Cuba cuts back on rationed products

By PAUL HAVEN
MORE FROM BUSINESSWEEK


HAVANA

Cuba has cut two staple foods from the monthly ration books that most islanders depend on, edging closer to a risky full elimination of the decades-old subsidies.

Potatoes and peas were dropped from the list of rationed foods this week, meaning Cubans can buy as much of the products as they want -- as long as they are willing to pay as much as 20 times more than they used to.

The move comes amid efforts by Raul Castro's government to scale back Cuba's subsidy-rich, cash-poor economy. Nearly free lunches were eliminated from some state-cafeterias in September. In October, the Communist Party's Granma newspaper published a full-page editorial saying the time had come to do away with the ration books altogether.

Authorities say their goal is to encourage more productivity and free the state from a crushing economic burden. Critics -- including some on the streets of Havana -- argue that the moves break with what had been a sacred covenant of the revolution Fidel Castro led in 1959: that socialism would not make people rich, but would provide all Cubans with at least the basics.

Even with the changes, the state pays for or heavily subsidizes nearly everything, from education to health care, housing to transportation. But many Cubans see the ration book -- or "libreta" in Spanish-- as a flawed but fundamental right, and shoppers on Friday bristled at the new changes

"This is crazy. They should be adding products to the ration book, not taking away from it," said Roberto Rodriguez, a 55-year-old delivery man buying rice, sugar and coffee at an official store in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. "If they don't produce enough, people will start to hoard products and things will get even worse."

He said he worried that Cubans with access to money sent by relatives abroad would buy up all the potatoes and peas they could, leaving ordinary people in the lurch if there are shortages.

Previously, Cubans were entitled to buy up to four pounds of potatoes and 10 ounces of peas a month, with the price set at about a penny per pound for potatoes and just under a penny per pound for peas. Both were available only in state-owned ration stores or on the black market.

Now, official buying limits are gone, but Cubans must pay 5 cents a pound for potatoes and 17 cents a pound for peas at the same ration shops.

That may not sound like much, but it's significant in a country where the average salary is about $20 a month.

"I would prefer that the ration system continue. It assures people that they will have food," said retiree Juana Rodriguez, 78, who was also shopping at the Vedado shop but was no relation of Roberto. "There are many poor people who simply can't afford to buy food on the open market."

Cuba's ration system began in 1962 as a temporary way to guarantee basic food in the face of Washington's new embargo. Today, however, Cuba spends more than $2 billion on imported food, nearly all of which goes to the ration system, assuring subsidized rice, legumes, bread, eggs and tiny amounts of meat. The government estimates the ration provides a third of what the average Cuban consumes.

Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at the Washington-area think tank the Lexington Institute, said the move is part of a well-publicized if slow-moving effort to overhaul Cuba's economy.

"They've been very clear that they want to move away from the libreta and from subsidies in general," he said. "They are doing it piecemeal."

Peters said the government is also trying to dramatically increase the amount it pays farmers for their crops in an effort to spur more productivity. As a result, it must cut or reduce the subsidies to consumers.

He said dropping the subsidy on potatoes and peas was a good way to test the waters before making a more aggressive move because neither is central to the Cuban diet.

"If they did it with rice and beans and the supplies disappeared," he said, "people would go crazy."

Imagine them without the evil capitalist money of tourism (which was one of the forces behind la revolucion) and the very evil Cuban money from Miami or the ofrenda given by the evil capitalist USA. Jesus what is it that they do on a regular basis? Train doctor to attend the dead since there is no medicine there. And sell this doctor to country like Venezuela for a few gallon of oil.
Thank God when our country were tempted with this evil system we were able to repelled them

Americans have food stamps - in some areas 70% of the people. They don't go as far as they did. People go hungry - or without medicine. Read this report from AARP - hardly an extreme organisation.
In the US Fascist hyenas take all the cake and leave no bread for the workers living in tumbledown shacks amid general destitution as I have witnessed first hand. Fresh food is non existent for many.
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/family/articles/going_hungry_in_americaby_peter_jaret.html
Both Americans and Cubans need to 'dig for victory' for different reasons. The Brits already do it big time.
http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/americans-are-no-april-fools-they-are-already-digging-for-victory
S.

On Nov. 7, 1917, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution took place as forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overthrew the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky.
abc should have been in the baby carriage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-v-kZzfec&feature=related

Best advice for Cuba and US:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=84
Also for people such as your self - you can take the metro to the allotment.

