By Katie Derosa, Times Colonist March 18, 2012 8:29 AM
In central Havana, not far from Revolutionary Square, a teal mural
sports the words "Defend Socialism" in white capital letters. Just steps
from the square, a sign says "53 years since our victory," referring to
the communist revolution.
Despite the trappings, there are subtle fissures in the social fabric
that Fidel Castro fought so hard to keep seamless during his reign. His
younger brother, President Raul Castro, is making major concessions,
allowing more Cubans to open up small businesses and make a living
outside a meagre state-issued paycheque. They are concessions experts
say are needed for the country to survive.
Before the economic reforms in late 2010, only 140,000 people in Cuba's
workforce of four million- less than three per cent - were self-employed.
Approximately 350,000 Cubans have now been granted smallbusiness
licences and that number is likely to grow.
Some ferry tourists across the cobblestone streets of Havana on
three-wheeled bikes. Others have set up stands selling books, handmade
jewelry, wooden trinkets and artwork, most of which immortalizes
celebrated revolutionary figure Che Guevara.
Ernesto Estrada, 33, takes a taxi 20 kilometres every day from his home
in Matanzas City to Varadero, the tourism heart of this tiny island, to
work at his uncle's stand in a popular market. It costs him $2, but he
quickly notes that's the fare for him, not tourists - most taxi drivers
will charge $10 for tourists heading a few kilometres.
Estrada is encouraged by the new self-employment policy touted by Raul
Castro.
"The government start to open the life for Cuban people," he said,
pausing from his work to talk to me during a trip to the country in late
February. "It's better for us," he added. "The pay [in Cuba] is very bad."
If his uncle sells $100 worth of portable wooden chess sets, carved
wooden turtles or maps of Cuba painted on pieces of leather, Estrada
will make $10 that day. That's not bad, considering most Cubans make $20
a month.
Estrada is trying to save money to open a stand of his own.
When the self-employment policy was announced in September 2010, Raul
Castro promised to eliminate up to one million publicsector jobs by
2015, laying off 500,000 people by March 2011.
Archibald Ritter, an economist at the Norman Paterson School of
International Affairs at Carleton University who specializes in the
Cuban economy, said the roll-out of the plan was a disaster. Layoffs had
to be drastically scaled back, because the government had yet to
liberalize the private sector or lift the debilitating restrictions on
small business.
While some of the limitations on small businesses have been lifted,
Ritter said they don't go far enough.
Up until November 2010, a private restaurant could only have 12 chairs.
Now, restaurants can have 50 chairs.
Small businesses can employ a maximum of five people - an improvement
from banning employees altogether.
The government still prohibits professional activities from being sold
in a small-business enterprise. Businesses like accounting services,
engineering consultancies and private law offices, which fill phone
books in North America, are not allowed in Cuba.
The government is allowing many state-run businesses to shift to private
enterprises selling the exact same service.
Ritter said this will make the economy more efficient, eliminating the
complex and bureaucratic hierarchy that regulates state-run services.
"You have to have a big bureaucracy to organize everything. If they're
just operated by little family firms, then each one is independent -
they rise or fall depending on the demand they produce. So it's a direct
relationship between the entrepreneur and the customer."
Francisco Yoslay, a charming, fashionably dressed 30-year-old, paced
outside a cigar shop popular with tourists, briskly asking if they
wanted fine Cuban cigars.
"Cohibas, I have Cohibas, very good price," he said with a smile.
Yoslay insists he gets them from family members who work in the
state-run factory. Without having to pay the store commission, he can
sell them at a better rate.
I asked if he considers himself a businessman and he replied: "Always."
"It's better than working for the government," he said, before leading
me down a secluded alleyway to show off his wares.
Most people will tell you cigars not sold from behind a store counter
are black market, but Yoslay's pitch was convincing. He rolled the thick
Cohiba in his palms to show that the tobacco wouldn't fall out. He let
customers smell the pungent aroma and showed off the engraved, cedar
wood Cohiba box. One Canadian tourist took him up on the offer and
bought 10 for 60 convertible pesos ($60).
Some of the government's draconian restrictions have led Cubans to cheat
the system by stealing or selling services under the table.
Ritter said during a trip to Cuba last year, he was walking by a
state-run cigar factory when he struck up a conversation with a night
watchman.
The security guard asked Ritter if he wanted some cigars and led him to
a cache of stolen cigars that he was selling out of the security booth.
- - -
Most Cubans live on a monthly income of $20 US, even though their
country has a large professional workforce. The government provides
people with housing, food rations, education and medical care.
As much as the ideology of socialism demands that there be no class
divisions among the people, two distinct classes have emerged. There are
those who work in the tourism business and those who don't.
More than two million tourists a year visit the Caribbean nation,
providing the country with one of its main sources of revenue.
Waiters, bartenders, taxi drivers, tour guides and housekeepers are in
the enviable position of making tips in Cuban convertible pesos, which
are worth 25 times more than the Cuban peso.
Ismary Castillo, a waitress at a resort buffet in Varadero, is an
engineer by profession. She took the job waiting tables to support her
extended family. In addition to tips, tourists also shower her with a
host of North American consumer goods - things like shampoo, makeup and
brand-name clothes. Most of the coveted items go to her 17-year-old
daughter, who is studying to get into a university architecture program.
Castillo said her daughter, Isis, sometimes gets frustrated studying and
working so hard for what will be little pay in the future.
"My daughter, she say, 'Mom, why I study here? There is nothing.' I say,
'It's your future. If you do go to another country, you have to be a
professional.' She says, 'But you're an engineer and you're
waitressing.' But I'm always an engineer. I have that."
Hamet Manson Guerra, 42year-old, is a taxi driver, barman and mechanic.
He has two sons, ages 15 and seven, whom he's encouraging to learn
English fluently in the hopes that when they are older, they'll be able
to leave the country for opportunities abroad.
Cubans are not allowed to leave the country unless they marry a
non-Cuban, are artists or intellectuals or are sponsored by someone
outside the country. Those who leave rarely come back for fear of reprisals.
"The people want to see a difference, they want to feel more freedom,
you know what I mean?" said Guerra, wearing a crisp white shirt and
perspiring in the hot Havana sun while taking a break from his taxi
service. "The people can buy house, can sell it, can buy car, can buy
the engines."
Guerra said the move to allow more small businesses is evident on the
bustling streets of Havana.
"You can see - everybody have a small cafeteria, people open some
restaurants, they drive the three-wheeled taxis," he said.
Santiago Pons said he makes good money running a taxi service in Varadero.
"It's a good business now - it's good money, driving taxi," he said from
behind the wheel of a shiny white 1955 Cadillac Eldorado with a red
interior and a loud engine.
"This is the only one in Cuba," he said with pride.
Pons also makes money repairing cars, a steady business given that most
Cuban cars are decades old, thanks to the ban on foreign imports. "You
[meet] many people, it's a nice job," he said.
Ritter doesn't see Cuba's economic reforms as a major shift in ideology
so much as a necessary move to keep the economy afloat.
"It means that the regime is trying to save itself," he said. "The
Castro brothers have been the dominating force for more than half a
century. They want to get the economy working well, but with themselves
in power."
http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Small+business+takes+root+Cuba/6320913/story.html
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