Ferry to Regla
Fishing on the Malecón
And relaxing on the Malecón
Classic old cars, of every style and color
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Academic exchange and U.S.- Cuba relations
There is tremendous potential in
academic and cultural exchange to aid in improving relations between the U.S.
and Cuba. People to people exchange builds mutual understanding, breaks barriers
of ignorance and fear, and builds trusting relationships between the people of
differing cultures and nations. This potential, has been recognized by the U.S.
and Cuban governments and scholarly communities alike, yet it is not embraced
to the extent necessary to enact real change in this area. Acts such as travel
bans and the freeze on academic travel to Cuba during as well as the denial of
visas for Cuban scholars to attend the LASA annual conference, add further
tension to the relationship between the two nations. Academic exchange activist
and Professor at the University of Havana, Milagros Martinez Reinosa, commented
to Granma newspaper in July 2013 that, "Although technological advances allow us to share research, ideas
and theoretical debates in other ways, I believe that the intensity of
face-to-face conversations, animated debates in workshops and on panels remain
vital for our collective work”[1]. Throughout the many years of inertia
with regard to US-Cuba relations, “it is scholars and scientists in the two
countries who have maintained intellectual and academic relations” [2]. Although
the political policies, economic sanctions, blockade and travel bans have made
progress difficult if not impossible between the U.S. and Cuba, there is still
hope for improvement in the form of academic and cultural exchange.
[1] GONZÁLEZ DELGADO, DALIA. "Granma.cu - LASA:
Cuba-United States Academic Forum." Granma.cu - LASA: Cuba-United States
Academic Forum. Granma, 5
July 2013. Web. Aug. 2013.
In 2011, after 8 years of travel ban, President Obama relaxed the
travel restrictions for US citizens to Cuba and allowed for certain types of
travel including academic, research and cultural ‘people-to-people’ visits. [3]
For those interested in learning more about legal travel to Cuba, the
‘Comprehensive Guidelines for License Applications for Travel-relatedTransactions Involving Cuba’ can be found at the U.S. Department of the
Treasury website. [4]
From my own experience on our academic exchange trip to Cuba, I know
that I never would have begun to understand the reality of the Cuban situation
without witnessing and experiencing Cuba first hand. From my short 2 week
visit, I cannot say that I was able to comprehend all the complexities of Cuban
reality, yet I am better equipped, with this first-hand experience, to
understand Cuba, its people, culture and history, and the transformations the
country is experiencing today and share those realities with others back home.
Maybe more people will be able and interested enough to take their own cultural
exchange visit to Cuba, and experience the amazement of the island for
themselves.
Todo aqui es de Fidel. Everything here belongs to Fidel.
My Brief Run-in with the Cuban Black Market
It was my second night in Cuba, and I had clearly been marked as a tourist. I walked the Havana streets in jeans and a t-shirt, and I was of a blindingly white complexion. A Cuban in his forties caught up to me, and, after welcoming me to his country, began a sales pitch. He "knew" the lady that ran the bed and breakfast where our group was staying. She was his sister. I later learned this was false, but he duped me at the time. His plea continued. He wanted to know if I wanted to buy something purely Cuban. Una cosa pura cubana. Slowly, and cautiously he looked around and reached into his breast pocket. His hand emerged with a plastic bag. I immediately became apprehensive before I realized the contents of the bag. He worked at one of the government owned tobacco factories in Havana where he rolled cigars. He had sneaked out a few. I had misheard him earlier, un puro cubano... he had said, a Cuban cigar.
I had dealt with peddlers before. I had haggled a few times, but something about this transaction still did not seem right. He was selling cigars, but he constantly glanced behind him, he spoke softly as to make sure no one we passed could hear, and he was pushing the cigars into my hand as if to get them out of his possession as quickly as possible. I told him that I could not take them, that they were his. His response floored me. No son mios, todo aqui es de Fidel! They are not mine, he said, everything here belongs to Fidel. I responded that I certainly did not want to buy them if they were Fidel's. His own paranoia became mine, and I wished I had just kept walking but I could not shake him. It was after all, a black market sale.
The Cuban black market is a means for survival. It is a bartering system that has allowed Cubans to obtain necessities, gifts, and other merchandise that could otherwise not be afforded on the minimal government salaries they receive. However, a Black Market is a somewhat over-ominous title given the goods that are traded and sold behind the government's back in Cuba. Guns and drugs, although possibly a small piece of the market, do not make up the majority of goods. In order to fuel the market Cubans search for items at their jobs to sneak out and resell. Goods could include nails, tools, milk, food, cement bags, and of course, cigars. Still, it remains illegal, and it is a growing testament to the financial insecurities felt by those living on government salaries.
