• The objective of this Blog is to facilitate access to research resources and analyses from all relevant and useful sources, mainly on the economy of Cuba. It includes analyses and observations of the author, Arch Ritter, as well as hyper-links, abstracts, summaries, and commentaries relating to other research works from academic, governmental, media, non-governmental organizations and international institutions.
    Commentary, critique and discussion on any of the postings is most welcome.
    This Blog on The Cuban Economy is dedicated to Cuba's Generation "A". Although inspired by Yoani Sánchez' original blog "Generation Y" this is not dedicated to those with names starting with the letter "A". Instead, it draws from Douglas Coupland's novel Generation A which begins with a quotation from Kurt Vonnegut at a University Commencement:
    "... I hereby declare you Generation A, as much as the beginning of a series of astounding triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago."

Information on Project: “Socially Responsible Enterprise, Local Development in Cuba”

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Arch Ritter

Attached here is information on a project on “Socially Responsible Enterprise, Local Development in Cuba”.

A variety of institutions are involved in the consortium for this  project including
• Fundación AVINA
• Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy (CEEC)
• The Christopher Reynolds Foundation
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Forum Empresa
• Fundación de Ecología y Desarrollo
• Green Cities Fund
• National Association of Economists and Accountants
of Cuba (ANEC)
• The University of Havana

Additional support has come from

• The Canadian Embassy Fund for Local Initiatives
• Dalhousie University
• The Ford Foundation
• FUNDESO
• Halloran Philanthropies
• Havanada
• Instituto Ethos
• The International Development Resource Centre
• National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP)
• United Nations Development Program, Cuba Office

The fulld project description is here: Socially Responsible Enterprise UPDATE ENGLISH FINAL 12_2012.

Introduction

After years of experimentation, learning and successful cases in a variety of industries, socially responsible enterprise has made its way from the margins to the mainstream throughout the world. New ways of understanding the role of the private sector in society have emerged while businesses are increasingly being called upon to account for their effect on the environment and communities in which they operate. Through responsible enterprise, innovative models are being developed that produce positive environmental and social outcomes and offer new, sustainable solutions to many of today!s largest challenges. An early adopter of these types of models, Latin America can look to 15 years of experimentation in the field with best practices and replicable models now readily available. !

Since the end of 2010, a consortium of Cuban and international organizations has worked toward the creation of a dialogue on the potential for socially responsible enterprise (SRE) in Cuba. Academics, government officials and other groups in Cuba have engaged in dynamic exchanges with cutting edge Latin American firms and organizations working in the socially responsible enterprise space. Over the past two years, we have initiated and executed a series of highly successful programs including educational visits, conferences and workshops, and in the process, have helped strengthen Cuba’s links with other Latin American nations.

The initiative has been well received within Cuba, generating enthusiasm among important actors on the island as well as grounds for future, locally spearheaded activity. This series of programs has also helped coordinate efforts among a variety of groups involved in economic planning in Cuba. Today, this enthusiasm and coordination is being translated into actionable plans by key decision makers on the island.

Contact: Dr. Julia Sagebien,  julia.sagebien@dal.ca

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Documentary on Internet Access in Cuba

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Arch Ritter

Documentary on Internet Access in Cuba

 By Yusimi Rodriguez, Havana Times, January 10, 2013

Original Essay here:  http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=85719

Students in Cuba are learning computer skills from the earliest grades in elementary school. But what will happen when they grow up in a country where access to the Internet and other social networks is highly restricted?

What does this mean for their chances for ongoing professional development?

That’s the question posed by the Cuban documentary Ojos que te miran: Entre redes (Eyes That Look at You: Among the Networks), made in 2012 by director Rigoberto Sanarega. But I think we need not go that far back in time to ask about Internet access in Cuba. Right now, many Cubans are wondering when Internet access will become available for all citizens of the country, not as a special privilege or requirement for some jobs, but as a right – even as a necessity.

In the documentary, a young woman who teaches computer classes to a group of elementary school students talks about her need for the Internet to complete her own studies, but she doesn’t have access. Another young man says he has to pay the equivalent of $6 USD an hour (almost half of many monthly wages) to access the Internet to complete his graduating project.

“Eyes That Look at You” doesn’t delve into the reasons for preventing Cubans from having Internet access. The 13-minute documentary is meant to reveal a situation rather than to question the roots of the problem.

