Habana - Proud To Be A Guinea Pig ...

[Nino]

Cuba will start a vaccination drive starting with Havana this Monday and the vaccines used have not been approved for emergency use or have passed Phase 3 of testing ...

Of course the US embargo is to blame for the slow development of the Cuban vaccine, that much is sure as always, even as Cuba requests funds to finance the vaccine production from the Global Fund ( main donor is the USA).

Cuba has declined to receive free vaccines offered from the COVAX initiative.

And 80% of cases in Havana are due to the South African variant.

Explosive mix to keep the island closed for some time to come.

----------------------------

The South African variant is responsible for 80% of the deaths from covid in Havana

Mass vaccination begins Monday in the capital, disguised as an "intervention study"

14ymedio, Havana | May 08, 2021

https://www.14ymedio.com/cuba/covid-19-coronavirus-vacunas_cubanas_0_3090290942.html

The Cuban authorities have recognized that the South African variant of covid-19, one of the most worrying according to the World Health Organization (WHO) along with the British and the Brazilian, is the one that predominates on the island. All three, in any case, said the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, "we have them circulating in the country."

Portal Miranda specified this Friday in the Round Table that the variant detected in South Africa was found in 68.1% of the deceased studied throughout the country, but that in Havana that rate was 80.4%. As for contagion, an incidence of this variant has been detected in the capital of "almost 50% of the cases studied and in Matanzas, almost 90%, hence the great transmission that this territory has had."

In the same program, the minister announced that the Government will begin next week an "intervention study" with the vaccine candidates Abdala and Soberana 02, which will be applied to more than 1.7 million inhabitants of the capital.

This massive intervention, says Portal Miranda, is supported by "the results demonstrated in their research stages" of these vaccine candidates, the most advanced of the five developed by the Island (the others are Soberana 01, Soberana Plus and Mambisa) and that They are in phase 3 of clinical trials.

The strategy, the minister continued, "constitutes a true pride for all Cubans, amid the brutal blockade imposed by the United States government, which gives greater significance to this feat of Cuban science."

Despite the fact that from the beginning of the program the authorities announced that they would give "exclusively" the results of phase 2 of the vaccine candidates, they did not give many details.

"The results have a process and will be given in the coming weeks, between the end of May or perhaps later, in June and July," said the president of BioCubaFarma, Eduardo Martínez Díaz, who assured that these results plus the application of more than 400,000 doses in the intervention study in health personnel, "they give us security."

"By doing a very deep risk and benefit analysis, where there are practically no risks, and the results of the applied doses demonstrate this, it turns out that at the same time there is a very high potential for benefits," explained Martínez Díaz, while asserting that "There are high levels of neutralizing antibodies and because there is already talk that when these levels are there, there is protection and the probability of efficacy."

Olga Lidia Jacobo Casanueva, director of the State Center for Drug Quality (Cecmed), the regulatory entity, also assured that they have followed "each of the stages of the research and development process", "attached to the functions of the center and rigorous necessary ".

"We have evaluated the information packages presented by the researchers from the preclinical stage in animal studies to the data originated in each phase of the studies," she explained, without expanding on these data. "For them, we are guided by national regulations and also by foreign ones, and based on the results obtained, we approve the overlapping of phases. All of this contributes to carrying out investigations in less time without neglecting safety.

However, Cecmed has not yet issued its authorization for emergency use, so the authorities specified that this intervention study will be "temporary". "We consider that for the month of June we already have the emergency authorization from Cecmed," said the president of BioCubaFarma, who announced that for that month "we estimate that 22.6% of the Cuban population had been immunized, on July 33, 5% and by August 70% of that population ".

The population intervention in risk groups and territories will begin in seven municipalities of Havana, where the authorities completed the census on April 24, in which vaccination candidates are expected to be administered to 778,398 people until June, in the first place to the segment of those over 60 years of age.

In a second stage, the study scheme will be completed in the remaining eight Havana municipalities between the second half of June and next August in a population group of 928,627 people.

With 51% of the deaths in April (116) and almost 50% of the infections, the capital, the most populated region of Cuba with 2.2 million inhabitants, is the one that presents, by far, the most difficult situation since the pandemic began.

This has claimed 713 deaths on the island and has a total of 113,876 positives, according to official data.

