OP-ED: Change in Cuba Comes in Stops and Starts

March 28, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Cuba-column

Leonardo Padura. Credit: Courtesy of the author

Leonardo Padura

HAVANA, Mar 28 (IPS) – The reform process launched in Cuba by the government of President Raúl Castro has made several changes to the country’s rigid social and economic structure, with the ultimate aim of bringing this island nation out of its economic lethargy and making production, which is sinking under the weight of restrictions, controls and contradictions, more efficient.After the announcement of the government’s intention to introduce "structural and conceptual changes" to "update" the model, the 2011 Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba – the sole legal party, which governs the country – approved the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy which set forth the transformations to be carried out.

The programme laid out in the document, which is precise on some issues but vaguer on others, sets out guidelines and commitments for the proposed changes, small and large.

In response to demands or criticism that the pace of change is too slow for a country plagued with social and economic problems that range from the highest structural and macroeconomic level to the complicated daily life of the average citizen, Raúl Castro has stated on several occasions that the transformations will keep pace with well-thought out plans, in order to avoid new errors. He calls this tempo “slow but sure.”

Recently the vice president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmed to the press announcements already made by the president.

While economic and social changes have so far brought about slight (or not so slight) shifts in the relations of production, property and citizen rights, such as the revitalisation of private enterprise, creation of agricultural and worker cooperatives, distribution of land for farming, or the important migration reform that allows a majority of the population to travel, changes in the years to come will have a more radical effect on the basic structures of the system.

As Díaz-Canel said: "We have made progress on what was easiest, in the solutions that required less depth of decision and less work to implement, and now we are left with the more important aspects, which will be more decisive in the future development of the country, as well as more complex."

What is intriguing is that neither leader has specified what the changes will consist of, or what their sphere or scope will be. They merely respond that everything is laid out in the Guidelines.

But an event of international importance has made a big difference to the balance of decision-making in Cuba.

The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Cuba’s main political supporter and trading partner through bilateral and regional agreements, such as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), is definitely a factor that Havana cannot take lightly.

If, as analysts expect, Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s political heir, wins the presidency in the upcoming elections in Venezuela, Cuba will be able to breathe more easily, given Maduro’s promises with respect to the island and the loyalty he has pledged to Chávez’s thought and commitments.

But what no one doubts is that, with the passing of Chávez, the internal situation in Venezuela could become complicated in many ways, and its close relations with this Caribbean island nation, at least in economic terms, could change because of those unpredictable complications in Venezuela’s domestic reality.

This new turn of events will doubtless have been studied by the Cuban government, independently of political declarations or even silence. And the development will probably have an effect on the pace of internal change.

The fragile state of this country’s economy calls for efficiency, investment (including, of course, foreign capital), the redefinition of production relations, and the updating of state and private sector use of new technologies.

Meanwhile, the complex social fabric, that is so different today than in the early 1990s (when a severe crisis was triggered by the break-up of Cuba’s main political and trading partner, the Soviet Union) requires more realism and dynamism in the process of change, given that a large percentage of the Cuban population is made up of young people with different ideas and points of view, and also that many people have spent more than 20 years struggling to survive on low wages and facing concrete problems of all kinds.

Has the time come to cut short the pauses and accelerate the pace? And is it time for citizens to begin to learn what future is in store for them with those deeper and more complex transformations, that could define the destiny of the country and, certainly, of their own lives? In all likelihood, yes.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Opinion, Politics Tagged With: ,

Young Computer Scientists in Cuba Short of Opportunities

March 26, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

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Jobs in the industry are hard to find for new computer engineering graduates in Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Ivet González

HAVANA, Mar 26 (IPS) – Thousands of young Cubans are graduating in computer engineering, a sector the government decided to strengthen over the past decade. But their professional future is uncertain because of failures of organisation and of internet connectivity."I haven’t been able to work as a computer engineer," a 24-year-old woman who graduated in 2011 told IPS. She attended the University of Information Science (UCI), a centre for development and training that was planned as Cuba’s great stride forward in 2002 to boost the field of software programming.

While she was studying, the young woman imagined she would have a secure future in the field of computing. But instead she has been posted for training in a state institute of statistical analysis, where the work is suitable "neither for a computer engineer nor an information technologist.

"I am not learning anything in my specialty, and at the office I just work on statistics," the engineer, who requested anonymity, complained. Only a few of her fellow students got jobs in software development, while many others are teaching in secondary schools or institutes.

A total of 1,600 computer engineers graduated in her year.

Juan Triana, at the state Centre for Studies on the Cuban Economy, said this Caribbean island nation needs to make better use of the human capital educated over decades at its universities.

The country has the potential to make progress in the knowledge economy, but it must be more innovative in science and technology, and organise regional and local innovation systems that make use of its human resources, Triana says in his 2012 article "Cuba: la economía del conocimiento y el desarrollo" (Cuba: the knowledge economy and development).

That way, he says, computer engineers and technicians from the Havana-based UCI could play an important role in the economic reforms set into motion by the government of President Raúl Castro in 2008.

Up to July 2012, 10,021 computer engineers had graduated from UCI in Havana, not counting graduates from the university’s campuses in three other cities.

Other universities also teach information science, but have fewer students.

Technical education also includes this specialisation. The National Office of Statistics and Information reported that in 2011, 1,466 students graduated in electronics, robotics and communications.

But there are more computer professionals than jobs generated by the industry, according to observers.

