Future of Cuban Relations
A few years ago, I traveled to a cover a linguistics conference in Santiago de Cuba and I have published an article at IMPress about the conference, but I thought I would create one about my general impressions of Cuba.
The main thing I gleaned when touring Cuba was the spectrum of abject squalor to relative comfort with respect to the living conditions. I noticed that while some live in nicely fenced and seemingly secure homes; others live in holed-out buildings with dirt floors. The rub with this is that these people do not have any real way of improving their situation. While in Cuba, we encountered an American who told us that he was going to collect all his clothes, the soap in the hotel room, and anything else that was free to him in order to give these items to the citizens before he left. We listened and thought that this was a fairly decent idea, but did not know that we would soon have people sheepishly asking us for just that.
A Cuban asked us to come with him and buy his family some meat after he took us on a tour of the sites. Did ya get that? He did not want money for his guide services, he wanted meat. They do not get much protein due to a lack of supply, but when they do it is a special event. We followed him to the market where I gave him three Cuban Convertible Pesos ( CUCs), so he could feed his family. The CUC acts as a U.S. dollar because the Cuban citizens are not allowed to possess U.S. currency. It is equivalent to roughly one U.S. Dollar. The natives’ currency the Cuban Peso (CUP) is more like 23 cents U.S. according to currency exchange kiosk at the Havana airport. As of this article’s publishing on this site, the CUC no longer exists, but the Cuban government now claims that the CUP (Cuban Peso) is equivalent to the U.S. Dollar in value.
We learned from one Cuban that he earns about 250 Cuban Pesos a month – about $58 U.S.
Now, they are a communist nation, so they have ration books and this money is to be considered extra, but we found that they do not always get everything listed. This Cuban – I will call him Raul – showed me his ration book and indicated where he and his family of four did not receive any soap (dish, body, hair, clothes, et.al.) for a month-and-a-half at two separate times that year. So, for three months total he and his family could not even bathe unless soap was given to them by a tourist or they acquired it somewhere else. Basically, the citizens have to do the best they can by just rinsing themselves in the shower, or using the garden hose as Raul said he’d done.
Now, the Cubans are allowed by the Cuban government, to import items from the United States, but they must know someone in the states to buy the item and ship it to the Cuban citizen. Many times these connections in the States are family members who left Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. I make this point to say that there are many in Cuba who have an appearance of some wealth and this gives an impression of success for the government to broadcast to the world.
This appearance is due to one of a couple of options: The one listed above, they have clothing or items from the era before the revolution, or they can rent items. Renting things is not that strange to us here in the states, but in Cuba they rent clothing for dates, or other special occasions, so they can look good. All of these options are contingent upon having the “extra” money to either import items, take care of the old items, or rent new items. Think of how much we pay for shoes here in the States. That is almost an entire month’s salary for the fellow above. Another option – although it is mostly conjecture – is that they might “know” someone in the government of Cuba, i.e.: a Communist Party member.
There was, however, a hint of things to come should the United States lift the embargo. The forward, capitalist thinking people in Havana already have a beginner’s understanding of free enterprise. They do understand that tourists want certain things like tours, information on the better restaurants, and where to shop, but what they do not seem to understand is that tourists typically, don’t like to be harassed. By harassment I mean, once a rejection of their offer has been given, they continue to ask to the point of following you up the road for a while on their bicycle, or in their horse-drawn taxi. Besides that little annoyance, there are few problems with their burgeoning entrepreneurial style.
There are also bed and breakfast style homes licensed by the government to serve tourists. These are a very good value, which are facilitated by taxi drivers at the airport, or some travel agents. These and the taxis/horse and buggy drivers will probably have more “extra money” due to the tips received from tourists. The money they get as payment for the service goes directly to the state and for some of them the only thing extra they get is the tips. They will not ask for a tip, but they desire them for this reason.
I pause while thinking of the eventual advent of capitalism in Cuba and the contradiction of me walking around the streets feeling relatively safe due to the almost police state. By police state, I mean that the presence of police and military is not just a feeling – they are visible on every street. The running joke amongst the few citizens we spoke to is, “two million people, one million police.” When this commentary is offered, the citizen has just made a statement to the effect of, “the government is always watching.” The estimated population in 2010 was 11,477,459, which puts Cuba at number 73 in the world according to the 2010 CIA World Factbook. CIA factbook statistics: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html
According to the Cuban government, the number in 2007 was 11,287,005. I extrapolated this number from the “Desarrollo Social” tab of Cuba’s website. http://www.cubagov.cu
“In 2007 the beneficiaries of social security were 1,571,924 and the 595,181 social assistance, which represented 19.2% of the Cuban population. (En Español: En el año 2007 los beneficiarios de la seguridad social fueron 1571924 y los de la asistencia social 595181, los que representa el 19,2% de la población cubana.)”