In this regard, Portal Miranda warned that "the forecasts are that confirmed cases will continue to increase at the same rate that we have been able to verify these days, if we do not manage to do things well and do not use all the tools that we have in the country within our reach. ".

Right there the minister referred to the situation in India, which "faces a health situation more than heartbreaking due to the pandemic. "That country has already exceeded 20 million cases and 226,000 deaths. However, medical experts believe that the real figures in India could be five to ten times higher than those in official records," said Portal Miranda.

The same doubts raise the official Cuban statistics. Several cases, such as that of a 13-year-old girl who died last April or the director of the Pionero magazine, show that although they have been infected by the covid, if at the time of death the PCR offers a negative result, they are not included in the death toll.

Cuba's strategy, which rejected the help of the international vaccine fund Covax and is beginning to apply its vaccine candidates en masse without having passed the phases of standardized clinical trials in the world, has been criticized by several specialists.

Among them, the Cuban immunologist Eduardo López-Collazo, director of the Research Institute of Hospital La Paz, in Madrid, who despite weighing the technology applied with the Cuban vaccine candidates, assured this newspaper that not completing phase 3 is " very dangerous".

Without mentioning these criticisms, which have been disqualified in the official press, the participants in the Round Table insisted on the effectiveness of the tests. "These are types of study that the WHO approves, as long as the safety of the subjects is guaranteed," Minister Portal Miranda added.

Nor did they refer to the susceptibilities caused by the country's chronic shortage of medicines in the productive capacity of vaccines. On the contrary, the president of BioCubaFarma said that production is assured.

The Molecular Immunology Center, which manufactures the RBD antigen, participates in the production of Soberana 02, detailed Eduardo Martínez Díaz; the Finlay Institute, which conjugates this antigen with tetanus toxoid. "The final vaccine," the formulation of this conjugated antigen, is carried out at the National Center for Biopreparations (Biocen). "For its part, the Engineering Center participates in Abdala Genetics and Biotechnology (CIGB), where the antigen is manufactured, and Laboratorios Aica, where it is formulated.

"We are increasingly reaching industrial stability, we have lots of vaccines manufactured to begin the health intervention, which passed a rigorous evaluation process," said the official.

Finally, Minister Portal Miranda also referred to the ethical protocol of the study and assured that the "principle of voluntariness" would be guaranteed.

The insistence on national sovereignty regarding the issue of covid vaccines contrasts, however, with the request for financing from the Global Fund, whose main donor is the United States. The request for resources was made public by the representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for Cuba, Maribel Gutiérrez, this Thursday through her social networks.

 

[smbauerllc]

Interesting read. Thanks

The stupid, ineffective, 60 year old embargo really needs to be ended

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Ginseng]

3 minutes ago, smbauerllc said:

The stupid, ineffective, 60 year old embargo really needs to be ended

It really seems to be a political relic. Or at least the justification for it isn't clear or relevant in these modern times.

[smbauerllc]

It really seems to be a political relic. Or at least the justification for it isn't clear or relevant in these modern times.

Exactly. Even when first enacted it had no effect since the rest of the world continued to do business with Cuba.

After 60 years it has more than proven that its ineffective and needs to end

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Nino]

20 minutes ago, smbauerllc said:

Interesting read. Thanks

The stupid, ineffective, 60 year old embargo really needs to be ended
 

I should have made it clearer that my comment regarding the embargo was meant ironically ...

15 minutes ago, Ginseng said:

It really seems to be a political relic. Or at least the justification for it isn't clear or relevant in these modern times.

Wilkey, the embargo is very much relevant and justified ... for the Cuban gvmt to hide all its failures behind it.

[Nino]

1 minute ago, smbauerllc said:

Exactly. Even when first enacted it had no effect since the rest of the world continued to do business with Cuba.

After 60 years it has more than proven that its ineffective and needs to end
 

If you have followed my "embargo" posts you have read that the US supplies Cuba with food for cash and is its largest partner in food exports ...

[Ginseng]

23 minutes ago, Nino said:

Wilkey, the embargo is very much relevant and justified ... for the Cuban gvmt to hide all its failures behind it.

Oh, I definitely get that. But you can't get milk out of a (scape)goat. And complaining only takes you so far.