I could list a lot of reasons why many professionals and undergraduates, graduates, masters level and doctorates students need Internet access, but we would be falling in a trap.

The ability to access the Internet would be determined by the actual “need” to have it, and the designated authorities would immediately appear to determine who needed it and who didn’t. Moreover, if they can determine who needs the Internet, they could also determine which websites are needed and which ones aren’t. If you work in the area of public health, they currently argue that the Cuban Infomed website should suffice. Others have to be content with the nation’s Intranet. Both are internal networks controlled by the Cuban government.

I believe that Internet access to any webpage, anywhere, is a right – period.

The documentary shows a worker at one of the Youth Computer Clubs, a program created by the eternal leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro. Over the months that he worked there, he wasn’t even allowed to access Wikipedia. However, another interviewee talks about the creation of EcuRed, a Cuban encyclopedia. However — paradoxically — most Cubans aren’t familiar with it or even know it exists. Most EcuRed users aren’t even from Cuba. Our country is in “ninth, tenth or eleventh users position,” according to the interviewee. The island is located behind Spain, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, the United States and other countries.

The reason? The respondent himself said this was because of the poor Internet access that exists here in the country.

Some people, like one man interviewed in the documentary, continue to accept the national security explanation, blaming the US government and its half century embargo for everything bad that happens in Cuba. However another man raised questions about what happened with the underwater fiber-optic cable that was laid between Cuba and Venezuela nearly two years ago. Though it still isn’t functioning, nothing has been explained to the public. I’d like to be able to recall his exact words, but I can’t. I can only say that I was pleasantly surprised.

The Venezuela-Cuba Undersea Cable Arriving  in Cuba, 2011; Still Unused

One of the problems about having to live thinking about what you’re going to eat at night is that it keeps you focused on the problems of daily survival. It doesn’t let you think about basic questions of freedom such as access to information. Why do I want the Internet on an empty stomach? Why do I want to have Internet access if I don’t have gas for cooking or soap for bathing?

Seen from this perspective, it appears that the Internet is a luxury that many Cubans don’t think about, even though they know it exists. But it’s heartening to know that more and more of our compatriots are interested in it.

Eyes That Look at You doesn’t delve into the reasons for preventing Cubans from having Internet access. The 13-minute documentary is meant to reveal a situation rather than to question the roots of the problem. Perhaps that was the intention of the director, or maybe he chose to be more cautious in dealing with such a complex issue. In any case, maybe it’s not so contradictory to teach computing in schools and to create Youth Computer Clubs and then deny Internet access to the public.

If we look to the past, the revolutionary government conducted a literacy campaign to teach the Cuban people to read and write, and then it banned many books and even several types of music.

The Internet will come to Cuba just like all those other things that were banned: the music of the Beatles, DVD players, cellphones and access to tourist hotels. The government will run out of excuses to restrict access. As what happened with cellphones, the Internet will become available to everyone, at least to those who can pay the pretty penny for using it. We’ll no longer say that we’re restricted from access; we’ll just have to dig that much deeper into our already shallow pockets for it.

But until those golden times come, it’s nice to see a Cuban documentary that puts the issue on the table – at least to some degree.

 

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An Assessment of the Cuban Government’s Management Over the Last Six Years

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Arch Ritter

By Dimas Caseillano, from “Translating Cuba, Archive for the “Dimas Castellanos”

Complete  essay here: An Assessment of the Cuban Government’s Management Over the Last Six Years / Dimas Castellano

Four decades after taking power through revolution in 1959, the factors which made totalitarianism in Cuba possible have reached their limit. The populist measures imposed during the first years after the revolution were accompanied by the dismantling of civil society and a process of government takeover which began with foreign-owned companies and did not end until the last 56,000 small service-related and manufacturing businesses, which had managed to survive until 1968, were eliminated.

The efforts to subordinate individual and group interests to those of the state has led to disaster. The confluence of the breakdown of the current economic and political model, national stagnation, citizen discontent, external isolation and the absence of alternative forces capable of having an impact on these issueshave created conditions for change. On the one hand this has led to despair, apathy, endemic corruption and mass exodus, while on the other hand there has been an emergence of new social and political figures.