However, Luis Guillermo Fernández, the head of Softel, a company creating computing solutions for healthcare, disagreed with this analysis in conversation with IPS at the international Informática 2013 Fair, held in Havana Mar. 19-22.

The fair has been held for the past 15 years for the exchange of ideas and knowledge with companies and researchers from other countries, and to boost business deals and cooperation. This year it was attended by some 1,400 experts from 30 countries, with China in the lead.

Fernández maintained "there is no surplus of graduates; on the contrary, we will need more of them when we get organised." He pointed out that "almost all undertakings nowadays use computer science."

In his opinion, "it is essential to organise and update the computer industry. We have not properly organised what we need or defined what our goals are." The industry veteran said it was urgent "to expand information science culture in order to use human resources more effectively and open up more opportunities."

Among the problems, Fernández mentioned the need to set clear development goals and priorities, attract investment, bolster competitiveness, quality and efficiency in order to increase service exports and attract foreign companies to manufacture some components in Cuba.

The country only has a bandwidth of 323 megabits per second via satellite, which limits connectivity to internet by institutions, companies, and even more so by households. Since 2012 a fibre optic cable has been operational thanks to an agreement with Venezuela, which, it is hoped, will gradually improve matters.

Exporting goods and services was one of the aims in 2003 when the sector was expanded. Although centres like UCI sell some of their products and computer engineers are working on projects with countries like Venezuela, experts say there is still a long way to go.

Import substitution and export promotion were other goals, but not enough progress has been made, participants in the fair said.

At the end of 2003, the country had 44 software production firms, 24 of which belonged to the ministry of Informatics and Communications. The ministry has since reduced that number to 22.

Most of the companies are devoted to supplying demand from Cuban institutions and the local economy, which is still heavily centralised.

Young people are finding employment in firms like Desoft, which is dedicated to computerising business management and is present in the 15 provincial capitals and 139 municipalities, according to Anabel García, a spokeswoman for the state company. However, the average age of its employees is still around 40, she told IPS.

But it was the young who were actually more in evidence at the fair. Among them was 27-year-old Abel Fírvida, who works on Nova, the Cuban adaptation of the Linux operating system, a free and open source software system created in 1990 by Linus Torvalds of Finland.

Version 3.0 of Nova was presented at the fair. Owing to Fírvida’s excellent grades, he joined the project while he was still a student, and in his view, graduates with the best academic records do have good job opportunities.

Nova was developed by UCI and a company created by the armed forces. At present it is available free to anyone interested in installing it, Fírvida, who is also a teacher, told IPS. The 60-member Nova team is thus contributing to migration to open-source digital systems that guarantee greater security and sovereignty.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Development, Latin America, Lead Tagged With: , , ,

Cuba – Five Decisive Years

February 17, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Leonardo Padura

HAVANA, Feb 13 (IPS) – Early this month, Cubans went to the polls to elect delegates nominated by municipal and provincial assemblies to the island’s parliament, the highest government body where citizens’ votes carry decisive weight. The turnout, as usual, was over 90 percent, and all the municipal candidates, as usual, were voted in.

The people of the island voted as they have always done, as a matter of routine, perhaps not realising the momentous changes these elections are ushering in.

On Feb. 24, at the first session of the new legislature, the 612 elected members of the National Assembly will elect from among their number the leaders who will constitutionally direct the country’s affairs for the next five years.

The most prominent news about the new legislature is the official confirmation that Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada will cease to serve as head of the National Assembly, a post he has held for the last 20 years.

According to public statements, Alarcón explained his departure from the position with the affirmation that 20 years is “too long”, and “there must be change, there must be change”.

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The people of Cuba voted as they have always done, as a matter of routine, says Padura. Credit: Leonardo Padura

But the prospect that is hardly talked about, yet which has implications of immense potential political and historical importance for Cuba, is that after the National Assembly has elected Raúl Castro as president of the Council of State (an outcome no one doubts), the countdown will begin: after 1,823 days, his term of office will end, as will the terms of at least five of the six current vice presidents, all of whom took office in February 2008 when it became evident that Fidel Castro would not be able to resume power and his brother was elected president of the Council of State.

It was Raúl Castro himself, during sessions of the Congress of the ruling Cuban Communist Party in 2011, who proposed that no political office should be exercised for more than two five-year terms – including his own, as president.

The proposal was approved by the party Congress, although it has not yet been incorporated into the constitution, which must also include reforms forged in the country’s new economic model that has been inspired, advocated and promoted by Raúl Castro.

This new situation — unprecedented in a country like Cuba, where political, state and government posts were exercised without limits for five decades – opens a scenario of expectations when it comes to the changes that will happen in the next five years, and what the future will look like in February 2018.

For over five years — first at a slow pace, with changes of vocabulary, and then with concrete economic and social measures for the short, medium and long term (like the migration reform that allows most Cubans to travel freely from January this year, after nearly 50 years of being unable to do so) — army general Raúl Castro has set in motion the machinery of Cuban socialist structures in search of what the country most needs: an institutional environment, financial control, higher productivity, economic efficiency, self-sufficiency in production of certain items, changes in employment policy and changes in property law, among others.

But these urgent matters lead irrevocably to other transformations that have been announced by President Castro himself, in a process that must develop to its fullest during the five-year term beginning Feb. 24 and, indeed, be reflected in the constitution, as it will be reflected in society and its actors.

What changes will take place within the Cuban model? Will there be deeper modifications to the economic structure of the country, which so far has only seen changes that, while significant, are not macroeconomically decisive, and have not been able to guarantee certain goals, such as food production?

