Over the last few days, the Cuban landscape has been clouded over by news about economic crises, migration problems and even sport delegation scandals. Today, we’re witnesses to a display of problems and reactions which, like few times before, reveal this obsolete system’s inherent limits and malformations.
A fellow writer for HT recently brought up some pretty serious questions. Erasmo Calzadilla expressed his doubts relating to the supposed development of the investment process in the Cuban health system. These concerns are naturally shared by many of us.
An impassioned voice calls on the Cuban people to take part in the May Day parade in a show of involvement and “conscious” support for the government and its leaders. The voice seems to forget one detail.
The owner of a fantasy milk churn imagines an entire fortune ahead of him, heading to the market. Sadly, reality places a pot-hole in his way and the jug that should have brought him such wonders spills. Cuba periodically offers us a new version of this well-known fable.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Harry Half-Wit. He’s a friend of mine, with whom I occasionally sit to talk about the silly things in life. He’s a simple fellow who lives near the Loma de los Zapotes, where many of us played as kids.
We are on the eve of 2016 and the 7th Congress of the “immortal” Cuban Communist Party (or PCC, for those unfamiliar with the phraseology) is at the gates. To date, the most evident concerns expressed by the top leadership at the different provincial assembly gatherings have had to do with the production of sweet potatoes and things of this nature.
At the risk of being a nuisance, I’d like to repeat that the problem of high prices and low salaries in Cuba isn’t so hard to understand; rather, it can be clarified with a dab of basic political economy from the old boys: Adam Smith, Richard Wolff and Karl Marx, plus a little raw objectivity.
Had Antonio Maceo been a white hero, his nickname would merely have been “The Titan”, just as Ignacio Agramonte’s was simply “The Major”, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes’ “The Father of the Homeland” and Jose Marti’s the “Master” or the “Apostle.”
Cuban transportation authorities have been giving us plenty to talk about these days. Denying Cuban non-travelers access to certain areas of the Jose Marti International Airport was a true scandal until the illegal measure was finally repealed. The matter has another side to it, however, enveloped by our government’s familiar secrecy.
Less than six months ago, Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, addressed Cubans living in the USA to explain to them why they could not make any investments in their country of origin. Now, they are saying another Cuban diplomat is explaining to them that a new, amended investments law in the works will entitle them to invest in Cuba, .