Friday, January 16, 2009

Odds and ends

  • The International Republican Institute has published a new survey of public opinion in Cuba (press release here, slides and graphs describing the results are here). Respondents identified economic issues as their top concern. What surprised me was that nearly nine in ten Cubans say they were not affected by the recent hurricanes. They must have been thinking that “affected” meant damage to their home; surely, far more than ten percent had their food supply affected.

  • The electronic sign at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, once used for brief political messages that sometimes seemed to taunt the Cuban people, now delivers brief news headlines.

  • As he departs, President Bush issues a message on Cuba. In Cuba, among dissidents, his “message of hope” and his policy in general fell flat among some dissidents, AFP reports.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that the percentage of people responding that they have been affected by the hurricanes also depends on the timing as the food situation is now better, so as of today they don't notice any lasting affect.

leftside said...

Or maybe the reports that tried to paint a picture of massive food shortages were exaggerated and misleading. If it was as bad as the initial reports claimed, then the Government deserves credit for the way it handled the situation.

Anonymous said...

bush only gave real cubans obstacles and ideology.