How US taxpayers' money is wasted on not helping Cuba

Yet more proof,  if any were needed, to confirm just how much of US taxpayer's money is wasted by groups purporting to help bring Democracy to Cuba has been posted by Tracey Eaton on his blog Along the Malecon. He provides this link to the USAID website that details how much and to which organisations the millions of dollars are distributed each year. Some websearching provides illuminating reading.
For example, in 2013 more than $490,000 was given to an organisation called the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia based in Coral Gables Florida. This grupo does not seem even to have a website of its own but the Guardian informs us that in 2006 it was criticised for spending its money on: "computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and expensive chocolates"
Another recipient is the Pan American Development Foundation, an organisation that was set up by the Organisation of American States. This parent would surely be embarrassed to learn that its child received more than $720,000 to promote civil society in Cuba, yet its own website does not report that it has had any success in doing so. There does not appear to be any information on its Cuba work at all.
Then there's the National Democratic Institute, which received $447,000, and which it spent, according to its website, on promoting: "international awareness of the activities of Cuban democratic activists by conducting outreach to political and civic leaders, and international organizations around the world to provide recognition, support and solidarity for those struggling peacefully for democracy on the island." Well that's not exactly "providing support for Cuban civil Society" which is the stated purpose of the programme on the USAID website. In fact, if you read that carefully, it does not say it spends any of the money IN Cuba at all.
It's a gravy train pure and simple, the money does not go to helping Cuba. It is a scandal and a huge rip off of the American people and ought to be stopped.

Restaurant coop experiment begins

This report from Reuters announces that the move towards forming cooperatives is under way in Cuba.  It says that more than 20 state restaurants in Cuba are about to become employee-run. The restaurants will become cooperatives in October, with hundreds more likely to follow if the experiment succeeds.
All aspects of the business from buying the food to splitting the profits will be decided by the employees, not from on high in the government. A similar process is already under way in other sectors from construction and transportation to farmers' markets and light manufacturing.
Among the resturants that are in the experiment is La Divina Pastora, located just below the Morro Castle, the view from which is... simply divine (pictured).

On being a fake Cuban...

 Cuban illegal migrants

It had to happen. Sooner or later someone was going to realise that the ridiculous anomoly of the Cuban Adjustment Act allows for the perfect scam. This story from the Miami Herald details the case of fraud in which the cuplrits made $500,000 selling fake Cuban birth certificates to illegal migrants from other Latin American countries. Under the CAA, a Cuban national is allowed residency and eventually full-citizenship, which is a privilege that no other nationality enjoys. It's a policy that atrracts thousands of Cuban migrants every year to the US ... and, now it seems, a lot of others besides. It really is about time the US government realised that it is a stupid policy that needs reform.

Marti: Eye of the Canary - a rare chance to see a great movie

Join me at 1pm August 25 at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, London,  for a rare chance to see Fernando Perez's lavish film about the life of famed Cuban revolutionary José Martí (1853-1895).

Perez focuses on Marti's early years of as he experiences the many injustices perpetrated under Spanish colonial rule.
He re-invents the childhood and adolescence of Cuba's 19th-century national hero, covering the years he lived in Cuba before being sent into exile for political sedition at the age of 17.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with myself and my good Cuban friend Vladimir Smith Mesa PhD.
To book click HERE
An interview with the director about the film HERE
A Cuban blogger's view of the film HERE

