26 October 2006

ReCastro Recants and Cracks Down

A Cuban Bakery Handing Out Bread will have New Regulations in January
(pic form Prof DeLaCova's LatinAmerican Studies.com)
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While making noises about restructuring the socialist economy, ReCastro has decided that the problem with Cuba’s moribund economy lies with the workers who, forced into a Les Miserables like reality, must pilfer whatever they can, to feed their families.

The official Organ of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, announced that new regulations meant to stop the bleeding form the corruption in the Cuban economy will go into effect in January at all worksites. In the meantime, all work centers, which are owned by the Orwellian state, are supposed to develop procedures and protocols to safeguard the workplace.

“Workers are expected to adhere to their work schedules, stay at their posts and protect the infrastructure. They will be prohibited from receiving any kind of personal benefit or retribution in exchange for information or solving an issue”
Non-compliance will mean that the worker will be subject “severe measures”.
The workers will also be held accountable for not reporting any co-workers that are contributing to the demise of the socialist paradise’s economy.

On the surface, this may sound reasonable and not much different than the rules, regulations and code of ethics that are followed by all workers in the States.

In Cuba however, this is absurd. The corruption in Cuba is an official corruption. Everybody is in on it. It is the way of life and its people participate in order to survive. The solution of course, lies with allowing the Cuban people to have meaningful jobs where they can make a living and lead normal productive lives. That, of course, is impossible in Cuba. Not because of the workers , but because of the system.

The system in Cuba is designed to keep everybody worrying where their next meal is going to come form. This is not by accident, It is by design. People who have to struggle to survive on a daily basis don’t have the time or energy to plot against the tyrants in a meaningful way.

Totalitarian regimes have no middle class, only dirt poor captives on meager rations. That is the way they stay omnipotent.

On the bright side, Cuba’s lack of progress or rather its degress, has garnered it a coveted distinction. Cuba is the only country in the world to achieve sustainable development, said the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its 2006 Living Planet report, recently presented in Beijing, China.

Cuba has reached a good level of development according to United Nations' criteria, thanks to its high literacy level and a very high life expectancy, while the ecological footprint is not large since it is a country with low energy consumption,"

So in order to garner accolades from the WWF, you have to keep the country half starved , ride around in horse-drawn buggies and don’t invest any capital into your infrastructure for 50 years.


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