanish by June Fernandez on her blog Mari Kazetari. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=64111</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>This fascinating interview underlines the counterproductive role of the US travel and trade embargo and funding for democracy programs. </i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The impulse to assist microfinance is not inherently bad, as long as the channel of funding respects national sovereignty and institutions. Unfortunately anything initiated in the context of fifty years of economic warfare and an official objective of system change is inherently suspect. </i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>As hard as it is culturally and psychologically, the US needs to step back and let Cuba be Cuba.</i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>John McAuliff</i></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Fund for Reconciliation and Development</i></span></span></h2>
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</div>John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-27760846913545220792012-03-07T19:39:00.002-08:002012-03-07T19:39:57.834-08:00Brazilian Investment in Cuban Sugar ProductionCuba accepts Brazilian investment in its most emblematic economic sector: sugar<br />
Posted on January 31, 2012<br />
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<br />
(Reuters).—The Brazilian giant Odebrecht plans to produce sugar in Cuba, the company reported Monday in the first injection of foreign capital in a sector so far closed in the communist-ruled island.<br />
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Odebrecht Group signed with the state of Cuban Sugar Business Administration a “productive management contract” to wit “September 5″ in the central province of Cienfuegos.<br />
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“The agreement for a period of 10 years is to increase sugar production and milling capacity and help the revitalization” of the industry, Odebrecht said in an email sent to Reuters through his press office.<br />
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The project would open to foreign capital, the underfunded Cuba’s sugar industry, whose production has plummeted from about 8.0 million tons in the 1970s to just 1.2 million tonnes in the last harvest. In addition, it will deepen Brazil’s role in modernizing the dilapidated productive infrastructure of the island.<br />
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Odebrecht did not elaborate.<br />
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But a Brazilian sugar industry executive told Reuters that the contract could be signed this week during a visit to Cuba, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Cuba allowed more than a decade, the inflow of foreign capital to develop other strategic industries such as tourism and oil recently, where a consortium led by Repsol-YPF this year will begin to explore Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico.<br />
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Private companies from other countries have spent years negotiating its entry into the sugar industry in Cuba, nationalized shortly after Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959. The opening comes after a major restructuring of the industry in late 2011 as part of the efforts of President Raul Castro to modernize the island’s socialist economy.<br />
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Do you also ethanol?<br />
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According to the director of the Brazilian sugar industry with knowledge of the project, Odebrecht also produce ethanol from biomass energy in Cuba. “Cuba is opening up the possibility of producing ethanol accompanied by power generation and Odebrecht will mount a distillery there,” said the businessman.<br />
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“It’s a similar project that Odebrechtis developing in Angola,” he added in reference to a joint venture of $ 258 million Angolan oil company Sonangol with to produce some 260,000 tons of sugar, 30 million liters of ethanol and 45 megawatts of power power.<br />
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Ethanol production on a large scale in Cuba has met with opposition from former President Fidel Castro, an ardent critic of the use of food crops like corn to make biofuels. Some experts believe that if Cuba could revive its sugar industry to become the third largest producer of biofuels in the world behind the United States and Brazil.<br />
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Ron Soligo, an economist at Rice University in Houston who has studied Cuba’s sugar industry, estimates that the island could produce about 7,500 million liters of ethanol annually. “But developing the ethanol industry in Cuba will take a while, since much of the land has been abandoned for years,” he said.<br />
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“Due to the centralized nature of the Cuban economy, a large Brazilian company can be the right partner,” he added.<br />
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Brazil, the second largest ethanol producer in the world, has provided technical assistance the Cuban authorities for the production of biofuels from sugar cane. “The issue is on the table. There is planned investment in sugar and there is a possibility that at some point this can be extended to the ethanol industry,” said a Brazilian Foreign Ministry source.<br />
