New Mall Opens in Havana
Luis Rondon Paz
HAVANA TIMES — On Saturday August 30th the Puentes Grandes Shopping Plaza opens its doors in the Cuban capital. The government administered stores are located in a restored building in the municipality of Cerro.
The complex has departments including a perfume shop, supermarket, hardware and appliance stores, a meat market and cafeteria. Surprisingly clothing and shoes are not among the products to be initally offered.
All sales will be charged in two currencies: regular domestic currency (CUP) and freely convertible (CUC) at the exchange rate of 25 x 1.
The new shopping center occupies an entire city block and has two entrances: one on Puentes Grandes St. for pedestrians and the other on 26th Ave. for customers arriving in cars.
In contrast to the new mall, the over a hundred-year-old popular Cuatro Caminos market, also located in Cerro, remains deserted after it closed its doors at the end of January.
You apparently are confused, because Cuba is not under a blockade. Cuba is under an embargo by the US. To help you to understand, a blockade is when a place is sealed off to prevent goods or people from leaving or entering. An embargo is a ban on trade of specific goods. The Castro family regime propaganda describes the US embargo as a blockade to cover up its own incompetence. If there was a blockade the regime would be unable to import 80% of Cuba’s food requirements, it would be unable to import machinery, trucks, cars, buses, TV sets medical requirements and numerous other goods. It appears also that you don’t understand annexation. That is when a country – in the case I referred to Russia, adds to its to territory by appropriation – in this case Crimea which is part of another soevereign state – Ukraine. Appropriate is to take something for your own use without the owner’s permission known more commonly as theft.
I hope the above helps to clarify your mind and end your confusion regarding my correct statement. Please don’t hesitate to seek clarification at any time, I am glad to help!
China’s experiment with Keysian economics has just about hit the limit. They have a huge over supply of empty apartments, stocks of raw materials and shoddy public works projects.
You mean like the United States in Iraq, Puerto Rico, Lybia, etc etc Your comment is also not relevant because Cuba is under a blockade that the UN has voted against the United States numerous times, with only the US and Israel voting to support the US……
And they don’t annex other countries territory like Russia.
I say this because it is as relevant to the article as Ferguson which I understand is in the US and suffering the consequences of the lunatic gun laws of that country and which I understand are a consequence of a Constitution that is some 230 years out of date. But has nothing to do with Cuba!
GDP per head in China is:
$4,430
Yes, with a population of 1,354.1 million that figure multiplies to a very substantial figure ($5,927bn). But for by far the majority of Chinese annual income is miniscule. Remember that the GDP per head includes those sectors to which you refer – which in turn demonstrates just how dire the economy is for all the others.
Nag nag nag….at least cops don’t kill young people like in Ferguson!
Have government planners in Cuba heard of Keynesian economics? Although now dead here in the States, as the living standard of the working- and middle-classes stagnate or shrink, it seems to be viable in other parts of the world, such as China, where growing sectors of the population now have more $$$ to purchase stuff and improve their standards of living. With the elimination of the CUC, the CUP’s purchasing power should be raised at least by 50% or more, otherwise Cuba’s economy will come to reflect the dichotomy of America’s, where the 1% (and their 5% to 7% acolytes) gain ever more of the national wealth at the expense of the remaining 95% +/-.
Same old, same old! Same old government purchased goods, same old government owned shops, But, a separate entrance for customers arriving in cars – now that is different. Presumably the government has retained a list of those fifty folks who purchased a used car at such exhorbitant prices following the market being ‘freed’ and presumably they have notified them of the new mall and the entrance for the privileged.