Erasmo Calzadilla’s Diary

Cuba’s official Health Statistics Report for 2015 has just seen the light of day. In this post, I will comment on a number of significant demographic data.

The 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party has left me in a state of shock, with the bitter impression that nothing in this country is going to change for a long time. But, one should not be deceived. It was nothing but a performance destined for a large audience.

Samuel Farber’s most recent article unleashed a tsunami of comments and protest. If we were talking about a party, we’d say he got people’s blood pumping and down to the dance floor.

In Cuba, the social contract is different from that in the rest of the world. The State pays miserable wages (between 20 and 30 dollars a month) and, in lieu of this, offers free or subsidized services to the entire population.

As Obama was landing in Cuba I got a call from the US Embassy. They invited me to attend the speech the US president would deliver at Havana’s Gran Teatro, before members of civil society, on March 22. Incidentally, my beloved and only grandmother would be turning 89 that day.

The phenomenon, though disagreeable, is undeniably interesting because it has taken root around us and because it is the result of an anthropological experiment that was once the hope of half of humanity.

A strange kind of rebellion is taking place on the island. Vigorously and energetically, the life-style of low-income neighborhoods is imposing itself on the rest of society, and prisons appear to be the foundry where Cuban identities are forged today.

In 2012, cancer took the lead as Cuba’s first cause of death. Today, it continues to get ahead of other conditions and is claiming lives with unchecked voracity. Our country has “risen” to third place among Latin American countries most severely affected by the condition.

Using data from British Petroleum and a spreadsheet, we can trace different tendencies and conclude that, unless significant changes are made, oil consumption and production in Latin America will cross and begin to drop in tandem at the close of this decade.

Cuban agriculture is going through one of its recurrent crisis. What is the cause this time around? One sector sees speculation and a lack of regulations as the root of the problem, while others claim just the opposite.