What opportunities will there be for foreign investment, in a country that needs capital to renew its ageing infrastructure?

What other freedoms will be approved for citizens in coming years, after the key move of lifting travel restrictions? What kind of Cuba will the so-called “historic generation”, now in their 80s, after half a century at the helm of the island’s government, leave to future leaders who will be groomed and prepared in these decisive years? What economic, and even social, role may old and new emigrés have in the country?

Cuba is entering a phase of transformation, and the critical period for the resulting changes is the next five years: a long time in the life of a human being, but only a heartbeat in the timeline of history.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Economy, Elections, Latin America, Politics, Report Tagged With: ,

Fidel Castro Votes to ‘Update Cuban Socialist Model’

February 6, 2013 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Feb 06 (IPS) – Among millions of people flocking to the polls in Cuba to vote in general elections was the unexpected figure of former president Fidel Castro, making a surprise public appearance in what was interpreted as a reaffirmation of his support for the government of his brother, President Raúl Castro.

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Former president Fidel Castro voting in Cuba on Sunday Feb. 3. Credit: Marcelino Vázquez Hernández/AIN

“Nothing is fortuitous: Fidel is (showing) his support for updating the economic model and the transformations that derive from it,” an analyst who asked not to be identified told IPS.

Castro cast his ballot and talked to Cuban media Sunday at his polling station in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) in the capital, Havana.

The former president said, “It is our duty to update the Cuban socialist model, modernise it, but without committing errors.” He also spoke about the health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez who is convalescing in Havana from a cancer operation, saying he receives daily information about Chávez’s health and adding that he is “much better”.

Fidel, Cuba’s historic leader, became seriously ill in 2006. In 2008, after his resignation from the National Assembly (the single-chamber parliament), he elected Raúl Castro to be president of the 31-member Council of State, which according to the constitution “is the highest representative of the Cuban state”.

Since then, Fidel’s chair has remained vacant at parliamentary sessions. Sunday’s elections were called to renew provincial assemblies and the parliament, and the former president was among the candidates. “Fidel is already a member of parliament,” said the source, without further comment.

The unique Cuban electoral system calls for half of the 612 candidates to the same number of seats in the legislature to be selected by municipal assemblies, elected in November of the previous year. The other half are nominated by a candidacy commission made up of mass organisations.

Voting is direct, by secret ballot, and electors can vote for one, several or all the candidates in their electoral circuit, a territorial division of municipalities and the basis of the Cuban electoral system. The only electoral campaign advertising allowed in Cuba is the publication of candidates’ biographies.

Critics of the Cuban political system claim that for elections to be valid, opposition candidates should be allowed so that voters have real options. But the official response is that Cuban elections are more democratic because of the mass participation of citizens and the quality of the candidates.

The slate of 612 candidates represents the renewal of two-thirds of the current parliament. The average age among the candidates is 48; nearly 49 percent are women, 37 percent are Afro-descendants or of mixed ancestry, and around 83 percent have higher education.

The authorities are trying to encourage more active participation by young people in the electoral process and in government institutions. State media highlighted that 53 of the candidates are under 35 years of age, and many of the polling stations were staffed by youth. All the ballot boxes were guarded by school children.

“This shows that the new generations are willing to participate in government,” Alejandro Domínguez, a 20-year-old university student, told IPS. But “the decision to become a legislator can change your life. Many young people do not look at politics as a career path they want to follow. It is not part of young people’s aspirations,” he said.

A notable absence from the candidate slate was Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly since 1993. Roberto Fernández Retamar, president of Casa de las Américas, a cultural organisation founded by the Cuban government in 1959, and Marcia Cobas, deputy health minister, responsible for the export of medical services, were also missing from the list.

Newly nominated candidates, on the other hand, include Ricardo Cabrisas, the vice president of government responsible for foreign trade; Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) and the daughter of President Raúl Castro; and Bruno Rodríguez, the foreign minister.

Rodríguez received another important promotion in December 2012, when he was appointed to the Political Bureau of the governing Cuban Communist Party (PCC), the only legal party in the country.

According to the electoral laws, the new National Assembly must meet within 45 days of the elections and designate the 31 members of the Council of State, including its president, for a five-year term.

Raúl Castro’s re-election is taken for granted.

However, this will be his final term as president, if the provision approved by the PCC’s Sixth Congress in April 2011 — according to which high political positions are to be limited to two consecutive five-year mandates — is ratified by the National Assembly and written into the constitution.

President Castro himself suggested in early 2012 at the close of the PCC National Conference that this, and other, decisions of the Party Congress could gradually begin to be applied without waiting for constitutional reform.

The president also anticipated changes in the statutes and other PCC foundation documents.

Raúl Castro has repeatedly expressed concern over the lack of young people with the ability to take on the complex task of directing the party, the state and the government. It is a task, he has said, that “has strategic importance for the revolution”.

Miguel Díaz-Canel, vice president of the Council of Ministers and head of higher education, stressed that reform of the economic model will this year enter a phase of more complex changes, creating a demand for National Assembly members who are sufficiently prepared to participate actively and responsibly in this process.

* With additional reporting from Ivet González in Havana.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2013.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Elections, Latin America, Politics, Report Tagged With: ,

International Aid Helps Cuba Adapt to Climate Change

December 28, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Dic 28 (IPS) – "Adaptation to climate change is urgent and must be part of development," said Bárbara Pesce-Monteiro, the United Nations resident coordinator in Cuba, assessing the damage done by hurricane Sandy in the eastern region of the country.She said the damage was very serious, especially in Santiago de Cuba, a city of almost half a million people and a services hub for other towns. In order to support the country at such a difficult time, the United Nations system in Cuba designed an action plan that will serve as a framework for assistance from the international community.

