| |
| AP El Universal La Habana, Cuba Miercoles 02 de abril de 2008 |
| Escritores y artistas de la isla llamaron a las autoridades y a sus colegas a 'apropiarse' de las nuevas tecnologias, en vez de prohibirlas u olvidarlas |
| Los escritores y artistas cubanos llamaron a las autoridades y a sus colegas a ''apropiarse'' de las nuevas tecnolog�as en vez de prohibirlas u olvidarlas, y anunciaron la creacion de un nuevo canal de television en la isla.
Casi 400 delegados participan en los debates a puertas cerradas del VII Congreso de la Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC), que agrupa a intelectuales con fuertes vinculos con el Partido Comunista.
El vicepresidente del Instituto Cubano de Radio y Television (ICRT), Luis Acosta anuncio en el evento, sin precisar cu�ndo, las proximas emisiones de un nuevo canal con 24 horas de programaci�n.
El medio se destinara a la difusion de produccion de otros paises, informo la prensa nacional. Seria el quinto canal nacional en la isla.
''Asistimos a una guerra promovida desde las nuevas tecnologias de la comunicacion, de la industria del entretenimiento y de las estrategias de mercadeo, en la que el socialismo ha perdido muchas batallas'', dijo un informe inaugural del evento de creadores.
El reporte de la comision de trabajo sobre Cultura y Sociedad fue publicado el martes por el periodico Granma, organo oficial del Partido Comunista.
Imagenes de television mostraron a grandes figuras de la cultura cubana participar del encuentro como la bailarina Alicia Alonso, el escritor Miguel Barnet, el pintor Roberto Fabelo o el cineasta Alfredo Guevara, todos encabezados por el presidente Raul Castro.
El ex presidente Fidel Castro, quien asistio al congreso anterior hace 10 anos, envio un mensaje escrito a la actual edicion en el que cuestiono la fugacidad de las nuevas tecnologias, los costos de su desarrollo y los inciertos efectos en la salud mental y fisica de quienes las utilizan.
En referencia al disco compacto, los sistemas de posicionamiento global, los telefonos celulares y el correo electronico, el convaleciente lider cubano expreso que ''la cantidad de dolares que implica --y en parte implica ya -- la venta de cada uno de los productos acumula en manos de las transnacionales tantos ceros, que es inteligible. Peor todavia: cada uno de ellos sera sustituido por otro invento mas efectivo''.
El reporte indico que las tecnologias deben ser incorporadas y no combatidas en el empeno de mostrar la verdadera Cuba y sus logros en el marco de su sistema comunista.
''Prohibir el acceso a estas opciones ademas de que no pasara de ser un gesto vacio, solo incrementaria su atractivo, sin prepararnos para la interaccion adecuada con los canales traves de los cuales se procesa y distribuye la informacion en el mundo'', expreso el informe de la UNEAC.
En Cuba, el internet no puede ser contratado por particulares, aunque hay un mercado negro de cuentas de acceso.
Las autoridades aseguraron que dado que la isla sufre el embargo estadounidense y se limitan los recursos t�cnicos --ni siquiera se le permite conectarse a un cable submarino que pasa por cerca de sus costas -- se distribuyeron las cuentas dando prioridades a centros de trabajo, universidades y otras instituciones.
Venezuela anuncio que enlazara a Cuba para que finalmente tenga banda ancha.
El gobierno autorizo la venta libre de computadoras a la poblacion a partir del 1 de abril, pero las tiendas aun no ofrecian estos equipos en sus inventarios. Las escuelas dan clases de informatica a los ninos.
Los intelectuales tambien debatieron la insuficiente calidad de los programas recreativos para los cubanos.
''Parece evidente que se ha producido un desfasaje (desfase) entre el proyecto cultural de la revolucion y los referentes que establecen para si mismos amplios sectores del pueblo'', reclamo el informe.
''Este congreso se ha caracterizado por intervenciones muy agudas... tocando temas muy sensibles en nuestra sociedad'', dijo el critico de arte Pedro de la Hoz, durante una conferencia de prensa. |
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Anuncian artistas creacion de canal de TV en Cuba
Cuba lending farmers state land
April 2, 2008
Cuba has begun lending unused state land to private farmers and co-operatives as part of efforts to boost agricultural output.
