Even tough, according to an article in the Toronto Sun,
the citizen gets little help from the government.
In a recent article in Granma, the official governmental newspaper, described the staggering damages suffered with the hardest hit being the housing sector, where 444,000 homes were damaged, including 63,249 homes that collapsed completely and more than 200,000 people have been left without homes. The article enumerates damages in other sectors like the electrical services, facilities for public health, education, and other basic community requirements. Information, which cannot be confirmed, of the progress that has been made is provided. Then the article summarizes, in a spirit of triumphalism, that “Cuba has been accustomed to facing tremendous difficulties for almost 50 years“ and leaves the reader with the sense that the citizen is not just overcoming the obstacles but optimistic about the future.
A different version of the status of post-hurricane Cuba is provided by Joe Warmington, a Canadian journalists who recently took a trip to Cuba and just published his experience (“Castro writes while Cuba sinks” - Toronto Sun, reproduced below). In this account we read that in the aftermath of “Gustav and Ike, supplies are scarce. Even the hotels are rationing.” The writer sarcastically remarks that Fidel, who writes a weekly column, sometimes more often, for Granma, “has not mentioned this in a column. He also hasn't talked of the fear of going to prison for buying or selling food on the black market, nor on how government claws back tourism employees' tips by setting "unreasonable" monthly quotas.” As he writes in the Toronto Sun, “there has been little help from their socialist government” to the Cuban citizen.
Jose A Hernandez, MD
President, CubaResponde
Click on “Continue leyendo” below to read “Castro writes while Cuba sinks”
Castro writes while Cuba sinks
By JOE WARMINGTON
Last Updated: 20th October 2008, 3:40am
Click here to watch the video
Sun Media columnist Joe Warmington recently took a trip to Cuba.
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HAVANA -- Hidden away in a secret lair, the old revolutionary dictator writes.
Since he has not been seen in public for 30 months, we'll have to take their word for it that it is actually Fidel Castro.
There are some who believe he is dead and frozen while brother, Raul, tries to find the right time to announce it. But not many.
It's Fidel's writings, or perhaps rantings, in the Communist Party's Granma newspaper and on Cuban web sites that has helped quell those rumours.
One column this week shockingly said it is a "pure miracle" U.S. presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has not yet been assassinated. It said "millions of whites cannot reconcile in their minds with the idea that a black man with his wife and children would move into the White House, which is called just like that -- white."
I don't know of another columnist who would, or could, write that. Cubans recognize the style.
"Those are his words," many Cubans told me. "We know him."
In addition to the traditional Fidel anti-American slant, he also writes about memories from his beloved 1959 revolution.
On paper, the 82-year-old has handed power over to Raul but if he is breathing, people understand that as first secretary of the Communist Party he is still boss.
Most believe he's squirrelled away in a military hospital with a pen and pad by his bed. It's another remarkable and fascinating image of an aging dictator who seems to refuse to die.
But it doesn't put food on the table here.
Cuba prides itself that people are educated, have medical care and are fed. The main meal people earning $15 a month exist on is rice and beans, fruit and vegetables -- all of which are among the few products still available for purchase by the low valued, traditional Cuban peso.
Not any more. Post Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, supplies are scarce. Even the hotels are rationing. Fidel, so far, has not mentioned this in a column. He also hasn't talked of the fear of going to prison for buying or selling food on the black market, nor on how government claws back tourism employees' tips by setting "unreasonable" monthly quotas.
He's been quiet, as well, on how many in the hurricane damaged zones still have little electricity, phone service, water, fuel, food or materials available as you will see in a video on torontosun.com.
LITTLE HELP
I saw for myself -- a beaten up Pinar Del Rio region set back in time where horse and buggy and 1950's cars rule and there has been little help from their socialist government.
Fidel has not yet mentioned either that a lot of people are fed up.
"People know the system does not work and they want change," said one man.
But on a recent trip, most admitted this is not likely since hundreds are in prison for having such thoughts. "In Cuba, you never know where you'll find a spy," said one former government insider.
A shroud of secrecy has always been part of Fidel's existence but his grip over this struggling island nation becomes more fascinating by the week and he's certainly more than a newspaper columnist.
"The old man is still calling the shots and people are comfortable with that," said one man.
"Fidel Castro will always be the president as long as he is alive."
Is he even alive? Cubans believe so and that is all that matters here. They wait for Fidel -- to die, to appear, to get healthy, to take back the presidency?
"He's waiting, too," laughed a source on Raul.
"He wants to do some things to make improvements here but can't."
Sources tell me there is turmoil at the top. There have been several arrests on charges of corruption, including some assistants to top level officials. Others have been fired. Some say Fidel and Raul "have had many disagreements" and they spy on each other's offices.
"But one fact in Cuba everybody -- including Raul -- understands is Fidel has the last word on everything."
You can read that word yourself several times a week in the Granma newspaper.
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