Castro Reforms: DVDs, Farms for Cubans

[seafan]

Source: AP

HAVANA (AP) — Shoppers snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers Tuesday as a slew of consumer products went on sale to all Cuban citizens for the first time. Possibly more significant, Cuba announced it will lend unproductive state land to private farmers to boost agricultural production.

Combined with other reforms announced in recent days, the measures suggested that substantial changes are being driven by new President Raul Castro, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.

Many shoppers mourned the fact that the newly available goods were unaffordable on the government salaries they earn. But that didn't stop them from lining up to see electronic gadgets previously sold only to foreigners or companies.

.....

Tuesday's moves came a day after the Tourism Ministry said any Cuban with enough money can stay in luxury hotels and rent cars, doing away with restrictions that made ordinary people feel like second-class citizens. And soon, Cubans will be able to get cell phones legally in their own names, a luxury long reserved for the lucky few.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jcgV95yRAsjpjDjGsvNR1kO9sMjgD8VPB8T80

[ben_meyers]

1. I thought Fidel blamed the boycott

for the economic problems in Cuba. He wouldn't have been holding back these goods and services to make his point would he? Where did all this stuff come from all of a sudden?

[SteinbachMB]

3. Ya

you can sure trust Fidel, can't you?

[Mika]

5. Actually it was to preserve what little currency there is.

Shipping their currency to China and to the foreign hotel companies would have destroyed their currency. Like what is happening here right now. Now, as Cuba's economy is improving, there is a little more wiggle room.

Keep in mind that the #1 industry in all the Caribbean is tourism, and Americans are their primary customers. The US travel sanctions do have a substantial impact on the Cuban economy.

Its not just the US extraterritorial embargo, its also the US gov ban on Americans going to Cuba.

Imagine what would happen to the Bahamas or the Jamaican economies (for example) if Americans were travel banned from those islands also.


-

[robcon]

12. I've never, ever read more economic nonsense in my life, Mika.

"Shipping their currency to China and to the foreign hotel companies would have destroyed their currency. Like what is happening here right now."

Shipping the currency to China??????? Are the Chinese shipping anything else in return? Economic trade is a positive benefit for both parties, as economists have proved since 1803. Ever heard of David Ricardo?

Then, in a fit of incredible hypocrisy, you say that one of the prime users of foreign trade, tourism, is missing from Cuba. Of course it is. Trade is the flow of goods and services from one country to another. Somehow you believe the U.S. embargo is wrong (so do I), but in the next breath you say the denial of the right of Cubans to buy from outside the country is right.

Summary for you: America bad, Cuba good, when they do the same things.

You really had to spin like crazy to come up with that set of contradictory statements.

[Hannah Bell]

20. Economic trade is a positive benefit for both parties, as economists have proved since 1803."

"Ever heard of David Ricardo?"


Yes.

"The case for free trade is based on David Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage. Ricardo addressed the question how trade could take place between country A and country B (England and Portugal in his example) if country B was more efficient in the production of tradable goods (cloth and wine in his example) than A.

In other words, if Portugal could produce both cloth and wine at lower cost than England, how could trade between the countries benefit each?

Ricardo found the answer in relative or comparative advantage. He said that if Portugal specialized in wine, where its absolute advantage was greatest, and England specialized in cloth, where its disadvantage was least, total output would be higher than if both countries achieved self-sufficiency by producing both products. The higher productivity from specialization would result in mutual gains from trade.

For comparative advantage to reign, two conditions are necessary:

One is that capital and labor must be mobile within each country so that the capital and labor employed in England in the production of wine can flow into the production of cloth, where England’s trade advantage lies. In Portugal capital and labor must be able to flow from cloth to wine where Portugal’s advantage is greatest.

The other necessary condition is that capital and labor (factors of production) cannot be internationally mobile. If the factors of production are internationally mobile, capital and labor would move from England to Portugal, where both commodities can be produced the cheapest. Both wine and cloth would be produced in Portugal. Portugal would gain and England would lose.

