THE CASTROFASCIST ECONOMIC MAMBO DANCE! ONE STEP FORWARD & TWO BACK! FINANCIAL TIMES: Raúl Castro’s unhurried reforms of Cuba economy falter - by John Paul Rathbone in Havana High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. In a dusty Havana parking lot, a group of Cubans examine the prices of the modern cars they can now buy from the state for the first time: $263,000 for a 2013 Peugeot saloon that retails in Europe for $30,000, or $20,000 for a 2002 Fiat Uno with over 100,000km on the clock. “Who are they kidding? At those prices, they have to give a lifetime supply of petrol too,” says taxi driver Antonyne Carrera as he peers through the lot’s wire fencing. “It’s a bad joke,” adds fellow bystander Mauricio, who works in the tourist trade. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, The car sale is the latest in a series of reforms introduced by President Raúl Castro that are supposed to improve the country’s economic lot and bolster the government’s popularity but which, in this case, has made the authorities a laughing stock among Cubans who earn an average state wage of $18 a month. It also illustrates the hesitancy and contradictions at the heart of the economic transition begun by Mr Castro and that Latin American heads of state will see when they visit Havana for a regional summit on January 28. “I call it Raúl’s mambo – two steps forward, one step back,” says Ted Henken, a Cuba specialist at City University of New York. “Every measure Raúl announces has great potential, but there is always a dark cloud.” Yet even as he introduces reforms, such as allowing small businesses and co-ops to set up, the ruling Communist party’s blocking habits of command and control remain. This was vividly illustrated in a video leaked on to the internet that showed Juan Triana, a prominent local economist, lecturing a sour-looking group of interior ministry officials on the merits of liberalisation – all within the constructs of socialism and a one party state, of course. CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE! ft/intl/cms/s/0/27ee4c6a-7dee-11e3-b409-00144feabdc0.html
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 20:48:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015