Some Impressions of the Pearl of the Antilles

For eleven days, I found myself on that island bastion of sun, sand and totalitarianism – Cuba. Less than 100 miles from our shores, it might as well be another planet. With the U.S. economic embargo in full force, direct flights from the U.S. to Cuba are impossible.

Access via third countries such as Mexico and Canada, however, is a snap. Moreover, the Cubans are most accommodating by stamping a tourist card, rather than your U.S. passport, to spare you problems on the return. The following are some observations I gathered during my brief visit. Clearly, I merely grazed the surface of this complex and fascinating nation – additional visits are very much in order.

My musings are organized by general topic. Your can scroll right through or click on a link immediate below for a specific topic.

Overall Impressions The Political Economy The Current Economic Disaster The U.S. Economic Embargo The Embryonic Private Sector The Popularity of the Regime Corruption U.S. Involvement in Cuba Attitudes Towards Norteamericanos The Future

Overall Impressions

The impression from the U.S. is that Cuba is a grim, grey communist outpost in the Caribbean with an unpleasant dictator at its helm. Well, grim and grey, it ain’t. Cuba is very much alive. Unspoiled white sand beaches, regal architecture, perfect weather, fun-loving inhabitants and salsa, salsa, salsa. It’s hard to believe you’re in a communist country – it is first and foremost a Latin country. Cuba’s best attraction is its people – a lively and beautiful mix of black, white and every color in between who appear to get along very well. They pride themselves on their Cuban-ness, not their particular background.

Despite an economy in collapse, Cubans are easy-going and warm. What little they have, they share. The streets are not filled with shoeless children beggars, as is the case in other Latin countries. The kids that I saw looked well cared for. There is little crime and even less violence. Rum flows freely and beer is available in vending machines.

It is possible for Western tourists to spend all of their time sequestered at foreigners-only luxury resorts for what could be a perfect Caribbean vacation. To do that, however, would be to miss out a country and a people that are far from perfect, but so much more engaging and real.

Political Economy

Cuba is one of the last strongholds of Marxism-Leninism. Its official currency is the peso. Prices are determined by bureaucratic fiat, rather than reflecting supply and demand realities. All wages are paid in pesos, all food staples, mass transit, etc. are peso-denominated. With 20 pesos to the dollar, the prices in pesos are cheap by Western standards. For example, a cup of coffee is half a peso, a ham sandwich, three pesos. These apparently cheap prices aren’t that cheap for Cubans, however. The average wage is around 200 pesos, or ten dollars. Doctors, lawyers and engineers do a little better at 250 or 300 pesos. A pound of chicken is 20 pesos, or ten percent of a monthly paycheck for most.

As in the former Soviet Union, cheap prices are good in theory – the reality is that the peso stores are bereft of products; those that exist are of shoddy quality. When product is available, long lines form outside the grim little stores.

In the past few years, the U.S. dollar, ironically, has become a nationally accepted currency. As a result, a two-tiered economy has resulted: The first is the peso-denominated economy, described above. The second is the dollar-denominated economy. This is an economy of abundance, variety and convenience -- provided you have the greenbacks. Prices in the dollar economy are comparable to prices in the West -- $200 for a mattress, $15 for a compact disk, $195 for a accommodations at a top-rated hotel.

The problem for Cubans is that beyond rice and beans, everything for sale is in dollars. So that mattress is a couple of year’s wages. Obscene!

The Current Economic Disaster

If the absurdity of the command economy weren’t disastrous enough, the demise of the Soviet Union and its petroleum for sugar cane subsidization of the Cuban economy have sealed its fate. The economy is in a state of virtual state of collapse.

Food is rationed. Family get a ration book – chicken, pork, sugar, bread, rice are meted out – when and if they are available. A family I stayed with in Cienfuegos showed me their book – there were no entries for chicken or pork for the past three months, as none was available. Beef is not widely available as cows are dedicated first and foremost to dairy production. Milk is only available for children under the age of seven.

Items like shrimp and lobster are harvested exclusively for export for hard currency and cannot be had legally by Cubans. Of course, fishermen sometimes divert some of their catch to the black market where they command reasonable prices, rather than the abysmal prices offered by the State monopoly. This is risky though. Selling contraband food carries a 15 year penalty, buying it, 2 years.

As a result, Cubans are raising chickens – everywhere. Even in a relatively upscale residential section of Havana, I was awakened each morning by roosters. Private egg production is a necessary pursuit to supplement the meager protein rations. People have been known to raise pigs in their apartment bathtubs. They fatten them up for a few months and then slaughter them. The stench is supposed to be overwhelming.

