The Exhaustion of Optimism in Cuba is More Than Evident
By Benjamin Noria
HAVANA TIMES – In September 2021, I wrote an article for this magazine titled: The Exhaustion of Communist Optimism. Well, if that piece seemed speculative, now we can put it into practice with the new measures that supposedly aim to stimulate the improvement of the Cuban economy.
I wrote that article after the demonstrations on July 11, 2021; however, the economic reforms implemented in January 2021 were also showing their failures. I stated that people did not take to the streets because of blackouts or food shortages but because of the promises that the Cuban government has made during 65 years of revolution and has failed to fulfill.
There is nothing speculative; Communist Party rule in Cuba has been wearing down for many years. The Cuban government has not applied any of the textbook theories of Marxism. They distorted the doctrines of these thinkers and became exploiters, oppressors, absolute monarchs, and supreme priests of the people. They ended up distorting the social model devised by Marx.
Now, for the year 2024, they bring another package of measures that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said are to restore the macroeconomic requirements that allow ensuring a favorable environment for economic growth, development, and the socialist construction process.
Now, the Cuban government wants to raise fuel and electricity prices. However, when this happens, it is well-known that prices for pubic transport vehicles and services in cafeterias and other establishments that have to pay high electricity bills will also increase.
I believe this will not bring any progress towards the disappearance of social inequality. Who will be most affected? The general population. The government leaders lack nothing up there. They have everything. They have used the propaganda system in an oversized proportion to enchant subordinates with a communist utopia that supposedly would solve the great evils of humanity.
These new measures to increase fuel and electricity prices, which will begin to take effect in February and March 2024, represent the desperate moves the Cuban government continues to make until it finally sinks.
And it’s not for lack of advice that the wear and tear and exhaustion of communist optimism have been provoked. For example, Mauricio de Miranda, a Cuban-born economist and university professor, has been writing articles and appearing on television for years, reflecting and discussing the missteps of each action taken by the Cuban government to fix the economic system.
But the Cuban government pays no attention to any advice. What happens is that they don’t like any of the reflections because they imply losing power and privileges with which they live up there at the top. So, for those who still have a positive mindset, hopes for change are nonexistent as long as they remain in power. Think about it!
Ed Holgate’s comment includes, “…who at times in the past has looked to Cuba for some examples of how to develop a 3rd World economy successfully.” OK, I hope he doesn’t take this personally but that has to be the dumbest comment I have read here on this blog in a long time! Since never has Castro-style socialism been a model economy to be imitated. At least not to any sentient being that has visited the island. I have always wondered about those foreigners that you see on the double-decker tourist buses in Havana who are wearing the green caps with the red star and the Che Guevara T-shirts. Finally, one of them has commented.
A good short summary of the situation from someone who at times in the past has looked to Cuba for some examples of how to develop a 3rd World economy successfully. Even less success as the years go by, and now not so much support from Russia or China.