Havana’s port-transport-domestic economy chain has been interrupted once again and, at the end of the day, it’s the majority of the Cuban population who suffer the consequences. This time, the Gordian knot involves 20,000 tons of rice and thousands of bags of fertilizer.
So what can a peso by at the bodega or shop where the head of the family has their ration card registered, a system which has been in place since 1963 and continues to this day.
While no one is exactly sure who’s the boss in the United States, and even more doubts will exist after the November elections, Havana must modernize its methods in negotiations if it wishes to maintain its independence.
The productive forces liberated at the beginning of the revolution became bound hand and foot as time passed and, recently, an imminent collapse became evident internally –regardless of the renegotiation of the foreign debt or the lifting of the US blockade.
Very few times before have as dissimilar events – comparable only in the excitement they have caused among the population – coincided in Cuba chosen as their stage. There is but one topic of passionate or controversial conversation in Cuba these days: the visit of the US president and the concert to be staged by the British band The Rolling Stones.
Certain smells and tastes bring back childhood memories of a Cuban brand of guava jelly and conserves named La Conchita. I also sometimes miss the black and red beans that could compete with the Kirby and, more recently, Goya brands.
Four developments and a survey conducted by a public US radio station this week revealed that, despite the embargo (still in place), bilateral relations between the United States and Cuba are making progress.
The interview you’re about to read seeks answers to developments in today’s Cuba in the figure of Jose Marti (1853-1895). Where did I find the answers to these questions? In Ramiro Valdes Galarraga’s Diccionario del Pensamiento Martiano (“Jose Marti’s Thought: A Glossary”), published by Cuba’s Ciencias Sociales in 2013, the 160th anniversary of Marti’s birth.
To hope for the best and prepare for the worst seems to be the maxim followed by those who manage Cuba’s economy when offering an overview of the situation, which doesn’t look very promosing in 2016.
During his interview for Yahoo News, President Obama stated he very much wishes to visit Cuba in his last year in the White House, but only if he is permitted to meet with pro-democracy dissidents there.