Ricardo makes it clear that for trade to make both countries better off, trade must be based on comparative advantage. Ricardo gives reasons why, in his time, factors of production are internationally immobile.

Since the time of Ricardo, the key assumption of trade theory remains, in the recent words of trade theorist Roy J. Ruffin, "the inability of factors to move from a country where productivity is low to another where productivity is higher." In a recent article in History of Political Economy (34:4, 2002, pp. 727-748), Ruffin shows that Ricardo’s claim over Robert Torrens as the discoverer of the principle of comparative advantage lies in Ricardo’s realization that comparative advantage, the basis of the case for free trade, lies in "factor immobility between countries." Ruffin notes that "of the 973 words Ricardo devoted to explaining the law of comparative advantage, 485 emphasized the importance of factor immobility."

If factors of production are as mobile as traded goods, the case for free trade--that it benefits all countries--collapses. There is no known case for free trade if factors of production are as mobile as traded goods."

So in a world of capital mobility (between states) & relative labor immobility, ricardian comparative advantage doesn't hold, as ricardo himself acknowledged.

http://www.mises.org/story/1420

[Amused Musings]

28. Well

this is certainly a controversial stance that is in dispute with established economics, though it should be noted that Paul Craig Roberts-probably best known as the architect of Reaganomics-still believes "free trade theory is sound" and is in fact not arguing against it, merely that the current situation makes the idea of comparative advantage untenable. I instinctively disagree but will have to think more on it. I am not suggesting that you are saying anything more than that there are critics of Ricardo, but I am guessing by your avatar that you against "free-er" trade.

I would say the more likely reason this opening up of consumer goods has more to do with signaling to the next president (any hope that it could convince the current one is preposterous) that Raul is not his brother and that Washington in 2009 should reconsider its policy towards Cuba. Raul has hinted in the past that his desire is to open up the Cuban economy a la China. Perhaps not the best comparison is light of recent events (and pretty much all of the past), but revealing nevertheless.

Incidently, and not meant as an ad hominem, the author is also a 9-11 conspiracy theorist

[Moloch]

2. I wonder if Fidel is dead..

Surely he would have objected these kinds of reforms.

[mithnanthy]

4. I want to think that....

maybe Hugo Chavez has had a positive influence on his friend Fidel.

[Codedonkey]

6. Hmmm... Is this a good thing?

I'm unsure.

[BigDaddy44]

13. Me too

Pressure cookers? I mean....what is he thinking letting them buy pressure cookers? Couldn't that be bad somehow?

[Ordr]

7. It's still a shit hole.

But those Socialist Republics are great, right? Right?
Ugh.

[WhiteTara]

9. how many times have you been there?

You type as though you have first hand experience.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Apparently knowing something about the subject isn't considered important! n/t

[TheWatcher]

15. He hasn't.

Check out some other threads he's posted in.

He's been a real busy body.

I also think he has a crush on Rachel Maddow. ;)

[Taverner]

16. I've been to Cuba - You can't paint it with broad strokes of "good" or "bad"

You have to turn on your critical thinking filter, and realize there are some things Cuba does VERY well (universal health care, education, ending poverty, ending crime) and there are some things they are Abysmal on (Civil Rights, freedom of speech, economic freedom).

For example, there is no street crime. You can walk around at midnight and not have to worry about getting mugged. Of course police states (which Cuba is) are like that - and you will see a cop on every corner, every hour of the night. This is an anomaly in The Caribbean and Latin America. Everyone is fed. Not well fed, and not living large by any stretch - but they don't starve. At the same time, go to any restarant and the menu will read "CHICKEN". That means all you can order that day is chicken or chicken. Often times the chicken is old, rubbery and overcooked. It's easy to find rum, hard to find bottled water.

