The plan is to modernize the automobiles by 20 years.
Posted on 04/01/2008 7:05:58 PM PDT by rdl6989
HAVANA - Communist Cuba is opening up unused land to private farmers and cooperatives as part of a sweeping effort to step up agricultural production.
The program is among reforms announced in recent days that suggest substantial changes are being driven by the new president, Raul Castro, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans.
Analysts wondered how far the communist government is willing to go. "Cuban people can't survive on the salaries people are paying them. Average men and women have been screaming that at the top of their lungs for many years," said Felix Masud-Piloto, director of the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University. "Now after many years, the government is listening."
Buying DVD players, pressure cookers On Tuesday, Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time since the new government loosened controls on consumer goods.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Hey, but at least they gotz free health care!
/s.
what’s next - non antique automobiles?
Laugh it up, but the Eastern Block fell after they got blue jeans, soft toilet paper and rock-n-roll concerts. Don’t underestimate the power of consumer capitalism to quickly undermine the firmest grip of Communism.
Raul is trying the ChiCom route to try to have it both ways. But China isn’t 70 miles off the coast of Florida.
I suspect that the Castro reign will fall within the next few years. Even if the Democrats win and try to prop them up.
Sometime during the mid 1950’s Mao said “Let a thousand flowers bloom”, people came forth spoke out and complained.
The bloom quickly wore off and there was hell to pay for those
that criticized the state. I hope that is not what is happening here.
Those old cars in Cuba are going to be worth a bundle if they can be sold to American auto buffs.
hard to imagine what it must feel like to walk the streets of Cuba and feel that 1950s time warp. Like being on a movie set.
private farmers will produce tons on this unused land.
****HAVANA - Communist Cuba is opening up unused land to private farmers and cooperatives as part of a sweeping effort to step up agricultural production. ***
If I remember correctly, years ago Fidel Castro had such a grip on the economy he wanted everyone dependent on him. He squelched food production and wanted people to plant flowers.
I read that it’s a similar situation on the U.S. Gitmo base itself. Cars are expensive to import so guys stationed there would lovingly care for their cars then pass them on at a pittance to a newcomer when their tour was over. Gitmo is a small place with slow traffic and (of course) no snow or road salt so modern, high-performance cars are not needed and the cars there last forever. The advantage over the Cubans being that spare parts can be ordered from CONUS and there is a well-equipped subculture on the base that can machine just about anything needed.
Raul must’ve read about Vietnam’s Doi Moi program, meeting capitalism and embracing it while maintaining a distance.
And didn’t they get free rice cookers just a couple of years ago? Why do they need DVD players?
The plan is to modernize the automobiles by 20 years.
I saw a really impressive movie detailing the fall of Havanah called The Lost City just today. (Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, and Ines Sastre).
Quite an impressive movie and strongly pro-family, as well. It definitely wasn’t sympathizing with the revolutionaries, which I thought was a nice change from the typical Hollywood format.
If the subject interests you, it’s worth a look.
Havana, sorry. :)
Going from a 59 Chevy to a 79 AMC is not an improvement.
“which I thought was a nice change from the typical Hollywood format.”
That is due to the fact that Andy Garcia is Cuban born and his family fled from the revolution when he was five years old.
They will be dumbfounded when they realize that they cannot maintain the new Chevys like they could with the old ones. LOL!
Communist Cuba is opening up unused land to private farmers and cooperatives as part of a sweeping effort to step up agricultural production.There's no way that will work, because, as everyone knows, only collective agriculture can feed the people.
“I suspect that the Castro reign will fall within the next few years.”
I think you’re right. Fidel was the one who created and maintained the regime because he had the grit that came from being a guerilla. Raul and the rest of the family has spent the majority of their time living like the dissolute rich that they threw out or executed during the revolution.
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