It was in this context that the provisional transfer of power from the Leader of the Revolution took place. The fact that this transfer was carried out by the same forces that led the country into crisis meant that the order, depth and pace of change were determined by the power structure itself, which explains the effort to change the appearance of the system while preserving its character – an unresolvable contradiction – doomed governmental efforts from the start. This process, now in-progress, has passed through three phases led by Army General Raúl Castro.

Phase One …………

Phase Two…………..

Phase Three

At the Sixth Party Congress and the First National Conference of the PCC, which took place in April 2011 and January 2012 respectively, were defining events for change.

In a report to the Sixth Party Congress,Raúl argued that self-employment should become a facilitating factor for the building socialism in Cuba by allowing the state to concentrate on raising the level of efficiency of the primary means of production, thus permitting the state to extricate itself from the administration of activities which were not of strategic importance to the country. At the session he explained that updating the current economic model would take place gradually over the course of five years. He acknowledged that, in spite of Law/Decree 259, there were still thousands and thousands of hectares of idle land. He called on the Communist party to change its way of thinking about certain dogmas and outdated views, which had constrained it for many years, and declared that his primary mission and purpose in life was to defend, preserve and continue perfecting socialism.

The outlines of a basic reform plan, approved by acclamation at the party conclave, were codified in the Political and Social Guidelines, but constrained by the socialist system of planning which viewed state-run enterprise as the primary driving force of the economy.

Several days after the Sixth Party Congress had agreed to separate political from administrative functions, Machado Ventura began reiterating the following ideas at the fifteen provincial conferences of the PCC: “The party does not administer. That is fine, but it cannot lose control over its activists, no matter what positions they may occupy… We have to know beforehand what each producer will sow and what he will harvest… We must demand this of those who work the land.” These were arguments intended to keep the economy under the control of the party and to hamper the interests of producers.

It was in this context that, in the thirty days between Thursday, May 10 and Saturday, June 9 of 2012, Fidel Castro published four essays. Between June 11 and June 18 he then published eight short pieces – each forty-three words on average – onErich Honecker, Teófilo Stevenson, Alberto Juantorena, Deng Xiaoping, poems about Che Guevaraby Nicolás Guillén, the moringa plant, yoga and the expansion of the universe. Nebulous messages with no relationship to each other and divorced from our everyday reality. Since then there have been no more such writings, and their disappearance seems to have marked the end of the period of power sharing. Only now and not before are we able to talk aboutRaúl’s administration.

At a meeting of the Ninth Regular Period of Sessions of the ANPP in July, 2012, after Fidel’s essays had already been published,Raúl Castro returned to proposals he discussed in his report to the Sixth Party Congress, such as the increase in the amount of idle land. On July 26 in Guantanamo he once again took up the theme of relations with the United States. And on July 30 he led the Martyr’s Day march in Santiago de Cuba, which seemed to confirm that he had entered the third phase of his administration.

Results of the Three Phases

In spite of efforts to achieve a strong and efficient agricultural sector capable of providing Cubans with enough to eat,agricultural production fell 4.2% in 2010. GDP in 2011 grew less than expected. Food imports rose from 1.5 billion in 2010 to 1.7 billion in 2011. Retail sales fell 19.4% in 2010 while prices rose 19.8%. On the other hand the median monthly salary rose only 2.2%, a factor which made things worse for the average Cuban just at the moment that changes began to be introduced. The 2011-2012 sugar harvest, officially slated to produce 1.45 million tons, had the same disappointing results as in the past in spite of being able to count on sufficient raw material, as well as 98% of the resources allocated to this effort. It neither met its target nor was completed on time.

The proposal to make people realize they need to work in order to survive, an issue closely associated with illegalities and other forms of corruption, has gone nowhere. On the contrary, criminal activity has increased to such a degree, as evidenced by the number of legal proceedings that have either been held or are ongoing, that corruption, along with economic inefficiency, now threaten national security. The government’s response, which has been limited to repression, vigilance and control, has not been successful. Even the official state media has reflected in recent years on the continual instances of price fixing, diversion of resources, theft and robbery carried out daily by thousands and thousands of Cubans, including high-ranking officials who are now being tried in court. Nevertheless, the problem persists.