Cubans, not surprisingly, are lean. In my eleven days, I didn’t see a single fat person.

Gasoline is quite expensive for Cubans, about a $1 a liter. This is especially expensive considering the fuel inefficiencies of the popular Russian Ladas and 1950s era Chevrolets. During a three hour car ride from Havana to Cienfuegos, we saw maybe two dozen cars and trucks on one of the country’s main highways. Not many at all.

Horsedrawn conveyances and bicycles are quite popular. It is not uncommon to see an entire family riding aboard a single bicycle – dad as driver, baby on a makeshift seat on the top tube and mom sitting side-saddle on the back rack, probably holding another kid. I myself was transported to the central bus station in Cienfuegos via bicycle by my host – with my rather large carry-on on the handlebars and me on the back rack. Scooters and small motorcycles, of Russian and Czech origin, are popular. The motorcycles often have sidecars to make them more of a family transportation vehicle. It’s a strange sight.

In terms of the physical infrastructure, Cuba is slowly crumbling for lack of money to maintain its buildings. Havana has some of the fine architecture – but the paint is peeling, plaster cracking, and, after a hard rain, roofs collapse. While most structures are still holding up, others look like Bosnia or Beirut.

Clothing is at a premium. The locally manufactured goods are flimsy and worthless. I was constantly asked for clothing by Cubans I met and gave away probably half of the clothes I brought down with me. Similarly, medicine is nearly none existent. Patients in hospitals have to buy their medication on the black market. People asked me for medicine and I donated my ibuprofin and Imodium.

There is a palpable sense of desperation in the streets. Everyone is hustling to survive and tourists are a key target. It is impossible to walk down a street without being approached by Cubans offering to be tours, cigars, lodgings and women. The crisis has turned everyone into small-time, wheeling-dealing capitalists.

The U.S. Economic Embargo

The U.S. economic embargo has only exacerbated this dreadful economic situation. That said, the embargo has in no way touched the country’s leadership and the party faithful. They have everything they need. It is the average people, from professionals, to workers to campesinos that are suffering. Everyone I met decried the futility and vindictiveness of the embargo. I was embarrassed by it. During my visit, the embargo was lifted slightly to allow for humanitarian aid – food and medicine, a positive step.

Ironically, U.S. products and brands – from Marlboro to Pepsident to Tabasco – are available everywhere. Generally, these products are imported from third countries like Panama and Mexico.

The other absurdity of the embargo is that it is clearing the way for other developed countries to get entrenched in Cuba. Canadian, Mexican and European concerns are pouring in money and cashing in on the lucrative tourist trade. When the regime eventually falls, these companies will be well-positioned in a free economy – when the big money starts rolling in.

Embryonic Private Sector

Along with the legalization of the dollar, small scale free enterprise has become tolerated. For example, individuals can rent out a spare room for dollars (casas particulares) or operate private taxis (taxis particulares). That said, this vanguard of capitalism is subject to heavy taxation by the bloated bureaucrats. For example, owners of casas particulares have to pay the government $200 a month – per room, whether they are successful renting out the room or not. Farmers who farm there own land are similarly subjected to onerous taxes.

In light of these challenges, many doctors, lawyers and engineers are now driving cabs and renting out rooms, just to survive.

Foreign companies can and do operate in Cuba, with the State generally a silent partner skimming off about 50% of profits. Companies can go independent, but are still subject to usurious tax rates. Still, it is preferable to having the Government constantly in your face.

While the U.S. economic embargo is obnoxious, it is true that dollars spent in Cuba do generally go into the Government’s coffers. As such, I patronized the private enterprisers as much as possible – staying in casas particulares and using taxis particulares.

The Popularity of the Regime

At its inception, the Revolution enjoyed tremendous popularity. Fidel’s charisma seduced many Cubans of all backgrounds to support the cause of overthrowing the patently corrupt Batista regime.

Upon the Revolution’s victory, it gradually adopted a Marxist-Leninist orientation. This was initially well-received, but the wholesale confiscation of houses, real estate properties and businesses hinted at its true nature. That said, many Cubans were willing to put up with this in the name of a more egalitarian society. Progress was made on many fronts, including the highest literacy rate in Latin America, superior and free (in theory) medical services and education, and high life expectancies.

Fidel has long since institutionalized and bureaucratized the system which holds a total monopoly on political expression. As in the former Soviet system, a police state has evolved. Mail is opened and read, telephones tapped and Internet e-mail and postings closely scrutinized. Once the bottom fell out when the Soviet system collapsed, Fidel’s popularity dwindled.