ON the plus side, they have pretty much eliminated religion. I consider this a plus - take into account the huge rich gold painted Catholic cathedrals of Latin America (while beggars outside are dying), and compare to the deserted, spartan ones in Cuba. Santeria (Cuban Voodoo) is prevalent but it's more like our interest in Horoscopes here. Brujas almost always are retired workers or have a day job.

Yet, ask locals what they think of their government (and believe me, once they trust you and are out of government earshot, they will) and they have nothing good to say about Castro OR the Miami Cubans. They want to rule their own country, by their rules. They hate the BS news they get on TV (It's like FOX with no other options) and they really hate not being able to travel freely.

Also, don't expect quick prompt or fast service. My favorite example was going to a fancy hotel restaurant at lunchtime, waiting 30 minutes to order (and there were barely any patrons), and after the waiter took our order, he sat down at the table next to us and watched TV. We asked him about our order and his answer was that the cook went to lunch - it was lunchtime after all!

[Judi Lynn]

18. I've been told by several people who've been to Cuba that the police you claim are everywhere do NOT

carry guns. Did you happen to notice this, or do you imagine they were all lying?

Is it possible, would you think, that Cuba may be a little jumpy due to the fact there have been constant attacks on Cuba either by Miami "exiles" directly, or from mercenaries they hire from Central America to do their dirty work, like Cruz Leon, from El Salvador, who blew up some hotels and killed an Italian tourist at the behest of Luis Posada Carriles?

Here's a reference which might jog your memory about the fact this campaign of terror is real and has taken a great deal of vigilance by Cuban authorities and citizens in order to keep casualties from having been far worse than they've been so far:

Bomber initially thought task was `heroic mission'
Posted on Mon, Jun. 06, 2005
In My Opinion

