Cuba
Cuba is the longest running example of how and why embargoes don’t work. Cuba’s economy is unique. Over 90 percent of the entire Cuban economy is state owned by a military dictatorship that today is run by Castro’s brother Raul after his brother Fidel, who lived to the ripe old age of 80, handed him the reigns of power ─ much like the Bush family in America. Raul is trying to bring about in Cuba a China style transformation. A more open Chinese economic model. He has traveled a number of times to China to study first hand Beijing’s economic policies, and in 2003 invited the leading economic advisor to China’s then-premier, Zhu Rongji, who played a key role in opening China to foreign trade and investment, to Cuba to give a series of lectures. Lectures his brother Fidel boycotted.
Raul trimmed the military to 45,000 active personnel, down from the 300,000 a few years earlier. He has created a lean and mean military business machine modeled on China’s PLA. The military own and manage hotels, resorts, transportation and have their fingers in just about every industry opening up. Better it adopt the Chinese model rather than the Russian model which it could have so easily succumbed to.
He’s sent senior military officers trained in Russia’s most prestigious military academies to learn hotel management in Spain and accounting in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Canada. Cuba is opening and has been since Castro came to power in 1959. State of The Art Israeli farms and Chinese made bright-blue buses are right up there with the numerous joint ventures Cuba has established globally notwithstanding the embargo.
Cuba’s foreign exchange earnings have nearly doubled since an integration agreement with Venezuela was signed in 2004, due mainly to the export of medical and other services to Venezuela and record high nickel prices. Economic growth has been three times what it was at the start of the new millennium when Cuba began to recover from the post Soviet slump after it got dumped. Everyone is benefiting at the expense of America. The U.S. has slammed the door in its own face and is having a hell of a time getting on the right side.
The 40-plus year “el bloqueo,” the U.S. embargo on Cuba that has been such a failure, that every kind of U.S. made product is available there. MasterCard, Visa and every consumer item from soft drinks to diapers can be found by the more than 200,000 plus American citizens who travel there in defiance of the embargo. Western Union has an office there to facilitate the wire transfer of dollars – including those from the Oil-for-Food program.
Raul trimmed the military to 45,000 active personnel, down from the 300,000 a few years earlier. He has created a lean and mean military business machine modeled on China’s PLA. The military own and manage hotels, resorts, transportation and have their fingers in just about every industry opening up. Better it adopt the Chinese model rather than the Russian model which it could have so easily succumbed to.
He’s sent senior military officers trained in Russia’s most prestigious military academies to learn hotel management in Spain and accounting in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Canada. Cuba is opening and has been since Castro came to power in 1959. State of The Art Israeli farms and Chinese made bright-blue buses are right up there with the numerous joint ventures Cuba has established globally notwithstanding the embargo.
Cuba’s foreign exchange earnings have nearly doubled since an integration agreement with Venezuela was signed in 2004, due mainly to the export of medical and other services to Venezuela and record high nickel prices. Economic growth has been three times what it was at the start of the new millennium when Cuba began to recover from the post Soviet slump after it got dumped. Everyone is benefiting at the expense of America. The U.S. has slammed the door in its own face and is having a hell of a time getting on the right side.
The 40-plus year “el bloqueo,” the U.S. embargo on Cuba that has been such a failure, that every kind of U.S. made product is available there. MasterCard, Visa and every consumer item from soft drinks to diapers can be found by the more than 200,000 plus American citizens who travel there in defiance of the embargo. Western Union has an office there to facilitate the wire transfer of dollars – including those from the Oil-for-Food program.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 8:53 PM
2 Comments:
Mr. Kressel seems to think that Cuba follow what he considers to be the Chinese path toward capitalism.
He makes a number of astute observations, but concludes with some peculiar and obvious mistakes, like the idea that MasterCard and Visa are available in Cuba. They are, but only from banks not based in the United States. And the notion that 200,000 people have come here from the United States recently strikes me as proof he hasn't actually been here. While there are lots of tourists, there's nary a U.S.
accent to be heard anywhere outside of a few politicians and business people who are able to come under existing policies.
Otherwise, there are also interesting and useful points here about how Cuba has survived the blockade be reconfiguring itself in various ways, utilizing its own natural and national strengths and capabilities, both domestically and internationally. Take the time to read this.
I have no idea where he gets this "oil-for-food" notion as this is Cuba, not Iraq. Well, perhaps if people discuss this on his blog...
I can't tell if Mr. Kressel has actually visited Cuba. I spend long periods of time living and working here on the island. I have run a Yahoo news group for the past seven years with over 63 THOUSAND entries. People who are interested in Cuba might want to check it out.
Thanks.
Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
Mr Lippman is right that I have not yet been to Cuba. Many of my friends and business associates have. I look forward to going. Since when does an American accent, whatever that is, define an American -- especially a Cuban or Latino American whose mother tongue is Spanish? The 200,000 number is actually a very conservative number as many Americans travel there on their non-American passports.
Peter de Krassel
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