In regards to shrinking the state’s labor force, the limitations imposed on self-employment have prevented this sector from absorbing the projected number of state workers. Of the 374,000 self-employed workers, more than 300,000 are people who were either already unemployed or retired. Besides being unconstitutional–the constitution stipulates that ownership of the means of production by individuals or families cannot be used to generate income through the exploitation of outside workers–self-employment has absorbed less than 20% of state workers. The assumption that this measure would absorb layoffs from the bloated state labor force byallowing the state to focus on raising the level of efficiency of the fundamental means of production and permitting the state to extricate itself from the administration of activities not of strategic importance to the country have not yielded the expected results.

The implementation of the new measures which have been announced–among them, an income tax exemption through 2012 for businesses with as many as five employees, an increase in tax exemption of up to 10,000 pesos of income, a 5% bonus for early filing of income tax returns, the creation of new cooperatives and a new law which will relieve the tax burden on the private sector of the economy–will not resolve the crisis either.

The Real Causes

To deal with a profound structural crisis like Cuba’s, changes must be structural in nature. With the passage of time it has been shown that small changes in some aspects of the economy must be extended to include coexistence of various forms of property, including private property, the formation of small and medium-sized businesses, and the establishment of rights and freedoms for citizens. Proposals which try to preserve the failed socialist system of planning as the principal route for the direction of the economy, and the refusal to accept that diverse forms of ownership should play their proper roles mean that the economy–the starting point for any initiative–will remain subject to party and ideological interests, while citizen participation will be notable by its absence.

The failure of the totalitarian model has forced the Cuban government to belatedly opt for reforms that have already been introduced by Cubans operating on the fringes of the law. Updating the model has been more an acknowledgement of the existing reality than an introduction of measures arising out of a real desire for change.

The First Cuban Communist Party Conferencedefinitivelydemonstrated the infeasibility of the current model and the inability of its leaders to sever the ideological attachments preventing it from moving forward. Their refusal to consider citizen’s rights shut off any possibility of change. The delays in relaxing restrictions on emigration, democratizing the internet and reincorporating into Cuban law the rights and freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are the principal causes for this failure.

Additionally, it must be added that time is running out. Now, with little time left, there is talk of going slowly and steadily, which clearly suggests a decision to not change anything that might threaten the grip on power.

Independently of the obstacles that have hampered General Raul Castro in the three phases of his administration, the decisive factor has been the infeasibility of the current model. Even if his management of the government had been carried out under the best possible conditions for implementing reform, it still would have failed due to a lack of freedom – something which is a prerequisite for modernity – and the lack of a high degree of political will to forge a new national consensus. Without these it is impossible to wrest Cuba out of the profound crisis in which it is immersed. The abilities and intelligence of one man or of his governing team, no matter how high they might be, are not enough to overcome the current situation. That is both the reality and the challenge.

Dimas Castellano

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Cubans See Internet as Crucial to Future Development

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Arch Ritter

Bt Ivet González

Original Article here: Cubans See Internet as Crucial to Future Development

HAVANA, Jan 5 2013 (IPS) – The Cuban government’s economic reforms must consider the myriad opportunities offered by the Internet, a key platform of the dominant economic model on the planet, according to interviews with both experts and average people.

“It is not an option for our future development, it’s an imperative of our time,” economist Ricardo Torres told IPS. “Without the mass application of the New Information and Communications Technologies (NICT), to production processes and social life, there are no contemporary possibilities of development.”

Meanwhile, people who participated in the interactive section of Cafe 108, the website of the IPS office in Cuba, felt that mass access to the worldwide web would mean first of all, “Finally landing in the 21st century”, and more job opportunities together with the expansion of state enterprises and small private businesses.

However, the NICT and especially the Internet issue, is a complicated one in Cuba due to financial and political concerns, particularly because of the more than 50-year old conflict between Havana and Washington.

The global expansion of the Internet in the 1990s happened as Cuba entered the economic crisis that continues today, which followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the European socialist bloc, Havana’s main trading partners.

According to Torres, Cuba’s “unique socioeconomic and geopolitical situation” meant that “not enough resources have been earmarked for the development and use of these technologies”. The United States’ covert delivery of mobile phones, computers and Internet connections has been regarded by Cuba as meddling in its internal affairs.

