Granma reports today on Wednesday’s meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The economy was a main topic of discussion; the economy minister revised
Ideas, anyone?
The Communist Party Congress that was planned for this year was “postponed,” the article says. It can’t be just “one more event,” Raul Castro said, and it will be held when preparations are done. The article noted: “He [Raul] indicated that it is most probable that, because of the laws of life, it will be the last one headed by the historical generation of leaders of the Revolution.”
Reuters coverage here.
This post has been re-written to correct a bone-headed error. I originally said the bill does not contain the word “
A bill introduced July 24, S. 1517, contains a provision to allow American companies to participate in
Senator Lisa Murkowski of
The bill was was co-sponsored by Senator Mary Landrieu of
Which means “drill, baby, drill” – in
On another front,
Three years ago, Juventud Rebelde published a series of articles on problems of Cuban state enterprises that serve consumers, such as cafeterias and repair shops. The articles showed how customers are cheated and how many businesses have no functioning supply system, leading workers to improvise solutions. A synopsis is here.
Now commentator Ariel Terrero is on television saying that many of these businesses are “impossible…for the state to administer directly.” (Reuters coverage here). He seems to suggest turning them into cooperatives, following the model already in use on farms and the urban gardens called organoponicos:
“The leasing of state lands, which in the end is the placing of state property in the hands of producers, could be applied in other sectors, for example food services, retail trade, and other areas where really it is impossible, given the diversity and breadth, for the state to administer directly.”
Why not give it a try?
Jose Hugo Fernandez, a writer for Cubanet, really didn’t like a recent paper of mine (pdf) on Raul Castro’s economic policy, and published his comments on Cubanet. He focused on a short section of the paper where I recount some of the Cuban state media’s coverage of economic problems. Readers will make up their own minds, but I’ll point out that I didn’t discuss the role of the Cuban media, much less conclude that “instead of covering up problems, its articles and reporting are exposing the country’s real difficulties,” as Mr. Fernandez says. Some of his criticisms are directed at phrases in quotation marks that I didn’t write. One phrase I used is “state media,” which I think is self-explanatory.
Depending on your point of view, the scrolling electronic signboard that the U.S. Interests Section in
The State Department acknowledged yesterday that it was turned off in June, which means at least three and a half weeks ago. (See the State Department spokesman’s comments here.)
Until yesterday when the news broke in the Financial Times, no one outside
There’s more reaction in Miami-Dade than in all of
[Update: Radio Marti reports that “independent communicators” in
The mayor of New Orleans wants direct flights from his city to
In
And in Colorado, they are promoting increased farm exports to
[Update: The Houston airport wants in too, and the governor of Arkansas is on his way to
It seems that the famous electronic signboard at the U.S. Interests Section in
Recent visitors to
The signboard, a Bush initiative, started operating in 2006, streaming political messages and some that seemed nothing more than taunts, such as this one from March 2006:
“
In time, that type of message was dropped and the signboard carried news headlines only.
A 2007 State Department report said that few Cubans saw the signboard, thanks to a sea of flags the Cuban government put up in front of the building, and that it had “lowered post morale.”
The signboard was one of many Bush Administration initiatives that served more to rally supporters in the
[Thanks to Along the Malecon for the close-up photo above.]
Raul Castro, at today’s 26th of July speech in
“The land is there, the Cubans are here, we’ll see if we work or not, if we produce or not, if we keep our word or not, it’s not a question of shouting ‘Fatherland or death, down with imperialism, the blockade hurts us’ – and the land is there, waiting for our sweat.”
From a question-and-answer session that President Obama held yesterday, a question from the Herald's Lesley Clark and the President's answer:
Q: Mr. President…you’ve made some changes in the
THE PRESIDENT: […] With respect to
Maria Elvira Live, the MegaTV program in
Nothing remarkable about the party – beer, wine, rum, dominos, and relaxation – and I’m not sure the photos add to anyone’s understanding of the firings of these officials. But pictures are worth a thousand words.
Maria Elvira’s website has none of this material, but there’s video here with more pictures, discussion at Penultimos Dias here, and an article and photo gallery from El Pais here.
Background on the whole business is here. Thanks to Penultimos Dias for the photo above.
On March 11, President Obama signed into law an appropriations bill containing a provision that permits Americans who travel to
On April 13, President Obama announced that Cuban Americans would be able to travel to
The same day, he announced that the government would permit three types of telecommunications transactions with Cuba, including roaming agreements so that if
None of these policies have gone into effect because the Treasury Department has not issued the necessary regulations.
An economy ministry report forecasts that
On the bright side, AFP reports on a 2.7 percent increase in tourist arrivals in the first half of the year.
