Cuba’s Internet Options Include US

By Circles Robinson

The United States has a golden opportunity to help Cuban citizens obtain greater and faster Internet connectivity and the key, a fiber optic cable, is sitting in international waters off the coast of the island.

US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will both be heading for Florida this week to woo votes in the important swing state. Among their prime goals is to clarify their political stance regarding Cuba policy.

The candidates will have a chance to break with the current policy of excluding Cuba from new technology, which under the US blockade also extends to vital equipment in fields such as medicine, energy and the steel industry.

Allowing Cuba to hook up to the fiber optic cable would end the bantering over whose fault it is that more Cubans don’t have Internet.

If the Cuban government decided not to provide greater access, once it had the capacity, then US politicians and Cuban “dissidents” could argue that it was control of information, not a lack of access that blocked islanders from having Internet.

To date, the Bush administration has considered it more politically expedient to blame the Cuban government for the low percentage of citizens with Internet than help them gain access.

Internet in Today’s Cuba

While it cannot hook up to the oceanic fiber optic cable or contract the service of US Internet providers, Cuba has advanced in the development of a domestic fiber optic system. There has also been considerable progress in recent years with digitalizing around 90 percent of its telephone communications.

Nonetheless, telephone service is still limited to 10 phones for every 100 inhabitants, below the average of 18 percent teledensity in Latin America and the Caribbean and nearly 60 percent in the US.

A home grown system, called the Intra-net, allows Cubans to receive e-mail and scroll domestic Web sites. A national network of computer clubs, post offices, and some workplaces and education facilities are the common places where people access. Some professionals with computers provided from their jobs also use the service from their homes. Demand still far exceeds supply.

Cuba’s Telecommunications Ministry maintains that comprehensive Internet —connecting people to Web sites from around the world—, is severely limited due to the slow and expensive satellite service currently available to the island. Thus, Internet is only available at home to researchers, journalists and some academics and executives, the prioritized groups. Hotels and cyber cafes offer the service to tourists.

For those that have Internet at home the low-bandwidth dial-up connection (between 16 and 50 kb/sec transmit speed) works OK for most sites but is inadequate for many audio and video links.

Computers are First

Over the last six years I have witnessed a great expansion of computers on the island, an indispensable step towards both Intra-net and Internet access. The on-going nationwide strategy has targeted workplaces, businesses and schools as the top priority. Cuba assembles its own computers with components purchased abroad, largely from China.

The next step includes expanding access to individual PCs. “It’s a great aspiration for all of us to have a computer,” Deputy Communications Minister Roman Linares was quoted last week as saying. “But we have to be realistic, going step by step and attending the needs of the economy, the society and also the individuals,” he added.

While the US could speed up the process for greater Internet access by allowing Cuba to hook up to the fiber optic cable, Linares noted that it is not the only option. He said a much more costly 1,500 kilometer cable project to connect Cuba and Venezuela and its broad-band capabilities could resolve the matter by 2010.

With the end of the Bush presidency in January 2009, McCain, Obama or Clinton will soon have to make their decision of whether to continue trying to block Cuba’s telecommunications development or change to a good neighbor approach.

Cuba Draws Labor Leaders Despite Bad Press

By Circles Robinson

The mainstream international media paints Cuba as a hell-hole where a down-trodden people have few rights, and even fewer cars or cell phones. An AP article widely circulated on Tuesday, quoted a Freedom House study, calling Cuba one of the “most repressive” countries on Earth.

If that were the case, then what would bring labor leaders from around the world to meet in Havana for the International Workers Day festivities on May 1, instead of vibrant cities like New York, London, Mexico City, Toronto, Paris, Buenos Aires or Madrid?

After watching the huge Cuban parade on May Day and seeing the faces of the some of the guests on TV, I decided to go to the annual solidarity event that the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) throws each May 2 in Havana and try to get some answers.

When I arrived at the Havana Convention Center I couldn’t help but notice the dozens of new powder-blue Chinese “Yutong” buses. The sight of all those vehicles suddenly made real the news figure of more than 1,400 foreign participants from 61 countries.

The spacious facility built in 1979 with its restaurants and comfortable meeting rooms of all sizes, is also the site of the Cuban parliamentary sessions, as well as numerous congresses and other international events each year. The main hall where the event took place was decorated colorfully with the flags that many of the labor and solidarity organizations had brought with them.

The first labor leader I spoke with was Alan Richie, general secretary of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) from the UK and Ireland. A carpenter whose own body looked as solid as a hardwood door frame, Richie said he was in Cuba for the first time.

When asked why he had chosen to come to Cuba, he said that his union has maintained a policy of support for Cuba for many years. Fond of Cuba from a distance, he said he has always been concerned about the island “recalling what happened to Allende” referring to the US backed coup that toppled the labor friendly president of Chile in 1973.

After noting that UCATT has issued resolutions supporting Cuba he said: “Cuba should be left alone to develop its economy and strategies.” Richie said that his union will offer the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) “our experience in costs, quality of materials and production.”

Accompanying Richie and the construction workers delegation was Spencer Wood, an attorney whose firm represents UCATT. This was Wood’s fifth visit to Cuba. When asked to compare what he was seeing this time with past visits, he said: “My friends here are optimistic that things are getting better.” The lawyer saw the US blockade as clearly the biggest problem facing Cuban labor, noting that it also “affects access to some building materials.”

Wood said he had met with Cuban lawyers who represent worker interests when there are complaints filed. He noted that the system is very different in Cuba because “the union is not an adversary, but instead plays a part in government decision-making.”

Asked about UCATT’s own domestic struggles, Wood’s colleague chimed in that there are two big issues facing construction workers in the UK. One is the failure of the government to meet its obligations to workers suffering from illnesses caused by handling asbestos materials before they were banned. The other is the current trend towards “self-employment.” He said such contract labor provides no worker benefits and is geared to weaken the unions.