In 2011, a fiberoptic submarine cable arrived at the Cuban coastline, thanks to a project between Havana and Caracas to grant greater independence in communication between the Caribbean and Central America. In May 2012, the Venezuelan Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Jorge Arreaza, told reporters that the cable was operational.

Cuban authorities remain absolutely silent about the cable, though there has been a noticeable improvement in local connectivity.

Cuba now has a minimum bandwidth of 323 megabits per second, the allowable capacity via satellite. According to official sources, the fiber optic cable will increase current transmission speeds by 3,000 times, and decrease operating costs by 25 percent, but satellite services will not cease.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has said it will boost the so-called social use of NICTs, but not its commercial application. Appearing before Parliament this month, the head of the ministry, Maimir Bureau, said the government prioritises access to Internet sites in places linked to social and community development, such as schools.

He also reported that projects are underway to reduce the costs of mobile phones. Today, few people have Internet connections or email at home; most use “dial up” (technology that allows access through an analog phone line) or wireless. Some shell out the high prices charged at Cyber Cafes, and especially at hotels.

Meanwhile, private sector job opportunities, opened up by an updated Cuban economic model, could further expand with an affordable Internet service for entrepreneurs and cooperatives.

Unable to take advantage of all the possibilities offered by the current Web, some independent initiatives are timidly exploring the promotion of services via email, in websites, social networks like Facebook or Twitter or messages to mobile phones. Among them is the Alamesa project for the “diffusion of Cuban gastronomy”.

The group, which also manages associated food services through the World Wide Web, has as its main tools a web directory on national restaurants and an electronic newsletter. The Chaplin’s Café restaurant in Havana and handcrafted lamps company LampArte have profiles on Facebook.

La Casa restaurant is on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Flickr and YouTube, and regularly interacts with users of the international travel site TripAdvisor. MallHabana, the exclusive shop of online remittances to Cuba is also online. These initiatives especially seek to attract international visitors.

Faced with national difficulties, many family businesses seek alternatives to offer their goods and services online. The exclusive leather handbag company Zulu, owned by Cuban Hilda M. Zulueta, has its own site, managed by one of the daughters of the artisan who lives in Spain, the owner told IPS.

In 2011, only 1.3 million of the 11.2 million inhabitants of the island had cell phone connections, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information. It also recorded 2.6 million online users, a figure that includes Internet accounts and Cuban intranet, which provides access to some international and local websites.

Before thinking about divulging his musical production, the well-known soundman Maykel Bárzaga dreams of having his own connection to easily update and activate the essential software for his home studio recordings. Five years ago, he took this option for associated creators of the non-governmental Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

“When you buy equipment or a programme for music editing, you must activate it and update it by placing a key on the provider’s page,” he told IPS.

He also pointed out that the “Internet is a stunning source of work, since it allows musicians to perform international projects without each of them leaving their country.” The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated in 2012 that the Internet economy will grow in the coming years to more than 16 percent annually in the developing markets of the world.

Expanding channels for retail is one of the many economic opportunities that would come with unrestricted access to the Internet, which was identified by participants of Café 108.

In their view, among other things, many people could make a living with new professions, Cuba could export services through the web, the tourism industry would have more independence to fully own sites and be better positioned, and companies and cooperatives with professionals from the whole country and the world could emerge.

 

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Cuba en el siglo xxi : Escenarios actuales, cambios inevitables, futuros posibles

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Arch Ritter

Juan Antonio Blanco has contributed a thought-provokinh analysis to the recent  Nueva Sociedad (No 242, noviembre-diciembre de 2012) special issue on Cuba entitled Cuba se Mueve.

The complete essay is here: Blanco, Juan Antonio, Cuba en el Siglo XXI

“El régimen de gobernanza que ha dirigido Cuba por medio siglo ha quedado  inmerso en un desequilibrio sistémico al perder su anterior hábitat internacional, que lo sustentó durante la Guerra Fría.

Los cambios introducidos hasta ahora no han sido suficientes para lograr un nuevo equilibrio. Si se comprende esa realidad y se rectifica el rumbo, hay una Cuba mejor esperando a sus ciudadanos en el futuro. Pero si se insiste en «actualizar» un sistema agotado y carente de mecenazgos de la magnitud de los que obtuvo del bloque soviético, también es posible que aguarde en el horizonte una Cuba peor.”

