Posted : Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:06:03 GMT
Author : DPA
Havana - With their noses stuck to the shop window, a group of Cubans
stared at shiny electronic appliances whose sale had just been
liberalized by the government: DVDs, rice cookers, electric scooters
and, soon, computers and microwaves. But most cannot go beyond looking.
"I don't have a computer, I don't have a cellphone ... I cannot buy, my
salary won't let me. I have to sell my car or the house to buy the
computer," Ernesto, 45, complained as he looked.
In theory, Ernesto and his wife could buy within a few days many
products which Cubans have desired for years, with computers and
cellphones the likely favourites. They could also stay at one of the
island's luxury resorts - for more than 10 years, the exclusive preserve
of tourists - or rent a car.
These are part of a wave of reforms that Raul Castro launched after his
brother Fidel Castro stepped down in February.
However, with a monthly salary of 273 pesos (just over 12 dollars, when
the national average is 17-20 dollars), Ernesto would have to save his
full salary for almost a year just to spend a night with his wife at a
four-star hotel on the communist island.
The same would apply to a cellphone: the line costs 120 dollars, plus 60
dollars for the phone itself, with rates of at least 40 cents a minute
for calls.
Cubans who get remittances from relatives abroad will probably manage
better.
"The tough thing is still that Cubans cannot obtain these things through
work. That is the great contradiction of the moment. But they had to do
something and they have started by this," said dissident economist Oscar
Espinosa Chepe.
In fact, many Cubans already had a cellphone "indirectly," through a
foreigner whose name was on the contract. And the black market for DVDs
and other home appliances was flourishing.
"It is a rationality-based process, which brings to the surface things
which were already there," Espinosa Chepe said.
Fellow moderate dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua agreed.
"The measures are going to promote some inequalities which in fact
already exist, but at least now the government is acknowledging that and
there are policies in agreement with the Cuban reality of a society with
different classes, those who have and those who have not," Cuesta Morua
said.
"We have to get over the myth that Cuba is the Cuban revolution. It is a
normal society with its normal differences," he insisted.
Most of the reforms were not published in the official media, but the
news spread like wildfire through word of mouth and most people were
happy about the changes.
Observers note that although many of the new options are out of reach
for the average Cuban, they have important "psychological" value - the
knowledge that the possibility is there gives a feeling that there is "a
little more freedom," as one Cuban put it.
The island's population awaits other reforms, like the chance to buy a
car or a house, and free access to the Internet.
Others are demanding changes in migration rules, in particular the
elimination of an exit permit that costs Cubans a lot of trouble and
money every time they want to go abroad.
"The hotel thing is good news, but what many people are waiting for is
the way to get out," a waiter whispered at the Hotel Nacional.
High officials have confirmed that such reforms are being considered. No
quick changes are to be expected in the economy either, official media
have stressed.
Raul Castro himself warned that such "structural changes" will take "time."
"A mistake motivated by improvisation, superficiality or hurry would
have considerable negative consequences," he said in his inaugural speech.
However, it is undeniable that change is underway - particularly in the
countryside, one of Raul Castro's priorities in an effort to "produce more."
State television has hinted that under-used land could be redistributed
to private peasants in various cooperatives, and farmers could get
double the price the state pays for their products.
Decisions in agriculture have been decentralized.
Cuba's productive private farmers use less than a third of the land
under cultivation in Cuba. Yet they produce 60 per cent of the roots and
tuberous vegetables, 62 per cent of other vegetables, 88 per cent of the
corn and beans, 42 per cent of the milk and 95 per cent of the tobacco,
official figures show.
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