The plan, to be put into effect over the next six to 18 months, will benefit three million people in the most affected provinces: Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Guantánamo. The main areas of concern are early recovery, housing, water and sanitation, health and education.

Sandy, regarded as the most devastating hurricane to strike the eastern part of the island in the last 50 years, claimed 11 lives in late October and caused considerable losses in housing, educational and health facilities, agriculture and food crops, as well as major interruptions in electricity and water supply, now largely overcome.

United Nations agencies initially mobilised 1.5 million dollars in emergency funding, supplemented by an appropriation of 1.6 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The action plan entails seeking 30.6 million dollars to deal with the urgent needs of the population that suffered the brunt of the hurricane’s impacts, along with a strategy aimed at improving living conditions for those affected.

The authorities immediately embarked on recovery work, "but the international community wants to support the country in this task," Pesce-Monteiro said in an interview with IPS. She explained that this humanitarian aid did not require a specific request from Cuba, as it is part of the regular U.N. mechanisms.

The devastation caused by Sandy in the early hours of Oct. 25 recalled the danger from earthquakes to which the eastern region, especially Santiago de Cuba, is exposed. "It’s an issue we have been talking over with the government for several months now," said Pesce-Monteiro.

She said this concern is shared throughout the Caribbean region. "After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, we realised we were all vulnerable. In fact, the United Nations has supported and will continue to support earthquake detection centres in eastern Cuba. This vulnerability needs to be taken into account during reconstruction efforts," she said.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has helped strengthen the capacity of local governments to reduce disaster risks in several provinces. Sixty-three risk management centres have been created at the municipal and provincial levels, as well as 209 early warning stations in the most vulnerable communities.

Pesce-Monteiro said these installations "have produced excellent results." The United Nations is working with the other Caribbean nations to share the experiences, test their usefulness and see how they can be adapted to other countries in the region.

"There is also cooperation with the Environment Agency (under the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment) in their studies on vulnerability" and other topics, she said.

Adaptation and climate change

The U.N. resident coordinator in Cuba was emphatic when she said that adaptation to climate change is an urgent need.

"The United Nations has been saying for years that there is no time to waste. Adaptation must be part of development," she said.

In her view, this issue should be a seamless part of every country’s development model, whether the country is rich or poor. "All development plans must take vulnerabilities into account, in order to ensure adaptation. Ideally, they would also limit emissions (of greenhouse gases)," she said.

Pesce-Monteiro also said that it is one thing to be able to face and respond to a disaster, but quite another to build a sustainable society that is capable of preparing for and adapting to climate phenomena.

"In this field, too, Cuba has experience that can be of value to other nations," she said.

Pesce-Monteiro was sure that the trail of disaster left throughout the Caribbean, as well as in the United States and Canada, in the wake of Sandy, has provided experiences worth assimilating. "But here we are still in the phase of responding to the damage; we want to process the lessons learned in January, and I know the Cuban state will do the same," she said.

She added that this reflection should go far beyond Cuba itself. "Climate change is affecting all of us, so we hope that this will be another opportunity to raise awareness in all sectors about an issue that must be addressed seriously at the global level," she said.

"We have already experienced a succession of extreme events of a very serious nature close to home, which compels us to reflect deeply and analyse the type of development we want for the future," Pesce-Monteiro said.

"I think society is crying out for us to make the appropriate commitments so that we can move forward," she said.

She highlighted the importance of the social forum held in June during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro.

"It was a broad, participative forum, with strong citizen commitment. Governments are going to have to feel pressure from each one of us, and to understand that we really want a sustainable planet," she said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Americas, Environment, Report Tagged With: , ,

Tomorrow Is Too Late for Adaptation to Climate Change

November 21, 2012 by

Patricia Grogg

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Nov 20 (IPS) – You can still see broken plates, toys, books and some photographs among the rubble that was once the homes of Rey Antonio Acosta’s family and other families in Mar Verde, the beach community where Hurricane Sandy made landfall in this eastern Cuban city."Come here and see what pain is," the 12-year-old boy, who will forever remember the early hours of Oct. 25, when winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour and waves nine metres high wrecked dozens of houses along the coast here, tells Tierramérica*.

He talks about how he saw the eye of the hurricane, "black and with stars in the centre," and the calm as it passed by. "But then the waves rose higher and the wind became stronger. We heard something like the roar of a beast over us. People were crying and I thought my time had come (to die)," he said.

His young age does not prevent him from learning a lesson from Sandy. "Now that I know what a hurricane is, when the next one comes we won’t take our time evacuating," he said. The vast majority of the citizens of Santiago admit that the devastating blow from Sandy took them by surprise, in spite of the meteorological warnings.

"We thought there would just be a bit of wind and rain, and that would be all," says María Caridad, who lives in Santiago de Cuba, the provincial capital. Like many others in this city of half a million people, her house, which was built about a century ago, was not fit to withstand the onslaught.

"None of my neighbours took Sandy seriously," says the 50-year-old Caridad, on whose house an adjacent wall fell, causing the roof to collapse and leaving the family at the mercy of the wind. "We took advantage of a moment’s calm to cross over to the balcony of the next-door apartment and seek shelter.”

Other people complained that in their neighbourhoods there was no electricity from an early hour, so they did not hear the last meteorological warning, announcing that the hurricane’s path would go right through Santiago de Cuba, which is densely populated and has a largely precarious housing stock that is vulnerable to disasters.