The Cuban 'Big Bang' approaches

Cuba is preparing to deliver the hardest and most complicated part of its economic 'updating' process.
In a series of announcements made to separate sessions of the Cuban National Assembly by President Raúl Castro and by Marino Murillo, the politburo and Council of State member charged with overseeing the reform process, moves wereannounced that will see the unification of the dual currency system and the deregulation of virtually all state-run companies over the next few years.
This far reaching  reform is also expected to see virtually all state companies freed from most elements of central control and allowed to operate in a manner that enables them to retain a part of their profits for reinvestment or be closed if they make losses for more than two years running.
Speaking to the Cuban National Assembly on 7 July President Castro said a long and complex road lies ahead for Cuba as it updates its economic and social model, “while ensuring majority support of the population”.
The most difficult element would be the reform of Cuba’s dual currency system, which President Castro acknowledged, “constitutes one of the most important obstacles in terms of national progress”.
In his address to the National Assembly he said that the government intends that the process of eliminating the dual currency will need to be "orderly and integrated" since it will result in far-reaching changes in salaries, pensions, prices, tariffs, subsidies and taxes.
The process will “demand rigorous preparation and implementation” and, he suggested, will require all Cubans to accept the effect of the change at both a national and personal level.
Since 1994, two Cuban currencies have circulated on the island, the national Peso (pictured below) and the Convertible Peso (above), known as CUC. At present a Convertible Peso is equal to 25 Cuban Pesos. It is  the currency in which most salaries are paid.
The government’s Economic and Social Guidelines, which were approved in April 2011 by the National Assembly, explicitly state that “progress will be made towards monetary unification, taking into account labour productivity and the effectiveness of the mechanisms for distribution andredistribution. Given its complexity, this will require careful preparation and execution on the both the objective and subjective planes”.
During his speech, President Castro also said the process of change would continue to have a social dimension and exclude “the shock therapies and abandonment of millions of people characteristic of the adjustment policies implemented in recent years in various nations of rich Europe”.
Mr Murillo had earlier told the National Assembly that the first stage of the reform process involving the elimination of prohibitions was drawing to a close and that during the remainder of 2013 and 2014 “the most profound transformations” will be worked on. These include deregulating even the largest state-run companies so they can operate with greater autonomy in their management and distribution of earnings.

Cooperative Cuba emerges

As part of the economic "updating" programme, and as part of a general effort to speed up economic growth, the Cuban government announced on 28 June that that 124 new co-operatives would begin operations on 1 July in the agricultural, construction, transportation, recycling and produce marketing sectors. Of the 124 co-operatives, 99 will operate farmers’ markets in the western provinces of Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque, two will focus on the recycling sector and 12 will be involved in construction activities. Another six will offer vehicle maintenance services while the remaining five will be involved in passenger transportation, such as taxi cabs and school buses. The new co-operative markets will function independently of state entities and businesses, be free to set prices in cases where they are not fixed by the State and divide profits as they see fit. “Through this new measure, we are hoping to manage as (private) cooperatives those state-run economic activities that have not been efficient,” Grisel Trista Arbesu, head of the Business Improvement Group of the Permanent Commission for Development and Implementation, said. “The measure also allows the State to gradually extricate itself from activities that are not of vital importance to economic development.”
The Cuban government hopes the new cooperatives will boost productivity and allow the State to cut public spending by reducing the number of people on the government payroll. Co-operatives can play “an important role in the country’s economy, although the main role will continue to be the socialist state enterprise,” said Ruben Toledo, a colleague of Grisel Trista Arbesu. Co-operatives are not new. There are several thousand agricultural co-operatives in Cuba. However, this is the first time that co-operatives have been created for non-agricultural activities. According to the government, more than 430,000 people now work in the non-state sector. This figure excludes those employed in agricultural cooperatives and around 400,000 small farmers.

Plan is "advancing"

Cuba’s reform plan is “advancing and the results can be seen”, President Raúl Castro declared after reports on individual reforms were made at a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 28 June. “We are moving at a faster pace than can be imagined by those who criticize our supposed slow pace and ignore the difficulties that we face,” he said, without making clear who he was referring to. President Castro has always insisted that the reform plan – approved by the National Assembly in April 2011 – would be implemented gradually “without haste”. However, the reforms have yet to translate into faster economic growth. The growth target for this year is 3.6%. Although GDP growth for the first half of this year is estimated at 2.3%, compared to 2.1% for the same period last year, Economy and Planning Adel Yzquierdo now expects the economy to grow by 2.5-3% in full year 2013. The economy grew by 3% last year. The slower than predicted growth rate is linked to a number of factors, including Hurricane Sandy, which caused an estimated US$2bn in damages last year, as well as “the deficiencies that are part and parcel of the Cuban economy”, including low productivity, labour shortages, and the global and regional economic situation, the Minister said.