[smbauerllc]

If you have followed my "embargo" posts you have read that the US supplies Cuba with food for cash and is its largest partner in food exports ...

Yes, I was aware of that, which I think just adds to my opinion that the embargo is pointless and needs to be ended

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Cairo]

3 hours ago, smbauerllc said:

The stupid, ineffective, 60 year old embargo really needs to be ended

True statement.

However, we US (and I would argue all) cigar smokers are getting a major benefit from it.    If Habanos were legal in the US they would probably be brutally taxed, the prices of the smokes would probably be driven up worldwide (supply vs demand) and/or the quality of production would probably suffer if Cuba tried to ramp up to meet worldwide demand.

Sometimes my political views are in conflict with my self-interest.  🙂

[Kevin48438]

The Cuban government hasn’t failed.   It’s purpose is the prosperity of the communist party.   That is being accomplished.   Like all communist countries, the wealthiest 90%+ are the communist elites.

All the Cuban government needs is enough internal peace to maintain power/enrichment. They will say and censor anything to that end.

If Cuba were free, production and quality of cigars would increase.  And they would go down in price.  The better producers world-wide would import the tobacco.  Cubans would farm more tobacco because the competition for it would increase the price of it.   They would be able to join the first world in farming technology.

Now the US government would tax more because they care more about enriching themselves than they do Latin American economies.  In Nicaragua and the DR, cigar jobs are good jobs.  They can afford cars and motorbikes and fuel to run them.  None of them are starving.   Covid-19 vaccines are available.

I wonder how aware the Cuban people are that their masters refused help in fighting Covid-19.

[Nino]

1 hour ago, Kevin48438 said:

The Cuban government hasn’t failed.   It’s purpose is the prosperity of the communist party.   That is being accomplished.   Like all communist countries, the wealthiest 90%+ are the communist elites.

All the Cuban government needs is enough internal peace to maintain power/enrichment. They will say and censor anything to that end.

If Cuba were free, production and quality of cigars would increase.  And they would go down in price.  The better producers world-wide would import the tobacco.  Cubans would farm more tobacco because the competition for it would increase the price of it.   They would be able to join the first world in farming technology.

Now the US government would tax more because they care more about enriching themselves than they do Latin American economies.  In Nicaragua and the DR, cigar jobs are good jobs.  They can afford cars and motorbikes and fuel to run them.  None of them are starving.   Covid-19 vaccines are available.

I wonder how aware the Cuban people are that their masters refused help in fighting Covid-19.

Thank you very much for the insight - some serious thoughts there and all hit the nail !

Funny how this is about vaccines without approval, about  Cuba ab/using people as guinea pigs, being hit with 80% incidence of the South African variant, about Cuba refusing to accept free vaccines from COVAX ... and yet the rant is about the US "embargo" ... upside down perspective.

Cubans are about as aware about their masters refusing help in Covid vaccination as most outside Cuba are about the US embargo being a fig leave for the Cuban gvmt to hide its failures and blame big brother...

 

 

[Kevin48438]

As for the embargo, the same people who stole (stealing is evil) American (and others) property and invited nuclear missiles to be pointed at Florida are still the ones in power.  They sent their prisoners to the US.  They still maintain the same rhetoric.  They still enrich themselves with that stolen property.

Sure, Batista was pretty bad.  But the Cuban people were much, much better off with that government than the current one.  It’s a question like, would you rather have identity thieves steal $5k or $25k from your savings account?  Would you rather have 1 of your children murdered, or 3?  Those are your only 2 options.   Both are bad, but one is better than the other.

I support embargo that denies the supremely evil, communist masters of Cuba every cent possible.   For as long as they are in power.

The UK is the largest foreign investor in the US.  Lets say the US seized all property owned by British nationals in the US.  (eg. BP, British Airways). Called the British people a bunch of people and put nuclear weapons in Ireland pointed at Manchester.  Then put thousands of violent convicts in rafts 70 miles from Southampton.  Still friends?  Business as usual?  Want to buy planes from Boeing?  How about machinery for manufacturing?  Maybe California wine?  I would expect nothing but a middle finger until an apology is issued and restitution is made.

I’m amazed that Cuban leadership demonizes the US and in the same breath blames the embargo for lack of goods.