The man that caught up to me on the street was simply working a second job. He was trading his stolen goods in order to afford goods that he and his family needed. It was a difficult plea to ignore. In a nation where todo es de Fidel, he was trying to scratch out something for himself.
My Brief Run-in with the Cuban Black Market
It was my second night in Cuba, and I had clearly been marked as a tourist. I walked the Havana streets in jeans and a t-shirt, and I was of a blindingly white complexion. A Cuban in his forties caught up to me, and, after welcoming me to his country, began a sales pitch. He "knew" the lady that ran the bed and breakfast where our group was staying. She was his sister. I later learned this was false, but he duped me at the time. His plea continued. He wanted to know if I wanted to buy something purely Cuban. Una cosa pura cubana. Slowly, and cautiously he looked around and reached into his breast pocket. His hand emerged with a plastic bag. I immediately became apprehensive before I realized the contents of the bag. He worked at one of the government owned tobacco factories in Havana where he rolled cigars. He had sneaked out a few. I had misheard him earlier, un puro cubano... he had said, a Cuban cigar.
I had dealt with peddlers before. I had haggled a few times, but something about this transaction still did not seem right. He was selling cigars, but he constantly glanced behind him, he spoke softly as to make sure no one we passed could hear, and he was pushing the cigars into my hand as if to get them out of his possession as quickly as possible. I told him that I could not take them, that they were his. His response floored me. No son mios, todo aqui es de Fidel! They are not mine, he said, everything here belongs to Fidel. I responded that I certainly did not want to buy them if they were Fidel's. His own paranoia became mine, and I wished I had just kept walking but I could not shake him. It was after all, a black market sale.
The Cuban black market is a means for survival. It is a bartering system that has allowed Cubans to obtain necessities, gifts, and other merchandise that could otherwise not be afforded on the minimal government salaries they receive. However, a Black Market is a somewhat over-ominous title given the goods that are traded and sold behind the government's back in Cuba. Guns and drugs, although possibly a small piece of the market, do not make up the majority of goods. In order to fuel the market Cubans search for items at their jobs to sneak out and resell. Goods could include nails, tools, milk, food, cement bags, and of course, cigars. Still, it remains illegal, and it is a growing testament to the financial insecurities felt by those living on government salaries.
The man that caught up to me on the street was simply working a second job. He was trading his stolen goods in order to afford goods that he and his family needed. It was a difficult plea to ignore. In a nation where todo es de Fidel, he was trying to scratch out something for himself.
Eating Out and the State in Cuba
Quite recently in Cuba, paladares, or privately-run
restaurants running out of somebody's home, became legal business
operations. They existed before, but as
shadows, and not officially. I ate at
some of these restaurants while in Havana and was surprised by the
variety. There were paladares with
merely two tables, and ones that took up multiple rooms in houses and seemed
comparable to the giant restaurants you can find in the U.S. There were some where you could get an incredibly
filling meal for less than I pay for small latte back home, yet we also visited
a fancier paladar where the full meals ran $15-$25.
Other restaurants are run by the state, though they might
not always seem it on the surface. The
state-run restaurants catering to tourists have different names, very different
ambiances, and somewhat different menus.
The food was generally cheap and unseasoned, and depending on what you ordered the portions were
usually either enough-to-be-satisfied or enough to take a little bit home.
If you've ever wondered what a "typical meal" would be like at a state-run restaurant in Cuba but haven't yet made it there for try one for yourself, you're in luck (and finally my annoying habit of sharing pictures of what I eat via social media can serve a higher purpose)!
A "typical" restaurant meal in Cuba, no matter what kind of establishment you ate at, would almost always include plain white rice, a salad largely based off of cabbage, and some type of meat or fish. This one also included canned potatoes, green beans, and carrots, as well as fresh cucumber and tomatoes. The canned vegetables are a subtle reminder that though Cuba is famous for its impressively quick adoption of urban gardens and organic agriculture (discussed in more detail elsewhere on this blog), it still imports around sixty percent of its food.
As possessor of the world's biggest sweet tooth, I got far too excited over the fact that when you order a "meal" rather than a sandwich at this restaurant, it automatically comes with dessert (as all meals should). Though the merits of Cuba's policies about food and degree of retention of state ownership in businesses are debated on the international stage, inclusion of dessert with meals is one policy that this state-run establishment should never change!
PALMA Project: International Development among the Transition
Why I am interested in the
project?