Officials estimate about half of all arable land in Cuba is currently underused or fallow.
The government has already started to pay farmers higher prices for some products, such as potatoes.
The national farmers' association said the move was to encourage production of cash crops such as tobacco and coffee.
This is the latest reform announced under new President Raul Castro.
In recent weeks, the state has lifted a ban on its citizens staying in hotels previously reserved for foreigners and allowed Cubans unrestricted access to mobile phones for the first time.
Import cuts
Everyone who wants to produce tobacco will be given land to produce it and other crops, Orlando Lugo, president of the island's national farmers association, told the Associated Press news agency.
Increasing production of cash crops like tobacco could boost foreign exchange earnings while a rise in agricultural output could cut Cuba's food import bill.
The island spends about $1.6bn (£806m) annually on food imports and Mr Castro has launched a major effort to increase food production since he became acting president in 2006.
He took office in February this year, when his brother, Fidel, stepped down.
Analysts welcomed the agricultural move, but said it was not yet fully clear what it would mean.
If the latest move means "all land that is not being used, like for private farmers, co-operatives and state farms, is available, that is positive," Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba economics expert at the University of Pittsburgh told the Associated Press.
"Assuming of course, they have the freedom to sow and sell whatever they want."
In the early days of the Communist revolution, farmers had to hand their land over to the state or collective farms.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7327134.stm
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Raul's Reforms May Strengthen Communism
chicagotribune.com
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer
7:00 PM CDT, April 2, 2008
HAVANA
It's not the stuff of Lenin or Marx, or even of Fidel Castro, but it's hardly free-market capitalism, either. In fact, steps to encourage a Cuban spending spree may help the communist system and its new president survive.
In rapid-fire decrees over the past week, Raul Castro's government has done away with some despised restrictions, lifting bans on electric appliances, microwaves and computers, inviting average citizens to enter long-forbidden resorts and declaring they can even legally have their own cell phones.
More could be on the way. Rumors are rampant the government could ease travel restrictions and tolerate free enterprise that would let more people start their own small businesses. And hopes that it will tweak the dual-currency system that puts foreign products out of reach for most Cubans have sparked a run on the peso.
"We're going to get out and buy more and more," said retiree Roberto Avila. "That's the future in Cuba, and it is a strong future."
Cuba is still far from a buyers' paradise. Nearly everyone holds government jobs, earning an average of $19.50 a month, though many get dollars from tourism jobs or relatives abroad. It would take the average Cuban five months to earn enough to buy a low-end DVD player that an American could buy with five hours of minimum-wage work.
By doing away with rules ordinary Cubans hate, Raul Castro may defuse clamor for deeper economic and political change in the single-party communist system.
On the other hand, the small changes could just whet Cubans' appetites for more.
"These measures to allow Cubans to buy DVDs and everything else are just to entertain the people," said Maite Moll, a 45-year-old state engineer. "It's not really important because it resolves nothing."
Some Cubans worry that even the small measures already taken will create class tensions and increase resentment between those earning state salaries and those with access to dollars, given the new opportunities for conspicuous consumption. Raul Castro is clearly hoping that greater buying power will distract from any friction.
Certainly, the 76-year-old president has bolstered his popularity, addressing for now the doubts that Cuba's government can survive without his charismatic brother Fidel.
"If low-income groups have access to essential goods like food, clothing and construction materials, and can sell and buy homes and use them as collateral, it doesn't matter if you have a significant income gap. People are better," said Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba economics expert at the University of Pittsburgh. "That's what happened in China and Vietnam."
The new president is said to be an admirer of free-market reforms that allowed those countries to revolutionize their economies while maintaining single-party communist political control, though top officials have said Cuba isn't about to follow a Chinese or Vietnamese path.
The food part of the equation could be profoundly affected by another initiative promoted this week. The government is lending uncultivated state-controlled land to private farmers and cooperatives to plant cash crops such as coffee and tobacco, while paying producers more for basics such as milk, meat and potatoes.
Over time, this could reduce chronic food shortages and change the face of Cuban farming.