Mostly, this delivers a feeling of security for visitors, but because of the expressions on faces and tones in voices the element of fear in the locals is inherent. Most Cubans will avert their eyes when they see a “tourist” coming unless they are doing legitimate business. We had one person tell us that they could very well be questioned for just talking to us. In fact, as we were walking around with this guy – Cristo, I’ll call him – he would get quickly quiet when we’d pass a police officer and then, pick up our conversation once we were out of sight.
One of the other restrictions on the Cubans we were informed of was that they are not allowed without good reason and sufficient permission to travel to other states within the country – leave out the mass of paperwork involved in travel outside the country. Cuba has a negative migration rate due to the restrictions of in-country travel. They have -1.56 out of every 1,000 people (2010 est.) who migrate and the mortality rate is 7.29 deaths out of every 1,000 people (July 2010 est.). That means no one is moving their household, therefore, no one is even potentially improving their living conditions. Population growth rate is 0.217% of a person added each year (2010 est.).
Cubans can gain permission to leave the country, but they must leave some family behind and collect enough money to afford the trip. As we encountered at the Havana airport on our way back to the states when the wife of a married couple was traveling to Miami to see family, but not the husband due to this very restriction.
Conclusions on the state of Cuba
These restrictions are indicative of communism and the need of the political system to enact controls on the populous. Fidel has recently stated, "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." (Reuters, 2010, Franks. http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/08/us-cuba-castro-idUSTRE6874LC20100908) I would argue that it never really did. I believe that Fidel Castro and his movement grabbed hold of the increasing tide of communist conversion around the world.
Castro, according to a display at the museum at the Moncada Barracks, did try the legal route with Batista’s government and was rejected apparently, without much reason. I can understand Castro’s frustration and I believe that a revolution – on some scale was warranted. In these conclusions, I realize that I may seem to be attacking the men and their initial vision...that is not my intention. I’ve seen “Motorcycle Diaries” and I believe Ernesto Guevara really felt the emotions and care for the people displayed by the actor. When Alberto Granado joined the revolution, he also believed in the benevolent nature of the cause.
In addition, get the impression that from the beginnings of “The Revolution” the Castro-Guevara contingent had solid ideals and felt they were destined to defeat the regime that oppressed them for so long. That said, I think they did not necessarily understand the scope of developing an entire system of government. I do not see a real plan for after the revolution ended, therefore, the Soviet Union stepped in with money and, as we know money talks.
Again, I am not saying that Castro was not legitimately motivated by a need to repair things in his country, but I believe that his movement was co-opted by the Soviet communist movement. I specify the Soviet movement because I get the impression that China doesn’t really care what happens to Cuba currently. It stands to reason that because of China’s 2 billion-person population that Cuba’s 11.5 million people are not a top priority. Put another way, less than one percent of the size in population does not warrant much consideration. Additionally, China’s GDP is an estimated $9.9 trillion while Cuba’s GDP is only $114 billion, which is just over 1 percent of China’s GDP. China, in effect, does not need Cuba, whereas, the Soviet Union had major political and strategic reasons for investing in Cuba.
Now, I do not believe that Castro is ignorant, but I believe that he could only go so far with his idealistic goals and the larger more well organized Soviet Union was well equipped to step in and fill in the blanks for Fidel. Once the U.S.S.R. fell, the dinero stopped.
All this leads me to my overall point. Once Fidel’s idealistic experiment passes, we need to be prepared to step in and help the people of Cuba form a good and sound free enterprise structure that will promote community health and give the country a strong base of income from infrastructure and tourism improvements. The last thing we need – 90 miles from our country – is a poor turmoil-filled land full of death and disease.I do not mean that we should install a puppet regime, but we should be ready to help them set up a structure to take care of themselves. These people are proud of their country and will not take help as a handout. The last thing we should do is go in and tell the new leaders they are doing things wrong, but we also should not let them think that they have a good and viable idea to sustain.
The Cuban experiment has most definitely failed as Castro’s own words bear out and there are countries ready to step in and claim the leftovers. These people do not deserve to have a repressive regime come in to take control, leave their people reticent and starving while, living in ridiculous wealth and opulence. This has happened too often and is at least part of the reason for so much of the trouble in parts of Central and South America as well as in the Middle East.
