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Distributed by CubaNet News
HAVANA, 16 June - The collapse of the Soviet camp plunged Cuba into, among
other calamities, a crashing ocean of unemployment. In addition to the general
panorama of imploding morality and social decay, their compounded poverty forced
Cubans to take up a new struggle for daily survival. Rampant prostitution,
alcoholism, burglary, assaults, bribery, hunger -- these were the hues of the
so-called Special Period in Times of Peace.
Like a rare flower amidst the dessert, buffeted by the fierce government
winds, Cubans began to quietly open small restaurants and cafeterias known as "paladares".
The government, hampered by pervasive corruption and completely unable to
control its own State-run food distribution system, had no choice but to
legalize the new grass-roots industry the first mass of independent
workers since 1959.
Once the authorities acceded to granting licenses, an explosion of food
kiosks and tiny restaurants spread across the island. Devastated living
standards started to recover for those ingenious Cubans who were instantly able
to offer home-cooked meals of extraordinary quality.
The State-run restaurant network, which offered bad food and bad services,
was utterly unable to compete with the independent workers. They watched with
worry and alarm as their income plummeted, and in their suddenly emptied
cafeterias one could observe only bored staff, lively flies and cheerful
cockroaches.
What was clearly a great benefit to the people was, however, a source of
anguish for the government, because the striking contrast was becoming evident
in other sectors of the economy as well. A veritable Standing Army of unemployed
workers plunged into eager self-employment: blacksmiths, plumbers, carpenters,
electricians and many others hit the new market with their goods and services,
draining the State warehouses which were the only allowed source of materials
and parts. Corrupt warehouse administrators gladly cooperated with the new
underground economy, to the detriment of the official economy.
The government's response was not long in coming. A new national revenue
system was imposed, with astronomical taxes. Food service providers were
required to obtain goods above the table, at the high-priced State stores.
Massive red tape was wrapped around new bureaucratic procedures for obtaining
licenses. Brigades of new inspectors spread out, imposing fines of 1,500 pesos
on the impoverished workers if they saw so much as one fly. The avalanche of new
restrictions crushed the desperate effort on the part of thousands of Cubans to
climb out of endless economic depression.
The enthusiastic rush to work and make their own living for the first time
was exterminated. Thousands of workers have turned in their permits, embittered
by a regime which does not allow any vitality outside of its firm control. And
those who have hung on to their permits carry on by means of bribes to the
inspection brigades, knowing that their days are numbered too.
"They haven't actually forbidden us to work, they just abuse you until
you have no choice but to give up", said one of the many workers, who now
quietly retreat once more into the instability of Tomorrow.
Distributed by Cubanet
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