What if I came on here and called Rob and Di a bunch of names?   Just did all I could to ruin their reputation with lies.  Then I asked them to ship me a box of Monte2s, a box of BBF, and a watch.  How should I expect Rob to react?  Banned from the forum and told no or given a discount?   For how long?  I would expect until somehow I made it right, no matter how long that was.  Even pass it on to his son or whoever his successor is.  Rob doesn’t need my business, just like the US doesn’t need Cuba’s.

Cuba has treated the US as enemies the same way North Korea has.  They both are major human rights violators.

[Ryan]

36 minutes ago, Kevin48438 said:

Sure, Batista was pretty bad.  But the Cuban people were much, much better off with that government than the current one.  It’s a question like, would you rather have identity thieves steal $5k or $25k from your savings account?  Would you rather have 1 of your children murdered, or 3?  Those are your only 2 options.   Both are bad, but one is better than the other.

I support embargo that denies the supremely evil, communist masters of Cuba every cent possible.   For as long as they are in power.

 

On Facebook, I regularly see people post pictures and videos of Cuba in the 1930s, 40s, 50s. And it's white linen suits, fedoras, lots of neon, new cars, shopping etc. Most of us have probably seen some of that stuff.

The fact is, revolutions don't succeed in places where most people are happy. The Cuban revolution started in 1956 with fewer than 20 men getting off the beach. Local support brought down the Batista regime. Certainly, what came after that success might have gone differently, but at the time many Cubans were willing to lay down their lives for change. Many, probably most, Cubans still are very proud of what they have achieved through, what they see as, aggression from their much more powerful northern neighbour. 

So it's not so simple. Most Cubans, even the staunch "Fidelistas" (and there are still plenty of them) are well aware that things could be better, but no sovereign nation likes to be dictated to by a foreign entity regarding what kind of government they are supposed to have. And that, I think is where it is going wrong currently.

Give Cubans a taste, like any country, and they'll grab it. As happened during the small relaxations of some of the aspects of the embargo until a couple of years ago. Entrepreneurs in Cuba, and so many other Cubans who want to enjoy what entrepreneurship brings, suddenly had opportunity to break out of state control and that, suddenly (literally within months) brought about the biggest reforms from the Cuban government regarding private industry and an extension of capitalism within Cuba since 1959.

I have a terrible feeling that there has been a missed opportunity.   

[Kevin48438]

1 hour ago, Ryan said:

On Facebook, I regularly see people post pictures and videos of Cuba in the 1930s, 40s, 50s. And it's white linen suits, fedoras, lots of neon, new cars, shopping etc. Most of us have probably seen some of that stuff.

The fact is, revolutions don't succeed in places where most people are happy. The Cuban revolution started in 1956 with fewer than 20 men getting off the beach. Local support brought down the Batista regime. Certainly, what came after that success might have gone differently, but at the time many Cubans were willing to lay down their lives for change. Many, probably most, Cubans still are very proud of what they have achieved through, what they see as, aggression from their much more powerful northern neighbour. 

So it's not so simple. Most Cubans, even the staunch "Fidelistas" (and there are still plenty of them) are well aware that things could be better, but no sovereign nation likes to be dictated to by a foreign entity regarding what kind of government they are supposed to have. And that, I think is where it is going wrong currently.

Give Cubans a taste, like any country, and they'll grab it. As happened during the small relaxations of some of the aspects of the embargo until a couple of years ago. Entrepreneurs in Cuba, and so many other Cubans who want to enjoy what entrepreneurship brings, suddenly had opportunity to break out of state control and that, suddenly (literally within months) brought about the biggest reforms from the Cuban government regarding private industry and an extension of capitalism within Cuba since 1959.

I have a terrible feeling that there has been a missed opportunity.   

You quoted me but I’m not sure how you interacted with any of my points.  I summarize them as:

The embargo was/is a reaction to stolen property and threatening rhetoric.  It solidified with the nuclear threat.   It is because of actions, NOT because of the form of government.

The Cuban government regards the US as enemies.

Nothing has changed with Cuban foreign policy toward the US.

New points:  Just as nobody likes a foreigner to tell them what government they should have, nor do they like to be told who they have to trade with.