It's not new for the government to let private farmers take a crack at putting state land to good use. But this time the government is letting farmers more easily buy equipment and supplies at government stores, removing a key impediment to their success.
The changes implemented barely a month into Raul's presidency are all measures Fidel bitterly opposed for decades, publicly declaring that even the smallest initiatives to increase economic and social freedoms could create a Cuban "new rich" and destroy the island's hard-fought social and economic equality.
Raul has pledged to consult his brother on all major decisions, but if the elder Castro doesn't like what's going on, he has kept his views to himself. Recuperating from an undisclosed illness in a secret location, the 81-year-old Fidel has written essays every few days focusing on international issues, making no mention of daily life in Cuba.
The government said Wednesday night that a new TV channel was being created, the island's fifth nationwide network, though when it will go on the air remains to be seen.
The latest changes are a far cry from perestroika or glasnost -- the political opening and economic restructuring of the Gorbachev era in the Soviet Union. But there are movements for greater freedoms among Cuban intellectuals as well.
Raul Castro presided this week over the Congress of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists, hearing their call for more open debate about "mechanisms of control and institutional censorship."
"It seems clear that there is a disconnect between the cultural project of the revolution and the references that broad sectors of the people establish for themselves," said the group, an arm of the Communist Party which in the past has been used to enforce ideological discipline.
And that disconnect could lead to unrest if more changes don't quickly benefit the vast majority of Cubans. While people are excited to walk around stores and hotel lobbies, they will soon become frustrated that they can't afford to do more than look, said Juan Antonio Blanco, a Cuban academic based in Ontario, Canada.
"This government is totally myopic and shortsighted if it doesn't understand that it's sitting on dynamite," he said. "They have to do more than the things that will play in the international media."
Associated Press writer Katherine Corcoran in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Cubans on new freedoms: 'We'll see how far we go'
See a video from Havana here.
HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- For the first time since Fidel Castro's official resignation, Cubans are talking more about what the government is doing than what it's not doing.
In the past week, President Raúl Castro has legalized cell phone use for ordinary Cubans; granted Cubans access to previously off-limits tourist hotels; and legalized the sale within Cuba of microwaves, DVD players and personal computers. Cubans are welcoming the change, even if the costs are out of their reach.
Georgina Garcia, a retired sound technician, was among those lined up at Dita, a store in Havana's Vedado neighborhood.
"I can't afford to go to the hotels," she said. "But I think it's good anyway. I have the right to go, and I feel the same as the tourists who come here."
Heriberto Gonzalez, a civil worker, said of the new freedoms, "Now that the prohibition has been lifted, we'll see how far we go from here."
Jorge, who has a small business, didn't want to give his last name. He said, "I think the Cuban people deserved this a while ago. So Cubans look more like the rest of the world, like normal people."
"Now we have to work on the workers' salaries, which aren't enough to meet the prices of a DVD player or a computer."
Cuba's government had previously forbidden the sale of consumer products under the argument that they consumed too much electricity.
And although computers hadn't yet been seen on the shelves Wednesday, Yamile Batista, the commercial director of La Puntilla department store, said they were among various products that would appear this week.
"We're talking about complete computer systems, 21-inch televisions, DVD players, home theater systems," she said.
Georgina Garcia voiced a sentiment echoed by many in the stores this week.
"I think it's good that I can have a computer and not overpay for it, have to hide it when they come to fumigate my house, worried that they'll see the computer and I'll be sent of to prison for the computer that I overpaid for from somebody who stole it," she said.
Most Cubans can't afford to rent cell phones, stay in hotels or buy any of the new products available to them. The average monthly salary is just under $20.
Those in the stores this week were primarily those with access to hard currency, either from relatives abroad or through jobs in the tourist industry.
Cuba has a two-tiered currency system; Cuban state workers are paid in the Cuban peso, but many products are only sold in the convertible peso, worth 24 times as much.
Cuba's opening marks shift away from Fidel
April 2, 2008; Page A7, The Wall Street Journal
Cuba opened the doors of its tourist-only hotels to Cuban citizens this week and has ended its prohibition on private ownership of cellphones, the latest cracks to open in the Communist country since Raúl Castro took power about a month ago.
