The market is almost empty. It's still very early and someone is writing the new prices for a pound of pork on a blackboard. It seems a simple gesture, that of the hand that has changed only one digit in the price of the ribs, the legs, or the processed fat. But in reality, what is expressed on that slate -- with its numbers traced in chalk -- is a real market cataclysm. The internal Cuban economy suffers from a weakness such that the slightest price increase for a pound of steak or butter is enough to disrupt our fragile commercial framework. A few centavos added to the price of a food sends the thermometer of daily anxiety upward, raises the barometer of concern.
Indeed, a certain state of alarm is running through the country lately. Pork is scarce because of the dearth of feed; its import has declined and local production barely gets off the ground. The self-employment sector suffers from a scarcity of the product which forms the basis for the so-called "little boxes," which almost always include rice, some kind of starch, and a little meat. This lunch "in hand" is the mainstay of many Cubans who work far from home, and also constitutes the basic unit for the private businesses selling ready-made meals. When the price of this lunchbox rises it pulls everything with it. The shoe salesman adds a bit to his merchandise to recoup his loss on the midday snack; the shopkeeper who paid more for her sandals tries to make up the difference from unsuspecting customers who don't count their change; and the retired housewife writes to her son in Frankfurt or Miami asking for a bump in her remittance, because life is very expensive. And this whole sequence of problems and angst begins in a pigsty, the place where feed and care should be converted into pounds of meat, but are not.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
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I believe this tells me everything: "and local production barely gets off the ground."
Oh, the USA is glad to pay more for sugar to certain Carib nations, it is our little way of keeping friends in high places...
Moreover, sugar production, Cuba's mainstay export, has dropped to Great Depression levels. With low prices, a decline in sugar consumption worldwide, an increase in the number of competitive sugar producers, and widespread use of artificial sweeteners, sugar is a losing commodity with dire prospects for the future. Thus tourism, nickel exports, and even exile remittances have replaced sugar as the mainstay of the economy. Oil exploration in Cuba's northwestern waters seems promising, but profits must be shared with foreign partners, and costs are extremely high.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/11/getting_ready_for_life_after_castro
In Cuba, rice is 0.70 CUP per pound; beans are 0.32 per pound; sugar between 0.10 and 0.15 per pound; milk is 0.25 a litre; eggs are 0.15 each; potatoes and bananas are 0.40 per pound.
Cuba pre-1959:
"... Economic disparities grew, and most rural workers earned only about one-fourth the average per year. Although the thriving economy enriched a few Cubans, the majority experienced poverty (especially in the countryside), an appalling lack of public services, and unemployment and underemployment. The U.S. and other foreign investors controlled the economy, owning about 75 percent of the arable land, 90 percent of the essential services, and 40 percent of the sugar production. And for much of the 1950s, Batista exercised absolute control over the political system. ..."
(Authored for Encyclopedia Britannica by Dr Franklin W. Knight, professor of history at John Hopkins University, Baltimore).
Rice 5 pounds /month, beans 20 ounces (567 g)/month, sugar 3 pounds/month, milk 1 liter a day if you are 7 year old or younger and no milk if you are older than 7 tears, potatoes 2 pounds /month, bananas forget them you will never have bananas in Cuban pesos, eggs forget them you will never find eggs in ration market........ this goods are not always available in the rationed market and most of the time you only find rice and beans...... as anyone can see supposing you find the full amount of rationed food in the market this will be enough for only 5 days making one meal a day....... the rest of the month 3 or 4 weeks more) you have to buy food with dollars:
Rice 2.40 dollars or CUCS /pound
Beans 2.60 dollars or CUCS /pound
Sugar 1.75 dollars or CUCS/pound
Milk between 3.15 and 4.00 dollars per liter
Eggs 0.22 per unity but not findable in the dollar market.
Potatoes 1 CUC the pound most of the time there are no potatoes in the CUC market
Bananas no findable in the CUC market.
"a survey conducted in Havana at the start of the decade
found that a family of four would require seven times the average
salary to meet all of their basic needs."