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Odebrecht’s entry in the modernization of the depressed sugar industry expand its role in the infrastructure of the island. The company is currently one of the leading ethanol producers in Brazil through its subsidiary ETH.John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-75507942599338307682012-01-25T21:01:00.000-08:002012-01-25T21:01:39.967-08:00Business Perspective on ChangeCuba and the slow road to reform<br />
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David Roberts<br />
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Is Cuba tiptoeing towards an open economy and even a form of genuine democracy? <br />
Reforms enacted over the last year or so by President Raúl Castro have already gone further than many expected, or hoped for, when he took over from his brother Fidel some four years ago.<br />
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A degree of private enterprise has been introduced in agriculture and many former public employees performing services such as hairdressing are now effectively self-employed. Mortgage reforms have been introduced, along with subsidies to allow people to build their own homes. Many of the country's political prisoners have been released (a process marred by the recent death of dissident Wilmar Villar after a 50-day hunger strike), and the lifting of travel restrictions on Cubans wishing to go abroad, including the scrapping of the dreaded tarjeta blanca or exit visa, is said to be in the pipeline (although in late December the younger Castro brother poured cold water on hopes that the restrictions would be ended imminently saying it was too early). It's perhaps ironic, therefore, that US travel restrictions on those visiting the Caribbean island, although eased somewhat by Barack Obama, remain in place.<br />
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This may all sound rather paltry given the enormous distance the country still needs to go to become a western-style liberal democracy, but nevertheless it does represent some progress and the Cuban authorities need to be encouraged to go further down the reform road and to bring the Cuban people the standard of living they deserve. Figures often cited put the average monthly income in Cuba at US$20 at the official exchange rate. Clearly, this figure is somewhat misleading given the artificial exchange rate and the cost of living, and the CIA's World Factbook puts 2010 GDP per capita, on a purchasing power parity basis, at US$9,900 - higher than many countries in the region including the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, along with almost all of Central America.<br />
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In fact, the Cuban figure is very close to Brazil's US$10,800, and almost certainly comes with a much more uniform distribution of wealth than in most countries in Latin America.<br />
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None of the above is an attempt to make excuses for the dire economic situation that Cuba is in and has been in for many years, certainly since the demise of the Soviet Union, but it's merely to put things in some sort of perspective. The performance of the Cuban economy also needs to be seen in the context of the five decades-old trade embargo imposed by the US. Clearly the "logic" that in order to lift the embargo Washington needs to see substantial progress towards democracy in Cuba doesn't hold up - if it did there would be similar embargos against a whole slew of countries, including close allies of the US such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain (did someone mention oil?), all of which score worse than Cuba in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2011 democracy index.<br />
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If anything the embargo hinders rather than encourages the process of democratization in Cuba, as the Castros can use the measure to defend their authoritarianism, as well as cite it as a reason (only partly justified) for the island's economic woes.<br />
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A full or even partial lifting of the embargo may not be politically feasible in the present electoral climate in Washington, but it is something that whoever wins in November should seriously consider for the wellbeing of ordinary Cuban people and for US relations with the region (the demand to lift the embargo is one of the few things that seems to unite Latin American leaders), not to mention the opportunities it would create for US trade and investment.<br />
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http://www.bnamericas.com/opinion_piece.jsp?idioma=I¬icia=1448003John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-52054745211067754392012-01-08T21:00:00.001-08:002012-01-08T21:00:46.077-08:00A more open Cuba, blessed by the PopeBy Nick Miroff<br />
Created 1969-12-31 19:00<br />
HAVANA, Cuba — In January 1998, Pope John Paul II made his landmark trip to Havana, meeting with Fidel Castro and memorably calling on Cuba to “open to the world,” and for “the world to open to Cuba.”<br />
Fourteen years later, Pope Benedict XVI is preparing a second pastoral visit to the island, but the message of his trip is likely to be a different one: urging Cuba to open to itself.<br />
When the 84-year-old Pontiff arrives March 26 for a three-day visit, his presence should bolster those who have been pressing for deeper reforms to the island’s one-party socialist system, especially from within Cuba’s church.<br />
Benedict’s arrival is ostensibly timed to coincide with the 400-year anniversary of the appearance of Cuba’s Virgin of Caridad del Cobre, the island’s patron saint.<br />
But the other purpose of his visit appears to be to extend his political blessings to the emerging role of Cuba’s church as a leading public advocate for greater political and economic freedoms — and to Raul Castro’s government for allowing that to happen.<br />