Mr. Castro has begun marking crucial differences in style from that of his brother, Fidel, who stepped down in February after nearly 50 years of rule.
The younger Mr. Castro has lifted restrictions on the ownership of computers, DVDs and home appliances such as pressure cookers and microwaves. Cuba's foreign minister even has suggested that the nation may ease prohibitions on overseas travel.
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The moves suggest Mr. Castro is willing to chart a different path from his brother, who kept to a strict Communist ideology. Only once, during an economic depression in the early 1990s caused by the collapse of Cuba's former patron, the Soviet Union, did the elder Mr. Castro allow some limited reform.
The latest moves don't represent the kind of glasnost or perestroika -- political openness and economic restructuring -- that other Communist states carried out, and don't signal any kind of broad China-style opening that economists hoped to see. In an overhaul that began last year, the government is allowing private farmers to cultivate unused land. But, in general, few of the latest developments address the island's fundamental problems of food scarcity, low productivity and paltry job opportunity.
After taking power, Mr. Castro, 76 years old, vowed to resolve Cuba's deeper economic woes, which include low wages and a dual exchange rate that has essentially divided the island into haves and have-nots.
Cubans who receive cash transfers from relatives abroad or who work in the tourist industry have access to hard currency. State workers are paid in Cuban pesos, which aren't accepted at hotels or higher-end shops.
So far, Mr. Castro has introduced measures that cost the government nothing and benefit few. Easing restrictions on hotel stays, cellphones and other goods only benefit Cubans with hard currency. Hotels can cost $200 a night or more -- well out of the range of state workers who earn less than the equivalent of $20 a month in Cuban pesos.
Still, the changes represent a philosophical difference between the Castro brothers that could portend a shift in Cuban society. The younger Mr. Castro appears willing to allow class differences to come to the fore, a phenomenon that Fidel Castro fought bitterly to suppress. Increasingly, Cubans with money are allowed to spend it.
"Under Fidel, the idea was that unless everyone could afford it, no one could have it," said Philip Peters, a former State Department official who studies Cuba at the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va. "What this shows is that Raúl is not troubled by the idea that some people are going to make more money than others in this economy."
The decisions represent a more realistic view of the Cuban economy. Many of the measures legalize practices that already were commonplace. Before Raúl Castro took power, a big reason why Cubans were prohibited from hotels was the fear they would be exposed to foreigners and their views. Mr. Castro may be recognizing that Cubans and tourists already mix to a great degree and acknowledging that the change won't create any new political risk, some observers said.
Observers said Mr. Castro is betting that easing restrictions on things like cellphones and computers may ease the restlessness of many Cubans by giving them a sense that things are changing.
At the same time, the strategy could backfire: Giving Cubans a taste of freedom could stir demand for more accelerated changes.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Cuba wants more golf courses
''The message coming from the Cubans is: bring us golf projects,'' Mark Entwistle, a former Canadian ambassador to Cuba who represents one investor group, told the Times. A dozen golf projects around the island are on the drawing board, the newspaper added, each consisting of hundreds of villas and apartments built around the courses.
Cuba distributing unused land to increase production
New Kerala Times, India
Cuba's government has begun doling out unused agricultural land to farmers with the aim of increasing production of staple foods, tobacco and coffee, state television reported.
The land is being made available to farmers only through cooperatives, Orlando Lugo Fonte, chairman of Cuba's national farmers organization, said in the TV report Monday night.
Despite a shortage of foreign currency, the Communist Caribbean island must import a large portion of its food. The government has raised prices of agricultural produces with the aim of boosting production.
About half the cultivable land in Cuba lies fallow or is insufficiently used, according to government accounts.
The land redistribution is to proceed orderly and no chaos would result, said Fonte, who is also a member of the Cuban Council of State.
U.S. missionaries skeptical of change in Cuba
In his first week as Cuba's new president, Raul Castro met with the Vatican's No. 2 official, who said island leaders assured him they would allow some Roman Catholic broadcasts on state-controlled media.
But U.S. Christian groups that have worked for years in Cuba don't expect significant changes in the government's restrictions on religion now that the younger Castro has succeeded his ailing brother Fidel.
