Lorne Gunter. Aug 2, 2011. Reuters. A new day in Havana. Since taking over from his brother Fidel as head of the Cuban government in 2008, Raul Castro has slowly nudged his socialist country towards freer markets and more personal liberties. Monday, he and the Cuban parliament took yet another step down that road.">Lorne Gunter. Aug 2, 2011. Reuters. A new day in Havana. Since taking over from his brother Fidel as head of the Cuban government in 2008, Raul Castro has slowly nudged his socialist country towards freer markets and more personal liberties. Monday, he and the Cuban parliament took yet another step down that road.">

Cuba Headlines

Cuba News, Breaking News, Articles and Daily Information



Lorne Gunter. Aug 2, 2011. Reuters. A new day in Havana. Since taking over from his brother Fidel as head of the Cuban government in 2008, Raul Castro has slowly nudged his socialist country towards freer markets and more personal liberties. Monday, he and the Cuban parliament took yet another step down that road.

Cuban parliamentarians approved a 300-point plan for the island country’s future. Included is the elimination of more than a million government jobs, on top of the half-million eliminated since last fall. In a country with six million workers, 85% of whom are state employees, this amounts to a huge displacement of the workforce.

Cuba’s rulers will also back gradually out of farming, shop-keeping, transportation and construction, and permit small, private businesses to fill the gap. Most of this privatization is to be achieved through cooperatives run by former public-sector workers. Cuban legislators even directed large companies – all of which are state owned – to start responding to market forces, rather than just government directives.

Farmers may – just may – be permitted to decide for themselves what crops to grow. In a country that was once self-sufficient in foodstuffs (and should be still), between 60% and 70% of food must now be imported. Surely independent farmers could make no worse decisions about what to grow than government bureaucrats are currently making.

Ordinary Cubans still may not buy homes or cars for themselves. This week, when introducing the new legislation, Jose Luis Toledo, president of the parliament’s constitutional and legal affairs committee, and a faithful Communist party member, explained “socialism means equal rights and opportunity for all, but not egalitarianism.”

Um, no, equality of opportunity is actually classic liberalism. Socialism is “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” which is, of course, egalitarianism in its purest form. So Cuba is not truly attempting to return the revolution to its purest ideological roots. It is endeavoring to jettison the revolution and move to more of a western-style mixed economy.

Now what the rest of the western world needs to do is trade like crazy with Cuba.

The trade I’m referring to is for produce and other crops, for ore from Cuban mines and products produced by the legion of new entrepreneurs, including handicrafts, leather goods and artworks.

Source: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/02/lorne-gunter-cuba-needs-a...


Related News


Comments