Canadians Rick Murray and Cheek Totten, members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), were in Cuba as part of a worker-to-worker tour. This was their second and third trip respectively to the island. Murray emphasized the need to reach the grassroots population back home with information on Cuba. He felt that the solidarity meeting was important “to get people on Cuba’s side.”

Murray noted that in the Canadian press everything reported about Cuba is negative: “Our media is like the media in the States.” Totten mentioned that the CUPW just had a convention of some 700 members who expressed their support for Cuba. “That’s a start,” said Murray.

Asked about their own domestic agenda, they said that the Canadian postal workers were facing tough challenges to fight privatization and deregulation. “Technical change is a big threat to the workers,” said Totten. Murray added that the frightful example of Minneapolis, where hundreds of workers lost their jobs to “modernization, is an ever-present threat to their union.”

Murray concluded by saying that on this trip he had noticed that infrastructure is being repaired, something he thought was a good sign for Cuba.

Porfirio Barrera Jimenez is from the Center for Political Studies in Guerrero, Mexico. He was attending the May Day related activities in Cuba with a group of educators. After a week on the island Barrera felt that the biggest challenge facing the country is “the younger generations.” He emphasized the importance of strengthening the civic and revolutionary consciousness of the youth.

In the economic arena, he pointed to the need to strengthen agriculture and small industry as well as the ability of Cuba to create its own technologies. Barrera expressed particular concern about “US financed cells of counterrevolutionary religious groups that go house to house, trying to make political inroads.”

Bolivia and Cuban Five Top International Agenda

The plenary session of the solidarity gathering was presided over by Salvador Valdes Mesa, general secretary of the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC) and Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, president of the Cuban parliament.

Valdes Mesa opened the meeting by outlining the international agenda of the CTC. This includes defending the cause of the Cuban Five, denouncing the activities of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in Miami, and demanding measures to deal with the global crisis caused by the rise in food and oil prices, and climate change.

He then made special mention of Fidel Castro’s recent alert about the situation in Bolivia, where the oligarchies of the resource-rich departments are spearheading a movement to divide up the nation.

The labor leader proudly noted the generous contributions of Cuban workers in providing assistance in the fields of medicine, education, science and sports in dozens of developing countries. He concluded by saying that Cuban workers will continue defending the right to work for a better world.

Ricardo Alarcon centered on the Cuban Five case which has taken up a considerable amount of his time over the last 10 years. Arrested in 1998 for gathering information on the plans of terrorist groups based in Miami, the Cuban Five were given harsh sentences after what numerous human rights and attorney groups term a biased and irregularity-plagued trial.

Alarcon also called attention to a meeting that same night (May 2) in Miami to eulogize notorious international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. The meeting had been organized by several groups including the Cuban Liberty Council and the Cuban-American National Foundation. “It’s incredible that such a meeting could be possible,” said Alarcon. Posada Carriles is credited with blowing up a Cuban airliner that killed 73 persons and with other deadly terrorist crimes including Havana hotel bombings.

Following Alarcon’s speech, the meeting opened to the floor. Dozens of speakers issued statements on two central issues: Bolivia and the Cuban Five. A resolution was approved to condemn any attempts to dismember the South American nation and the US participation in promoting separatism as a way to combat the advances towards social and economic justice promoted by the Morales government.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the large British-Irish trade union Unite, expressed his union’s admiration of Cuba for exporting doctors and teachers while others export weapons. He promised that “the British trade union movement will continue to demand that the British government support a policy of engagement with Cuba.”

Referring to the Cuban Five case, Nelia Pintora, of the Association of Ex-Political Prisoners of Uruguay, said that the people in her organization know what it’s like to be in the hands of terrorists. “We feel very much identified with them and know what their families feel,” she said.

Guillermo Macias Mendez of a Michoacan, Mexico teachers’ association spoke of the importance of keeping humanitarian legislators and NGOs constantly informed on the Cuban Five case. He also recommended making greater use of the Internet to inform students and professors in the United States.

Alicia Jrapko, national coordinator of the International Committee to Free the Cuban Five, explained how the committee was working to keep the case in the public eye. “Due to the news blackout in the mainstream US media on the case, we’ve had to purchase newspaper ads to try and inform people, she stated, adding: “We have to reach the hearts of US citizens and we must be creative to be able to reach other sectors of society.”

Notes on Cuba’s Atypical Economy

By Circles Robinson

Cuba’s economy is not easy to understand, especially for those that have never lived under a similar system where government plays a lead role. To begin with, it doesn’t go by the usual market codes of supply and demand and corporate profit isn’t its driving force.

Coming from North America or Europe to a typical Cuban urban neighborhood, the visitor’s first impression might be one of poverty: crumbling or poorly maintained buildings, pot-holed streets, ancient cars, homes where there are few “extras” etc.

On the other hand, if you arrive from Latin America or another developing country, other aspects of Cuban life might get your attention: no street kids, no malnourished faces, no beggars and people walking the streets at night with almost no fear.

In fact, in the more than six years living in Havana, I have yet to see ONE working child, an astounding contrast to other Latin American countries where I witnessed the daily parade of hungry kids scrambling to shine shoes or hawk a host of products at markets and traffic lights, in parks and door-to-door. Many are glue snuffers before they become teenagers.

Simply speaking, that doesn’t happen in Cuba, and that difference alone should make anyone think twice before buying into the corporate media’s image of Cuba as a country of acutely deprived people.

Yet, technically speaking, the foreign news stories are correct when they talk about salaries in that are the equivalent of US $10-30 a month.

Rich in some ways, poor in others, Cuba has insisted in running its economy on a different model.

AN ECONOMY THAT DARED TO BE DIFFERENT

The biggest distinguishing factor of the Cuban economy over the last half century has been an unswerving commitment to feed, educate and protect its citizens.

This is no small feat for an under-developed country. Even more so when you consider that Washington’s relentless blockade keeps it from exporting to the US market where the neighboring Dominican Republic sends 75 percent of its exports.