Direct criticism of Fidel is non-existent. A farmer literally pulled me into a dense coffee tree grove before expressing his opinions freely. Even then, he didn’t mention Fidel by name, but made hand-gestures that alluded "the bearded one." Fidel is not loved, he is feared.

Che Guevara, however, does enjoy popular adulation, bordering on the religious. Not only does his portrait adorn many a party sloganed billboard, people have portraits of him their homes out of genuine admiration. Perhaps this is because he represents the revolution in its purest, most idealistic phase and he never lived to see it corrupted.

Corruption

The Cuban regime is not corrupt in the sense of bribe-taking and influence-buying, as is so common in Latin America and the rest of the developing world. It is the system itself, where the government has the monopoly on, ironically, "capitalist" exploitation.

For example, let’s say a foreign company hires a Cuban to work in its hotel. The company offers the worker a $600 a month salary. This money, however, is paid directly to the State, which then pays the worker the same lousy 200 pesos a month and pockets the extra $590 a month for itself! (Companies recognize this situation and often supplement salaries with cash under the table.)

The current economic crisis has made day-to-day living extremely difficult, actually impossible on the average $200 peso/month salary. As such, most folks are turning to black market enterprises of one kind or another, thus becoming economic criminals in the eyes of the State.

That said, the party faithful are well cared-for. While they are still paid in pesos, party members can shop at government stores that are well-stocked. Moreover, they are given the best housing, utilities, etc., all for negligible pesos. The U.S. embargo is having no effect whatsoever on the elite – only the average folks are suffering.

U.S. Involvement in Cuba

Unfortunately, the U.S. has a sad legacy in terms of its relationship with this little island. The Cubans are extremely proud people that have always wanted to be independent – from Spain, and later from the U.S. The U.S. consistently has been oblivious to this -- we sided with slave holders against an independence movement that threatened slavery, intervened militarily on several occasions, tried to annex or purchase the whole country outright and sold out their bid for independence at the close of the Spanish-American War. The U.S. then sided with the country’s repressive and unpopular regimes, right on down through the highly unpopular Batista. At the same time, and not coincidentally, U.S. companies dominated the Cuban economy, owning the phone system, hotels and casinos, major plantations and other important sectors.

The revolution was the first time in recent history that Cuba broke free of the U.S. orbit (and then freely embraced the Soviet Union’s orbit!). The Missile Crisis and Che Guevara’s exhortation to the Third World to "start 2,000 Vietnams," went beyond mere independence to actually threatening the U.S. – something small countries don’t often get to do, especially when their neighbor is a superpower. Talk about the tail wagging the dog!

In response, the U.S. tried to destabilize the regime, from assassination attempts of Fidel to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Museum of the Revolution in Havana portrays this legacy in excruciating detail, along with a vehement running commentary that seems to have "U.S. Imperialism" in every other sentence.

Whatever their political persuasion, Cubans are not fond of the legacy of heavy-handed intervention that the U.S. government has pursued.

Attitudes Towards Norteamericanos

That said, the regime’s antipathy toward the U.S. government has not trickled down into hostility to individual American citizens, myself included. No, the average Cuban is quite fascinated with the U.S. and many are closely related to the 1.5 million or so Cubans that emigrated to the U.S. The U.S. dollar is legal tender, baseball is king and hamburger, frankfurters and pizza are ubiquitous fast goods. Though U.S. television signals are jammed, U.S. culture seeps in quite freely and legally, be it through movies and recorded music. While salsa is the established music, U.S. rap is quite popular.

If and when the regime liberalizes and the U.S. drops the embargo, the Cubans will not be anxious to go back to the "status quo ante bellum." There is definitely a fear that some of the less attractive aspects of the U.S. – drugs, organized crime, violence – will come over as well. These fears are not entirely baseless and for me were part of the incentive to visit Cuba sooner rather than later.

The Future

While I paint a picture of a country teetering on collapse, the situation is actually stable, and can proceed in its current painful state for years. The regime is fully in control -- whether it has the support of the majority of its citizens is irrelevant. Fidel’s brother, Raul, is currently being groomed to take center stage after the "bearded one" steps down. There is no indication that he has any interest in liberalization.

While Cubans might complain, albeit quietly, about the regime, there does not seem to be anything resembling an organized opposition. The government has a monopoly on the media, on the use of force (Cubans, in general, do not own arms), and on the tools of repression.

For the immediate future, it appears to me that we in the U.S. should toss the embargo and engage constructively with Cuba, as we are doing with other regimes such as Mainland China. By supporting the emerging private sector and non-governmental bases of power, such as religious organizations, we can hope to effect change over the long term. But it’s up to the Cubans to figure it out for themselves. They will not accept something imposed from abroad.