Juan Antonio Blanco: doctor en Ciencias Históricas. Actualmente es analista político y director ejecutivo del Centro para Iniciativas hacia América Latina y el Caribe del Miami Dade College.

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Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation: Political Detentions Rose in 2012

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Arch Ritter

HAVANA | Thu Jan 3, 2013 10:38pm EST

Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional  CCDHRN

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation

HAVANA (Reuters) – Political detentions rose dramatically in Cuba in 2012 and will likely increase again in 2013 because of a lack of “real reforms” on the communist island, a Cuban human rights group said on Thursday.

The independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights said in its annual report there were 6,602 detentions of government opponents last year, compared to 4,123 in 2011 and 2,074 in 2010.

Elizardo Sanchez, head of the group, said the rise reflected growing discontent among Cubans and the government’s attempts to keep a lid on dissent.  “Dissatisfaction is increasing because of the general poverty and the lack of hope,” he told Reuters.

Cuban leaders counter that their opponents are largely the creation of the United States and others who provide money and other aid to help foment dissent against the government.

Havana also questions the validity of the commission’s numbers, which cannot be independently verified.

Under President Raul Castro, who succeeded older brother Fidel Castro nearly five years ago, Cuba has launched market-oriented economic reforms aimed at increasing productivity and prosperity while assuring the continuance of the island’s socialist system.

But Sanchez said the changes are small and have not improved human rights or living conditions on the Caribbean island, which he believes will lead to more dissent and detentions in 2013.  “This prediction is based on the refusal of the island government to introduce real reforms, especially regarding the system of laws,” he said.  “The regime continues perfecting and increasing the size of its powerful machinery of repression and propaganda,” he said.

Most of the detentions last only a matter of hours, but Sanchez said the number of Cubans going to prison for political reasons is on the rise, after most political prisoners were released in a government accord with the Catholic Church in July 2010.

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Cuba: Dramatic increase in religious freedom violations in 2012

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Arch Ritter

From Christian Solidarity Worldwide: Voice for the Voiceless; January 3, 201; [CSW is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice. ]

Original Article here: Cuba: Religious Freedom Violations in 2012

Ladies in White in Plaza de la Catedral

CSW has called on the Cuban leader, Raul Castro, to ensure that significant improvements are made in upholding religious freedom in 2013 after recording a dramatic increase in violations across the country as the government cracked down on religious organisations and individuals.

Church leaders in different parts of the country reported ongoing violations in the final weeks of the year. An unregistered Protestant church affiliated with the Apostolic Movement in Camaguey was threatened with demolition on 29 December. The following day, nine women affiliated with the Ladies in White movement in Holguin were arrested in the early hours of the morning and held in prison until Sunday morning Mass had ended.

CSW documented 120 reported cases of religious freedom in 2012, up from a total of 30 in 2011, some of which involved entire churches and denominations and hundreds of people. The number does not include the men and women who were arrested and imprisoned for the duration of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in March which local human rights groups estimate to be upwards of 200.

While Roman Catholic churches reported the highest number of violations, mostly involving the arrest and arbitrary detention of parishioners attempting to attend church activities, other denominations and religious groups were also affected.  Baptist, Pentecostal and Methodist churches in different parts of the country reported consistent harassment and pressure from state security agents. Additionally, government officials continued to refuse to register some groups, including the fast-growing Protestant network the “Apostolic Movement”, threatening affiliated churches with closure, and shut down a Mormon church in Havana which had been denied official recognition.  One of the most severe cases involved the violent beating of Pentecostal pastor, Reutilio Columbie, in Moa, early in the year. Pastor Columbie suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the beating which he believes to have been orchestrated by local Communist Party officials. To date, no investigation into the beating has been carried out.

There were some improvements in the exercise of religious freedom inside Cuban prisons, however, even these were marred by government interference. A number of Protestant members of the clergy, appointed by their respective denominations to carry out prison ministry, were arbitrarily denied permission to join prison ministry teams. In addition, in the Provincial Youth Prison in Santa Clara only fourteen prisoners were permitted to participate in Christmas services. Forty prisoners, all practicing Christians, had requested permission to do so.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said:

“We are deeply concerned by the rapid deterioration in religious freedom over the past year in Cuba. Despite promises of privileges to some religious groups, Sunday after Sunday the government continues to violate the most basic of rights: the right to freely participate in religious services and form part of a religious community without interference.  Unregistered religious groups and registered groups that have resisted government pressure have come under intense pressure, been subjected to harassment and in the worst cases come under physical attack or seen their buildings confiscated. The Cuban government’s claims of reform and respect for human rights cannot be taken seriously unless these violations are addressed and real protections for religious freedom for all put in place. We urge Raul Castro to make this a priority of the government in 2013.”

