2 Major Cuban Problems

Low Birth Rates and... 

Pending Power Outages

       This photo was taken by Daniel Berehulak in Havana a few months ago. It illustrated a major article in the New York Times that blared this interesting and very ominous headline: "In Cuba, An Abundance of Love But A Lack of Babies." The caption said this pregnant young woman was waiting outside a hospital in Havana. The insightful article pointed out: "Since the 1970s the birthrate in Cuba has been in free fall, tilting population figures into decline. Cuba already has the oldest population in all of Latin America. In Cuba, women are free to choose as they wish, another legacy of the revolution, which prioritized women rights."  

       This photo -- taken by Daniel Berehulak for the aforementioned NY Times article -- shows a young Cuban couple planning to marry but not planning to have children because of the weak Cuban economy, which has been afflicted for the past half-century by the U. S. embargo. The caption said the young woman, Claudia Rodriguez, has had two abortions. Health care, including abortions, are totally free in Cuba and the article pointed out that "young couples speak openly about abortions and lines at clinics often wrap around the building." Cuba's population hovers around 11 million but it is dropping due to myriad reasons -- the weak economy that perpetuates abortions, U. S. laws that entice Cubans with financial and residency lures that are not available to non-Cuban immigrants, etc. Despite freely providing the abortions, the Cuban government, as reported by the NY Times, now strongly encourages Cuban women to have children.

          This New York Times photo was used -- on July 12th, 2016 -- to highlight a fine article written by Victoria Burnett and entitled: "Amid Grim Economic Forecasts, Cubans Fear a Return to Darker Times." Ms. Burnett wrote: "Addressing members of parliament last week, Cuba's economy minister, Marino Murillo, said the country would have to cut fuel consumption by nearly a third during the second half of the year and reduce state investments and imports." Cuba imports most of its food and also invests much of its economy in providing free education and health care as well as free or greatly subsidized food and shelter.

        Cuba's economic boss, 55-year-old Marino Murillo, says the island's economy grew by just 1 percent in the first half this year compared to 4 percent last year. He said, "Our export income and fuel supply has dropped and that has placed us in a tense economic situation." Mr. Murillo acknowledged that weak oil and nickel prices combined with a weak weather-related sugar harvest has "contributed to our woes." 

       The Deputy Director of Granma, Cuba's state-run newspaper, Karina Marron is always one of the best sources for insight and perspectives regarding issues in Cuba. Ms. Marron, addressing a journalism seminar recently, candidly warned that Cuba's economic problems are so serious that impending blackouts caused by power outages could result in street protests. She said, "We are facing a perfect storm. Sirs, this country cannot take another '93 or '94." She was referencing the early 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union created dire financial problems for Cuba, including some blackouts and street protests.

       When Karina Marron speaks, she is speaking for the Cuban government as well as to the Cuban people. The "perfect storm" she mentioned relates to her equating current economic and governmental problems in Venezuela and Brazil with the Soviet problems back in the 1990s. Brazil's Cuba-loving President Dilma Rousseff has been impeached and Venezuela's Cuba-loving President Nicolas Maduro is barely holding on. Rousseff, Maduro and Marron all believe that anti-Cuban right-wingers in Miami and Washington are fueling or at least exacerbating the dire political problems in Venezuela and Brazil, situations that deeply and purposely reverberate back to Cuba. And Karina Marron believes that, despite historic Cuba-friendly efforts by President Obama, the right-wingers in Miami and Washington "can and will" blunt much of the "lifelines and good-will" that Obama is trying to provide to Cuba. Karina Marron's comments were not meant for publication but the journalism students she spoke to have spread them far and wide via the social media. And Karina's assessment is Cuba's assessment: The current economic problems in Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela are at least partly due to the stranglehold that the small but powerful Anti-Cuba Cottage Industry in Miami and Washington has on America's Cuban policy, which is the quintessential Catch-22 dilemma. Many millions of good people, like Obama, have tried to correct it but even in the world's most famed democracy they have failed because of the self-serving power of a roguish right-wing minority. The Obama administration wants to improve Cuba's economy so as to prevent an even larger influx of Cubans to America's shores; but the right-wing benefactors in Miami and Washington want to destroy Cuba's economy for their own personal desires. The fact that the imbroglio is an endless standoff is in itself a Catch-22 classic that continually reminds the world of America's imperfections.

In other words:

        Cuba is still Cuba and this is so despite the historic-heroic efforts by President Obama to normalize relations with the island, which means he is trying in vain to loosen the iron grip that revengeful Cuban exiles, since the overthrow of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959, have had on America's Cuban policy. The New York Times reminds us of two currently overwhelming Cuban problems -- an alarmingly low Cuban birth rate and impending blackouts due to power outages. And an astute, well-informed Cuban -- Karina Marron Gonzalez -- reminds us that right-wingers in Miami and Washington are fully capable of continuing to dictate to Obama and to democracy a pernicious Cuban policy that has benefited them since 1959.

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