It involves very careful central planning to provide a supply of foodstuffs, highly subsidized public transportation and utilities, universally free education at all levels and even a complicated surgery at no charge.

The government has continued to do this through good times and bad, and with obvious ups and downs, especially in the 90s with the collapse of support from the Soviet Union.

Today, the national budget receives revenue from diverse sources: profits from tourism, from the nickel mines, from agricultural exports such as sugar, tobacco, fish, citrus, and coffee. Another source is hard currency sales of products imported and sold by the State that absorb a good share of the family remittances from abroad that are also a factor in the Cuban economy.

The revenue is not indirect through taxation, but comes directly through public ownership. The earnings go into the national budget to finance productive investments and subsidize products, services and social security to the population.

Cuba has shown a knack for survival, in spite of a cumbersome bureaucracy that sometimes seems to run counter to the government’s objectives.

Nonetheless, in the post-Soviet years the purchasing power of salaries drastically decreased. While improving slightly, there are still severe limitations, creating many difficulties for Cuban families.

SOME THINGS CHEAP, OTHERS OUT OF REACH

In Cuba an average family of two working adults and one child, has a combined income of US $20 to $60.

Many special benefits help stretch this amount far more than it would ever go in another country. The parents get a hot lunch at work, paying $1 or less for the entire month. The child’s lunch at school costs $0.30 a month. Transportation costs are minor: 100 bus rides for the family (kids under 12 don’t pay) costs $1.65, and some workplaces have their own free transportation.

Cooking gas costs pennies, and the average family pays under $2 a month for electricity and under $1 for local telephone service. Most people live in apartments or homes that they or their relatives or spouses own. The small percentage paying rent by law pay no more than 10 percent of their salary.

While not enough to meet all needs, a supply of staple foods and a few other basic products is available to every Cuban citizen for around $1 a month. Available medicines are priced at pennies and all educational and health care services are free. .

Books, which are out of reach for the poor in developing countries are considered a basic need in Cuba and are heavily subsidized. A book that would cost US $10 to $25 in most countries costs between $0.30 and $0.80 in Cuba.

On the entertainment side, for the equivalent of $0.75 two people can go to the movies complete with popcorn, have an ice cream cone afterwards and pay their round trip bus fare.

Sounds great so far, but not all is roses.

The regular Cuban peso, in which people receive their salaries, exchanges at 20 to one US dollar and has little value outside the subsidized economy. The other money that circulates is called the Cuban Convertible Peso or CUC, (the country’s hard currency equal to about US $1.20) needed to buy imported products like cooking oil, powdered milk or higher grade detergents, soaps and shampoos.

Cubans without family remittances, bonuses, tourism-related employment, or some illegal scheme find themselves with a very limited purchasing power. Most have a tough time making ends meet with clothes and shoes. Even local food and produce sold in regular Cuban pesos can be too expensive if you don’t possess the CUCs to exchange.

THE CANCER OF WORKPLACE THEFT

Given this situation, it’s not surprising that many Cubans resort to illegal “scams” of one kind or another to get by. Many of these involve stealing from the workplace. Relatively unknown during the more prosperous 80s, the practice mushroomed in the 90s when the government could no longer provide workers with the variety or quantity of consumer goods they were used to. A sort of pragmatism about workplace stealing wormed its way into the national conscious. Doing what you have to get by even merited its own verb: “resolver.”

State-owned industries, business inventories, office supplies, restaurants and worker kitchens, construction sites etc., became fair game. A huge percentage of the population has been drawn into the practice —either by taking regularly from their own workplace or by purchasing things in both currencies they know are stolen or illegally sold. Some of the theft is extremely small scale and individual, while some is well organized and involves larger sums and a chain of people.

An astounding but highly representative example came in a widely watched speech by Fidel Castro back in 2005. He stunned his national audience by openly stating that an investigation had shown that around half of the country’s gasoline and diesel, all imported and sold by the State, was being detoured to the black market.

The big loser is the State, which means nobody or everybody depending on how you look at it.

Is it possible to educate a general population to favor the common good over the individual or family interest, especially in hard times?

With new openness, Cuba’s leaders have encouraged the local media to explore such topics, not long ago taboo. A letter to the editor in Granma daily newspaper on Friday, April 25 from a Havana resident described how the younger members of the family went to the new Isla de los Cocos amusement park and came home saying they had bought discounted tickets to go on the rides.

“It turns out that the tickets the "vendor" collects [for the rides] are not properly torn and he then resells them… at a good savings to the young students, who want to go on more and more of the rides,” noted L. E. Rodriguez Reyes, concluding: “How sad that our young people play the game of the dishonest without analyzing it!”

For parents like L. E. Rodriguez, who gave their best for a brighter future for all, such practices are painful and highly undesirable. But for the younger generations, workplace theft of one kind or another is a fact of life.

Widespread complicity has led to a general tolerance. Few citizens are willing to denounce such activity and risk being called a snitch over something “normal.”

The situation has produced a mutated economy and impacted the values of the Cuban population.

If five Cubans sat around a table to talk about the subject, the discussion could go on all night.

Some believe the problem is too big to tackle as long as salaries don’t meet basic needs. Others think that it’s never too late to begin to address the corrosive ill, as long as the right strategies and tactics are used.

SOCIALIST INCENTIVES AND THE FUTURE

Cubans are discussing their problems more openly than at any time since I have lived here. Listening to them, I find that most people want to maintain the benefits of their subsidized products and services, but also want to be able to purchase things their salary won’t permit.

The strategy of President Raul Castro to gradually increase salaries and make the peso go further promises greater pay for increased farm and industrial production; maintaining the concerted effort to conserve energy and other key resources, and a streamlining of the government bureaucracy.

Thus, the direction of the Cuban economy points to a system that provides equal opportunities but with greater incentives, asking for the contribution of “each according to their ability,” and rewarding “each according to their work.”

While the government and labor note that hard work is crucial to a rise in the living standard, the battle to return to the “poor, but honest” maxim is also seen as vital for the future of a revolution that takes pride in, and is admired around the world for its fairness, solidarity and ethics.

