Features Archives - Page 373 of 552

The Cuban Market and its Inconsistencies

Not using the market properly has been – and still is – one of the country’s economic failures; not to mention the fact that it has also functioned without recognizing its mechanisms. Professor Fernandez Estrada notes, “we have to create conditions so that its the producers or suppliers who are competing against each other to sell their products, instead of what we have today in almost every sector of the economy, where its consumers competing against one another to buy what they need.”

In Cuba, Almost Nothing Is Considered Garbage

Not too long ago, I was watching a friend do a deep clean of his house and was witness to the conflict that arose between him and his father when it came to deciding what to throw away. That experience led me to write this post.

Cuba and Its Rotting Tomatoes

In a country often with considerable food shortages, dozens of tons of tomatoes are rotting in Guantanamo because nobody is collecting them. In the face of situations like this one, which affects the national and local economy, you can’t divide the blame up between everyone.

Venezuela, Tales of the Absurd

Venezuela is experiencing a crisis which has forced its inhabitants to rethink the way they spend money in their own country in recent years. Amid new conditions, having access to basic goods which used to form part of their daily lives before, such as food, sports events and even safe sex, has become a luxury and among the less fortunate, a distant memory.

A Photo Feature from Prehistoric Cuba

Cuban natives captured their vision of the world in caves, even the stamp of the Spanish conquest, passing on hundreds of paintings called “cave paintings” to us. These are drawings which were made over a thousand years ago. Interesting analogies transport us from the past to the present.

Train Wreck in Central Cuba

Dioney Martin shouldn’t have been on the train that covered the route between Siguaney and Sancti Spiritus at midday on February 27, 2017. If she had got on at Zaza del Medio it was only to do somebody a favor, a routine errand like taking a bag of food to the provincial hospital.

Small Businesses in Cuba, Challenges and Obstacles

Anything to do with funding, supplies and taxes has to be a headache today for Cuba’s self-employed. [In the case of taxes, they were once demonized here as an evil of only capitalist systems.] The other obstacles on the road to success are huge.

Having a Child in Cuba, Pros and Cons

Cuban authorities have launched a new set of measures to benefit Cuban mothers so as to increase the country’s birth rate and to stop society from aging at the rapid rate it is today. These are steps in the right direction, but are they enough?

Tomatoes are Rotting in Guantanamo

Tomatoes are rotting in the Caujeri Valley, a man tells me, which has had a good harvest this year, with a yield that doubles what was expected and has a modern factory to process them but, right now, its productive capacity isn’t enough to deal with all of the tomatoes that are coming in from the fields.

Cuba: Small Slithers of Change Towards Progress

Within the internal and external setbacks which the Cuban people have experienced in the last 60 years, physical and mental changes are being seen in language and daily tasks which make the most optimistic of us see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.