Standing Room Only at the Door. This is the Methodist Church close to the University of Havana, the name of which I have forgotten. In contrast to the pockets of white hair one sees in many Canadian churches, this is close to a sea of black hair.

Virgen de la Merced;

Photos by Arch Ritter, 2010-2011

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Nueva Sociedad: “Cuba Se Mueve”

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Arch Ritter

A special edition of Nueva Sociedad entitled, Cuba se mueve, has just appeared.  Nueva Sociedad is a project of the Frederich Ebert Foundation of Germany’s Social Democratic Movement. It is a pleasant surprise that the authors include contributors from inside Cuba such as Alzugaray, as well as outside Cuba including DBlanco, Dilla and Farber.

The Table of Contents is presented below with hyperlinks to the original essays.

NUEVA SOCIEDAD 242   Noviembre-Diciembre 2012

 Leonardo Padura Fuentes Eppur si muove en Cuba.

Elizabeth Dore Historia oral y vida cotidiana en Cuba.

Juan Antonio Blanco Cuba en el siglo XXI. Escenarios actuales, cambios inevitables, futuros posibles.

Haroldo Dilla Alfonso Las encrucijadas de la política migratoria cubana.

Juan Triana Cordoví Cuba: ¿de la «actualización» del modelo económico al desarrollo?

Alejandro de la Fuente «Tengo una raza oscura y discriminada». El movimiento afrocubano: hacia un programa consensuado.

Velia Cecilia Bobes Diáspora, ciudadanía y contactos transnacionales.

Samuel Farber La Iglesia y la izquierda crítica en Cuba.

Carlos Alzugaray Las (inexistentes) relaciones Cuba-Estados Unidos en tiempos de cambio.

 

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Havana market offers Cuba a taste of capitalism in the dark

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Arch Ritter

Nick Miroff /Global Post

Original Complete Article: http://www.voxxi.com/havana-market-offers-cuba-capitalism/#ixzz2GqP6zInJ

HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba has yet to grasp the invisible hand of Adam Smith, but it is giving some space to an invisible market. Invisible, at least, during the day.

At night, in an empty lot at the edge of Havana’s Mariano district, an extraordinary gathering of freewheeling commerce has been taking place in recent months. Every evening after sundown, trucks and tractors from all across the island arrive loaded with fresh produce, queuing up for hours just to secure a parking spot. Throwing open their tailgates, farmers and wholesale vendors shout out their wares and cut deals in cash under the faint glow of cellphone screens and lanterns. Young men lugging tomato crates and sacks of yams swarm between the rows of trucks, dodging pushcarts vendors on makeshift tricycle carts piled high with pineapples and cucumbers.

For now, it’s the closest thing Cuba has to the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and a big development in a country where state bureaucrats have tried to set the price for produce for decades.

“What is this place called?” a visiting reporter asked a young vendor.

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “We call it ‘El Hueco’ [The Hole].”

“This is great because we can sell wholesale here. We don’t have to go out in the streets and try to find customers,” said Yulian Castillo, 28, who was offering banana bunches and 100-pound sacks of taro root for 260 pesos — about $12.

Castillo had to sell two-thirds of this year’s taro crop to the state, which only allowsfarmers to sell their harvest at market rates once they’ve met their production quotas. But Castillo said the government gave him a decent price this year, and he was free to sell the rest here.

Cuba has millions of acres of fertile farmland, but it imports some 70 percent of its food, costing the government $1.5 billion last year. Communist authorities’ perpetual struggle to get local farmers to produce more has forced them to concede a great role for private incentive in agriculture, a shift that is only beginning to extend to the rest of the economy.