It is not the responsibility of the US to foster entrepreneurship in Cuba.

The Cuban government government has never been successful in providing a working economy for its people.  It has relied on foreign aid since the beginning.

The Cuban senior leadership doesn’t care about its people.   Their lifestyle is fine.

The Cuban leadership takes a portion of the money sent from its expats they hope will alleviate suffering for their friends and family.  It’s a top 5 source of income for the leadership.

Cuba has supported communist “revolutions” with soldiers, medics, arms, and cash all over Africa, South America, and Latin America.  Some successful, some not.

Thousands have died attempting to flee Cuba on non-seaworthy, homemade vessels.  Thousands were/are tortured in prisons for political dissidence.

These are common to almost all communist regimes.

I love Cuba and its people.  Cuba has all it needs to be prosperous.  Great locale for tourism, land for farming, mineral resources, etc.

Cuba can buy all the food it wants from the US.  They just have to pay for it.  Gasp!   Hardly any country in the world is offering Cuba credit.  They have defaulted too many times.  And there is nothing that I know of happening in Cuba that is changing that.  Most of the tourism facilities are owned by military leaders.  This is the patronage that keeps them loyal to the regime.

The UK, Canada, Australia, and more all have sanctions against Cuba preventing the sale of arms to them.  They also have the same sanctions to dozens of countries.  The US sells billions of dollars in arms to the UK, Canada, and Australia.  (Amongst others, just mentioning them as they seem the bulk of the members here)

Why is nobody bothered that South Korea has an embargo against North Korea?

[Nino]

9 hours ago, Ryan said:

Entrepreneurs in Cuba, and so many other Cubans who want to enjoy what entrepreneurship brings, suddenly had opportunity to break out of state control and that, suddenly (literally within months) brought about the biggest reforms from the Cuban government regarding private industry and an extension of capitalism within Cuba since 1959.

I have a terrible feeling that there has been a missed opportunity.   

Sorry to disagree with you Andy @Ryan but "state control" was always there, nobody "broke free of it" and those relaxations were not maintained/safeguarded by the Cuban gvmt but taken back arbitrarily whenever the private sector became too attractive.

Best example you & I know is Espacios. The owner Raul had prepared the separate indoor cigar lounge, all dandy, perfect, ready and another 3-4 jobs, but in the end it was for nothing as he would not ask for a licence afraid to lose the main licence of Espacios as the gvmt was punishing too succesful private entrepreneurs by closing them down and seizing their business ( Litoral, the Pizzeria next to it, Starbien and others ).

And talking about missed opportunities - it was Cuba, Fidel and Raul who snubbed and refused Obamas hand and offers. Their bets to continue the same tired path were on a horse that lost and then came 4 years of the harsher whip and then Covid ....

To me it was Cuba that missed the bus.

[Ginseng]

8 hours ago, Nino said:

And talking about missed opportunities - it was Cuba, Fidel and Raul who snubbed and refused Obamas hand and offers. Their bets to continue the same tired path were on a horse that lost and then came 4 years of the harsher whip and then Covid ....

To me it was Cuba that missed the bus.

Wasn't it the (anti)Cuban-American lobby in Florida that is instrumental in perpetuating a hardline stance toward Cuba? 

I'm asking because although I don't really pay attention to the minutia or nuance, it is a subject that holds some interest for me. Primarily because of Barrio Chino.

[Nino]

A long read but a very interesting analysis of the failures of the Revolution from 1959 to today - published today on 14ymedio.

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Five failures of a revolution

What became of the original purposes proclaimed: freedom, sovereignty and social justice

Reinaldo Escobar, Havana | May 09, 2021

https://www.14ymedio.com/opinion/Revolucion_cubana-fracasos_0_3090890883.html

If we are guided by the founding and programmatic texts of that phenomenon called the Cuban Revolution, it can be summarized in a general way that its original proclaimed purposes were freedom, sovereignty and social justice. Free citizens in a sovereign nation where justice prevailed could carry out two more tasks: the satisfaction of the ever-growing needs of the population and the formation of that new man who should be cultured, supportive, honest, and civic.

