Posted on 07/05/2020 7:46:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
HAVANA (Reuters) - In the courtyard of a temple belonging to the Abakua Afro-Cuban religious brotherhood in Havana, Nelson Piloto is pulling up the lawn to plant bell peppers and cassava in the face of Cuba’s looming food crisis.
Piloto, 40, says he is responding to the Communist government’s call for citizens to produce more of their own food, including in big cities, in whatever spaces they can find, from backyards to balconies.
Standing across from two giant ceiba trees that are considered sacred by many in Cuba, the temple usually resounds with ceremonies involving drumming, animal sacrifices and dance. But it sits empty now due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions on gatherings.
“I’m making the most of the earth,” said Piloto, leaning on his hoe.
Food security has lately risen to the top of the national agenda in Cuba, with countless news headlines and televised roundtable discussions dedicated to the topic.
“Cuba can and must develop its program of municipal self-sustainability definitively and with urgency, in the face of the obsessive and tightened U.S. blockade and the food crisis COVID-19 will leave,” José Ramón Machado Ventura, 89, deputy leader of the Cuban Communist Party, was quoted as saying by state-run media on Monday.
The Caribbean island imports roughly two-thirds of the food it consumes at a cost of around $2 billion annually, in addition to key farming supplies like fertilizer, machinery and animal feed.
But imports have nosedived in recent years as aid from ally Venezuela shrank following its economic implosion and U.S. President Donald Trump tightened the half century-old U.S. trade embargo.
That led first to shortages of imported food and then to drops in national agricultural production. Output of Cuban staples like rice, tomatoes and pork fell 18%, 13% and 8% respectively last year, according to data released
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
In an amazing coincidence, the same thing is happening in North Korea:
Yeah but they have really, really good healthcare.
And then tell those same people that they have to share the fruits of their labor with the less fortunate.
Isn’t Socialism wonderful??????
Shouldn’t that read “facing a decades long food crisis”?
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Only NOW are they coming up with this idea ?
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Failures of Communist are legion.
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It’s a “tropical paradise”...stuff grows there all over the place...just on its own...how hard can it be for them to grow edible stuff?
Or did I miss that week when Cuba was magically transported to the Arctic or the middle of the Sahara desert?
I think because they were hand fed in those days...no worries...govt would always come thru, until they didn't...
same with Cuba....they got barely along but now that their sugar daddy is broke, they're broke too...
and why haven't they been growing their own food?.....plenty of us here on FR could afford to buy fresh veggies but we choose instead to grow gardens, some have chickens, others cows...others hunt and fish....
what a concept...
Right - it isn’t a BLOCKADE. If they have nothing worth trading with the rest of the world, that’s their own fault. They can buy anything they want - including American products - as long as they do it through a third party.
The Soviet military hated Cuba.
It was a tradition to sing a guitar-song upon departure:
“Farewell, the craphole of poor booze and stinking charcoal wh###s,
Cuba,give back my rubles and take back the crappy sugar,
Cuba, Khruschev is gone, Castro go f### yourself!”
Although my impression of Cuba contradicts the narrative.
They are generally very clean people but awful racists.
Another peculiar thing is they all love dogs and hate cats.
l8r
My favorite YT blogger “Bald and Bankrupt” recently did a series of videos from Cuba, very illuminating.
Huh—some of the HOA and Zoning tyrants have taken legal action against people in USA who had the audacity to plant typical food plants in their front yard. (rolls eyeballs)
Yep, bald has style. Doesn’t post much anymore unfortunately.
I’m sure the commie Pope will help since he loves letting people live under the thumb of tyrants.
Does a lot from Belarus, lately.
I’m obsessed with Bald....actually trying to learn a little Russian....
“get smashed”....
Bald gave me some good advice about learning a language and I’ve applied to learning Polish. Just focus on vocabulary and not grammar, if you know the vocabulary, even if you don’t conjugate it properly, they will understand you just the same, and they will understand that you aren’t a native speaker and appreciate it anyway.
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