"Cyclones usually passed close to Santiago de Cuba and came from the east. Sandy came from the north, and it was the first time the eye of the hurricane passed right over us. If it had come in the daytime, it would have caused more deaths than the 11 that occurred, because people would have been out on the street," Eddy Acosta, of the Mar Verde Civil Defence council, told Tierramérica.

Nearly three weeks after the storm, the streets of Santiago have been cleared of rubble. But the trees, stripped of foliage and with broken limbs outlined against the sky, give it a strange wintry look. Many trees were pulled up by the roots and flung against buildings and houses.

As of Nov. 12 there was still no official account of the economic damage caused by Sandy, although an estimate by the United Nations office in Cuba reckoned 137,000 houses were damaged in Santiago de Cuba, 65,000 in Holguín and 8,750 in Guantánamo, the other two eastern provinces that were most affected.

Serious damage was suffered by industry, telecommunications, electricity and agriculture, and recovery is expected to be extremely difficult in a country trying to bolster its weakened economy, and that in 2008 was ravaged by three hurricanes, which caused 10 billion dollars in losses.

The fury of wind and waves devastated not only Mar Verde, but other coastal communities like Cayo Granma and Siboney, and several tourist facilities along the shore. According to the authorities, Sandy pressed home the need for "realistic" proposals in terms of construction methods and land use planning.

Researchers studying the impact of climate change in Cuba estimate that 577 communities in the country will be exposed to floods, due to a rising sea level and the swell caused by increasingly intense hurricanes.

They recommend working to protect ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs that provide natural barriers against tropical storms, as well as avoiding investment in construction in high-risk seaside areas.

Sandy struck densely populated areas where people were not accustomed to dealing with hurricanes and their enormous capacity for devastation, Ramón Pérez, an expert at the Institute of Meteorology’s Climate Centre, told Tierramérica. In his view, the best form of adaptation is prevention.

"Considering that there may be more intense hurricanes in future, the first thing we need to do is prepare ourselves to deal with the present ones, including of course reduction of vulnerability (to natural disasters) and greater education," said the expert about the lessons learned from the latest hurricane.

Sandy was the 18th tropical storm of the 2012 season, and the 10th to reach hurricane status. The winds and intense rains affected Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the United States and Canada, leaving billions of economic losses and dozens of fatalities in its wake.

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.


Filed Under: Environment, Latin America, Report Tagged With: ,

Last Summit of the Americas Without Cuba

April 16, 2012 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Constanza Vieira

CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, Colombia, Apr 15, 2012 (IPS) – "What matters at this summit is not what is on the official agenda," said Uruguayan analyst Laura Gil, echoing the conventional wisdom in this Colombian port city, where the Sixth Summit of the Americas ended Sunday without a final declaration.

The Fifth Summit, held in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2009, had a similar outcome.

At the Sixth Summit, which opened Saturday Apr. 14, the foreign ministers failed to reach prior agreement on a consensus document.

Key points of discord were the continued U.S. embargo against Cuba and Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic.

Gil, an expert on international relations who lives in Colombia, told IPS that "a consensus on drugs seems to be forming among the countries of Latin America."

"These three issues are precisely the ones that are dividing the hemisphere in two, or confronting the countries of Latin America with the United States and Canada," she said.

"The Summit of the Americas process is in crisis. What the Sixth Summit clearly shows is that certain issues cannot be put off any longer, particularly that of Cuba," excluded from the Americas summits due to pressure from the United States, she added.

In Gil’s opinion, "there will not be another summit without Cuba. Either Cuba is included, or there will not be a summit at all. The absence of (Ecuadorean President Rafael) Correa is a red alert," she said, referring to the Ecuadorean president’s promise not to attend any further hemispheric meetings to which Cuba is not invited.

According to the expert, "Colombia positioned itself as a bridge, able to facilitate relations between contrary ideological blocs. But from this position, Colombia cannot work miracles.

"This summit reminds us that ideologies are still a force to be reckoned with. The limitations are plain to be seen," she said.

The Venezuelan ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton – a former Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia and the U.S. – told the Colombian radio station RCN Radio: "This is a rebellion by Latin American democracies against U.S. and Canadian hegemony."

Canada and the United States were left in isolation in a vote on a resolution to put an end to Cuba’s exclusion, which was split 32 against two, at a meeting of foreign ministers that was to approve documents to be signed by the presidents.

In addition to Correa, Haitian President Michel Martelly and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega were also absent, having sent last-minute cancellations. Ortega led a rally in Managua in solidarity with Cuba Saturday Apr. 14.

On Saturday morning it was announced that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez would not be attending the summit, due to the treatment for his cancer.

At the end of the first day’s meetings, the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) released a declaration in Cartagena stating that they would not attend any further summits without the participation of Cuba.

ALBA is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

The host’s speech

At the opening ceremony of the Sixth Summit, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos did not mince words. He exhorted delegates "not to be indifferent" to the changes occurring in Cuba, which he said were ever more widely recognised and should be encouraged.

"It is time to overcome the paralysis that results from ideological obstinacy and seek a basic consensus so that this process of change has a positive outcome, for the good of the Cuban people," he said.

"The isolation, the embargo, the indifference, looking the other way, have been ineffective," Santos said.

As for Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere, Santos recommended supporting the agenda of the Haitian government, instead of pushing "our own agendas."