Jim DeFede HAVANA -- As he explains precisely how he planted a string of bombs at hotels around the Cuban capital in the summer of 1997, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon mentions the Hotel Nacional. The Nacional? ``Nacional, si, bomba.'' I tell him that's where I'm staying. He laughs andthen smiles and shrugs. Among Cubans, Cruz Leon is known simply as ''The Salvadoran,'' the man who placed six of the dozen or more bombs that rocked Cuban tourist sites that year, including the bomb at the Copacabana that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo. He was captured not long after the Copa bombing and was sentenced to death in March 1999. His sentence is under appeal -- which means the Cuban government values him more alive than dead, atleast for now. In his first interview with a U.S. newspaper since his conviction six years ago, Cruz Leon talked about his life in Cuba's Guanajay Prison, the death of di Celmo, and his feelings toward Luis Posada Carriles, the man responsible for sending him on what he once believed was a ``heroic mission.'' Our meeting takes place away from the prison, in a house used by Cuban state security in Siboney, a neighborhood on the west side of the city. Dressed in jeans, a polo shirt and sneakers -- as opposed to his normalprison uniform -- and with his hair neatly trimmed, Cruz Leon appeared healthy. A former member of El Salvador's military, Cruz Leon was 26 when he was recruited in San Salvador for the bombing campaign. He said he was approached by another Salvadoran, Francisco Chavez Abarca, who was familiar with what Cruz Leon described as his ``spirit of adventure.'' ''He also knew I had right-wing thoughts,'' Cruz Leon said. Cruz Leon never met Posada,but as a Herald investigation discovered in 1997, Chavez worked for Posada and was one of the first people recruited by Posada to initiate the bombing campaign. Cruz Leon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 2
said he was to be paid approximately $2,000 for each bombdetonated. He was given a list of hotels, but it was up to Cruz Leon to decide the exact location inside each building. Cruz Leon claimed he balked at first because he didn't want anyone to get hurt. He told me that Chavez responded by saying: ``Well, try to put it in the lobby in a place where you won't kill anybody, but if there are people that die, that's the price. If there are people that die, they die.'' `A HEROIC MISSION' After his first set of bombs went off in July 1997, he felt great. ''I thought that I had accomplished a heroic mission,'' he said. ``I thought it was an action against the evil.'' He returned a few weeks later to plant a second stringof bombs -- one of them at the Copacabana. He learned someone died in that blast only after being arrested two days later by Cuban police. While Cruz Leon was awaiting trial in Cuba, Posada came forward to take credit for the bombings in a series of newspapers and televisioninterviews. Posada expressed little sympathy over Cruz Leon's arrest or his fate. ''He's not Cuban,'' Posada said dismissively. ``He did this for money.'' Cruz Leon told me he was stunned by Posada's words. ''I would say to him that he should look backwards and see how much damage he has done and to stop,'' he said. ``He should pay the same way I am paying for a death I caused.'' He paused and then added, ``I am not in a position to make any judgment about anybody, and I want to make clear that I cannot make the statement that I know for sure that has doneeverything he has been blamed for.'' But if Posada is guilty, Cruz Leon said, ``he deserves to pay for it.'' In an interview with The New York Times, Posada said he slept like a baby after learning the Italian tourist had been killed in the Copacabana bombing. ''I don't sleep like a baby, you can be sure of that,'' Cruz Leon told me. ``I know that my hands are full of blood.'' `WE WERE FOOLS' The person in the cell next to him at Guanajay Prison is another Salvadoran, Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena. He planted one bomb in 1997 and was caught smuggling C-4 explosives into Cuba in June 1998. He, too, has been sentenced to death. A
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 3
former officer in the Salvadoran military, Rodriguez Llerena was selling cars at San Salvador's largest dealership when he was approached by Posada, who was hiding in El Salvador under the name Ignacio Medina. He has consistently identified pictures of Posada as the man who hired him. ''We were fools,'' Rodriguez Llerena tells me in a separate interview at the state security house. He said Posada agreed to pay him $1,000 for each bomb, and $100 for every pound of C-4 he could smuggle into Cuba. He agreed, he said, because he had money problems. He hadfathered children with different women and couldn't pay all of their bills. He said he feels Posada exploited his weakness. ''I cannot say if he is a freedom fighter or a terrorist,'' Rodriguez Llerena said. ``In my personal case Iam angry, because whether he is a freedom fighter or not, he used me. My mistake was letting him use me.'' Today, Rodriguez Llerena says he is being used by the Cuban government. He said Cuban state television never shows his statements of remorse. ''They only put on TV what is politically necessary and useful for them,'' he said. Nowboth Cruz Leon and Rodriguez Llerena spend their days in a special unit segregated from the rest of the prison population. They say they have a small garden where they grow vegetables and a television set where they watched the news about Posada's entry into the United States and his arrest by Homeland Security. Actually, Rodriguez Llerena said, the two men don't talk much about Posada.''It's a painful subject,'' he said.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:PJ771cMoBLYJ:www.familiesforjustice.cu/common/assets/docs/articles/ingles/bomber-initially-thought-task-was.pdf+Leon+Cruz+bomb+Cuba+trial+guilty&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

(The author, Jim DeFede is a reporter who used to work at the Miami New Times, then moved to the Miami Herald.)

[Taverner]

19. Some carry, some don't

To be honest, there aren't enough to go around - so the more senior cops get them.

And yes, they HATE HATE HATE the "gusanos" as they call them (worms) - the folks who left Cuba.

[Hannah Bell]

21. Better than Haiti. n/t

[toopers]

8. Maybe they will allow the sale of air conditioners next . . .

n/t

[Ellen Forradalom]

10. There's gotta be a happy medium

between abject poverty and unbridled consumerism. Trade is a normal part of life. I hope Cuba loosens up a bit more, and that we ditch that dumbass embargo which has accomplished exactly nothing.

[Better Believe It]

14. I'm Tired Of Old Right-Wing Sounding Attacks On Cuba

I see a definite right-wing anti-Cuban bias here that's a hangover from the cold war.