 

 

From the website Counterpunch

 

Trying to Destroy The Danger of a Good Example

The Unrelenting Economic War on Cuba

by DANIEL KOVALIK

If it weren’t bad enough that the U.S. has imposed an illegal embargo against Cuba for over 50 years, it has also tried to prevent those interested in learning about this embargo (more accurately termed ablockade because the U.S. aggressively enforces it against third countries to stop them from trading with the island) from reading Salim Lamrani’s new book, The Economic War Against Cuba.  Thus, according to Opera Mundi, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Office Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – the government agency tasked with enforcing the blockade against Cuba – seized the funds aBritish NGO, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, attempted to wire to purchase 100 copies of this book from Monthly Review Press.  (1)  OFAC also demanded that this same NGO describe its relationship with Cuba in detail.   This episode is emblematic of the absurd lengths to which the U.S. government will go to stop the world from dealing with Cuba.
As an initial matter, author Salim Lamrani, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, explains that the U.S. war against post-revolutionary Cuba began on March 17, 1960 – one month before Cuba established relations with Moscow.   Lamrani relates that this war, declared by President Eisenhower, was “built on several pillars: the cancellation of the Cuban sugar quota, an end to the deliveries of energy resources such as oil, the continuation of the arms embargo imposed in March 1958, the establishment of a campaign of terrorism and sabotage, and the organization of a paramilitary force designed to invade the island overthrow Fidel Castro.”   This war would then be expanded by President Kennedy in 1962 to include the unprecedented economic blockade against Cuba – a blockade which continues to this day, over 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This is important, for it demonstrates what Noam Chomsky has argued numerous times before:  that during the Cold War the U.S. intentionally pushed Third World countries guilty of declaring their independence from U.S. hegemony towards the Soviet Union so as to manufacture a convenient pretext for U.S. belligerence.  And, the blockade initially imposed by Kennedy did just that.   As Lamrani explains, “[o]n September 16, 1962, Kennedy developed a blacklist that included all ships having commercial relations with Cuba, regardless of their country of origin, and banned them from docking in a U.S. port.   These measures drastically reduced the links between Cuba and the Western World and increased the island’s dependence upon the USSR.”
Lamrani concludes that the results of this relentless 50-year blockade have cost Cuba more than $751 billion, and has “affected all sectors of Cuban society and all categories of the population, especially the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, and women.   Over 70 percent of all Cubans have lived in a climate of permanent economic hostility.”
Indeed, the stated purpose of the blockade all along has been to inflict suffering on the Cuban people to achieve the U.S.’s political objective of regime – the sine a qua non of terrorism.  Thus, Lamrani quotes Lester D. Mallory, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, who wrote on August 6, 1960:

The majority of the Cuban people support Castro.  There is no effective political opposition.  . . .  The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection and hardship.   . . .   every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba . . . a line of action which . . . makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.

According to this plan, which continues to this day, the blockade has caused immense suffering amongst the Cuban civilian population.   Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of medicine where Cubans are denied critical U.S. pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies – a huge deprivation given that the U.S., according to Lamrani, holds 80% of the patents in the medical sector.
And so, Lamrani sets forth a laundry list of examples in which Cubans have been deprived critical medical aid due to the blockade:

*Cuban children suffering from cancer of the retina cannot receive effective treatment because the surgical microscopes and other equipment needed for this treatment are sold exclusively by the U.S. company, Iris Medical Instruments.
*The National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology in Havana cannot use radioactive isotope plaques for the treatment of retinal cancer as they are sold exclusively by U.S. companies, thereby requiring doctors to remove the affected eyes of children altogether rather than treat and preserve them.
*Nearly 1600 Cubans a year are denied effective diagnosis of cancerous tumors because Cuba cannot obtain the necessary German-made optical coherence tomography – an item prohibited by the embargo because it contains some American-made components.
*Cubans are denied the drug temozolomide (Temodar) necessary for the effective treatment of tumors of the central nervous system.
*Cuban children are denied the benefit of the U.S.-made Amplatzer device which could help them to avoid open heart surgery.
*Cubans were denied $4.1 million for treating AIDS, Tuberulosis and Malaria when these monies were seized by the U.S. from an NGO which had earmarked those monies for Cuba.
*Cubans were denied the funds designated by the United Nations Program for Development for Cuba’s health care system when those monies were seized by the U.S.
*Cubans are denied critical drugs for treating bone cancer and HIV AIDS.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, as cited by Lamrani, “The Cuban and Iraqi instances make it abundantly clear that economic sanctions are, at their core, a war against public health.”  And still, as the Journal goes on to explain, Cuba has, against the formidable obstacles set up by the embargo, managed to maintain one of the best health systems in the world.  As the Journal notes,

The Cuban health care system . . . is exceptional for a poor country and represents an important political accomplishment of the Castro government.  Since 1959, Cuba has invested heavily in health care and now has twice as many physicians per capita as the United States and health indicators on a par with those in most developed nations – despite the U.S. embargo that severely reduces the availability of medications and medical technology.

And indeed, Cuba, despite the blockade, continues to give unprecedented assistance to other poor nations through its medical internationalism, sending doctors to 70 different countries throughout the world, including to Haiti where, according to The New York Times, it has been on the forefront in the fight against cholera since the 2010 earthquake.  In addition, for the past 21 years, Cuba has been treating 26,000 Ukrainian citizens, mostly children, affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident at its Tarara international medical center in Havana.
Imagine then, what Cuba could do if the U.S. blockade were lifted.   It is clear that the rulers of the U.S. have imagined this, and with terror in their hearts.
Indeed, Lamrani quotes former Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Perez Roque, as quite rightly asserting:

Why does the U.S. government not lift the blockade against Cuba? I will answer:  because it is afraid.  It fears our example.  It knows that if the blockade were lifted, Cuba’s economic and social development would be dizzying.   It knows that we would demonstrate even more so than now, the possibilities of Cuban socialism, all the potential not yet fully deployed of a country without discrimination of any kind, with social justice and human rights for all citizens, and not just for the few.  It is the government of a great and powerful empire, but it fears the example of this small insurgent island.

The next critical question is how can those of good will help and support the good example of Cuba in the face of the U.S. blockade.    Obviously, the first answer is to organize and agitate for an end the blockade.   As a young Senator, Barack Obama said that the blockade was obsolete and should end, and yet, while loosening the screws just a bit, President Obama has continued to aggressively enforce the blockade.   He must be called to task on this.   In addition, Congress must be lobbied to end the legal regime which keeps the embargo in place.
In addition, we must support Venezuela and its new President, Nicolas Maduro, as Venezuela has been quite critical in supporting Cuba in its international medical mission.   And indeed, one of the first things President Maduro did once elected in April was to travel to Cuba to reaffirm his support for these efforts.   It should be noted that Maduro’s electoral rival, Henrique Capriles – who led an attack against the Cuban Embassy in Caracas during the 2002 coup — vowed to end support for, and joint work, with Cuba.
Furthermore, to help Cuba and its domestic and international medical programs, one can donate to Global Links (www.globallinks.org) which provides medical supplies which benefit both of these programs.
Finally, order a copy of The Economic War Against Cuba from Monthly Review.
Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights attorney, and teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Notes. 
(1)  http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/opiniao/29149/ong+britanica+e+vitima+das+sancoes+economicas+dos+estados+unidos+contra+cuba.shtml