He also said that "Central America is not alone." Organised crime must be combated, but anti-drug policy should be focused on "the victims," including "the millions" locked up in prisons, Santos said.

This summit will not find an answer to Latin America’s calls for facing up to the failure of the war on drugs, "of this I am completely certain," he said.

Militarisation marches on

U.S. President Barack Obama let it be understood that his country would tolerate flexibilisation of Latin American anti-drug policies, saying "I think it is entirely legitimate to have a conversation about whether the laws in place are ones that are doing more harm than good in certain places."

But he flatly rejected legalisation.

"I know there are frustrations and that some call for legalisation. For the sake of the health and safety of our citizens – all our citizens – the United States will not be going in this direction," Obama said on Saturday.

He also announced that the U.S. government would increase its aid to the war on drugs led by "our Central American friends" and pledged "more than 130 million dollars this year."

Colombian expert Ricardo Vargas of Acción Andina, a local think tank, summed up the U.S. position: "’You may decriminalise drugs, but that will not eliminate the mafias. And we will be there’," with a military presence as soon as drug shipments cross the borders, he told IPS.

The People’s Summit

From another part of the city of Cartagena, Enrique Daza, the coordinator of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, a movement of social organisations that organised the Fifth People’s Summit, held in parallel to the Summit of the Americas, announced their "satisfaction" at the same time as President Santos received a standing ovation in the auditorium where the heads of state were gathered.

"They were not able to keep our demands hidden," Daza said at the close of the counter-summit.

The alternative summit rejected the United States’ "imposition of its agenda" at the Summits of the Americas, and demanded an end to militarisation based on the pretext of the war on drugs, which in fact ends up criminalising social protest, he said.

In its final declaration, the People’s Summit castigated the United States and Canada for insisting on the promotion of free trade treaties with other countries of the continent.

Canada came in for heavy criticism for fomenting a "predatory model" for the operations of its mining companies in Latin America. "The rights of investors cannot take precedence over the rights of people and of nature," the final declaration says.

The gathering of social movements, left-wing groups and human rights, indigenous, environmental and women’s organisations also launched a veiled attack on socialist governments in Latin America.

While recognising the efforts of bodies such as ALBA and the fledgling Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the declaration expressed that "progressive and left-wing" governments in the Americas should take steps against the extraction of natural resources and the concentration of land ownership.

On the positive side, the People’s Summit proposed independent integration within the region, and knowledge and respect for the contributions of indigenous people and peasant farmers to the art of "good living" and a culture of peace.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2012.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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CUBA: Professionals Awaiting their Chance

May 3, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 3, 2011 (IPS) – Cuba’s opening to private enterprise still leaves out many professionals who have yet to find a way to use their skills and potential in non-state industries, although they have not lost hope that the rules of the game will change.

Self-employment is supposed to provide options for those who lose their jobs as part of the labour "restructuring" that the Raúl Castro government is carrying out to reduce inflated state payrolls and increase labour productivity. Over the next five years, the state is expected to reduce employment by more than one million jobs.

The 178 types of work authorised for self-employment, however, include only two or three specific activities for those who have completed post-secondary education, and even these have limitations.

The repasador, or tutor who gives private lessons, for example, cannot also hold a job as a teacher at a school, and booksellers, accountants and accounting assistants cannot be employed as such with any company.

"When I mentioned that I am a civil engineer, they looked at me disapprovingly…and one official recommended that I should sell snacks, that it was more profitable," said a person identified as S. Piña Basset in a letter to the official newspaper Granma, regarding inquiries he made at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

With 37 years of experience in his profession, Piña Basset wanted to use the opportunity to work as a private contractor, the only approved activity which seemed to fit his profession. He had previously investigated and found that a market existed, as did the possibility of joining together with several others to build homes and similar projects.

Dissatisfied with the response he received at the ministry, where he was told that university graduates could not exercise their professions as self-employed workers, he decided to "wait for the instructions and clarification that should be given to the entities" responsible for his case. It was not possible to contact him to learn the results of his wait.

However, responding to a question from IPS, Deputy Labour Minister Carlos Mateu confirmed that the only option in the construction field for professionals with similar backgrounds was to work as a private contractor, as long as state agencies or companies authorised for that type of activity are "interested" in such contracts, and he listed as examples the Havana City Historian’s Office and the Palco company.

"If there is no interest in having a contractor, the relationship is not established," Mateu said. For now, there is no plan to lengthen the list of jobs or trades for non-state self-employment, he noted.

"If a large number of people were to be interested in a given activity, the advisability of adding it or not would be evaluated," he said.

In his most recent report on the issue, Mateu said that 201,116 newly self-employed workers were registered as of Apr. 8. The total number of independent workers was 301,033, when adding those who were already employed in non-state jobs authorised by existing regulations prior to the October decree.

The jobs in highest demand continue to be food preparer and provider of transportation for freight and passengers. Many people also work as hired labour in some 80-plus activities for which individuals may employ others, such as renting rooms and operating small restaurants, known as "paladares" in Cuba since they first emerged in the 1990s.

"In general, all of the activities permitted are very basic and even poor. Personal enrichment is discouraged, but wealth is not created that way, either," architect Mario Coyula commented to IPS, noting that "the old prejudice against the self-employment of professionals seems to persist."

The development of private businesses, however, requires people with expertise in designing and building facilities, most of which are built spontaneously, without any oversight and with few resources. "The result is an impoverished image, which gives a distorted view of the city," Coyula said.

"The irony is that many architects, including retired ones, would be willing to design projects for these new facilities and charge reasonably. These types of projects are so simple that no state company would be interested," he added.