“The changes are being put into practice by the government, not the church,” said Orlando Marquez, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Havana, in an interview.<br />
“But the Church has been saying that the changes are good, that they are the changes that the people want, and that those changes must continue,” he said.<br />
Benedict will find Cuba struggling with many of the same issues it faced when John Paul II visited in 1998, only without Fidel Castro to host him. At 85, Castro is now retired, rarely seen by the public, and no longer head of Cuba’s all-powerful Communist Party.<br />
Instead the Pope will be received by Raul Castro, 80, who as president has afforded Cuba’s Church a degree of social and political prominence it has not held in a half century.<br />
Though Cuba’s religious believers were once persecuted — even Christmas was frowned upon by authorities — Cuba’s church-state relations have improved markedly, and in recent public speeches, Raul Castro has warned fellow Party members that religious discrimination has no place in contemporary Cuba.<br />
The Church today is the only major independent institution on the island that isn’t under government control, and has even consulted with the government on the scope of economic reforms. Carefully, delicately, and with much success, it navigates a tricky course between communist authorities on the island still wary of its intentions, and Cuban exiles abroad who want church officials to be more confrontational toward the Castro government.<br />
In 2010, after repeated attacks by government-organized mobs against Cuba’s Ladies in White dissident group, church officials intervened to halt the abuse and went on to secure the release of the women’s jailed husbands over the following several months.<br />
By the end of the process, nearly all of Cuba’s internationally-recognized political prisoners were freed — more than 100 in total. Since then, church leaders have been outspoken in supporting economic liberalization measures initiated by Raul Castro, while gently prodding his government to do more.<br />
Cuba is one of only two countries the Pope will visit on the trip, his first to Spanish-speaking Latin America, though he traveled to Brazil in 2007. While Mexico, with nearly 100 million Catholics, is a fairly obvious destination, Cuba is not.<br />
“Cuba is a Catholic country by tradition but it’s not a huge Catholic country compared to Mexico or Brazil,” Marquez said. “And nevertheless, the Holy Father has decided to come and be with Catholic Cubans and the Cuban people in this special moment in our history.”<br />
The Pope will begin his visit in Santiago de Cuba, site of the shrine to the Virgin of Charity, and will celebrate an outdoor Mass in the public square of the island’s second-largest city.<br />
He will then travel to Havana and celebrate Mass in the Plaza of the Revolution, the same place where Fidel Castro gave many of his marathon speeches, and where John Paul II addressed a vast crowd of Cubans in 1998.<br />
With the Obama administration easing travel restrictions for Cuban Americans who want to return to the island, thousands of US residents are expected to make the trip to attend the Pope’s outdoor Masses.<br />
“The Pope’s visit will open paths between the Cuban people and the government, the Church and the government, and among Cubans here and abroad,” said Roberto Veiga, editor of “Lay Space,” one of the Church-backed journals that has become a key forum for debates on political and economic topics, on an island where nearly all forms of media are still controlled by the state.<br />
In advance of the Pope’s visit, Raul Castro announced last month the release of more than 2,900 Cuban inmates from the island’s jails, including several who were considered political prisoners.<br />
But US subcontractor Alan Gross was not among them, and Benedict may also use the visit to privately urge Raul Castro to pardon the 62-year-old jailed American. Gross is serving a 15-year prison term for attempting to set up clandestine satellite internet networks on the island as part of a US-funded democracy program.<br />
US officials and Gross’s lawyers say he was only trying to give better web access for Cuba’s small Jewish community. His imprisonment is now viewed as the biggest sticking point to improvements in US-Cuba relations, and anything the Vatican might do to ease tensions would be viewed as a diplomatic success.<br />
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/120106/more-open-cuba-blessed-the-churchJohn McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-32684514163965735712011-12-26T15:32:00.001-08:002011-12-26T15:32:51.471-08:00Retail Sector Reform11:32 26Dec2011 RTRS-Cuba makes more reforms to retail sector<br />
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* Thousands of service outlets to be leased to workers<br />
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* In 2012, Cubans will be able to operate repair shops<br />
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* Reforms part of Cuban plans to "update" economy<br />
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By Marc Frank<br />
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HAVANA, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Cuba will open up more of the country's retail services to the private sector next year, allowing Cubans to operate various services such as appliance and watch repair, and locksmith and carpentry shops, official media reported on Monday.<br />
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The measures are the latest by President Raul Castro in his attempt to reinvigorate Cuba's struggling Soviet-style economy by reducing the role of the state and encouraging more private initiative.<br />