Cuba's economy is now improving after the terrible hit they took when their favorable trade agreements with the USSR and eastern block nations dried up. That hit along with the effective trade embargo meant an actual decline in Cuba's GNP. Fortuntely, Cuba continued to make strides in health, education and other areas during that difficult period.

I only wish Cuba's critics would provide some documentation to back up some believable claims. These well meaning cold war liberals just seem to echo the old, tired and discredited claims of right-wing Republicans.

Please, instead of the usual one liners, like Cuba is a Sh*thole", try and offer something more substantial.

OK?

Cuba's biggest defenders, have noted economic and political problems and welcome progressive economic changes and reforms that are now possible in Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

17. What small country wouldn't have struggled mightily under a crushing 50+ year embargo,

which has been overwhelmingly condemned every year for years in the General Assembly at the U.N., and suffered horrendously all this time from being the constant target of murderous attacks from Cuban "exiles" and from the people they hire to attack Cubans with bombs, raids, assaults on people on the shore from boats with machine guns, murders by "exiles" going ashore, kidnappings and murders, destruction of crops, livestock, etc.

"1984 Eduardo Arocena, a counter-revolutionary of Cuban origin and head of the Omega-7 terrorist organisation, stands trial in the US accused of the murder of Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a Cuban diplomat to the UN. Arocena confesses to having introduced 'germs' into Cuba as part of the US biological war against Cuba. He affirms that the dengue outbreak was introduced by terrorist groups into the island."

http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/CubaSi-January/Bio.html



Eduardo Arocena, Omega 7 terrorist group
Transcript of his testimony:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/arocena.htm

Economic warfare, international terrorism. All this has been going on for almost 50 years. Operation Northwoods, signed by members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff created plans for starting a war against Cuba which would make it look like self-defense in order to launch an attack on them, from the 1960's, and vetoed by John F. Kennedy, only recently uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act by an author, James Bamford. All available for study on the internetS for people who can bother themselves to do their homework.

Operation Mongoose. Really loathesome plans, involving psy-ops schemes from U.S. Chief of Operations, Edward Lansdale.....

Apparently they don't bother to do any reading, aren't aware, don't have a single clue about what's been going on all these years, but sit on their giant butts and take in all the gibberish propaganda handed around by propagandists who have a totally easy job, as they can circulate ANY old crap and some U.S. citizens (the most feeble, mentally incapable among us) just buy it, as they don't have the option to legally go to Cuba to see for themselves what the truth is, and they're just not capable of trying to research, or even tying up too much of their precious time simply THINKING about what they've heard.

As long as the U.S. keeps the travel ban working, which they didn't even implement for Russia and China when they were communist, knuckle dragging idiots here can be told people in Cuba are forbidden to attend church, or that the Cuban state has declared ownership of their children and these clowns will simply lap it up, and breathlessly tell their stupid family members all about it, as if it were the God's truth. They don't know what complete fools they've become.

As soon as that travel ban is lifted, it's all over for the propagandists here, and I think that's why they are in such a goddamned hurry to try to get control over Cuba, because if they do, and Americans start pouring across the water to visit, they can claim everything's o.k. because the Americans are in charge.

In the meantime, the people from Canada, from Europe, Latin America, Asia who go there on vacation think we are all complete idiots for accepting this travel ban. I've heard them say they wish it could remain in place permanently, because they don't want this country to destroy Cuba with a glut of tourists, or more particularly, junky, crappy businesses and pollution which will absolutely ruin everything. They love it just as it is, and that's why so many of them are multiple, repeat visitors.



Havana



Santiago de Cuba

http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilab/champ/documents/4464/photos+for+web+page/cusco3.jpg

Trinidad, Cuba



Cienfuegos, Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

22. Cuba Lends Private Farmers Unused Land

Cuba Lends Private Farmers Unused Land
2 days ago

HAVANA (AP) — Communist Cuba is opening up unused land to private farmers and cooperatives as part of a sweeping effort to step up agricultural production.

Government television says 51 percent of arable land is underused or fallow, and officials are transferring some of it to individual farmers and associations representing small, private producers.