It is an "aberration that professionals with university degrees devote themselves to driving taxis or selling homemade sweets, and cannot work in their professions. Moreover, if the elimination of inflated payrolls is taken to its final consequences, there will also be many ‘available’ architects who will not be able to work independently in their profession," he noted.

Coyula said that "the independent employment of professionals will be a necessity, whether as individuals, in teams, or in cooperatives. In my opinion, the government should support all ways of creating jobs, in all fields, if the goal is to eliminate inflated payrolls. All of that urgently requires creating a legal foundation and above all, defining the scope of the concept of property."

According to official figures quoted by researchers, from 1996-2008 alone, 350,398 people graduated from university in Cuba. During that period the number of degree-holders increased 4.7 times more than GDP at 1997 prices. Meanwhile, the average current enrolment in higher education is half a million.

The authorised activities "are not knowledge-intensive and do not take advantage of the investment in education that the country has made for decades," warned economist Pável Vidal in a research paper to which IPS had access. Vidal said in his report that financial difficulties could hinder the credit policy approved for the emerging non-state sector.

More flexible regulations in this respect "also do not permit the creation of small and medium-size businesses that can be integrated into the large-scale national productive sector, or that can generate exportable funds," said Vidal, noting that the development of this type of business can play an important role in the country’s economic growth.

For now, many professionals have decided to wait and see what is in store for them in the laws, resolutions and regulations to be channelled and ordered by the changes and reforms passed by the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, held April 16-19, to update the economic model.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Young Cubans Unsure Where to Turn for Decent Jobs

April 14, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Ivet González

HAVANA, Apr 14, 2011 (IPS) – In the throes of Cuba’s economic "reorganisation," young people are walking a tightrope towards an uncertain employment future. They are finding it increasingly difficult to find jobs that meet both their professional aspirations and their salary expectations.

The government of President Raúl Castro launched economic reforms last year that include massive lay-offs of public employees, potentially affecting one million people by the end of 2011. "Young people are among the most vulnerable when it comes to getting a new job," Yonnier Angulo, a 25-year-old university professor, told IPS.

Expanded opportunities for self-employment are among the options proposed by the government in response to the high demand for jobs. Large numbers of workers are needed in agriculture and construction, but the majority of jobseekers find these sectors unattractive.

According to the National Statistics Office, the unemployment rate in Cuba in 2009 was only two percent for women and 1.5 percent for men, but this will be radically changed by the decline in public sector employment.

"The impact of the labour adjustment measures on youth must be monitored," sociologist María Isabel Domínguez told IPS. Those who are clearly competent at their jobs will be kept on, but young people’s competence is often hard to assess. On the one hand, they tend to be better qualified, but on the other they lack work experience, she said.

Fanny Morales, a 27-year-old factory worker, has unhappy memories of a period of job insecurity lasting, in her case, two-and-a-half months. She was on the brink of unemployment when staff reduction measures reached her workplace, a paper factory in Mayabeque province, adjacent to Havana. Now she has been reassigned to another of her company’s factories, and is greatly relieved.

"I’m glad to have a job," Morales told IPS. She is paid the minimum wage, 225 Cuban pesos (nine dollars) a month. She hopes that when she completes her degree as an agronomist, her job prospects will improve.

Students who "are finishing university courses are extremely anxious about their employment future," said Angulo. Recent graduates are not included in the new restrictions on hiring in the public sector, so that they can gain on-the-job learning experience. To do otherwise would mean sacrificing the immediate future, President Castro said last year.

The challenge to young people in Cuba is mirrored in many parts of the world. Last year, about 6.7 percent of the 104.2 million young people of working age in Latin America and the Caribbean were unemployed, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

For some time, young people in Cuba have created their own employment niches outside the sphere of the state. Two years after finishing a degree in history at the University of Havana, Yaimelis Acosta did not have a clue about what she would do next. "I always thought I would be an academic researcher," she said.

"My expectations for the future were focused on what the university could provide," she told IPS. What she was offered at the time did not give her an opportunity to delve into her passion: research on gender relations. Now, at the age of 24, she has become a "freelance producer."

Independent film and video companies headed by newly-minted professionals have sprung up, like Producciones de la 5ta Avenida, created in 2004, which is registered in Bolivia and operates in Cuba. But the government’s more open vision of private employment does not yet extend to this kind of enterprise.

Official self-employment opportunities are limited to small businesses like cooking and selling food, and do not cater to the full range of interests. "Young people have many expectations that have yet to be fulfilled," Acosta said.

However, work has been low down on the list of life priorities for Cuba’s young generations since the 1980s, according to Domínguez, who is head of the Centre for Psychological and Sociological Research (CIPS). "It is extraordinary how immutable employment aspirations are," she said.

They have remained constant in times of bonanza like the 1980s, times of economic crisis like the 1990s, and at present, when the work ethic is making something of a comeback. "The present context is bound to shake up society’s previous ideas about acceptable employment," she said.

Meanwhile Natividad Guerrero, head of the Centre for Youth Studies (CESJ), pointed out that young people "have a very selective attitude towards employment." She said many young people who are laid off by the state prefer to look for a new job in emerging areas of the economy, like foreign companies.

"Some of them receive remittances (from abroad), which cover their monetary needs," she told IPS. But others, even though they have no steady income, "are choosy and want neither to work nor to study." They are not interested in the majority of available jobs, which nowadays are mostly in unpopular areas like construction, agriculture, or maintenance and public works, Guerrero said.