Cuba’s “New Freedoms”

By Circles Robinson

The arrival of some previously unavailable electronic items on Cuba’s store shelves, together with the new access to cell phones and tourist hotels is hot news these days in the foreign press. In a constant barrage of news articles most reporters sadly bemoan the fact that Cubans lack the money to take advantage of their new “freedoms.”

Cubans make around US $20 a month, but consider free health care for all a right. Most can’t afford DVD players or PCs but with free education at all levels their sons or daughters can become doctors, scientists or engineers if they have the vocation.

“Cubans can now book a room in 5-star tourist hotels but who can afford it?” chorus the foreign press in articles with titles such as: “Some Cubans can’t afford new reforms” and “Changes in Cuba spark frustration and hope.”

One article focuses on a man named Ernesto who “makes just over $12 dollars a month” but owns a car and his home. He laments that he would have to save up a year’s salary to stay a night in a fancy hotel or purchase a cell phone and line.

Cuba is recognized internationally for having exemplary social programs for a developing country but across the board low salaries keep most people’s purchases to the basics.

CHOICES TO BE MADE

Cuba is not a wealthy, developed nation, and the choices the government (which controls imports) must make are dictated by a strict set of parameters regarding what is a luxury and what is a necessity. Finding a way to meet the basic needs of its 11.2 million inhabitants and have an educated, healthy population are the top priorities. Assisting other underdeveloped nations is a close second.

Those choices will never be very attractive to the mainstream foreign media because corporations and the market aren’t the main actors determining where investment should be made.

The reporter didn’t ask Ernesto if he would prefer a night at a hotel to the low-priced public utilities that he and his family receive year round. If he had been asked, he probably would have said he deserves both. Such an attitude has an explanation.

Cuba was never a consumer society with an abundance of products. However, journalist Orlando Oramas reminds us that with their salaries “in the 1980s Cubans could occasionally check in for a weekend at the posh Havana Libre Hotel or take a tour of the island with their families.”

Times were different back then, as Oramas notes. During the 1960s, 70s and 80s Cuba exchanged its sugar at highly favorable rates for oil, manufactured goods, machinery and industrial raw materials from the Soviet Union and Socialist Bloc.

That trade system collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union, and Cuba’s economy hit rock bottom in the early 1990s. While today it is on the upturn with expanded trade with Venezuela and several other Latin American countries and China, it is clearly still in the recovery stage. President Raul Castro has announced a concerted effort to gradually restore the buying power of devalued salaries as well as providing greater incentives for increased production.

While some professionals, workers and farmers earn bonuses they could use for luxury items, most prefer to spend their money first on additional basic food and hygiene products that the state is unable to provide at the heavily subsidized neighborhood stores. Their second choice would probably be clothing or shoes. Many who receive small amounts of family remittances or tips in the tourist industry do the same.

Nonetheless, it is each person’s choice whether they wish to tighten the belt in order to save up for more expense items. For now, the new opportunities will be most accessible to those families who receive sizeable amounts from relatives abroad, people working for international firms located in Cuba, as well as doctors and a smaller number of other professionals working in government-sponsored missions in other countries.

MORE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

As the foreign reporters concentrate on Cubans’ new “freedom to consume” they miss the story on more important events gradually taking place in the lives of normal Cubans. There’s no magic wand, but major government investments appear to be paying off.

Less than three years ago the country’s electric generating system had virtually collapsed. Daily blackouts were commonplace, affecting normal family living and wreaking havoc at workplaces, offices and industries.

The blackouts coincided with the near collapse of the country’s public transportation network. The inconvenience was the butt of constant criticism and jokes, endless frustration and discontent, as well as damaging to the economy.

Then the government announced a nationwide energy revolution. In short, the effort meant obtaining savings at homes and workplaces with more efficient lighting and appliances, combined with massive investment in a more decentralized and fuel-efficient generating strategy. Upgrading of the distribution system was another component of the plan.

The effect so far has been a giant success. So much so that in this era of US $100 a barrel oil, other countries of the region have sought Cuba’s help to try and do the same.

For several years my family and I were constantly recharging a pair of battery-powered florescent lamps and buying replacement bulbs. Now, with the blackouts a thing of the past, the lamps are around only in case of hurricane winds, when the power is cut as a safety precaution.

HERE COME THE BUSES, MORE FOOD NEXT?

In 2006, Cuba’s leaders began a program of major investments in new buses and trains. At this time they predicted that public transport would gradually improve over the following 3 or 4 years. Many people were skeptical since the problem had existed for nearly two decades and was getting worse.

Today, Cubans are finally seeing major improvements in their public transportation. Much of the fleet of long distance buses between provinces has been renovated and urban transport is improving fast in Havana. Similar improvements are programmed for other cities as well. In the capital, bus trips that used to take 1 1/2 to 3 hours, including the wait, often now take an hour or less. Better yet, instead of being mercilessly squashed many commuters now find their buses are only moderately crowded. Sometimes I even find myself a seat!

The much greater frequency of many of the bus routes is startling. Other parts of the capital yet to benefit will receive the same improved service once their streets are repaired and enough drivers can be trained.

Another area where large-scale change has begun is food security. There is a new, high-priority focus on farm efficiency and production to reduce costly food imports. The plan involves higher prices to private farmers, more land to those who need it and greater access to farm supplies, especially geared to benefit both family farmers and coops.

The goal is a sharp increase in harvests and livestock production in the not-too-distant future, thus increasing the supply of affordable food products and adding needed variety to the population’s diet. Such an accomplishment would go way beyond electronics and hotels in improving the lives of average Cubans. We can only hope that the foreign media will stick around to report it.

Religion in Cuba: Not What You Think

By Circles Robinson

My wife and I walked into the Nuestra Senora del Carmen Church located on Infanta Street in Central Havana, Cuba just as the 6:00 p.m. Mass on Easter Sunday was beginning on March 23rd.

