Change…coming in Cuba??

Most Cubans would probably resonate today with Sam Cooke’s 1954 classic, “A change is gonna come”! Sam surveyed the dread situation of American Blacks – almost a century after slavery was supposed to’ve ended. “I was born by the river in a little tent/Oh, and just like the river, I’ve been running ever since/ It’s been a long, a long time coming/But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will/It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die/Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky/It’s been a long, long time coming/But I know a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.”
Most poor Cubans were quite ecstatic when Fidel and Che staged their revolution back in 1959 to kick out the dictator Batista – who’d received the support of the Yanks – and the Mafia to use Cuba as their playground!! Their lives would be improved beyond belief as Castro’s Communist promise of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” would kick in after he kicked out the “rapacious capitalists”!! Thousands and thousands of the rich and qualified classes fled across the narrow 90-mile strait to the USA!!
Sadly, the promise never materialised for those who remained. Sure, there was greater equality – but it was to be equally poor – even as most social services like education and medical care were provided free!! Many – including the UN – have rightly criticised the Yanks’ economic blockade of the island since 1960!! And believe this contributed to the dire economic straits experienced by Cubans ever since. But as the experience of most communist countries across the world – but especially in Eastern Europe – has shown, the fault Dear Readers, wasn’t just because of the sanctions!! It also stemmed from the premises of Communism itself – that folks would be willing to work as hard as they could because everybody would get the same benefits!!
Sam Cooke had experienced the fallacy of this premise back in 1954 – “Then I go to my brother/And I say, ‘Brother, help me, please!’/But he winds up knockin’ me/Back down on my knees.”!! Fact of the matter is that we’re a selfish species – evolved to look out for Numero Uno!! China, which was also communist, recognised this – and accepted the capitalist economic system – even as they kept the political control!! And are now rich!
Well, the latest intensification of US sanctions – after their Venezuelan incursion – has made the Cuban Government finally accept the need for market incentives to get their economy going!!
It’ll allow each man, woman or child to earn as much as they want to – based on their own effort!!

…in sugar
Pressie seems to’ve reached the end of his patience with the sugar industry’s continued dismal performance. Incredibly declining production where we can’t even reach a 50,000-tonne target – when we once produced 350,000 tonnes under the White Man!! He made the suggestion that maybe the sugar worker union – GAWU – quit blaming “management” and take over running an estate.
But your Eyewitness thinks this ain’t gonna really change anything fundamentally – as far as providing incentives for workers to really produce more. We’d just be adding another “stakeholder” to the management strata!! What should be done – based on the premise that we all look out for number one – is to divvy up the land on each estate and give the individual workers ownership!
They’d get paid for the cane they produce – after deducting for all expenses, of course!! Cane production is the main constraint right now – and it’s been shown that a typical 15-acre farm run by a family is the most efficient as far as increased production!!

…in drainage strategy
The Minister of Agriculture – under which “Drainage and Irrigation” (D&I) falls – amazingly announced that the FIRST published strategy for D&I has been made!!
What have they been working from up to now?? Notes from their back pockets??