Socialism kind of works but for how long?

Back at an airport again!  Havana (above) is a great city and yes, the streets are full of American cars from the 1950s!  I even got to ride in one with a crazy bunch of fellow tourists (see below).  But Internet access has been poor hence this delayed posting.  It was only introduced to the general public about 3 months ago.  There are "hot spots" in the centre of each town where folk, mainly young folk, gather around in excited groups sharing a phone or laptop.  It's pretty pricey though at £1.30 an hour; government set monthly salaries range from about £25 to £50 per month!

Two weeks cycling around the country with a group of interested westerners and a superb Cuban university lecturer of social history for a tour guide really got the brain working.  Socialism really does seem to have worked here; no-one starves because of the universal ration book system operated and almost all seem to have a relatively good standard of life if happiness, a job, good education, excellent health provision and feeling part of a community is what counts.  So different from the poverty evident in much of the rest of the developing world.  There's not much incentive to work hard though - shop assistants really don't care whether you buy or not and are usually reading a book or chatting to a friend (they work for the Government and sell Government owned goods at Government set prices).   The towns are full of people, well educated by all accounts, sweeping the roads and collecting litter.  The shops that the majority of the Cubans can afford have empty shelves and sell very basic requirements.  Imported goods are few and far between.  But there are a few shops selling Nike and Benetton stuff in the centre of the large towns - I did wonder who actually shops there as it surely cannot be just for the tourists.  

The good education is however being jeopardised, according to our guide, by the increasing number of opportunities to make more elsewhere, either in the private or informal sectors.  Good teachers are becoming taxi drivers and tour guides. The Government maintains fearsome control over private enterprise through cumbersome legal requirements by many tiers of bureaucracy and a tax rate of 50% on incomes or profits over about £30,000.  Foreign companies are not currently allowed to operate here unless a joint venture with the Government, hence our guide thinks there will not be much change for a while.  The McDonald's and Starbucks of this world, he thinks, will have to wait a long time - 4 years or more.  He also stressed time and time again that Cubans have a type of social cohesion, originally fuelled by Fidel Castro, that will help prevent the fervour for capitalism that we westerners might expect.  And the argument is convincing once you start to understand how Cuba has got to where it is today.

I've already gone on too much.  Time will tell whether our guide is right in his belief that change will be slow, or whether Cuba is on the verge of a Shanghai type growth splurge.  It is going to be really interesting to watch.