Crackers In Caracas

“Welcome to the USSR” …. That’s the sign they should put up at Simón Bolívar International Airport, aka Caracas International airport in Venezuela.

Chavez - From Soldier -
To Arrested Coup Plotter -
To Demagogue. A Well Worn Path.

It certainly seems to be a country run by idiots, with an ideological bias that only an ex-terrorist could have come up with.

 

Nobel Prize, Ignoble Politics

China's behaviour over the award of the Noble Peace prize to Liu Xiaobo one of their own citizens, but one who is in prison for protesting for human rights, has been nothing less than shameful

..... but the behaviour of some of their 'friends' around the world has been equally disgraceful.

 

Cuba Reforms - First Open Criticism For 50 Yrs

The Cuba reforms are proceeding at a glacial pace, but even so there have been the first rumblings of criticism, with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the head of the Catholic Church in Cuba saying it is in one of its worst crises in recent times, and that people are openly criticising the socialist system.

Personally if I was Cuba's rulers, I would think that economic reforms should predate any 'political' ones, or else risk a 'Russian' reform i.e. problems of corruption and oligarchs arising before any benefits hit the people.

In other words do a China and get working on introducing a private economy, with some adjustments to ensure countryside not left behind, and to ensure poverty gap doesn't get too big.

It's all very well for the US congress to make an issue of political reforms in Cuba before they will lift the sanctions but do they really want several million Cubans sailing to the US because the economy has collapsed in Cuba?

I doubt whether Pres. Obama could survive the backlash from a 'boat people' invasion ..... so let Cuba manage the change, accept that the political changes will come somewhat later than the economic ones (Cuba isn't China. It can't isolate the communist party from the influence of its neighbours,especially the US with its Cuban diaspora), and play the long game.

Cuba Denationalises

As discussed in earlier posts, Cuba is creeping away from a state run economy, and in the latest move has privatised 'hair dressers' ..... ah well, 'Rome wasn't built in a day'

No Free Lunches In Cuba

Last year I commented on the slow but inevitable changes that face Cuba, one of the last of the 'communist' states, now that Fidel Castro is reaching the end. Like all these pseudo socialist states (Vietnam, China, Laos, and North Korea), Cuba has long been chasing the US dollar, in the Cubans case, via "Tourism", in which visitors must use Yankee dollars to pay for everything.

However, as I predicted, the collapse of the system (prompted by the economic collapse worldwide) of supports that gave the majority of Cubans free meals at state-run workplace canteens has been partially cancelled, with the whole system, whereby the state provides about 3.5 million free lunches a day, expected to be ended sometime this year.

Now, as has been found in other states where the state paid for absolute obedience with a certain amount of welfare, notably East Germany, once this support ceases, so does support for the system. However the Cubans have little choice as they are no longer being subsidised by the Soviet Empire.

Perhaps as telling, and maybe a lesson for the leftwings of theWest who are still wedded to State intervention and control, was what President Raul Castro said about subsidies which was that they "are ineffective or, even worse, make some feel that they don't need to work". Read the universal welfare benefit, system for 'subsidies' and you are hitting one of the reasons why, large swathes of our communities, prefer to never work rather than educate and work.

Cuban Communism falters

I recently blogged on the likely decline of Communism in Cuba now that Fidel Castro has stood down ..... News this week confirmed my predictions, when it was announced that it has abandoned equal pay for all.

Vice-Minister for Labour Carlos Mateu said the current system - in place since the communist revolution in 1959 - was no longer "convenient". Now pay rates will vary according to worth.

Next the US dollar will become the official currency (or the pegged level in any event) to allow emigres to spend and send money 'officially' in Cuba.

You read it here first folks ...

Computers for Cuba

As the changes of style since the retirement of Castro takes place, and Cubans are rushing to join the 'consumer' culture as fast as poverty (average earnings are only US $20 pm) allows them, it begs the question "will they be happier?"

Capitalism Makes You Sing And
Dance For Your Supper .....

I ask because when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, many East Europeans and East Germans, thought that wealth would pour through like a veritable Cornucopia, only to find that Capitalism was a harsh mistress (even in the 'welfare state' form that was in vogue in West Europe).