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A resolution published in the official gazette on Monday said the new reforms would take effect on Jan. 1.<br />
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Earlier this year, the Cuban government turned over some 1,500 state barbershops and beauty parlors to employees.<br />
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Former state employees now pay a monthly fee for the shop, purchase supplies, pay taxes and charge what the market will bear.<br />
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Shortly after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, all businesses in Cuba were taken over by the state. But since the former leader handed power to his brother in 2008, the policy has been openly criticized as a mistake.<br />
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Ordinary Cubans have long complained about dismal state services, including small retail services, which they say have deteriorated because of a theft of resources and a shortage of sufficient supplies from the government.<br />
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Cuba has been moving over the last year to liberalize regulations over private economic activity. Since then, tens of thousands of Cubans have taken out licenses "to work for themselves," a euphemism used by the government to describe operating mom-and-pop businesses.<br />
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Cuba plans to have 35 percent to 40 percent of the labor force working in the "non-state" sector by 2016, compared with 15 percent at the close of 2010.<br />
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Raul Castro, faced with stagnating production and mounting foreign debt, has made clear the economy must be overhauled if the socialist system he and his ailing brother Fidel installed is to survive.<br />
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Moving most retail services to the "non-state" sector is one of more than 300 reforms approved by the ruling Communist Party earlier this year to "update" the economy.<br />
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The measures aim to introduce market forces in the agriculture and retail services sectors, cut subsidies and lift restrictions on individual activity that once prohibited the sale and purchase of homes and cars.<br />
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On Monday, the Communist Party daily Granma said the moving of thousands of state retail services to a leasing arrangement would be done gradually throughout 2012.<br />
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Economy Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez told a year-end session of the National Assembly last week the number of state jobs would be reduced by 170,000 next year, with 240,000 new jobs likely to be added to the "non-state" sector.<br />
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Thousands of state taxi drivers are expected to move to leasing arrangements next year. Some state food services are also expected to be allowed to form cooperatives.<br />
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(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Beech)John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-50308386992635786032011-12-22T06:29:00.000-08:002011-12-22T06:29:37.129-08:00Land leases extended plus inheritance rightsCuba sweetens pot for new private farmers<br />
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WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - * Size of leased plots increased five fold<br />
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* Leases lengthened from 10 to 25 years<br />
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* Land and improvements may now be passed on to family<br />
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By Marc Frank<br />
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HAVANA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Cuba, trying to lure people back to the land and lift food production, has modified a land lease program so that private farmers can rent more land and keep it in their family as if they owned it, farmers said over the weekend.<br />
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The measures, adopted at a recent Council of Ministers meeting and not yet announced, are the latest loosening of the doctrinaire communism that has ruled Cuban agriculture policy for decades and were hailed by farmers as a step forward.<br />
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Farmers said in telephone interviews they were told in local meetings they will be able to lease up to 165 acres(67 hectares) from the state beginning in January, compared with the current maximum of 33 acres (13 hectares) mandated in a program<br />
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begun in 2008 .<br />
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They said the leases will extend for up to 25 years, compared with the current 10 years, and can be renewed and passed on to family members and in some cases laborers.<br />
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Farmers also will be allowed for the first time to build homes on the leased land and make other improvements under a regulation that guarantees the state will reimburse them if they lose their lease.<br />
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They had complained that the small size of the plots, short leases and other restrictions hampered production.<br />
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"These measures deal with many of the problems we face and give us security in terms of our work," Anselmo Hernandez, one of 150,000 people who have leased 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of land, said from eastern Cuba.<br />