And on the not-so-bright side, as far as exporters to
Update on the “black hole:” Reuters, citing business sources, says the government has unfrozen some accounts containing payments to foreign businesses – on the condition that the businesses continue to do business with
Is President Obama really changing
A statement released yesterday by the Havana Archdiocese says that Cuban authorities have suspects in custody in the murders of two
NOTA DEL ARZOBISPADO DE LA HABANA
En nombre
1- En la mañana de hoy, las autoridades
2- Las investigaciones realizadas por los peritos policiales han permitido la localización y captura
3- Las autoridades también nos han confirmado que el proceso investigativo en relación con el asesinato
4- La Iglesia es consciente
5- Ante crÃmenes como los referidos que han involucrado a dos sacerdotes, algo nada común en nuestro paÃs, y que sin dudas afectan de modo extraordinario la vida eclesial, elevamos nuestra oración al Señor por las vÃctimas, sus familiares, y por la vida de la Iglesia en Cuba y en España. Oramos también para que hechos tan inhumanos no se repitan en nuestra patria.
6- Por último, como cristianos, no podemos dejar de elevar una súplica a Dios para que propicie el arrepentimiento de los criminales y manifieste Su misericordia con quienes obraron de modo tan inmisericorde.
La Habana, 16 de julio de 2009
AP has named a new
Snow opened and managed that bilingual print/broadcast bureau and survived a fire in the office and all the vagaries of working in
She did a series of articles in 2007 that described her month-long experience eating solely on 350 pesos, a typical Cuban income. (That series reminded me of a friend’s wish that some of the more credulous visitors to
I also liked this long piece (pdf) from last December that used the Malecon as a prism to look at
Thanks, Anita.
Sounds like the two delegations in
These talks represent the resumption of twice-yearly consultations provided for in the accords themselves, and suspended by the Bush Administration. Which is a good thing, but amazingly they got the market’s attention and in part drove a surge in cruise ship stock prices. Go figure.
The State Department announces that migration talks with
Update: Both sides gave positive assessments afterward; Reuters coverage here, the Herald’s here.
This one, with Fidel Castro and former Nicaraguan defense minister Humberto Ortega, is undated; it has a Juventud Rebelde stamp on the back and says they are at 26th of July celebrations in
This crowd picture has a stamp on the back from Bohemia magazine, dated May 1959, and the caption, “All races, all creeds, all ages lent color to the great welcome given to the leader Fidel Castro.”
This one is dated
For years, there has been talk of a plan to move the more industrial activities in
Now, Reuters is reporting that the government of Brazil has approved the first $110 million in financing for the project, to be “led by a Brazilian company.” A Brazilian minister just concluded a visit to
TV Marti, the
It was nearly a party-line vote, with spendthrift Democrats voting to cut the money, and fiscal conservative Republicans voting to keep on spending it.
I listened to the debate on the webcast, and one senator argued that while the TV Marti signal may not get through, at least we’re sending the Cuban people a message that we are trying to communicate with them.
Washington Post story here.
It won’t solve all
If you sift through the economic policy record of Raul Castro in the past three years, you see a tough diagnosis of problems, significant moves in agriculture, and partial actions at best in other areas. A long discussion of this is here (pdf) , and as always comments are welcome.
Rep. Burton of
If for nothing else – and there’s plenty else – those contacts are used to get Cuban visas for U.S. diplomats, including those who serve in the big U.S. consulate in Havana, which would mean that the staff would gradually reduce to zero, meaning no visas for Cubans to come to the United States as visitors or as immigrants. On the flip side, it would do the same for the Cuban consulate in
The effect of the amendment would probably be to close the U.S. Interests Section. Legally and practically, it’s impossible to have a diplomatic mission that refuses all contact with the host government.
The idea may not be as popular in Miami-Dade as the Congressman thinks, but he does know how to make a point.
“We not only need a ‘reset’ button between the American and Russian government, but we need a fresh start between our societies – more dialogue, more listening, more cooperation in confronting common challenges. For history teaches us that real progress – whether it’s economic or social or political – doesn’t come from the top-down, it typically comes from the bottom-up. It comes from people, it comes from the grassroots – it comes from you.”
– President Obama, at a “civil society summit” in
Agriculture is the one area of the economy that is undergoing significant change under the Raul Castro government, if for no other reason than that the state is busy unloading parcels of the 1.7 million hectares of idle land into the hands of private farmers and cooperatives. They are getting land grants of ten years for individuals, 25 years for cooperatives. I wrote a little about this here, and will have more shortly.
An article in Trabajadores now whines that the foreign media have engaged in negative reporting on this subject (but so has Granma) and to set the record straight, discloses that 41 percent of this idle land have been handed out to 78,113 applicants since last September.
Well, whatever it takes to get the information out.
This is good news that seems to answer the reasonable questions that were posed at the beginning of this process, such as whether significant numbers of Cubans would be interested, and whether they can gather the equipment and other means necessary to work the land. The answer apparently is that they’ve got it covered.
It will be interesting to see the impact on 2009 farm production. The recently released data on 2008 production – the year of three hurricanes – showed declines in most crops.
Reuters coverage here.