Freedom That 1959 was baptized with the name of "Year of Liberation" presupposed that the absence of civic and political freedoms that prevailed throughout the bloody (albeit brief) dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista was terminated. But already in July of that year, the most important newspapers with national circulation began to be confiscated, and in September 1960 the radio and television circuits were transferred to the State. From there all the press would be official.

The promise of holding free elections in less than 18 months was definitively truncated on May 1, 1960, when in a speech Fidel Castro made his peculiar revolutionary definition of what democracy was and a rhetorical question became a slogan and law. : "Elections for what?" In that same act, for Workers' Day, appealing to "the threats of Yankee imperialism", Castro warned that the priority of the moment was the defense of the Revolution, which led to an extensive militarization of the citizenry through the formation of the National Revolutionary Militias.

After the dissolution of the Congress of the Republic, carried out in the first week of the revolutionary triumph, and the elimination of political parties, the eradication of political diversity was enshrined in 1962 with the creation of an entity called Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI). Of short duration, the ORI did not take long to become the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba, which in 1965 began to be called the Communist Party of Cuba. Unique, monolithic and indisputable only political organization allowed.

The early introduction of Marxist ideology brought with it a fierce atheism. Attending church, baptizing children, or wearing religious symbols became "negative" behavior. All expressions of civil, union, union, student, racial, gender or neighborhood association were replaced by the new mass organizations, whose sole purpose would be to serve as a transmission pulley between the "guidelines" issued by the highest level of the Party and the population.

The rights of association, demonstration and strike were seen as obsolete. Under the premise of maintaining unity, any discrepancy, however minimal, was considered treason, a collaboration with the enemy in the middle of a besieged plaza. Executions, long sentences, social exclusion of all kinds against opponents and discontents marked the entire decade of the 60s, where armed rebellion, conspiracy, sabotage and attacks were not lacking.

Finally, laws were passed that criminalize political dissent. The Penal Code, approved in 1987, describes crimes such as "enemy propaganda", contempt and others that penalize free expression when it contradicts the political postulates of the regime. Law 88 for the Protection of the National Independence and the Economy of Cuba, better known as the "Gag Law", promulgated in 1999, penalizes with long sentences those who "provide information" that help the enemy.

Later there were other decrees with the purpose of annulling the independence of the artistic sector (Decree 349) and independent journalism (Decree 370). The latest version of the Constitution of the Republic, approved in 2019, enshrined the sole character of the Communist Party and the irrevocable condition of the socialist system, while authorizing supporters of the regime to use force against those who seek to change it.

The freedom for which the fighters against the previous dictatorship had sacrificed their lives was thus reduced to a "petty bourgeois pretense" sacrificed on the altar of national sovereignty.

The sovereignty

One of the flags that the official propaganda displays most insistently is that after the triumph of the Revolution, the nation achieved full sovereignty for the first time in its history. Skillful in handling symbols, Fidel Castro ordered in January 1961 the downing of the eagle that rested on the monument to the victims of the Maine. May 20, which for 56 years was celebrated as Independence Day, was reduced to the humiliating position of being the date on which the pseudo-republic or "mediated republic" was inaugurated.

Never again, according to official history, would decisions be made in Washington. Trade relations with the United States ended with the decision to sell sugar to the Soviets in exchange for oil that in June 1960 the North American companies based on the island refused to refine. As a result, all US property was nationalized and, as the Revolution newspaper of October 13, 1960 noted in a subtitle, the banks were also "nationalized."

From that moment on, weapons, oil, food, household appliances, means of transport, industrial machinery, began to come from the Soviet Union and other countries of the then so-called socialist camp. In reciprocity to this "disinterested" aid, the installation of medium-range rockets loaded with nuclear warheads aimed at the United States was allowed on the island, which made Cuba the greatest danger to world peace.

A Magna Carta was drawn up in 1976 that copied articles from the Constitution of the USSR. Cuba joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CAME/Warsaw Pact) in its capacity as sugar factory and in the most important ministries, strategic decisions depended on the approval of an emissary of the Soviet Gosplán.

As a culmination of this dependence, hundreds of thousands of Cubans were sent in military uniforms to Angola to sustain the MPLA party, the Soviet favorite, in power. The longest war in Cuban history unfolded on the board of Soviet geopolitics in the middle of the Cold War.

When socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe, Cuba's already wounded sovereignty was a reflection of Robinson Crusoe's loneliness. The US embargo, which until then was the source of official mockery for its ineffectiveness, came to be identified as the cause of all evils, including political repression. Like never before, Washington's decisions influenced the country.

To counteract the effects of the loss of the Soviet subsidy, the nation opened up to foreign investment and international tourism, as long as it did not open up to Cubans. With Venezuela there was a rare symbiosis in which the legal unification of both nations was suggested.

For those in charge, the timid reforms were huge concessions justified as the only way to save the so-called conquests of the Revolution, in particular to maintain social justice.

Social justice

Among the many known models for achieving social justice, in Cuba the classic procedure of expropriating the rich for the benefit of the poor was chosen. Once a primary equality is reached, each one should receive in correspondence to what they contribute, but the economic agents would see their participation reduced to the production of goods or to the provision of services.

A rationing system imposed egalitarianism in consumption that supposedly guaranteed a basic food basket for all.

The nationalization of private schools in 1961 and the creation of an extensive free education system throughout the country, which included the massive training of teachers, put this line of social development in a position to be exhibited as an irrefutable achievement. The subsequent physical deterioration of the material base, the exodus of teaching professionals to better paid jobs and the excessive ideological burden of teaching content have demerited this sector to the point that there is already talk of a crisis in education and in the training of values.

The nationalization of hospitals and private clinics together with the massification of the teaching of the Medicine career made the health services the other jewel in the crown in the revolutionary showcase. Currently, the shortage of medicines and the lack of personnel due to the export of this qualified workforce are among the aspects that cause the most complaints in the population. The crisis caused by the COVID pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the entire system.

When there was nothing Yankee left to nationalize, the companies and businesses of the Cubans were confiscated, and in 1968 private property was totally exterminated.

For more than 30 years, competition was restricted to emulation based on social and labor merits as a vehicle to obtain improvements in the quality of life. In the practical definition of these merits, participation in political activities was included as a decisive element, which contributed to the spread of opportunism.

The invisible currency that one had to possess to acquire a Soviet washing machine, refrigerator, television or a house built in the microbrigade system was to make those merits in meeting the goals of production and service, participating in volunteer work, attending the rallies and nodding pleased at each new slogan.

All this scaffolding to sustain the established model of social justice did not rest on the efficiency of the socialist production system implanted on the Island, but on the subsidy from the Soviet orbit.

Once this flow ended, it was necessary to return to reality and accept the existence of private property, foreign investment and, albeit reluctantly, tolerate the differences in the standard of living between state wage earners and private sector workers. From that moment on, to acquire something of value, it was not necessary to certify merit but to have dollars.

Other issues of social justice that escape the class approach, such as racism, inequality between men and women and homophobia, have been left behind on the official program. As a result of the triumphalist propaganda, many problems that still persist in these and other areas are considered solved.

Due to the lack of representation with legal personality of those affected, the demands in these aspects, which are not covered by the official institutions, come to be classified as counterrevolutionary.

In their role as consumers, citizens have been waiting for the so-called "fundamental law of socialism" to be fulfilled, which consists of "satisfying in an ever more complete way the growing material and cultural needs of the people.

The accumulated needs

It goes without saying that needs grow gradually as they are gradually met. Rather than increasing in number, they become qualitatively higher. This is how it should be.

On the contrary, when what accumulates are dissatisfactions, a mediocrization of need occurs. You cannot aspire to the best because you can only fight for the basics, the minimum.

Those dreams of producing cheeses that outperform the Swiss have turned into the crippling nightmare of harvesting short-cycle agricultural products. The fantasy of having modern cities was reduced to building low-cost houses.

Household appliances, furniture, crockery, towels, sheets, clothing and footwear for Cuban families that depend on the state salary have far exceeded their estimated expiration dates. The replacement of any junk or trousseau, the slightest repair of the home and, more currently, access to new technologies and connectivity to the networks implies the payment of unattainable prices.

Transportation and roads are in chaos; the national aviation practically does not exist, like the merchant marine or the fishing fleet; the supply of water and electricity show no signs of improvement; sugar and coffee production, once exemplary, is at 19th century levels; the cattle ranch expresses its poverty in the difficulty to acquire meat and milk. Even freely convertible currency markets are depleted of the most elementary commodities.

