[NYTr] Cuba: US Missing the Boat
 
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:21:11 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[As always with evolving modern history,there are exaggerartions and
distortiona here; there is no massive rift between Raul's and Fidel's
visions, as convenient as that might be to the yanquis. But let's not
tell that to the State Dept or those Florida newspaper editors who
figure it can't do any harm to pretend so. In Fidel's day, corruption
was treated more privately; under Raul, maybe quite wisely. it has
become a more public activity. Viva la Revolucion.  At the core,
nothing has changed. If the Yanquis want "scandal," Cuba will give them
some. No skin off their noses. Silly yanquis. -NY Transfer]

Background: see: Fidel' Big Speech, Nov 17, 2005
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20051205/027900.html

Naples (Fla) News, Oct 20, 2007

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/oct//guest_commentary_cuba_reforms_economy_us_missing_boat

As Cuba reforms economy, U.S. is missing the boat

By Philip Peters - Arlington, Va.

When Fidel Castro fell ill in 2006, Washington thought change was at
hand.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urged Cubans bto work at home for
positive change,b and President Bush said Cubans were engaged in an
beffort to build a transitional government.b

That did not happen. If anything, Cubabs year without Fidel has been
uneventful: no migration crisis, no attempt by Cubabs dissidents to
seize the moment and 11 percent economic growth, according to the CIA.

But change may be in the offing, although not of the kind President
Bush envisioned.

Cuba today is embroiled in a nationwide economic policy debate. It
started in November 2005 when Fidel Castro gave his last major policy
speech. bThis revolution can destroy itself,b Castro worried, band the
fault would be ours.b He described an economy plagued by blackmarket
activity, from pilfered inventories to off-the-books entrepreneurship.

Castrobs solution was more policing and more state control. He
threatened to close Cubabs remaining private restaurants and to give a
bChristian burialb to private taxis that save Cubans from scarce public
transit. He planned to deploy teenage bsocial workers,b who were
already watching the till in gas stations, to combat corruption in
bakeries, pharmacies and cafeterias.

But then Castro left the political stage for the first time since 1959.

His brother Raul took over and soon made the economy his priority, too.
He declared that he is btired of excuses.b

He settled debts to farmers and tripled prices paid to milk and beef
producers. He eased customs rules to allow Cubans to receive more aid
from relatives overseas. Rather than bburyb private taxis, he ordered
police to stop harassing them. Private restaurants remain open. Fidelbs
social workers returned to their normal jobs.

And under Raul Castro, the economic debate took a very different turn.

Articles in the state-controlled media showed that many state
enterprises are dysfunctional and have no supply system.

Discussion of the black market continues, but in Fidelbs absence, no
one is scapegoating begotistsb and bcheapskatesb who skirt the law.
Raul Castro recognized that many Cubans resort to bindisciplineb
because they are underpaid. Therebs a big difference between blaming
greed and saying people deserve a daybs pay for a daybs work.

On July 26, Raul Castro gave his first major policy speech. He told
folksy stories to highlight red tape and low productivity in state
agriculture. He called for bstructural changes and changes of
concepts.b He quoted Fidel, seven years ago: bRevolution is a sense of
the historical moment, it is to change all that must be changed.b

Before the speech, the Communist Party and institutions across Cuba
were told to identify roadblocks to higher output, productivity and
living standards.

Today the speech is being debated at the grass roots in workplaces,
union locals and neighborhood party cells.

This debate is yielding ideas that were taboo one year ago: expand
private agriculture and small enterprise, provide micro-credits, get
the state out of services it provides poorly, grant autonomy to state
enterprises, expand foreign investment. Having unleashed this debate,
Raul Castro has yet to make major decisions. But he has raised public
expectations so high that he has obliged himself to deliver results.
After all, he could be singing the old refrain that a besieged Cuba
must concentrate on defense and cannot experiment in domestic policy.
But his message is the exact opposite.

Meanwhile, President Bush now focuses on the day when bthe good Lord
will take Fidel Castro awayb as a moment for Washington to seize. But
that train has left the station. Cubans have assimilated Fidel Castrobs
absence, a leadership succession has been accomplished and Raul Castro
is governing.

With real prospects of change looming in Cuba, the Bush administration
continues to shun the people-to-people and diplomatic contacts that
could increase Americabs influence there.

Raul Castro may prefer it that way, but it is no way to serve our
national interests at a turning point in our neighborsb history.

[Peters is vice president of the Lexington Institute and author of the
blog, The Cuban Triangle. The Lexington Institute is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan public policy research organization based in Arlington.]

                                 *
=================================================================
 NY Transfer News Collective     *    A Service of Blythe Systems
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
            Our main website:   http://www.blythe.org
   List Archives:       http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
   Subscribe:     http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================