A young high school graduate who requested anonymity said he had worked at a dozen different trades, including as a security guard, pharmacy technician and printing shop worker, "getting by" for three years in a series of casual jobs.

Now he sees a chance of making more money on the black market, selling clothes, computer parts or any product he can lay his hands on, appropriated from state institutions or brought in from abroad. "I have looked at other options, but I don’t want to start working at just any old job," he said.

However, this 27-year-old hasn’t closed his mind to the possibility of taking a steady job, although at employment offices he has only found offers of construction work. "It’s very hard work and it’s poorly paid," he said. Recently, he applied to work as a dock hand at the port in Havana. "They say it’s very well paid," he said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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CUBA: Today’s Youth, As Diverse As the Times

April 13, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 13, 2011 (IPS) – Mariana García is a child of the 1990s, when Cuba was in the grip of the severe crisis that hit the island after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist bloc. She grew up bombarded by the first video games and surrounded by people who talked more about how to get by than about their dreams and ideals.

Aware that she and other young people have been assigned the role of continuing the process of social changes that began with the Jan. 1, 1959 triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro, García says she prefers to avoid "big words" and that she sees Cuba as "a country where a lot has been done, but there is still a great deal to do, and, especially, to improve."

The Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), to be held Apr. 15-17 in Havana, places its hopes for continuity of the country’s socialist system and for fresh blood to replace the long-time leaders of the revolution on people like García, who are sometimes impetuous and hypercritical.

The 22-year-old university student complains of the tendency to criticise Cuba’s younger generations. "My father says young people today are lost, but he forgets that my grandmother said the same thing about him," García says, citing an old proverb: "People resemble their times more than they resemble their parents."

And they are not only different from their parents. Studies show that, in keeping with international trends, young Cubans are increasingly diverse.

While one segment of today’s youth – in which women outnumber men – attends the university, others have decided instead to join the job market. Cuba also has a fast-growing counterculture movement, with hundreds or even thousands of youngsters gathering in their different "urban tribes" on weekend nights along Calle G, one of Havana’s main avenues.

The tribes are largely differentiated by their musical tastes: the rockers (rockeros), who are divided among metalheads (metaleros), new metalheads, punks, hippies and freaks (frikis); the "emos," devotees of a subgenre of dark, broody rock music; the "mikis," who listen to electroacoustic, disco and Cuba’s native-grown trova music; and the "reparteros," who follow reggaeton, hip hop, rap and timba (often referred to as Cuban salsa).

The youngsters, in Havana and other cities, form part of the generation of the MP3, the flash drive and the condom tucked in the pocket.

Although young people have not turned their backs on the common features of their national identity, there are different elements that reflect "the evident diversity among today’s youth," sociologist María Isabel Domínguez told IPS.

Domínguez, the director of the Centre for Psychological and Sociological Research (CIPS), said the major differences arise from gender, place of residence, race, social background, educational level and access to opportunities.

The crisis generation

Four or five generations coexist in Cuba today in constantly shifting relations. Some, like the generations of the 1970s and the 1980s, are starting to merge, while others have not developed a specific identity. Then there are the generations marked by periods of transition.

Those who were young during "the 1960s transition are the generation of the revolution, while the people of the 1990s are the crisis generation," Domínguez said.

The former group, made up of those who were older children or young teenagers in 1959, intensely experienced the changes ushered in by the revolution as well as a radical break with earlier generations, in both the private and public spheres.

The latter is the generation of the economic crisis of the 1990s, the most difficult period in the second half of the 20th century in Cuba. The revolution may have equalled "opportunity" for their parents, but circumstances were markedly different for those who were young during the so-called "special period" – the euphemistic name given to the crisis.

It was not just about the economic impact of the fall of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, Cuba’s main aid and trade partners, or of the stiffening of the U.S. embargo, but about a widening of social inequalities and a deterioration of living conditions.

The generation gap is reflected by the evolution of the different groups’ biggest aspirations and hopes, according to studies carried out by CIPS.

Among those who were between the ages of 14 and 30 in the 1980s, the chief aspiration was a good education, and material living standards were ranked in fourth place. But among people who were young in the 1990s, the top priorities were family, living conditions, improving one’s life by means of higher incomes, and spiritual satisfaction.

"When I was a teenager I had just one pair of jeans, only two different shirts, and a pair of Russian boots," says Rafael Sánchez, a 46-year-old cultural promoter. "I would have wanted more, but it wasn’t a big deal, because that’s how most people lived. We were also constantly dreaming of a better future. The young people of today don’t live in the future, but in the present."

New approaches

A look at the half century since the Cuban revolution shows "a common context, values and practices" shared by the few generations that have lived in that period, but also "variations and a need for readjustments and reconstructions of the ways of thinking and doing, new approaches," Domínguez says.

The author of several publications on young people says Cuban society "is in need of these constant adjustments," because the country’s institutions are often tied to "learned ways of doing things, formulas that worked at one time" but have been enshrined as "permanent and immutable."

"The process of generational succession is didactic, made up of continuities and ruptures," she says. "Each new generation inherits things, while at the same time it builds and creates new approaches to whatever stage of life they are in. That is the story of humanity."

Young people, defined by the United Nations as those between the ages of 15 and 24, make up 18 percent of the world population. Around 87 percent of youths live in developing countries.

In the case of Cuba, where the experts include people up to the age of 30 in that category, 2.2 million of the 11.2 million people who lived in the country in 2009 were between the ages of 15 and 29, according to the National Statistics Office.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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