I learned about the project
from the lecture we had in the UNDP-Cuba office and was amazed by UNDP’s
participation in Cuba’s development. Interested in the way such an
international development project is conducted in a country like Cuba where the
state and the communist culture prevail everywhere in their daily life, I chose
this as the topic of my research to study the dynamics behind the project and
the experiences provided by its success.
Introduction of the Project
Programa de Apoyo Locala la
Modernización Agropecuaria en Cuba (PALMA), or “Program of Local Support to the
Modernization of the Agriculture Sector in Cuba” is a five year project
implemented by United Nations Development Program to increase agriculture
productivity and to reduce the country’s dependence on imported food through
material delivery and capacity building. PALMA receives funding from the
European Union through two EU initiatives: Food Facility (11.7 million Euro)
and the Food Security Thematic Program (4.4 million Euro) (PALMA, 2009). In
2012, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) also became a funding
source with a maximum contribution of 1.2 million USD. The project began in
July 2009 and the project is expected to be completed in December, 2014. In the
Cuba side, the Ministry of Foreign Trade represents the country and the
Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the execution of the program. Until
now, more than 13,200 new farmers and 366 cooperatives in five provinces of
Cuba have received agricultural equipment and inputs. The percentage of basic
food production increase ranged from 25% to 80%.
Backgrounds of the Project
PALMA was designed to be situated
in the two national strategies of the Cuba government: decentralization of
agriculture production and local management of agricultural development at
municipal levels. From the lecture in Cuba, we were also informed of the
practices of UNDP in the capacity building of local governments, which turned
out to be going together with PALMA’s effort in improving local officers’ management
and decision-making level. The other interesting point of the project is EU’s
funding and the triangle relation between EU, UNDP and Cuba in the project. In 2010,
EU passes the first country strategy paper for Cuba and put “food security” as
one of the three priorities in the country paper. The relative flexible
condition of the aid to some extent reflects EU’s attitude towards Cuba, which
is different from U.S. or China but more similar to Canada.
Design and Implementation
UNDP adopted the approach of “bottom-up”
to precede the project. Given the high education level of Cuban farmers and the
technical knowledge accumulated in the cooperative network. The ground provided
many resources for the project to utilize and this is also the unique
characteristics of development project in Cuba. Another interesting combination
is between the Cuban “solidarity” sprit and the “learning by doing” philosophy
of the project. In our visit to Cuba, “solidarity” was emphasized by many people
from different classes and the community relation based on traditional social
capital still bound people closely in most area of the island.
In addition to the
adaptability of the project, participation of beneficiaries and the intention
to develop sustainability also guarantee the success of the project.
Takeaways
Apart from the development
management methods used in the project, the most intriguing feature of this
project is the dynamics between international players and Cuban government in
the tide of economic reform. Choosing food security as the focus is a smart way
to avoid political disputes and it addressed a compelling problem of the
country, which increases the Cuba government’s acceptance of the project. To go
further, success of the project to some extent helps justify the authority of
the regime even though the money comes from capitalist countries. As the second
largest project conducted by UNDP in Cuba, PALMA’s success may provide a model
for future development project in this country. It does not mean the model
should be copied completely, but as the PALMA itself, the mindset to find a
position in the power dynamics and to take advantage of local development
policies are the principal guarantee of a success.
------------------------------------------------
Havana view
References:
Executive
Board of the United Nations Development Programme and of the United Nations
opulation Fund (2013). Draft
Country Program Document for Cuba(2014-2018). United Nationas.
Holm, W.,
& Ag., P. (2011). Walking the
walk: Cuba's path to a more cooperative and sustainable economy.
PALMA (2009). Programa De Apoyo Local a la Modernizacion Agropecuaria en Cuba (PALMA). Havana: UNDP.
UNDP
Cuba (2010). Buletin Information
of UNDP Cuba. Havana: UNDP Cuba.
UNDP (2012). Hacia la seguridad alimentaria desde el desarrollo humano local. UNDP.
Things you can learn well walking in Old Havana
Instead of talking about the
research I did on Cuba, I thought I’d
take this opportunity to be a little abstract and talk a little bit about doing
research in Cuba. To me one of the great benefits of study
abroad programs is the ability to gain firsthand knowledge of a place from the
people that are around you when you are there. I think this is especially true
in our trip to Cuba.
Not to take away from the classroom
experience, because I did learn a lot from our guest lecturers, but I think I learned
a lot as well about Cuba and it’s economy in the two weeks that we were there
from talking to people on the street and at restaurants etc. then I think I
could have learned if I would have spent a semester reading about Cuba in
academic journals from a library in the U.S.