Source: (actually consistently supportive Castro)
New Squeeze on Family Remittances
By Dalia Acosta
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33561
Found at:
http://cubafood.blogspot.com/p/food-in-cuba-today.html
less we fought each other through third countries. Anyone of us have right now products which are made in
communist countries. And no complaint. Let's face it. The cold war has been over long ago. I'll bet anyone here that if the blockade is lifted tomorrow and travel restriction lifted, there would be a wave of American tourism that will overwhelmed the government of Cuba.. What's there to loose. The status quo hasn't worked for the last 50 years. So why not give it a try. Afraid?
The real conflict and the only one that exist is the conflict castrofascism- Cuban people and the only 2 economical restrictions still USA maintain on castrofascism are due to Cuban nation in exile work for avoid the criminal castro regime can get resources to kill, jail and repress the Cuban nation in the island........ so, to give a "try" to your proposal you first have to end the conflict castro fascism-Cuban people.
It's estimated that 4,000,000 Vietnamese civilians on both sides were killed. Over 1,000,000 NVA and Viet Cong lost their lives.
These figures, of course, pale into insignificance compared with 58,000 all-American boys who met their maker in the course of events.
The real surprise is that the Vietnamese want to have anything to do with the USA.
Virulent livestock and crop diseases, not native to the Caribbean, have been introduced to Cuba, and African strains of dengue fever appeared. No prizes for guessing where they came from.
The average Cuban salary is about 350-400 Peso Nacional. One Peso Convertible CUC equals 1 USA dollar or 24 Peso Nacional. Some people work for less in shops or museums. There are dentists earning as little as 12 dollars a month. A taxi driver can make more money than a doctor. The pension is between 3 to 8 dollar per month. Among the best paid are the Police, between 2500-3000 Peso Nacional (= 150$ per month)
Secondly there are the social benefits, with the ration booklet (the libreta) each Cuban family get a basic ration of staples such as rice, beans, cooking oil, salt, sugar and bread. They also get the following in limited quantities: 1 piece of soap, 1 toothbrush, and 1 tube of toothpaste. Milk is only available for mothers with children below the age of six
For many families this ration is only sufficient for 15 – 20 days so additional food must be bought. However nobody dies of food shortage, but for a lot of Cubans meat or chicken is a luxury. For elderly people and single mothers the life in Havana can be hard and they have a difficult time to meet ends.
http://www.havana-guide.com/lifeinhavana.html
In this article I analyze the arguments of lifting the Cuba embargo, which are more rhetorical than real, answering each one of the specific considerations of those that support the end of it.
EFFECT OF THE EMBARGO
The US has always exempted from the embargo medicine and humanitarian supplies to the Cuban people, as long as such aid is distributed by independent non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as the Catholic Church and Pastors for Peace.
Since 1992, the U.S. has approved 36 of 38 license requests for commercial sales of medicines and medical equipment to Cuba. During the period from 1993 to 1996, the U.S. has licensed over $150 million in humanitarian assistance, more than the total worldwide foreign aid received by Cuba in those years. This total does not include the millions of dollars in medicine and food sent to Cuba in the form of "care packages" from relatives living in the U.S. [1]
In the year 2000 the Department of Commerce approved the export to Cuba of approximately $550 million in medicines, medical equipment, cash remittances, gift parcels and food (cash remittances and gift parcels account for about 75% of the total amount). The United States government’s embargo has had little effect on the Cuban economy, since it only represents 5 % of Cuba’s commerce with the rest of the world.
CLICK LINK FOR ACADEMIC PAPER
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y09/abril09/09_O_3.html
PBS AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: FIDEL CASTRO- Pre-Castro Cuba- Cuba's capital, Havana, was a glittering and dynamic city. In the early part of the century the country's economy, fueled by the sale of sugar to the United States, had grown dynamically. Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. The literacy rate, 76%, was the fourth highest in Latin America. Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita. Many private clinics and hospitals provided services for the poor. Cuba's income distribution compared favorably with that of other Latin American societies. A thriving middle class held the promise of prosperity and social mobility.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE REPORT, VIDEOS ETC.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/peopleevents/e_precastro.html