Coping With Financial Crisis
Cuba's Minister of Economy and Planning, Marino Murillo, has been fired although he remains on the powerful Council of Ministers. The 55-year-old Murillo had been Cuba's economic boss since 2011. Last week he reported that Cuba's economy will improve just 1% in 2016 as opposed to 4% in 2015. He partially blamed low oil and nickel prices as well as a sugar short-fall due to weather conditions. But he didn't deny that the dire political and economic problems in Venezuela and Brazil are roiling Cuba's economy and might lead to power blackouts in the second half of this year as Cuba's tourism reaches new heights.
Marino Murillo's daughter, Glenda, made headlines in 2012. She showed up at the Mexican border in Laredo, Texas. When her foot touched U. S. soil she immediately became a legal resident with financial and political benefits not available to non-Cubans. Her boyfriend lived in Hialeah, Florida, and she also had Cuban relatives in Tampa. Murillo's daughter Glenda is reminiscent of Fidel Castro's daughter Alina.
Marino Murillo's successor as Cuba's Economy Minister is Ricardo Cabrisas. He is a long-time power in Cuba and is one of the country's six Vice Presidents. The Cuban economy has always been his forte.
This photo shows Ricardo Cabrisas, in the right-front, signing an economic agreement with Rudolf Scholten, the head of Austria's Central Bank. Cabrisas is a strong advocate for economic diversity.
This photo shows Ricardo Cabrisas signing an economic agreement with Finland. The reason Cabrisas has replaced Murillo as the island's chief economic expert is because of what the above two photos reflect -- namely Mr. Cabrisas' urgent belief that Cuba needs to diversity its economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 influenced Cabrisas and now the dire political and economic problems in Venezuela and Brazil alarms him. Moreover, as a catalyst of Cuba's revolutionary Old Guard, Cabrisas is not convinced that the U. S. will continue to embrace President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. He believes the Miami-based anti-Castro contingent will overwhelm Obama's overtures.
This photo is courtesy of REUTERS and Alexandre Meneghini. It was used to highlight a major Reuters article written by Sarah Marsh yesterday -- July 14, 2016. The article is entitled "Oxfam Urges U. S. to End Embargo on Struggling Cuba." Oxfam is an international confederation of 18 organizations working in 90 countries to alleviate poverty. The lady is Winnie Byanyima. She is Oxfam's director. The opening sentence of the aforementioned article is: "The director of Oxfam broke the global and agency's longtime silence on the U. S. trade embargo of Cuba, urging the American Congress to lift it 'sooner rather than later' given the island's mounting economic woes." Winnie Byanyima told Reuters, "Cuba needs to engage in the global economy and the embargo cuts them out." She also lauded Cuba's "very equal society," hinting such equality might be one reason the U. S. government so strongly opposes the Cuban government. Using the exact title listed above, you can easily access that entire article. Reuters is Britain's internationally respected news agency and, unlike the U. S. media, it covers Cuban stories such as the pertinent Winnie Byanyima comments.
Oxfam is in the fight against the U. S. embargo of Cuba.
Cuba's very elusive but very necessary efforts to become "Good Friends" with its superpower neighbor just off its northern shores will always impact every aspect of Cuba's existence. The 1959 Cuban Revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship finally gave the island sovereignty after five centuries of being under the yoke of imperialist powers -- especially Spain and, following the 1898 Spanish-American War, the United States. However, the victorious revolution in 1959 had one particular devastating effect: It chased the richest and most powerful Batistianos and Mafiosi to U. S. soil. That resulted in rampant tax-funded military and terrorist attacks against Cuba, assassination attempts against Cuban leaders, and a vast array of pro-Batistianos/anti-Cuba laws easily rammed through the U. S. Congress, especially since the 1980s when the Reagan-Bush administration anointed Jorge Mas Canosa the leader of the Cubans-in-Exile and, as documented by historian Julia E. Sweig, advised Canosa to study and replicate AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. As the haunted graphic above indicates, most Cubans and most Americans want to be "Good Friends." However, that would mitigate against the revenge, economic and political motives of a select and powerful few in Miami, New Jersey and Washington. And thus...it will not be allowed to happen, disappointing America's best friends but pleasing America's most virulent enemies around the world.
And by the way:
Charles Blow was born 45-years-old ago in the Deep South -- a small town in Louisiana. He is now a very powerful Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and he is ubiquitous on television news programs. In reference to America's police-civilian and civilian-police killings, Mr. Blow's column yesterday very bluntly accused Americans of sharing responsibility for such murders because they meekly, cowardly and callously allow the gross inequality between America's haves and have-nots -- such as billionaire black sports heroes being lavished with more billions of easy dollars in corporate endorsements while most blacks live in poverty without hope or jobs...or a dime from endorsements. Mr. Blow's column yesterday was entitled: "Blood On Your Hands, Too." He cogently wrote: "Interpersonal and systemic racism are only part of the equation. There is also class conflict between those who are better off and those who are not."
Mr. Blow is a black liberal; I'm a white conservative. We agree.
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