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By Frances Kerry
HAVANA, Jan 19
(Reuters) - The new face of Cuba can be seen at a hard currency-only shopping
mall in Havana and at a pesos-only farm market not far away where some people
find bananas expensive.
It can be seen in roadside advertisements for Benetton clothing and homes
with compact disc players, in fields where sugar workers hack cane without
gloves and billboards with political slogans exhorting support for the
revolution.
Pope John Paul, making a landmark visit to Cuba from January 21-25, will
find a country where communism survived through tactical concessions and
President Fidel Castro's political control held steady even as the social ideals
he preached were taking a battering.
Whatever the speculation abroad about the Pontiff's visit as a potential
force for change, he will be coming to an island where the authorities believe
they have widespread support and that the worst of the post-Soviet economic
crisis is over.
"We are not concerned at all,'' parliamentary president Ricardo Alarcon
told reporters when asked last week if the government was alarmed by the Pope's
reputation as a factor in the end of east European communism.
"We are the ones who invited him; we are not stupid; we are not crazy;
we are receiving a friend,'' Alarcon said.
CHANGE CAME QUICKLY TO CUBA
Change has come swiftly to Cuba in the years since the collapse of its ally,
the former Soviet Union, but Castro's 39-year-old revolution has proved, so far,
a remarkable survivor.
Cautious economic liberalisation from 1993 kept the system afloat but also
brought huge social changes in a country where just a decade ago wealth
inequalities were minimal.
At the sparkling two-month old Carlos III mall in Central Havana district,
where daily turnover is up to $100,000, you can buy fine wines, perfume, shoes,
toys and video films, pausing perhaps to eat a pizza at one of five food
outlets.
That's if you have dollars, and quite a few of them.
"I came to see, not to shop,'' said Wilfredo Parodi, a cook earning 204
pesos ($9) a month.
"What do I live on? 81 pesos (about $3.50) a month pension,'' grumbled
78-year-old Guillermo Martin, shopping at a farm market in nearby Vedado
district.
Martin complained that his daughter, living in New Jersey, sent him dollars
only occasionally, adding that he made up for shortages with gifts of fruit and
vegetables from the stall holders.
Castro, 71, dug in firmly as the Soviet bloc collapsed. He swore "Socialism
or Death'' and steered the country into the "Special Period'' -- the name
authorities gave belt-tightening, the end of which Cubans are awaiting.
Cuba's Gross Domestic Product contracted some 35 percent between 1990 and
1993, but started a slow recovery from 1994.
Socialist achievements such as free health and education survived the
economic ravages, with Castro frequently boasting "not one school has been
closed.'' But the quality of health care suffered because of shortages of
medicines and equipment.
Economic reforms included legalising the use of hard currency, a move aimed
at soaking up dollars that were illegally in circulation.
The government says about half Cuba's 11 million people now have access to
dollars because they work with foreigners, receive family remittances from
abroad or have enough pesos to change them into dollars.
Dollar-only stores selling consumer goods, cafes and restaurants, once just
for foreigners, sprouted across Havana.
Private enterprise made a timid appearance. A small army of self-employed
people transformed the streets of Havana with stalls selling homemade pizzas and
handicrafts.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
One thrust of economic reforms was to boost foreign investment. Sectors such
as nickel mining, tourism and tobacco production were boosted with foreign
capital.
The number of tourists tripled in seven years, staying in a snaking line of
new hotels at the beach resort of Varadero. They contributed, along with the
economic crisis, to a sharp rise in the number of lycra-clad women making money
from sex.
This, like other "negative effects'' of economic change, has been
acknowledged and lamented by a government that stamped out prostitution in the
early days after Castro's 1959 revolution.
Economically, even if Cubans with only pesos are still struggling, the
island has emerged from the worst. Authorities say gross domestic product (GDP)
is set to grow by 2.5 to 3.5 percent this year, following growth of 2.5 percent
last year.
Politically, the Communist Party's fifth congress last October endorsed the
status quo, approving a document that presented one-party communism as the only
viable system for Cuba.
National elections on January 11 appeared timed to show the world stability
just ahead of the Papal visit. Alarcon called the results "a massive
confirmation of support for our system.''
The authorities said turnout was 98.35 percent of eligible voters, with all
601 candidates proposed for the single-party parliament elected.
The government noted voting was not mandatory. But some Cubans said they
voted because they were worried that they might be "marked'' by the
authorities if they did not.
While Cubans sometimes grumble about the system, they have little outlet for
complaints other than among friends. The media are state-controlled and
political opposition is illegal, muted and very scattered.
The system appeared more vulnerable several years ago than it does now.
In the summer of 1994, the electric power was off half the time. Many people
seemed to be hungry, hot and anxious to paddle off on rubber tractor tyres for
Florida.
But Castro's government put down street unrest in Havana's city centre in a
matter of hours in August 1994, using only what appeared to be a first tier of
riot control -- the police force and civilian defence brigades who wield metal
piping.
The Cuban leader, playing the card Washington fears, opened the doors within
days for an exodus to the United States.
The crisis, in which more than 30,000 people left, defused some social
discontent and forced U.S. President Bill Clinton to reverse long-standing U.S.
policy on Cuban illegal migrants.
In retrospect, it looked to be a point at which the Cuban revolution sailed
on through the storm. REUTERS
21:10 01-18-98 |