Here’s one example. It was
midafternoon in old Havana and myself and another student were walking down a
side street when we came across of all things a pub. Being curious we stopped
on in. The place was empty besides the three people that were working there. We
sat down ordered something to eat and drink and started talking. Over the next
few hours we filled out page after page in our notebooks, here is a sample of some
of the questions we asked:
What did you do
before you started working here?
Waiter’s answer: I was
a professor of computer science.
Why did you leave
your job as a professor?
Waiter’s answer: I
didn’t really like it… and because I can make just as much money or more here.
Keep in mind the pub was completely
empty the 2-3 hours we were there, with the only other person to come in was
the shopkeeper from next door, who had come in to make change in peso for a CUC
and get the numbers for the Florida lottery.
How does the
self-employment tax work?
Answer: 10% of salary
a month for contracted workers but you are contracted to one type of job and to
one employer or 60 pesos a mouth for basic service jobs but you can change jobs
and quit whenever you want... But it’s easier to find work if you’re a contracted
worker.
What would you get
paid if you worked for the state in these types of jobs?
Answer: About 365
pesos a month. Which is around $15 to $20.
How did the owner of
the pub get the money to buy the place?
Answer: He loaned
money from his family in Florida about 4 years ago.
What do you think
about Granma?
Bartender’s answer: “It’s
great for knowing when they are going to start working on the water pipes under
the street. It’s no good at telling you when the work is going to be done
though.”
Many more questions were asked and many more answers were
given, and our understanding of some of the details how the Cuban economy
worked and how people worked within it became more and more clear. A 5 CUC tip were given by both of us. It
seemed like everyday we were in Cuba conversations like this happened, with our
Cuban professors, with each other and also with average people you meet along
the way. I went to Cuba with a very basic understanding of how the country’s
economy worked and to be honest with some pretty strong preconceived notions in
my head but by the time I left I had a better understanding of the country but
still a large amount of questions. This leads me to the topic of my research;
one of the things that I think all of us found apparent was that Cuba’s dual
currency monetary policy was causing a many externalities in the country’s
macro-economy, one of which is a growing amount of inequality throughout the
country. For a country like Cuba that fought a revolution, with one of the
stated goals of ending inequality, this seems to be a paradoxical situation.
So the focus of my research was around why did Cuba
introduce the CUC in the first place and what benefits has it gained from it?
To make a very long paper short, the CUC was introduced in 2004 to help de-dollarize
the Cuban economy after it had started to stabilized partially due to the
reforms of the special period. At which point the Cuba economy started to grow
and the authorities were reluctant undergo monetary change when experiencing
high rates of growth for the first time in a decade. Then the financial crisis
occurred and trade, liquidity and revenue decrease causing further
unwillingness to move away from the dual monetary system. It is my opinion that
now that economic conditions have once again stabilized it is time for the Cuban
authorities to undergo exchange rate reform to bring the two currencies
together if not unify them. If you would like to read more on this topic, below
is a list of basic articles that I found helpful.
Being in Cuba changed, but also at the same time validated,
many of the abstract concepts that I have learned over the course of my
academic career. I still have many questions that have yet to be answered, but
I think I gain a large body of knowledge over very short period of time by
being there. One thing I am sure of though is the true benefit of gaining
firsthand knowledge of a subject in which you wish to study, even from chatty
well-educated waiters and bartenders on a slow day in old Havana.
- Hernández-Catá, Ernesto. "Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rate and Price Distortions. The Cuban Case." Association for the Study of Cuban Economics; Cuba in Transition 21 (2011). http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/uploads/Hernandez-Cata_final-1318949703.pdf
- Di Bella, Gabriel, and Andy Wolfe. "A Primer on Currency Unification and Exchange Rate Policy in Cuba: Lessons from Exchange Rate Unification in Transition Economies." Association for the Study of Cuban Economics: Cuba in Transition 18 (2008); http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume18/pdfs/dibellawolfe.pdf.
- Canler, Ed. "Pesos, poverty, and perversions: What’s wrong with Cuba’s money and how to fix it." Association for the Study of Cuban Economics: Cuba in Transition 18 (2008): 31-36; http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume18/pdfs/canler.pdf
- Di Bella, Gabriel, and Andy Wolfe. "Cuba: Economic Growth and International Linkages—Challenges for Measurement and Vulnerabilities in a Bimonetary Economy." Association for the Study of Cuban Economics: Cuba in Transition 19 (2009): 354-367; http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume19/pdfs/dibellawolfe.pdf.
- Orro, Roberto. "The Cuban Dual Monetary System and Challenges Ahead." Association for the Study of Cuban Economics: Cuba in Transition 18 (2008): 5-7 http://www.ascecuba.org/publications/proceedings/volume18/pdfs/orro.pdf
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