Governors are being asked from everywhere to open bureaucratic closures, to free the productive forces from obstacles, but instead of allowing entrepreneurs to produce and market without restrictions, they vampirize them with excessive taxes, they deny them a wholesale market and prevent them from importing resources.

In the recently concluded Eighth Congress of the PCC, the same errors of privileging the socialist state enterprise and trying to control everything through planning were confirmed. It seems that they are unaware that in this way it is only possible that the needs of the population accumulate and dissatisfaction grows.

Soil salinization, fertile lands flooded with weeds, obsolete industries that pollute the environment. If the air, the land, the rivers and the seas could articulate words, they would also be complaining, but those who have come out the worst from this long and fruitless experience of more than six decades are the people.

The new man

If everything disastrous had brought human improvement to Cuba, it could be said that the price was worth paying. Quite the contrary, from that "fundamental clay" more emigrants than militants came out. The scum of that crucible where "the new man" was forged, the by-product achieved, was an adored and simulating being, unable to disagree with power, without will or initiative.

In order to form this model of person, the State totally controls the education system at all levels, monopolizes the communication media and keeps in its fist the apparatus that produces and disseminates cultural goods.

The risk that runs is immense, because this ideological inbreeding can only lead to intellectual damage, spiritual deterioration, a breakdown of moral values and, if established in the long term, it can end up being cataloged with justice

The new man parody obtained in that social engineering experiment may be less dire than the coveted specimen, but it is still sad. Leaving the country has become a test of self-esteem for the two generations born under this system. The belief (right or wrong) that you can get ahead and be successful in a competitive society is the key that identifies those who leave.

Under this ruthless logic, those who remain are the conformists who prefer to be supported by a paternalistic state without risking anything, the resisters who base their survival on illegality and the four madmen who believe they can change things.

If, as has been repeated, the formation of this new man was the greatest ambition of the revolutionaries, there is no other choice but to admit that the failure to fulfill that goal is the greatest of the frustrations of the process. Not even the most optimistic halberdiers of the regime today dare to affirm, six decades later, that there is already living among us that cultured, supportive, honest, civic and free character that was predicted in the revolutionary announcement.

The qualification of failure for the Cuban Revolution is justified because freedom was rooted out, sovereignty was reduced to speeches, social justice efforts were unfulfilled, the production and enjoyment of material goods have been kept to a minimum and that new man/best person , who supposedly would star in the public stage, does not just appear in this present.

[Nino]

17 minutes ago, Ginseng said:

Wasn't it the (anti)Cuban-American lobby in Florida that is instrumental in perpetuating a hardline stance toward Cuba? 

 

The more Cubans that manage to flee and settle in Florida, the more hardline stance to Cuba I suppose, they will help their families but resist a political "opening".

You'd be depressed and mighty sad to see Havana's Barrio Chino today Wilkey @Ginseng.

http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/a-cuban-chinese-christmas-story/

http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/visit-to-the-lung-kong-society-in-havana/

https://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2014/12/14/living-as-the-elderly-in-cuba/

https://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2014/11/27/an-international-visit-to-the-sociedad-lung-kong-in-havana/

 

[Ginseng]

1 hour ago, Nino said:

The more Cubans that manage to flee and settle in Florida, the more hardline stance to Cuba I suppose, they will help their families but resist a political "opening".

You'd be depressed and mighty sad to see Havana's Barrio Chino today Wilkey @Ginseng.

http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/a-cuban-chinese-christmas-story/

http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/visit-to-the-lung-kong-society-in-havana/

https://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2014/12/14/living-as-the-elderly-in-cuba/

https://lights-sirens-and-cigars.com/2014/11/27/an-international-visit-to-the-sociedad-lung-kong-in-havana/

 

Thank you for those links. I fear that it will have all slipped away by the time I'm able to finally visit Cuba.

[Nino]

51 minutes ago, Ginseng said:

Thank you for those links. I fear that it will have all slipped away by the time I'm able to finally visit Cuba.

Sadly yes - out of 180000 Chinese in Cuba just under 200 were left a few years ago.

Happy to have helped document their stories and big thanks to Pok Chi Lau and Graciela Lau at Lung Kong and all my International friends who assisted as well as to Min Ron Nee..