By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – There’s a popular saying that the year needs to end on a high note, in terms of a party, celebrations and good wishes, but reality in Cuba is even harsher today – as if it wasn’t already harsh enough -after the latest Parliamentary session.
As if things weren’t bad enough with the severe crisis that has taken over Cuba after the Socialist Camp collapsed (1991), and doubling down on economic measures in recent years, the government is now asking for more sacrifice, and prices of electricity, water, gas and transport will go up.
In an attempt to cover this bad news a little, as well as blaming the US blockade like they always do, health and education professionals were given special pay-outs that they used to receive in the old days, for years served, etc. In other words, they’re being given what was once taken away from them, it isn’t a real pay rise.
Taking the street value of the US dollar into account, they assumed that anyone who has a dollar can pay for nine liters of gasoline and that’s why they’re going to put up the price. But is anyone actually earning in dollars? I earn my wages in Cuban pesos, and if I make 5000 pesos every month it isn’t enough for me to handle this new price, along with higher prices of other services that really are basic – without going into food prices – things have shot up. A small percentage of the Cuban people have their own car, but they all must turn to the illicit market to buy food, and nobody is talking about lowering prices.
During the parliamentary session, Alejandro Gil, Cuba’s Minister of Economy and Planning, admitted that the country won’t reach planned growth for 2023, but they expect to do so in 2024. Does that ring a bell?
It’s the same boring story every year, and then come the string of excuses, about the blockade again (the US blockade loud and clear and the domestic blockade in whispers), Trump’s sanctions, oil prices, shortages of food and oil, etc. Not only did they not reach 3% growth planned for this year, but the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will actually shrink 2% compared to the year before.
Their abstract numbers (let’s assume they’re the real numbers) tell us what we all know: the lives of average Cubans haven’t got any better, in fact it’s got worse because prices continue to rise, and now they’ll go up even higher with these new announcements.
Gil said that total exports are lower than expected, “although there has been an upturn in some markets such as tobacco and fishing,” the same old lie so they don’t have to admit total failure.
He repeated that there is potential that they aren’t able to capitalize on because of a lack of raw materials, when lots of these products are being imported by individuals, with the capital flight this entails, not bringing anything in for the country, and so he proposed higher customs duties on finished products.
Tourism also ended on a low note this year, but the Cuban Communist Party says it has gone to great lengths to ensure the basic family rations, which continue to shrink despite having less consumers because so many people have left the country over the past two years. However, they can’t hide the fact they haven’t been able to even guarantee these basic items. For example, chicken for medical diets hasn’t been available for approximately a year, and milk for medical diets has already been unavailable to those who need it to get better for three years.
There were 32% more blackouts this year than there were in 2022, inflation was 30% more, which the Government can’t control they’ve said, as well as admitting that the measures they’ve taken up until now haven’t been as effective as expected. But that doesn’t matter. Gil and the rest of them will continue in their positions, we will suffer the results of their experiments, and they will carry on as if nothing is happening, with their fridges and gas tanks full.
It’s as if they’re the only ones who are trained to plan the Cuban economy, as if there’s nobody else we can turn to. While Gil holds his job, his counterparts over much of the world have been changed several times because they haven’t got results. However, nothing will happen to him now or ever, as long as you don’t poke the monkey and just keep playing with the chain, as the old saying goes.
They are so sure they’ll hold onto their positions that they are not only publicly announcing that targets weren’t met, but are also saying that everything is going poorly, and things will get worse. Just like that, without any kind of shame.
Gil insinuated there would be a different system to produce food in 2024, which involves people bringing in revenue from the fruits of their labor (this is lukewarm water my dear friends), and he has promised – in the same relaxed manner, as if he’s above good and bad – that things will get better in the next 12 months. In December of next year, we’ll be able to watch the same speech with a couple of changed figures, but the economy will be in the same wretched state.
For starters, it became clear in Parliament that foreign investors here can’t use their money wherever they want, they can only invest in the sectors the Government wants them to, and they want more investment to come in. Forty-two businesses were approved in all of 2023, almost half (20) are tourism-related. Really? No economy can pick itself up like this.
Our dear Miguel Diaz-Canel ended the session with the appeal he always makes for support, with no regard for us having less, but anyway, that’s the way it always is.
When the cost of diesel goes up one cent in any other country in the world, streets fill with protestors, but there’s no shame here and plenty of repression. That’s why I’m beginning to think that the solution has to begin outside and work its way in, although it’s unfair to ask others to sacrifice themselves for us.
So, no 2023 closing on a high note in Cuba; the few that have made great sacrifices to have pork this New Year’s will be downcast, thinking they probably won’t be able to enjoy it in 2024.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