Memories of 1926 - some time after BP.
As an 87year old I felt I had to commend you on your 'Return to basics'
My childhood memories of living thro' the General/ Miners' strike 1926 as a 5 year old - when money was scarce but fresh food in abundance from Allotments./ back gardens / Greengrocres' calling at the houses with horse and cart .with produce aplenty. My Mum gave us fresh vegetables every day. even tho sometimes we just had half a banana each hmm .We had one bar of chocolate a week, which my Dad bought us on a Friday night -a Cadbury's 2d long bar.and the rare treat of buying 1/2 pennyworth of sweets .
My Mum was a great cook, Fish on Tuesdays and Fridays - as she said it was alwys fresh on those days ,Cornish pasties to die for , Beef tea , stews, Tripe and onions,soups,roast dinners, home made Yorkshire puds- every type of fruit tart you could wish for Rice puds, bread and butter puds., Egg Custrd tarts , proper gravy - no granules then !!.
We always had fresh fruit in the house- and ofen our "dessert" would be - a section of apple,/orange/with cherries or other treats added.. Oh yes we did have Dripping on toast, but we also walked miles to school.. had PE , Hockey, Tennis, Sports days. Swiimimg lessons all arranged by the schools . so no chane of us getting obese
I had best bring my reminiscenses to a halt before I bore you all
Quoted from:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=307428
S.

S.

EU Wants Human Rights “Gestures” from Cuba

HAVANA – Cuba must show signs of progress on protecting fundamental rights as a step to fully normalizing relations with the European Union, the bloc’s aid commissioner said at the end of a visit to the island that included a meeting with President Raul Castro.

Karel de Gucht said that a change in the EU’s “common position” on Cuba – which was approved by the bloc in 1996 and which Havana wants eliminated because it calls for the island to institute democratic reforms – will require a “consensus” on which both sides can work.

“On Cuba’s part, it implies gestures with respect to fundamental rights,” De Gucht told a group of reporters shortly after boarding a plane to Brussels following his five-day visit to the island.

The aid commissioner, who arrived at the airport after meeting for more than two hours with Gen. Castro, described their talks as “very open, frank and constructive” and said “the EU’s position is not regime change in Cuba.”

He said the bloc accepts that “human rights differ from one country to another,” but added that “there’s a core of basic rights that is universal” and that more progress is needed in that sense.

The EU’s “common position” on Cuba was approved in 1996 at the behest of Spain’s then-prime minister, conservative Jose Maria Aznar, while the current administration in Madrid has pledged to work to eliminate it, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said recently in Havana.

The EU’s stance toward Cuba was the most sensitive topic during De Gucht’s talks with Cuban authorities over the past few days.

Shortly after the start of the aid commissioner’s first working meeting, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told him that that EU policy is unacceptable and should be replaced with a bilateral accord.

The Cuban government has repeatedly rejected EU leaders’ demands that the island make gestures in the area of human rights as a condition for normalizing relations.

The European Union in 2008 lifted the largely symbolic sanctions it had imposed five years earlier on Cuba for jailing 75 dissidents. That move led to a resumption in aid flows, but still no consensus exists among the bloc’s members on ending the “common position.”

The aid commissioner, meanwhile, characterized the United States’ 47-year-old economic embargo on Cuba as “an ineffective tool for international relations,” adding that sanctions have “a limited impact.”

During the meetings with officials here, De Gucht reviewed the EU’s cooperation projects on the communist-ruled island, which in 2009 were valued at 40 million euros ($59.4 million) and in 2010 will involve a similar expenditure.

He also discussed the debt that Cuba has amassed with European companies, including some 600 million euros ($891.5 million) owed to Spanish firms alone.

Speaking Thursday in Madrid, Spain’s secretary of state for EU affairs said Europe should completely normalize ties with Cuba, noting it maintains relations with other countries that “are not paragons of democracy.”

Diego Lopez Garrido, in a breakfast organized by the New Economy Forum, said “it’s nothing new, it’s nothing extraordinary” that Spain supports a “normalization” of ties with the Castro regime. EFE

Yes, if the US lifted the embargo and Miami residents, for so long deprived of a decent cigar or mango, cound ferry accross to Cuba for the week-end so much would be differeent. They would see the huge achievements of of the Cub an revolution along with the few failures; now being remidied. They would alos see how corrupt US society has become and truly work to improve the US by introducing democracy and peoples' rights. Wouldn't Mimis be great with more 50's cars maintained by Cuban techicians?
S.

Plenty of people digging up history. Almost every S. Amrican country has had grusome events in the last half century. But EU clearly wants the World to abolish the death penalty. Including the US that steadfastly continues with this inuman form of retribution/punishment.
Yes I agree the EU and other civilised countries could stop trading with barbaric nations such as the US China, Cuba etc. who have the death penalty.
http://www.europe.org.sg/en/eu_in_sg/death_penalty.htm
But I don't think this would achieve much.
S.

the death penalty for you but only if it is very slow and very painful and televised by satellite around the world ...they would cheer one less idiot to harass sensible people .....it would be a triumph for humanity some would even consider it high comedy but no one no one would mourn .....your crimes against the world have no absolution