Cubans wary of quick change

Posted on Thu, Sep. 14, 2006

Cubans wary of quick change
Miami Herald Staff Report

THEY MAY NOT HAVE MUCH UNDER COMMUNISM, BUT MANY CUBANS FEAR A SHARP
CHANGE TO A FREE-MARKET SYSTEM

Omar Martínez earns $11 a month as a government sailor, putting extra
food on his family's table by preparing tamales that his wife sells
door-to-door.

But while Martínez wishes he could earn more and have a better life, he
says he's not ready for Cuba to abandon the island's communist system
and its free education and healthcare to move toward a free-market economy.

''We don't earn a lot here, but the free stuff helps offset the low
salaries,'' Martínez said. ``We have a peaceful life here. I can walk
around at night. The kids can play in the street. In the United States,
you earn more, but you have to pay more for everything. It's a more
stressful life.''

After decades of government propaganda detailing the evils of capitalism
and highlighting the achievements of communism, many Cubans like
Martínez seem acutely aware of their system's profound shortcomings, yet
remain wary of capitalism.

Under harsh controls that punish open critics of the government and ban
a free press and opposition political parties, it is difficult for the
island's 11 million people to express their true sentiments. In
interviews, most decline to give their surnames.

But with Fidel Castro ailing and the Bush administration offering
support for a shift toward democracy and open markets, such concerns
about capitalism might help explain why the island has remained calm in
the wake of Castro's surrender of power to his brother Raúl, at least
temporarily, for the first time in 47 years.

`DESIRE FOR CHANGE'

''A lot of Cubans would like to see change, but they don't necessarily
want another revolution,'' said Philip Peters, vice president of the
Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank. ``There's a lot of
desire for change, but at the same time, there's fear that they might
lose some of the things they have.''

Topping the list, Cubans said, are free healthcare and education, Castro
hallmarks that have given the island some of the best education and
health statistics in Latin America -- although both have been eroding
since the end of Moscow's subsidies.

Cubans also don't pay taxes, unless they are part of the tiny minority
allowed to run such small private businesses as home-based beauty
parlors or restaurants known as paladares, which can legally have no
more than 12 chairs.

A bartender named Ernesto in central Havana expressed his concern about
the prospect of capitalism: ``What happens if you get sick and don't
have health coverage? You could die.''

`SELF-EMPLOYMENT'

To be sure, Cuba does have some measure of capitalism.

After the near-collapse of the economy following the loss of massive
Soviet subsidies in the early 1990s, Cuba began allowing so-called
''self-employment,'' such as the paladares and farmers markets where
prices are largely set by supply and demand. Privately produced clothes
and paintings are now on sale at an open-air market in Old Havana.

But the self-employed Cubans must pay heavy and fixed taxes, even during
slow business times, and their number has shrunk significantly over the
past 10 years.

With low government wages estimated to cover about a third of a family's
expenses per month, many Cubans must hustle -- mostly by pilfering from
their workplaces or doing off-the-books work -- to make ends meet.

A man named César said he earns $12 a month working in a
government-owned food warehouse. Asked how he can survive on such a low
wage, he laughed and replied, ``Well, we don't lack for food in my
household.''

Antonio Jorge, a professor of economics and international relations at
Florida International University, said the experiences in Eastern Europe
after the fall of the Berlin Wall might provide a guide for what type of
economic system Cubans might favor if given a choice.

The elderly and the less-educated in Eastern Europe proved most
resistant to change away from communism, Jorge said, while the younger
and better-educated were more willing to embrace the new opportunities
to prosper.

FITS PROFILE

Ismael, for example, seems to fit that profile. He's 44 and has an
electrical engineering degree from the former Soviet Union but can't
find a decent job in his field in Cuba. He manages a store for $14 a month.

''I welcome the opportunities you'd have with a capitalist system,'' he
told The Miami Herald. ``I have the background and training to do well.''

But other Cubans undoubtedly feel like Georgina, a woman in her 50s who
lives in Old Havana, the colonial-era heart of the capital. ''I'm afraid
I wouldn't cut it and would be left on the street. Here, the state
protects you,'' she said.

CONTROLS MEDIA

Cuba's government-controlled media have reinforced those fears,
perennially publishing and broadcasting reports about the poverty in the
United States and elsewhere.

''The Cuban media highlights dislocations from capitalism in Latin
America: the strikes, the layoffs, the economic turmoil,'' Peters said
in a telephone interview.

The years of unremitting propaganda might explain why some Cubans seem
incapable of comprehending open economies, let alone grasping their
problems and appreciating their benefits.

`INCOME INEQUALITY'

On a recent day, a chiropractor named Vicente blasted capitalism,
saying, ``People go hungry in the United States, and there's great
income inequality.''

But he then mentioned that he has a brother in New York who emigrated in
1980 and now owns a trucking company. The brother sends Vicente $100 a
month -- making him part of the estimated 30 percent of the island's
population that receives cash remittances from relatives and friends abroad.

So how does Vicente square his stated preference for the communist
system with his benefiting from the remittances sent by his capitalist
brother?

''He doesn't get his money from capitalism,'' Vicente said. ``He gets it
because he works hard.''

Government propaganda has also exploited the fear that capitalism would
allow exiles to recover homes seized by the government and then turned
over to other Cubans.

''Cubans are terrified that their homes will be taken away by exiles
when they come back,'' said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a retired economics
professor from the University of Pittsburgh. ``Housing conditions may be
terrible, but this is all they have.''

In that same vein, a visitor might be taken aback at the meager
lifestyle visible in Cuba -- the shortage of modern cars and many
foodstuffs, the lack of air conditioning despite stifling heat or the
kids playing baseball in the streets with a bottle cap and broomstick.

`BASICS IN CUBA'

But many Cubans say they appreciate the simple life of knowing their
neighbors and knowing that neighbors sitting on their doorsteps can keep
an eye on their children playing in the car-free streets.

''You get the basics in Cuba,'' Paolo Spadoni, a visiting assistant
professor at Rollins College in Central Florida, said in a telephone
interview.

''Sometimes you tend to value what you have because it's what you can
count on,'' Spadoni said.

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