Unlike what some people might imagine, the atmosphere was similar to that in any other Latin American Catholic Church. The doors were open, there were no police in sight and the worshippers of mixed age were relaxed and at ease. I greeted a former news agency co-worker who was in one of the back rows.

There was one important difference, though. Instead of a packed congregation in predominantly Catholic countries, the church was no more than 75 percent full.

We took a good look around the beautifully adorned baroque church inaugurated in 1927 with its main and side altars and attractive art work including the painted tiles, mosaics, ceiling and wall murals, and the spectacularly decorated hard wood pulpit.

At the beginning of the Mass, the officiating priest, whose accent seemed to be from Spain, spoke of the festive nature of the anniversary, remembering the resurrection of Christ as, “the most important day on the Catholic calendar.” He also reminded people that their contributions would go to projects “in the hands” of Cardinal Ortega, mainly to make repairs on churches in the different parishes.

Neither my wife nor I practice a religion but it was not the first time we’ve walked into a place of worship in Cuba to observe the atmosphere. We have also gone to ceremonies of the Afro-Cuban “Santeria” religions (originating out of a blend of West African religion with Roman Catholicism so as to make it appear back then to their Catholic slave owners that they were converted to their master’s religion).

The Afro-Cuban religious influence is readily visible on the streets in dress and accoutrements. People initiating into the religion wear all white from head to toe for three months or longer. Different colored necklaces and bracelets as well as scarves, hats, umbrellas etc. also have their significance. Driving percussion music that often spills out into the streets sometimes accompanies religious ceremonies along with sensual, improvisational dance.

Our neighbors and co-workers belong to a mixed bag of religions. Others are agnostics or atheists.

A look at the 2007-8 telephone book white pages for Havana shows 129 “Churches and Places of Worship” listed. These include: Catholics, Baptists, Adventists, Methodists, Episcopalians and Pentecostals. Santeria, mostly conducted out of homes, has many followers while there are small numbers of Jews and Muslims.

We also have friends and acquaintances participating in programs of ecumenical faith based civic organizations that work along with local government institutions to confront social problems such as alcoholism, drugs and domestic violence with an emphasis on raising awareness and consciousness among the population.

SEPARATING ROLES

In many Catholic countries, the separation of Church and State is still merely nominal. The Church still has its hand in every pot.

The Evangelical groups —often with a lifeline in the US—, also try to dictate how everybody should live based on fear of the devil and his associates.

Things are different in today’s Cuba.

While the church doors are open to anyone wanting to attend, the omnipresence of religion in all aspects of life is clearly not the case.

You don’t feel invaded by religious messages on loud speakers, on buses or on the radio and television which occurs in several Latin American countries and in parts of North America as well. Religions in Cuba do not have access to the media.

While some people —usually middle aged or above— habitually use the phrase “gracias a Dios” (Thank God) in relation to something positive that has occurred, the phrase, “Si Dios quiere” (if it’s God’s will) —very common in Central America and Mexico— is rarely heard in Cuba as a substitute for human action or as a sign of resignation.

Catholic holidays go virtually unnoticed by the majority of the population, especially by the more recent generations. Just before Easter week I conducted a quick poll among acquaintances, revealing that most had no idea when the holiday fell this year. Religious holidays don’t appear on calendars and rate only an occasional mention on the international TV news. Some people working in the tourism industry are aware of it only because the holiday week brings many planeloads of vacationers to Cuba.

NO INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION AND HEALTH MATTERS

The zero influence of religion on Cuba’s health care and educational systems as well as politics is clearly one of the most significant changes instituted by the Cuban revolution since its onset.

The Constitution does not permit religious education in public schools or the operation of private schools, except for some international schools for the children of diplomats.

With religion out of the way, reproductive health issues like birth control, or sexually transmitted diseases are treated as scientific and not moral problems. Sex education is heavily stressed in the grade schools and birth control is available on demand. Full information and treatment for STDs are also available to teenagers and adults on demand.

Condoms are touted on television as part of the ministry of health’s AIDS prevention campaign. In contrast, in countries where the Catholic Church or other conservative religions dominate political power, young people are denied information and told that abstinence is the answer.

The topic of abortion, one of the perennial political battlegrounds in the United States and other countries, is in no way taboo in Cuba. Abortions are available through the country’s public health system, and Cubans consider that the decision to carry out or terminate a pregnancy belongs to each woman. Those who believe abortion is wrong are free not to use the service.

The result is that most women prefer to finish their education and begin their careers before having kids. Further, most choose to limit their families to one or two children, rarely more.

Without the taboos propagated by religious conservatives, people in general are more open about sex and sexuality than in most other Latin American countries.

BACKGROUND ON RELIGION IN CUBA

While some researchers say Catholicism was never as rooted in Cuba as some other Latin American countries, official stats show pre-revolutionary Cuba as over 85 percent Catholic. Other studies put the percentage of “devout” Catholics at below 50 percent even before the revolution. Most analysts agree that the Catholic Church was strongest among the upper and middle classes because of Cuba’s Spanish colonial past.

The Church hierarchy, allied to the wealthy, lived hand in hand with the Batista dictatorship. So it was no surprise that shortly after Batista fled Cuba the majority of the Catholic priests —mostly foreigners— also left the country. Others were expelled for collaborating with the counterrevolution.

While not prohibited, during the 1970s and 80s religion was frowned upon. Those practicing were considered to have divided loyalties and thus could not be candidates for membership in the Communist Party or positions of any importance. Then in 1992, a constitutional amendment made Cuba a secular instead of an atheist state, thus opening the door for people who practice a religion to be members of the Party. One’s private religious beliefs were no longer seen as an obstacle to participation in the revolutionary process.

Since the 90s the Catholic Church has increased its visibility slightly, but not its influence. Today a limited amount of foreign priests and nuns are allowed residency. Christmas was restored as an official day off in 1998. However, the Church steers clear of politics and has no place in government policy.