Donald Hepburn of the Florida Baptist Convention, a Southern Baptist group that has worked for more than a decade with Baptist churches in western Cuba, said the convention's U.S. staff person just returned from a visit to the island and heard little optimism there.
"From talking to our Baptist leadership, they don't believe there's going to be any appreciable change in how the government deals with religious groups," Hepburn said.
The Rev. Larry Rankin, director of mission and justice ministries for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, said: "the expectation is very low of any great change."
Cuba's single-party, communist government never outlawed religion, but expelled priests and closed religious schools upon Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959.
Tensions eased in the early 1990s when the government removed references to atheism in the constitution and let believers of all faiths join the Communist Party. Conditions improved again after Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in 1998 - the first to the island by a pope.
Still, the government has kept significant limits on religious life.
Mass evangelizing is banned. The government has withheld permission to build new churches, requiring many Christians to meet instead in small numbers inside homes or in crumbling buildings that predate the revolution.
In some cases, the island's leaders have moved to restrict the number of congregations that can operate in the same neighborhood, Rankin said. And the government-affiliated Cuban Council of Churches controls distribution of religious literature imported to the island.
The visit last week of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict XVI's secretary of state, was Raul Castro's first diplomatic meeting as head of state. But the timing was coincidental: the trip had been scheduled before Cuba's change in power to mark the 10th anniversary of John Paul's visit.
"I don't envision very much change in the near term," said Antonios Kireopoulos of the U.S. National Council of Churches, who had handled international affairs for the council, which represents Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox groups. "We don't know how the new leadership will play out."
Yet even within the government limits, mission groups have been able to undertake some projects in Cuba.
In some cases, church property that had been taken over immediately after the revolution has been given back to the denominations. In Havana, a wing of the Methodist church has been returned and the government has given permission for a seminary to be built there, Rankin said.
A Methodist mission team has traveled to Cuba every month or so to finish the seminary, even though other Methodist mission groups were already visiting the island regularly to repair some of the denomination's 125 churches, Rankin said.
"I'm not trying to say all of a sudden the government is friendly," Rankin said. "I just know that they're allowing the extra team to come in and work on the seminary."
The Florida Baptist Convention helps Cuban Baptists start new churches, supports a Havana seminary and provides for retired pastors who have no income, Hepburn said.
The more than 400 Cuban Baptist churches that work with the convention have seen "appreciable growth" in recent years, Hepburn said.
There are no independent, definitive statistics on Cuban religious life. However, in a population of around 11 million, it's believed that at least 40 percent consider themselves Catholic, according to the U.S. State Department's 2007 International Religious Freedom Report. Many Christians also practice Santeria, an Afro-Cuban folk tradition that fuses Catholicism with rituals handed down by West African slaves.
Baptists, although divided along denominational lines, are believed to be the largest Protestant group, followed closely by Pentecostal churches, such as the Assemblies of God, according to the report. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Anglicans and Methodists also have a notable presence on the island.
In the coming months, Rankin said churches in the Florida Methodist Conference will continue their regular trips to Cuba to help local congregations, with no anticipation that they'll be allowed to expand their humanitarian work anytime soon.
Still, Rankin, who lived in Cuba from 1951-1960, when his parents were missionaries there, said it's impossible to predict how religious life on the island will develop.
"The thing about Cuba is once you think you've got it all figured out, it changes," Rankin said. "It's an enigma."
'Jews in Cuba'
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 1, 200
After Fidel Castro became dictator of Cuba in 1959, the majority of the Jews on the island opposed the communist regime and left for the United States.
Through several trips to the island, Dr. Ruth Behar discovered that there's a small but still strong Jewish community holding on to Jewish traditions and memories.
Along with Cuban photographer Humberto Mayol, Behar was able to document the information she got for the exhibit "The Jews of Cuba," now on display at the University of Miami's Wesley Center.
"My goal for the exhibit is to bring consciousness of the fact that although 90 percent of the Jews left after the revolution, there's still this small community that's doing the best they can and I want people to be aware so that they can know their story," she said.
"The Jews of Cuba" runs through Saturday and features pictures by Mayol and text by Behar. Behar is serving as The Henry King Stanford Chair in the Humanities Distinguished Visiting Professor at UM's College of Arts and Sciences for the 2008 Spring Semester. She is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan.