The president of Cuba's national farmers association, Orlando Lugo, says "everyone who wants to produce tobacco will be given land to produce tobacco," and it will be the same for coffee or anything else.

While private farms account for a small percentage of Cuba's land, some economists say they produce more than half of its food.

The program began last year, but was announced only this week.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGtfgbl8SYmxGTjnMQyRCikFY7HAD8VPB29O0

[Judi Lynn]

23. Russia, Cuba Sign Trade Deals

Russia, Cuba Sign Trade Deals

Havana, Apr 3 (Prensa Latina) Russian Transportation Minister Igor Levitin ended Thursday a four-day visit to Cuba, where he led his countrys mission to the 8th Cuba-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.

Levitin attended the signing of one protocol, two memorandums and the final document of the Commission in ceremony held at the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation.
(snip)

During his visit Minister Levitin met with his Cuban counterparts for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Transportation, Communications, and MINVEC, plus the leadership of the Civilian Aeronautic Institute and President Raul Castro.

Both parties pledged to boost exchange, among others, in tourism, transportation, culture, biotechnology, sports, pharmaceuticals and communications.

~~~~ link ~~~~

[Judi Lynn]

24. Ending U.S. embargo could help this country of contradictions

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Ending U.S. embargo could help this country of contradictions
By Lynn Davison and Judith Clegg

Special to The Times

We were in the city of Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus province, the day that Fidel Castro Ruz officially stepped down as leader of the Cuban revolution. For most of us, the revolution is a historical event; for Cubans it is an ongoing process. Billboards and graffiti proclaiming Viva la Revolution and Viva Fidel pepper cities and the countryside. Despite the dramatic change in leadership, most Cubans do not expect major changes soon, although most would like to see some.

We found Cuba to be a country of contradictions. Most people are poor by any standard; street sweepers, physicians, teachers and most other workers earn about $19 a month. Yet, the population is well-educated and healthy. Cuba's health status indicators, literacy rates and percentage of the population with college degrees are the envy of most first-world countries.

Heath care is free for all Cubans. Neighborhood-based primary-care physicians are distributed throughout the country at a ratio of 1 per 120 families. While the focus is on preventive and primary care, Cuba also offers excellent specialty and inpatient care and trains doctors and other health workers for all of Latin America. We talked to an obstetrician working in a maternity home in Havana, who described the services available to high-risk mothers and proudly told us of their remarkably low infant-mortality rate.

Education is promoted as the key to the future. All education, including undergraduate and postgraduate studies, is free to Cubans. Many people seem to take advantage of the educational system even though more education is not directly linked to greater incomes.

More:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004317810_cuba01.html

[Mika]

25. I see that DU's Cuba "experts"* are here.

* - that have never set foot on the island, or have never done any real research on the subject.

Funny how we hear, on DU, so much about how Cubans are suffering and subjugated, and only have salaries of $20 a month, doctors are driving taxis, people are starving, etc etc, from people who've never set foot on the island.

Another knee slapper are the stories from DUers who've spent a very little time in Cuba, mainly in tourism/resort areas and hotels, who might see a Cuban police officer carrying a sidearm. The mewling of "its a police state" because of a sighting of a couple of cops with sidearms is pure hysteria, especially considering that almost every police car in the US has a shotgun and quite often a high power semiautomatic AR15 (M16), not to mention that most every cop in the US carry Glock handguns and tazers and pepper spray


Not to mention the police state here at home ..

[Judi Lynn]

26. Great photos! I recall reading the Miami cops started arresting people who were simply standing on

the streets a couple of nights before the trade conference ever started, so they had prisoners even before the demonstrations started.

Good work, Chief Timmony. He made his reputation preying upon demonstrators at a political convention in Philadelphia before Miami was lucky enough to snap him up.

[Mika]

27. Chief Timmony drove to the FTAA in a Lexus he wasn't paying for.

Info on that here