Santeria —which many people believe rivals the Catholic Church in followers—has reached greater recognition in society under the revolution, treated by the government on a par with all other religions.

CUBA AND THE VATICAN COINCIDE ON SOME ISSUES

Relations between the Cuban government and the Vatican are cordial and frank. They actually coincide on several international issues including opposition to wars of aggression like the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the importance of fighting poverty around the globe.

Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone recently visited Cuba and stressed the Holy See’s opposition to the US blockade on the island. When Pope John Paul II visited the island 10 years earlier he met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Cardinal Bertone expressed the Catholic Church’s desire to play a greater role in education and have access to the media. To date the government has not acquiesced. The fact that it hasn’t keeps Cuba different from its Latin American neighbors.

While respecting others right to worship any or no religion, what I most appreciate about Cuba is the lack of religious fanaticism and the fact that the education and health care systems are strictly non-religious.

A Night at Havana’s Superdome

By Circles Robinson

I grew up watching my father play a lot of beach volleyball. Since living in Cuba, I have also become fond of conventional volleyball, a game quite popular on the island.

Last week the Chinese and Cuban men’s teams squared off at the Havana “Sports City” indoor coliseum for two exhibition matches. Unable to make the first, I didn’t want to miss the second. Despite it being a school night, I took my 6-year-old grandson for his first visit to our “superdome”, built in 1957 with a 15,000 capacity.

Tickets are sold for one and two pesos, the equivalent of 4 and 8 cents of a US dollar, within anyone’s reach. The more expensive tickets were for wooden seats on the first two levels, and the cheaper tickets bought a space on benches higher up.

The first thing we did upon entering the stadium was to buy some popcorn. Others around us were snapping up the other food items for sale: lechon pork sandwiches and chocolate coated ice cream bars.

We arrived a half hour early to get good seats and see the players warm up. However, finding seats turned out to be not all that easy. We attempted to sit down twice, only to learn that we had chosen blocks of seats that were reserved for a large group of Chinese students who are in Cuba to study Spanish.

Finally seated on the second level, I started explaining to Axel who was who, which he had already figured out, and observing the stadium and its decorations. There were no advertisements; just a couple of small scoreboards, a large portrait of Ernesto “Che” Guevara (there was no need to tell the boy who he was), and a potpourri of red, white and blue banners tastefully hanging from the ceiling, giving a kind of birthday party atmosphere.

Down on the court, the warm-up resembled a choreography of giants jumping up and down and more than a dozen blue and yellow balls flying in the air.

After the passing drills it was time for practicing attacks. This proved quite humorous from our vantage point, as several hard spikes flew past the court helpers and into the ground floor crowd which had to be on red alert so as not to get bopped. A few did!

The practice ended, and the player announcements and national anthems of both countries were played over the loudspeakers. One amusing detail was that the announcer for the Chinese team called out the players’ numbers in English, despite the presence of several hundred Spanish students in the crowd.

Play ball began right on time at 8:30.

Axel had come with a Cuba tank top on and was set to root for the home team. However, the Cubans had decided to start off with their rookie players and the Chinese got off to a strong early lead.

Concluding that the die was cast, Axel decided that he didn’t want to back the loser and made an abrupt about-face announcement that he was really for China. Of course I stuck with Cuba.

Cuba lost the first two sets 25-20 and 25-21 and then the boy fell fast asleep on my lap, convinced he had gone to bed with the winner.

By the third set though, the islanders had brought in some of their real starters and things began to turn as Cuba won set three, 25-23. They also took the fourth, 25-19, setting the stage for the fifth tiebreaker-set which is played to 15 points.

China, with excellent defense and passers and two first-rate spikers, were not throwing in the towel and were perched to win after taking a 14-11 lead. Then the excitement gradually reached a crescendo as Cuba scored five straight points to win 16-14 (according to volleyball rules you must win by two points).

The two teams may lock horns again later in the year in the Beijing Olympics, but first Cuba has to prove its strength in May’s qualifying tournament in Dusseldorf, Germany. China automatically qualifies for the Olympics as the host team.

To the delight of locals, the popular Cuban women’s volleyball team has already qualified for Beijing.

After carrying Axel for a while, I finally had to wake him up so he could sleepwalk the rest of the way to a friend’s car that would take us home. It wasn’t until the morning, when he came into my office to say goodbye before leaving for school, that I broke the news of who won the match. I stifled the impulse to rub it in. Axel had no comment, but we both agreed that the night out at the Sports City arena had been great fun!

Cuba Manages Without Advertising

By Circles Robinson

There’s nothing like traveling abroad to get added perspective on things at home. A trip at the end of last year to Spain and Nicaragua got me thinking about some of the things that make Cuba different.

When you get off the plane at the modern Havana airport you are immediately struck by the absence of advertising. No “Drink Coca-Cola” signs, no shiny photos advertising hotels or airlines or credit cards. There are some large posters with palm trees, white sand beaches and attractive people invoking the island’s enchantments.

Once out on the streets of Havana, the impression of being in a different world continues. Nobody is trying to sell you a car, a home, a candidate, a vacation, toothpaste, a meal at a fast food chain or anything else.

In Cuba, there is no commercial advertising in newspapers or on television and only one radio station, Radio Taino, —directed to tourists— promotes a few Cuban products like Cristal and Bucanero beers. Billboards carry public service messages about saving water or electricity, or political messages reminding people of the economic damage caused by the US blockade or extolling the example of revolutionary heroes.

The lack of advertising even seems to go too far at times. A common complaint is a lack of public information on cultural and sporting events, despite the attempt that’s made on TV and in some publications to publicize them. Similarly, many restaurants, social clubs and offices have poorly visible signs or none at all, relying almost totally on word of mouth. This works fine for longtime locals, but may leave out many visitors or newer residents.

It’s almost impossible for some Westerners to imagine a life without ads. It’s no surprise; last year over US $450 billion went to advertising around the world. In the case of the US, many politicians consider freedom for companies to advertise on the par with freedom of speech and the right to buy hand guns.