Behar, who left Cuba with her family at age five, was surprised to discover how much people have saved so much of their Jewish past.
"Individual families had old passports, Polish passports, and old photographs," she said.
"That is evidence of Jewish past. I was afraid that all of that would've disappeared with the Cuban Revolution."
Behar had already used Mayol's photographs and the same information for her book, "An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba."
Perri Lee Roberts, senior associate dean for UM's College of Arts and Sciences, said that the exhibit is very sentimental and touching.
"No matter what your religious background is and no matter what country you come from, you'll think of the issue, "Where do we come from and what does it mean to be in exile?" she said.
Throughout the 60's, 70's, and 80's, mention of God disappeared and few Jews kept up religious practices. However, in 1991, around the time when Behar started making her trips to Cuba, the government changed from an atheist state to a secular one.
Behar continued to make trips to Cuba after her first visit because she wanted to continue a normal relationship with Cuba and see what remained of Jewish life.
"When I first got there, the synagogues had fallen apart and everything was in ruins, but as years went by, I started to come back and things started to improved," she said.
"More people participated in religious life and they really went through this revitalization so I wanted to witness and observe all of that."
Behar used the pictures taken by Mayol and some of her own family pictures as a slideshow for a lecture on "An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba," on March 25. The spectators were amazed with the pictures that they saw.
"This is very moving to see what's happening in Cuba with the Jewish community,and it's great that someone like Dr. Behar is recording this and helping to preserve history," said Victoria Mitrani, a faculty member at the University of Miami.
Jerry Marcus, a Coral Gables resident, said, that he enjoyed seeing a picture of a man named Jaime Gans Grin holding a postcard sent from a concentration camp with Adolf Hitler stamps.
"It's amazing," Marcus said of the exhibit. "A lot of it is really a journey into the old days."
During the lecture, Behar said that the Jews of Cuba were in favor of the Cuban Revolution until 1960 when they had private businesses taken away from them because they were middle class. She said that Cuban Jews were able to hold on to their traditions because Canada and Panama had sent them matzoh packages for Passover while Cuba was an atheist state. Behar said that American Jews starting traveling to the island on humanitarian missions in 1992. The exhibit is open from noon to 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and from noon to 7 p.m. on Thursday. It is free and open to the public. Call 305-284-6882. The Wesley Center is at 1210 Stanford Drive in Coral Gables.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Cubans rush to buy DVD players, electric bikes
By Rosa Tania Valdes
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans crowded shops on Tuesday to buy DVD players and electric bikes that went on sale for the first time as new President Raul Castro moved to lift many restrictions in the one-party socialist state.
Stores were authorized to sell dozens of electric goods that were previously banned, including microwave ovens, flat-screen televisions and even computers.
"This should have been done long ago. They should never have been banned," said Felipe, a 53-year-old engineer, who lined up impatiently to buy his first DVD player.
The Philips and Panasonic DVD players were priced between $118 and $162, much more expensive than in other countries but lower than the going rate on Cuba's thriving black-market.
Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president on February 24, promising to lift "excessive prohibitions" on daily life in Cuba.
His government has since moved quickly to allow Cubans to buy cellular phones and stay at hotels previously reserved for foreigners.
The changes made so far by Cuba's first new leader in half a century are aimed at reducing pent up frustrations in the country of 11 million where the ruling Communist Party has a firm grip on power.
Cubans welcomed greater access to consumer goods that are available virtually anywhere else in the world.
"After so many years of restrictions, this is great. Now Cubans have new options and I can resolve my transport problem," said Raydel Leyva, 42, the first at a Havana shopping center to buy a battery-driven moped made in China and priced at $900.
"These measures are meant to improve life and make us feel better living in our country," he said.
With wages averaging $17 a month in Cuba, many of the new goods on sale were out of reach for most pockets, but even some of those who could not afford to buy anything were happy they are now available.
"The prices are astronomical. But at least I have the choice, and I can save up to buy things I want. People will work harder to buy them," said Gelis, a self-employed tennis coach.
COMPUTERS COMING
Computers, which until now could only be bought in Cuba by government or foreign companies, were also supposed to go on sale but none had changed hands by Tuesday afternoon.