And while in towns and cities across the country the government has long permitted retail produce markets that function largely on supply-and-demand market principles, there hasn’t been a central wholesale market where growers from all over the island can sell in bulk quantities. The market is a boon to farmers and fruit-and-vegetable middlemen, who said it allows the wheels of commerce to turn more efficiently by giving them a direct relationship to retail vendors. One group of farmers at the market last Wednesday had hauled their lemons all the way across the island from Santiago de Cuba — 500 miles away. There were onion growers from central Cuba’s Sancti Spiritus province in rumbling 1950s-era Ford farm trucks, and mongers from Matanzas selling squash at half the price of those at the city’s retail markets.

Alejandro Manzo had driven 200 miles from his farm in the Villa Clara province, his family’s 1957 Chevy Bel Air stuffed with garlic. In the past, the police would have tried to seize his produce on the highway, he said. “I used to have to sell on the black market,” said Manzo. “But now the state sees us farmers differently. It’s letting us get ahead. There’s nothing illegal about this anymore — it’s just supply and demand.” Manzo said he makes the trip to the capital every 10 days, selling braided ropes of garlic in 100-head strands for $12 — $3 more than he’d get back home.

Since taking over Cuba’s presidency in 2008, Raul Castro has made agriculture reform one of his signature policy moves, distributing some 3 million acres of under performing state land to private farmers and cooperatives. But his government still hasn’t taken basic steps to boost production and eliminate the farming bureaucracy that often ends up making Cuban produce more expensive for consumers. Cuban farmers still can’t buy new tractors or trucks, relying instead upon rusting Soviet machinery and 50-year-old American farm equipment.

While Havana residents say there’s more food than ever in their markets, prices have risen faster than Cubans’ meager pensions and government salaries, leaving many to complain that the state should intervene more, not less.

One reason for the market distortion, economists say, is the growing inequality in Havana between Cubans who work in low-paid government posts and those who have access to hard currency sent by relatives abroad or through jobs in tourism and private business. It’s one of several reasons that liberalization measures like the new wholesale market haven’t yet led to lower prices for Cuban consumers.

“The growth of all the new [private] restaurants and snack bars has also kept demand high,” said University of Havana economist Juan Triana.

As the government has loosened restrictions on private farmers’ ability to hire laborers, rural wages have risen, he said. “Before farmers could pay workers 15 or 20 pesos [80 cents] a day. Now it’s 40 pesos [$1.50].”

With more money to be made in farming, anecdotal evidence also suggests Cuba is slowing the trend of rural-to-urban migration that left farmers complaining of too few young people interested in growing crops.

Abel Ramos, 35, had arrived at the market at dusk, but with the line of trucks stretching down the road, he said he didn’t expect to get a spot in the market until after midnight. The wait would be worth it, he said. “Three or four years ago, I used to grow tomatoes and they would go bad while I waited for the state to buy them,” said Ramos. “Not anymore. Now I can come here.” “This is a beautiful thing,” he said.

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Cuba’s New Law on Cooperatives

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Arch Ritter

Below is Phil Peters fine summary and analysis of Cuba’s new law on cooperatives. Phil is first off the mark with this. I still have not been able to download the Gazeta Oficial to see the legislation first hand.

Peters’ essay can be seen on his Blog, “The Cuban Triangle” here:The new cooperatives law.

Here is his evaluation:

What does this all mean?

I think this is a major step, even though the full definition of the policy will only come with time as cooperatives are created and as the government moves beyond the experimental phase.

Certainly from a capitalist perspective, all we see are the restrictions – first and foremost in the requirement that these businesses organize as cooperatives. But from the perspective of the Cuba of five years ago, this new law was unimaginable.

It opens the door to a much larger private sector, one involved in more substantial activities than the small entrepreneurs.  It is a second option for Cubans interested in private business activity, and a new option for friends and relatives abroad who would support them with capital.  There is nothing stopping five software designers from applying to form a business under this law; we’ll see if there is anything stopping the government from approving it.  If the sector prospers it can create efficiencies in agriculture, construction, transportation, and other sectors that will benefit Cuba’s economy and people. And the government needs the cooperatives to prosper.  Without them, it cannot meet its own goals of cutting state payrolls and generating new private sector jobs.

The pace will satisfy no one, the process will be influenced by officials with more orthodox views, and it will surely have positive and negative notes.  But there’s no denying that this law breaks new ground, with potentially large consequences.

Phil Peters

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