Cuba’s system doesn’t look at it that way. Its authorities believe that a country striving for a fair and equitable distribution of all available goods has no use for the frenzied desire for “more, more, more,” that advertising stimulates.

The ad-less Cubans live without the stressful consumer Christmas season that characterizes most Western societies for the last two months of each year. And children don’t pester parents to buy sugar-coated cereals, take them to McDonald’s or purchase a never ending host of toys and electronic devices.

Without ads to tell them what they should be wanting, kids are generally content with far less, and adults as well. Cubans are big on family and friends; like to dance and drink their rum, read a lot, and are TV fanatics, loving their movies, soaps, musical and sports programs.

This doesn’t mean they are totally satisfied. Most would like a little more in the way of creature comforts - a car, sound system, a DVD, air conditioning, new furniture. But with those items out of reach of their purchasing power the chief concern is getting enough of the basics and a little variety in their food and clothing, independent of the brands.

At the same time, though, most Cubans also want the benefits offered by their social system, which provides the entire population with some basic foodstuffs and utilities at very low prices. In addition health care and education are free at all levels. A government program to replace old refrigerators, TVs and some other kitchen appliances has been underway in recent years.

When pressed, most people recognize that the country is incapable at this time of providing everyone with the basics and the extras. Armed with this recognition, the population continues —sometimes amid complaints— to use the crowded buses, turn on fans instead of air conditioners, and make do with their old furniture.

Would this attitude change if people were subjected to a daily barrage of ads for things they don’t have? Interestingly, many Cubans have no particular like or dislike for advertising since they’ve never lived with it.

Having seen both worlds, though, I feel that the dearth of advertising keeps the pressure down on the wish list and keeps people focused on the things they do have or can get.

As an ex-pat from the developed world, it’s a great relief to live without the strains of so many artificial “needs” created by ad firms. Cuba’s policy to live without commercial advertising is clearly one of the things that make it different.

Blogging from Socialist Cuba

By Circles Robinson

Back when I was growing up in Los Angeles, California in the 1960s, most US media painted Cuba as hell on Earth. I remember the air raid bells ringing and getting under my school desk because a bearded “Satan” had allowed the Russians to station nuclear missiles barely 90 miles from peace-loving Florida.

Of course my third grade teacher didn’t fill the class in on any of the details, but she did let us know there was plenty to be afraid of. In fact, for nearly a half century, generations of US citizens and people around the globe have been fed the story that Cuba is a permanent threat to peace, democracy, religion and everything we hold dear.

I always wondered how an undeveloped island country with barely three percent of the US population could really pose such a threat. Having been offered a job revising Spanish to English journalistic translations I finally got the chance to see for myself in 2001. I moved to Havana with my partner, daughter and one-year-old grandson.

After living in Cuba for several years, I decided in 2005 to start this blog. My main objectives in writing are to break through the black and white portrayals of colorful and diverse Cuba, and at the same time support the island’s right to be a little different from the rest of the continent.

It’s not easy to write objectively about Cuba. Two polarized views often distort any rational discussion.

One comes from the United States government and media, obsessed with its characterization of Cuba as a “Communist menace and police state.” Trashing the island in these terms is a decades-old lucrative business, thanks to the continuing flow of dollars from Washington and Miami to journalists and politicians.

No reality, not even the end of the Cold War in 1991, has modified this distorted view of Cuba.

Equally far from reality however, is the rosy picture Cuba has painted of itself; influenced by a belief that it’s not in the besieged country’s interest to share its problems with a hostile outside world.

Those who question the horror stories and somehow manage to visit the island, usually come away feeling that they’ve been duped by the mainstream media.

On the other hand, visitors expecting to encounter a revolutionary utopia encounter a complex country with many achievements and just as many problems. Some leave disillusioned.

With a new president (Raul Castro) and a new parliament in Cuba, and with the US heading into a November election showdown, it seems to me that this might be a good time to take a broader look at Cuba.

In the coming weeks I will be interspersing my news commentaries with several posts on life in Cuba and some of its main challenges for the future.

Cuba: If you liked Fidel you’ll like Raul

By Circles Robinson

There is no greater example of Washington’s failed Cuba policy than the well-executed changing of the guard that took place in Havana last Sunday.

Political analysts at home and Cuba watchers abroad are still digesting the fact that Fidel Castro —who decided not to run for reelection— and the Communist Party of Cuba have pulled off a smooth transfer of power. The event has left Washington dumbfounded and the hard-core Miami lobby dejected.

Nobody dreams of filling Fidel Castro’s shoes as a statesman, but newly chosen President Raul Castro will certainly continue on the course that Cuba’s historic leader and his close associates have carefully set out. This includes a promise of policy reforms and administrative streamlining.

In the days leading up to the National Assembly’s vote to elect a new president, the mainstream US and European media rushed to paint a picture of Cuba as a fragile house of cards ready to fall apart with the first light breeze. Most now grudgingly admit that their dire predictions were wrong.

Already adjusted to Raul’s style of government after 19 months as interim president, most Cubans are now waiting —patiently or skeptically— for the promised changes to make the country’s socialist system work better. The streets are calm and life goes on normally.

WHAT TO EXPECT

In his acceptance speech on Sunday, February 24, as in his address to the final session of the outgoing parliament on December 28, 2007, Raul referred to progressive changes in several areas of the Cuban economic and social life. Issues on the table include reforming the nightmarish bureaucracy, eliminating stifling rules and regulations, improving an economy marked by low productivity and poor administration and raising peoples’ low purchasing power.

One of the greatest achievements of the Cuban revolution was surviving the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent crisis that peaked in the summer of 1994. Difficult decisions were made during this period. Once again the doomsday forecasters were proven wrong, but as Raul Castro said “many changes were undertaken with the rush imposed to quickly adapt to a radically different, very hostile and extremely dangerous scenario.”