At a shop in western Havana, Microsoft keyboards and mouses were on show, but Dell laptops and desktop computers were still in their boxes awaiting for prices to be decided.
A saleswoman said computers with 80 gigabytes of hard drive memory, 512 megabytes of RAM and a Celeron P4 chip made by Intel would sell for about $865.
"I have been saving up for three years, since I was 15, and I think I am close to buying one," said Paula, a university student waiting for the new stock to come in.
Cubans have to pay for the consumer goods in hard currency CUCs, or convertible pesos, worth 24 times more than the Cuban pesos that state wages are paid in.
About 60 percent of Cubans have access to CUCs, through cash remittances from relatives in the United States, bonuses, tips from tourists and black market dealings.
Havana shops had on sale 21-inch flat-screen television sets and home theater sets worth more than $1,300. It would take a Cuban with average six years to earn enough to buy one.
"This is all good and fine, but my purchasing power is too low to buy anything," said Yaima, a teacher who earns 592 pesos a month, about $26.60. "I'll have to wait until they strengthen the peso."
(For special coverage from Reuters on the changes in Cuba, see: here)
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Kieran Murray)
Cuba seeks more user-friendly socialism
HAVANA (Reuters) - New President Raul Castro has lifted some of Cuba's more onerous restrictions and opened cracks in one of the world's remaining state-run economies to make socialism more user-friendly.
How far the small-scale reforms will go remains anybody's guess, but in the past five weeks, Castro has introduced changes at what amounts to lightning speed by Cuban standards.
Bans on the sale of computers, DVD players and other products have been lifted, and Cubans who can afford it can now stay at tourist hotels and buy a cellphone.
Agriculture is being decentralized, farmers can decide for themselves what supplies they need and the prices paid to them are rising to boost food production.
It became clear after Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery in 2006 and temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul Castro that change would come to the Soviet-style economy.
The younger Castro unleashed a Cuban version of Soviet "glasnost" by ordering the official media to investigate social and economic problems, demanding that bureaucrats tell the truth, calling on Cubans to be more critical and fostering a grass-roots debate on the country's ills.
With Fidel Castro too ill to return to power, the 76-year-old Raul Castro formally took over as president on February 24, becoming Cuba's first new leader in half a century, and immediately promised to lift excessive regulations.
Unlike the "special period" of the 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's former benefactor, forced Fidel Castro to introduce limited free-market reforms to confront dire economic hardship, Cuba is not currently being pushed into reform by economic circumstances.
"The situation is very different from the crisis of the 1990s," a Cuban economist said.
"Fidel is no longer leading the country, we are in better financial shape, we have never had so much support from Latin American governments and Raul is a no-nonsense manager," he said, asking not to be identified, like others interviewed.
HOW FAR WILL REFORMS GO?
The biggest question for foreign analysts and Cubans alike is just how far Raul Castro's reforms will go.
For decades, he was seen as a communist hardliner but in recent years he has shown a softer side and developed a reputation as a pragmatist who believes that Cuban socialism needs to reform to survive.
"This is just the beginning. Decentralization and more individual initiative will slowly spread from agriculture to the entire economy, it's inevitable," said another local economist, adding for now that this would strengthen, not weaken the Communist Party and state.
Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence officer who defected to Miami in 1994, said much the same thing.
"Survival and continuity will depend on the ability to reshape the system, safeguarding its basic social achievements but transforming the economics into a more market oriented and democratic system," he said.
Cuban officials insist that Fidel Castro, 81, who has not been seen in public since his surgery in July 2006, is fully consulted on important decisions and in a recent written message he endorsed Raul Castro's policies.
Some experts and Cubans have their doubts.
"It is highly unlikely that Fidel Castro would have approved such a wide-ranging series of moves if he had remained in power," said Dan Erikson of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington.
EYE ON THE PESO
A major public complaint that Raul Castro's government will need to deal with is that state wages paid in Cuban pesos are too low, while many consumer goods have to be paid for in convertible pesos, or CUCs, worth 24 times more than pesos.
About 60 percent of Cubans have access to some hard currency from cash remittances sent by relatives abroad, mainly in the United States, or through factory and farm bonuses and tips from foreign tourists.
