SOS for Wood in Santiago de Cuba
HAVANA TIMES – More than 50 thousand cubic meters of timber, demolished by Hurricane Sandy last October, are about to be lost in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, while the resource is scarce at the sales points for building materials needed by the population, reported the Café Fuerte website.
Apparently the collection is delayed by a shortage of loggers to transport the tree trunks to the saw mills, lax worker productivity and organizational problems.
The government’s Forestry Company of Santiago de Cuba awaits the arrival of two engines for its trucks, but driver Doris Sierra said that if they don’t arrive on time it will be very difficult to save even 30 percent of the wood.
Sandy left more than 80 thousand cubic meters of timber felled in eastern Cuba, including abundant semiprecious and hard woods.
Although Moses and I have seen things a bit differently in the past, we must all agree, that except for calling names or being staunch, irrational, true believers of our political or social affiliations, we cannot deny that he is absolutely right and should be commended by all of our readers.
Millions of tons of wood, most of which may not have been worthy for lumber or building materials, but they could have been transformed into vegetable coal, which thousands of people could use for cooking and other purposes.
This is not capitalism, socialism or primitive society. It is an absolute, inexcusable failure of all of those in charge, to allow this monumental waste of natural resources, by allowing it to rot, while it is badly needed by our people or in Haiti, a swimming distance away?
Cuba’s altruism is good for sending doctors, engineers, sports trainers, cultural experts to Haiti costing millions in an exemplary solidarity lesson for our people, but it fails everyday to do the simple thing, to give our Haitian brothers our wasted lumber so they can cook, allow them to sell their surplus produce and fish in Santiago de Cuba or allow them to return and plow our fallow lands, give our sugar, coffee and cocao industry a chance to strive, become what it once was, when tens of thousands of Haitian migrants worked their rear end off, gave their sweat, tears and blood, to make Cuba the world mecca of sugar production and coffee and Cocoa was high on our export list.
Cuba can fix these problems easily, deepen her solidarity with our closest neighbors in the Caribbean and remove the shadow of racism that hangs over the country with deeds, not words.
Thanks Moses for such a positive statement.
The abuser is the Castro regime. The victims are the Cuban people. The USA is the excuse the abuser uses to keep his victims locked up.
USA/Cuba Embargo=Terrorism American Style.Moses, its great to blame an abused wife for her bruises. NOT
Here’s the difference: If the Castros announced tomorrow that anyone who wanted this felled timber could go out there and haul it away at their own cost, Cuban ingenuity would kick-in and you would see every manner of contraption hauling away otherwise soon-to-be rotted wood. But nooooooo! Instead, the Castros will wait until the bureacracy gets off their arses to figure out a way to get the equipment necessary to cut and haul this valuable and needed resource. As a result, like most things in Cuba, 10% of the people will benefit from 20% of the potential yield at a cost of 50% more than it should have costed to do it correctly in the first place.