He went on to note that in the last 14 years the panorama has changed dramatically. “Today a more compact and operational structure is required, with a lower number of institutions under the central administration of the State and a better distribution of their functions. This will enable us to reduce the enormous quantity of meetings, coordination, permissions, conciliations, provisions, rules and regulations etc.”

President Raul Castro made it clear that some issues would be addressed more quickly, like lifting certain long-standing prohibitions and authorizing greater autonomy in local decision-making. He said other more complicated economic issues, including the dual currency system, would be addressed after careful study.

THE YOUNGER GENERATION WATCHES AND WAITS

One of the most important questions for the future of the 50-year revolution is whether the promised reforms can inspire new energy among Cuba’s youth. At present, a considerable segment of the younger generation have fallen into apathy and disaffection, claiming to see no future for themselves in their underdeveloped country and longing to immigrate to where the grass appears to be greener.

When push comes to shove, many of those youth will admit that what they really want is the best of two worlds: the advantages of their country’s admired social system combined with a modestly better material living standard. Due to the US blockade, the difficulties faced by the entire region and Cuba’s own deficiencies, the latter has proven unobtainable on the island for nearly two decades.

The Cuban media and educational system puts great emphasis on the heroic deeds of Cuban students in the 1950s who fought the Batista dictatorship. While the history is an important part of the cultural and national identity, it is clearly not enough to motivate young people. Unlike survivors of the heroic revolutionary generation and the first generation after them, many of today’s youth see the glass as half empty, while the older generation sees it as half full.

Cuban analysts have meticulously studied the fall of the Soviet Union, East Germany and the rest of the Socialist Bloc. Much of the government’s seemingly slow maneuvering comes from the desire to avoid abrupt changes. Such changes, they fear, could give their enemies in Washington a wedge to break the country’s overwhelming unity on national sovereignty and self-determination.

WHO IS ON BOARD

The new first vice president, Raul’s previous post, is Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. A doctor and former minister of public health, Machado has served for several years in the key post as organizational chief of the Communist Party Central Committee.

“I met Machado more than 50 years ago in the Sierra Maestra Mountains; the two of us were in the same column as the Commander in Chief [Fidel],” said Raul. “In case of any accident, attack or whatever,” Machado as first vice president is a guarantee that the revolution will continue “without interruption.”

The new defense minister is Julio Casas Regueiro, who was vice-minister under Raul Castro at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Casas is widely known for his business expertise and for being thrifty and even a bit of a “tightwad” as Raul stated in an intervention at the National Assembly before he was reelected.

Castro noted that Casas brings with him a lot of experience and that one of his greatest virtues is his reputation among all the generals as a careful spender; “to such an extreme that he was the only person I gave the authority to veto my economic decisions [at the defense ministry],” said the president.

On the new Council of State, now headed by Raul and Machado, the other five vice presidents are: Juan Almeida Bosque, Juan Estaban Lazo Hernandez, Abelardo Colome Ibarra, Carlos Lage Davila and Julio Casas Regueiro (the only new VP). Julio Miguel Miyar Barruecos remains the secretary.

Of the other 23 Council of State members, 12 are new including 7 of the 8 women elected (up from 6 in 2003). The new council now includes 11 black and mestizo members including two of which are vice-presidents, Lazo and Almeida.

US POLICY UNLIKELY TO CHANGE

The transfer of power dealt yet another blow to the 50-year-old US government obsession with overturning the Cuban revolution. Neither punishing US citizens and Cuban-Americans by strict travel restrictions, nor limiting normal business transactions, nor blocking academic, scientific, sports and culture exchanges has produced the clearly-stated goal of the Bush administration to return the island to its former status as a pseudo-colony.

Any possibility of a thawing in the icy relations between the US and Cuba now depends on Washington. Cuba’s offer still stands for unconditional talks to improve relations and work together on matters of mutual interest like drug trafficking, human smuggling and the fight against all types of terrorism.

In this final year of the Bush presidency, any cooperation appears out of the question. However, a new US leader in January 2009 will have the chance to make history and break the hostile policy of ten successive administrations towards Cuba.

Suspense Mounts in Cuba after Fidel Retires

By Circles Robinson

Fidel Castro made public on Tuesday his decision not to seek reelection as Cuba’s president, opening the door to a new leadership when the parliament convenes on Sunday.

The man who has led his country since the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959 said he would continue to write his reflections on historic and current events —as he has done during his prolonged convalescence after intestinal surgery— offering his experience to the younger generations.

Castro’s decision paves the way for the newly elected 614-member legislature to choose a new president for a five-year term. It will also elect the 31-member Council of State, which has among its functions the authority to exercise most legislative power between sessions of the parliament.

While a major chapter in Cuban and world history comes to a close with Fidel’s announcement, it takes place on his and Cuba’s terms, to the chagrin of the Miami exile lobby and the Bush administration, who above all want to see upheaval and an end to the island’s socialist system.

Acting President Raul Castro and Vice President Carlos Lage are considered the leading candidates to replace Fidel who turns 82 in August.

In his letter published Tuesday morning, Fidel notes that the new government and legislature will have to adopt “many agreements of utmost importance to the destiny of our revolution.”

FROM EXPEDITIONARY TO PASSING THE BATON

When leaving Mexico for Cuba on the Granma yacht commanding 82 expeditionary comrades back in 1956, Fidel Castro said, “If we set out, we’ll arrive; If we arrive, we’ll enter; and If we enter we’ll triumph.”

What seemed like a fantasy back then came true and Fidel has weathered umpteen crises over the last half century to maintain his small country afloat against great adversity.

Repeated CIA assassination plots, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the October Missile Crisis, the disappearance of the Soviet Union (Cuba’s main ally through the 1980s), and the ongoing US blockade have all proved unable to turn back the clock to the pre-revolution years.

Now, one could add a fourth conditional conjunction to Fidel’s Granma prophecy back in 1956, illustrating the revolution’s success in building stable institutions allowing for a smooth passing of the baton: If we triumph we will persevere.

"Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process," wrote Fidel Castro Tuesday in his statement. "They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement," he notes.