A class of "new rich" Cubans that has developed over the last 15 years will be the first to benefit from access to seaside hotels, computers and cellphone lines that cost $120, or six times the average monthly wage.
"The government is recognizing that around 15 percent of the population has 85 percent of the pesos in the banks," said one of the Cuban economists.
"It is tempting the new rich -- from farmers to black market dealers -- to exchange their pesos for CUCs to buy goods, and thus reduce the pesos in circulation and strengthen the currency and wages of everyone," he said, adding increased food production had the same strategic aim.
(Editing by Michael Christie and Kieran Murray)
Cubans allowed to stay at tourist hotels
Reuters
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, March 31 (Reuters) - President Raul Castro's government lifted an unpopular ban on Cubans staying at resort hotels reserved exclusively for foreigners on Monday in a new step to ease restrictions in the communist state.
Since Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel Castro last month, Cuba has ended restrictions on Cubans buying computers, DVD players and cellular telephones.
"Cubans can now stay at our hotels. Out doors are open to local tourism," said the Cuban manager of a small state-run hotel in colonial Old Havana.
Managers at five-star hotels run by foreign hotel chains, such as Sol Melia (SOL.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) and Accor (ACCP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), Europe's largest hotelier, confirmed Cubans will be able to stay at any hotel if they can afford the hard currency prices.
Cubans can also rent cars and use facilities that were previously off-limits to them, including the best beaches enjoyed by foreign tourists in Varadero, Cuba's prime resort, industry sources said.
The ban on staying in hotels was a major source of frustration for Cubans since their country opened up to tourism in the early 1990s and gave rise to criticism of Cuba for having an "economic apartheid" system.
Raul Castro, 76, took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro as Cuba's first new leader in almost half a century on Feb. 24, promising to do away with "excessive restrictions" in Cuban society and its state-run economy.
On Friday, the government announced an end to a ban on Cubans buying and using cellular telephones.
As of Tuesday, Cuban shops will be allowed to sell computers, DVD players and other appliances in a move to improve the standard of living in Cuba by opening access to consumer products.
Raul Castro has also begun restructuring agriculture to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks and boost food production.
Until now, only newlywed Cubans on their honeymoon and workers selected for high productivity and revolutionary zeal were allowed to stay at hotels as a reward.
AVERAGE WAGE
Cubans will have to pay the going rate in hard currency to stay at luxury hotels, which few can afford in a country where the average wage is only $17 a month.
"It took a long time, but its done now. I'm going to start saving right away to go to Varadero next summer," said Martin Diaz, 34, a Havana worker.
Cubans who recalled the 1980s when they were allowed to stay at hotels and had the money to do so welcomed the end of the ban, but wondered if they could afford a hotel today.
The restrictions were introduced after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union forced Cuba to open up to foreign tourism and investment and legalize hard currency in the midst of a severe economic crisis.
"I don't think I can afford to go to Varadero, but I'm glad to know I have the option to do so whenever I want," said Alfredo Hernandez, a self-employed 43-year-old resident of the eastern city of Santiago.
Cuba's tourism industry is a major source of foreign exchange, more than $2 billion a year, but the number of visitors has declined in the last two years. Foreign managers said allowing Cubans to stay at tourist hotels will help raise occupancy during the low summer season.
A major public complaint that Raul Castro's government will need to deal with is that wages paid in Cuban pesos are too low, while consumer goods have to be paid for in convertible pesos, or CUCs, worth 24 times more than pesos.
About 60 percent of Cubans have access to some hard currency from cash remittances sent by relatives living abroad, mainly in the United States, or through factory and farm bonuses and tips from foreign tourists.
A class of "new rich" Cubans that has developed over the last 15 years will be the first to benefit from access to seaside hotels, computers and cellular telephone lines that cost $120, or six times the average monthly wage.
"The government is recognizing that around 15 percent of the population has 90 percent of the pesos in the banks," said a Cuban economist who asked not to be named.
"It is tempting the new rich --from farmers to black market dealers-- to exchange their pesos for CUCs to buy goods, and thus reduce the pesos in circulation and strengthen the currency," he said. (Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes; editing by Philip Barbara)