Changes in Cuba? (Article written for people who haven't kept up on Cuba, or who misrepresent it)

[Judi Lynn]

Changes in Cuba?

Salim Lamrani
10 May 2008

The Western press has been untiring with respect to the changes happening in Cuba after Raul Castro’s election as president of the Republic and have celebrated a possible liberalisation of the island’s economy.

But, as always when Cuba is talked about, this reality is treated superficially and erroneously. Whether it is about acquiring electric devices, hotels or cell phones, the restrictions that were valid until recently had rational explanations, but the information multinationals have ignored them.

In reality, an intense debate was launched at the beginning of the year with the objective of improving Cuban socialism. This debate involved the entire population and generated 1.3 million proposals.

Electric devices

The media announced with great fanfare that Cubans were now free to acquire electric devices and household appliances, making it seem that before they were completely forbidden to be sold.

However, the reality is clearly different. The sale of these items has never been prohibited in Cuba, aside from some computing and other products that consume large quantities of energy such as electric stoves or microwave ovens, in a period in which energy production in Cuba was insufficient to meet the population’s needs.

In fact, during the Special Period that began in 1991, after the disintegration of the Cuba’s main trading partners in the Soviet bloc, Cuba remained alone against the international market and had to face the disappearance of more than 80% of its foreign trade. Additionally, Cuba faced the worsening of the relentless economic aggression by the US.

In this extremely difficult context, the Caribbean island was hit by shortages — especially of energy, causing long blackouts. In this period, authorities limited the sale of energy-hogging electric devices.

Those restrictions were not only justified, it would have been irresponsible to proceed any other way since the subsidised energy system could have collapsed.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/750/38769