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"Twenty-five years is a life-time of work and faced with whatever problem the family will be the benefactor of what we have done," he added.<br />
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Cuba nationalized most property after the 1959 revolution and the state owns more than 70 percent of the arable land on the Caribbean island. Private farmers, using only 24 percent of the land, were responsible for 57 percent of the food produced in Cuba in 2010, a local agricultural expert said.<br />
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The expert, asking for anonymity, said the new changes "amount to the state granting land to the private sector indefinitely under the guise of leasing, and no doubt most farmers expect that well before their lease is up they will get title to it."<br />
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STAGNATING ECONOMY<br />
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President Raul Castro has made agriculture the centerpiece of his efforts to reform the stagnating, Soviet-style economy in favor of more local and private initiative, but food production has increased only slightly since he replaced his brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008 and remains below 2005 levels.<br />
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The country imports a budget-busting 60 percent to 70 percent of the food it consumes and the average age of farmers and laborers is now 50 years old.<br />
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Castro has decentralized decision-making on agricultural policy, increased prices paid for produce and promised farmers more freedom to grow and sell their crops.<br />
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In November new measures were announced making it easier for farmers to get bank credits and allowing them to sell produce directly to the tourism sector, bypassing the state.<br />
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They are all part of more than 300 reforms adopted by the ruling Communist Party at an April congress to "update" the economy.<br />
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Oscar Palacios, president of the "Antonio Briones Montoto" agricultural cooperative in the central town of Florida, said the new farming measures were "of enormous importance."<br />
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"Now producers will feel much more motivated and secure that the fruit of their labor will be theirs," he said.<br />
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"They bring farmers and their families closer to the land they work. They make them feel the land is really theirs."<br />
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(Editing by Jeff Franks and Anthony Boadle)John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7898835390995511283.post-22404840396793808432011-11-28T13:32:00.001-08:002011-11-28T13:32:26.071-08:00Government to Contract to Private SectorCuban government to contract with private sector<br />
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* New bank rules open door to private contracting<br />
* Measure seen as key to consolidating new private sector<br />
* Could lead to larger businesses<br />
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By Marc Frank<br />
HAVANA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Cuban government will begin contracting out some services to the private sector next year in a break from the state-dominated past aimed at helping small business develop, government insiders said on Monday.<br />
They said food and cleaning, construction and some transportation services, all of which are currently done by government workers, were among those that would be contracted out in the future as Cuban leaders push ahead with more than 300 reforms to modernize the island's Soviet-style economy.<br />
President Raul Castro is encouraging private sector growth to create jobs for the one million employees he hopes to slash from bloated government payrolls over the next few years. His goal is to strengthen Cuban communism to assure its future.<br />
More than 350,000 people are now self-employed, more than double the number of two years ago, although most are small operations based in homes.<br />
Their ability to grow has been hindered partly by a lack of capital and access to government business, which is significant because the state controls most of the economy.<br />
But new credit and banking regulations that take effect Dec. 20 will allow small businesses for the first time to obtain loans and, along with private farmers, to open commercial accounts, a prerequisite for doing business with the state.<br />
The measures also lift a 100 peso- (roughly $4-) cap on business between state enterprises and private individuals.<br />
"It is very positive for the development of the non-state sector that it now has at its disposal new financial instruments that before were available only to state companies and joint ventures with foreign companies," said a local economist, requesting anonymity due to a ban on talking with foreign journalists.<br />
"It paves the way for business between the new non-state sector and the state."<br />
Cuba expert Phil Peters at the Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Virginia, said the measures, in addition to helping the private sector, should make the government more efficient and were indicative of a larger change.<br />
"It is another sign that the socialist state is shedding longstanding prejudice against private enterprise," he said.John McAuliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02738853658043094283noreply@blogger.com0