Send Us Hatemail ! mailbag@conservativecave.com
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Roger Johnson knew that Fidel Castro would step down eventually. But the Cuban leader's Feb. 19 retirement announcement, while Johnson was in Havana, added an unexpected bit of drama to an otherwise routine visit. As North Dakota's agricultural commissioner, he was on his seventh trip to Cuba in as many years, signing a contract to sell $7.5 million worth of peas and lentils. Wait a minute. What was a North Dakotan doing peddling beans to a country that Americans aren't supposed to trade with? He was taking advantage of rules that, since 2000, have allowed U.S. companies to sell food and agricultural products to Cuba. And he's far from alone. The U.S. shipped $438 million in such goods there last year. "We have a lot of commodities that Cuba wants," Johnson says. And somehow, Cuba scrapes together enough cash to pay for them. Despite the run-down buildings, potholed roads, and empty store shelves, the country's economy grew by 7.5% in 2007, the third straight year of rapid expansion. Record high prices for nickel exports, promising deepwater oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico, brisk sales of premium cigars, and white sand beaches that attract millions of foreigners all add up to a stronger economic base than you might imagine. The robust growth could keep the communist regime under Fidel's brother Raúl Castro afloat by allowing him to raise salaries and improve crumbling infrastructure. "Cuba's state economy is in the best shape it has been in since the Soviets left in 1991," says Jorge R. Piñon, a Cuba expert at the University of Miami. "They don't need the embargo to be lifted." That's not to say Cuba is in glowing health. Far from it. When Raúl Castro took over as acting President in 2006, he publicly acknowledged that government services were inefficient, and he urged Cubans to air their grievances and suggest how to make things better. In a series of roundtable discussions across the country, people complained about lousy public transport, low salaries, shoddy housing, and excessive government regulation. Although some 53,000 new homes were built last year, a half-million more are needed. And while Havana splurged on hundreds of new Chinese-made buses to replace tractor-pulled contraptions called "camels" that once hauled commuters, most people still wait in long lines or hitchhike to get to work.
Don't expect Cuba to achieve the kind of hypergrowth seen by Asia's stars anytime soon. The U.S. embargo will continue to bite, forcing Havana to pay higher prices for everything from powdered milk to satellite telephone connections. But 7.5% growth isn't bad, and if Raúl Castro can ease in changes that his brother might not have tolerated, the regime isn't likely to collapse in the near future either. "Raúl needs legitimacy, and the only way he can get it is by delivering results through significant economic reforms," says Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban-American businessman in Miami who heads a group drafting strategies to deal with post-Castro Cuba. "He doesn't really have much choice."
QuoteDon't expect Cuba to achieve the kind of hypergrowth seen by Asia's stars anytime soon. The U.S. embargo will continue to bite, forcing Havana to pay higher prices for everything from powdered milk to satellite telephone connections. But 7.5% growth isn't bad, and if Raúl Castro can ease in changes that his brother might not have tolerated, the regime isn't likely to collapse in the near future either. "Raúl needs legitimacy, and the only way he can get it is by delivering results through significant economic reforms," says Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban-American businessman in Miami who heads a group drafting strategies to deal with post-Castro Cuba. "He doesn't really have much choice." I should have seen it coming. The last paragraph, on the last page... Blame America.
Don't expect Cuba to achieve the kind of hypergrowth seen by Asia's stars anytime soon. The U.S. embargo will continue to bite, forcing Havana to pay higher prices for everything from powdered milk to satellite telephone connections. But 7.5% growth isn't bad, and if Raúl Castro can ease in changes that his brother might not have tolerated, the regime isn't likely to collapse in the near future either. "Raúl needs legitimacy, and the only way he can get it is by delivering results through significant economic reforms," says Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban-American businessman in Miami who heads a group drafting strategies to deal with post-Castro Cuba. "He doesn't really have much choice."
