[deMolay]

By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA, Associated Press Writer Anne-marie Garcia, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jul 18, 9:06 am ET
HAVANA – At a state project to refurbish a decaying building in Old Havana, one worker paints a wall white while two others watch. A fourth sleeps in a wheelbarrow positioned in a sliver of shade nearby and two more smoke and chat on the curb.

President Raul Castro has startled the nation lately by saying about one in five Cuban workers may be redundant. At the work site on Obispo street, those numbers run in reverse.

It's a common sight in communist Cuba. Here, nearly everyone works for the state and official unemployment is minuscule, but pay is so low that Cubans like to joke that "the state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work."

Now, facing a severe budget deficit, the government has hinted at restructuring or trimming its bloated work force. Such talk is causing tension, however, in a country where guaranteed employment was a building block of the 1959 revolution that swept Fidel Castro to power.

Details are sketchy on how and when such pruning would take place. Still, acknowledgment that cuts are needed has come from Raul Castro himself.

[Novus]

Clearly the one doing the painting is redundant.

[eastbay]

When one walks through Havana or any Cuban city or town it's clear to see there is much work to be done. Most of this work in Cuba could be done with hand tools and some sweat and without spending a lot of money on steel, concrete, lumber and what-not. I think what Fidel is referring to is restructuring the work environment so more are working and fewer are standing around pretending to work. I think this can't be too hard to accomplish and would no doubt get rid of waste and is long overdue.

I'm reminded of how Cal Trans (California) and ODOT (Oregon) operate. I'm sure it's not too different in other states and I'm sure most of us are aware of how state highway workers in the USA typically perform. We see it along freeways with nearly every road construction job site. You see a guy shoveling and five more standing around leaning on their shovels. Two more are standing waving little flags or holding a silly 'caution' sign. Redirecting inertia is an important factor in adjusting things in any system.

[mattduke]

Allow people to keep the fruits of the own labors and watch how much work gets done.

[eastbay]

... keep the fruit of one's labor... like working at Starbucks or McDonalds or Walmart? Oh, maybe you mean paint a government building and keep it? Sign me up! Or maybe work on a public roadway and you own the road? Or... lol... as a soldier in the US military one could storm and pillage and keep the loot and maybe a few slaves like our ancestors did. I do like that last idea! There just might be some post-peak merit to what you're proposing.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '.').. keep the fruit of one's labor... like working at Starbucks or McDonalds or Walmart? Oh, maybe you mean paint a government building and keep it? Sign me up! Or maybe work on a public roadway and you own the road? Or... lol... as a soldier in the US military one could storm and pillage and keep the loot and maybe a few slaves like our ancestors did. I do like that last idea! There just might be some post-peak merit to what you're proposing.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's a common sight in communist Cuba. Here, nearly everyone works for the state and official unemployment is minuscule, but pay is so low that Cubans like to joke that "the state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work."

Now, facing a severe budget deficit, the government has hinted at restructuring or trimming its bloated work force. Such talk is causing tension, however, in a country where guaranteed employment was a building block of the 1959 revolution that swept Fidel Castro to power.

[americandream]

Presumably you believe the regular reports in Granma (Cuba's English language online newspaper) on the perilous state of poverty and rampant racism in Madoff's America, Timmac?

Expecting a capitalist MSM to report objectively on a system that seeks to kneecap them is like expecting a creationist to embrace a Darwinian piece on evolutionary evidence.

The mere fact that you expect me to give this self serving propaganda (do you even know what that is?) anything more than a cursory glance simply demonstrates the neglible functioning of your old grey matter.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's a common sight in communist Cuba. Here, nearly everyone works for the state and official unemployment is minuscule, but pay is so low that Cubans like to joke that "the state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work."

Now, facing a severe budget deficit, the government has hinted at restructuring or trimming its bloated work force. Such talk is causing tension, however, in a country where guaranteed employment was a building block of the 1959 revolution that swept Fidel Castro to power.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'P')resumably you believe the regular reports in Granma (Cuba's English language online newspaper) on the perilous state of poverty and rampant racism in Madoff's America, Timmac?

Expecting a capitalist MSM to report objectively on a system that seeks to kneecap them is like expecting a creationist to embrace a Darwinian piece on evolutionary evidence.

The mere fact that you expect me to give this self serving propaganda (do you even know what that is?) anything more than a cursory glance simply demonstrates the neglible functioning of your old grey matter.

[eastbay]

Castro, Che, and the rest of the hero's who fought for and consolidated the glorious Cuban revolution will forever be in a special place of high honor in their afterlives. Their selfless uncompensated struggle on behalf of the dispossessed and poor will be forever treated as the holy work of wondrous ever-holy saints.

We need more just like them!

[americandream]

The USSR failed for precisely the reasons Marx cautioned against.....the premature nature of socialism in nation states and the risk of reformism and corruption from the surrounding sea of intrusive capital. Cuba's admirably resolute but premature stand against predatory, peadophilic, Jeebus intoxicated capitalists, high on their own propaganda, will fail. Of that I am sure.
However, you are weaving the very rope you will be hung with, my bailed out pirate friend with a penchant for denial in the face of facts. Just look at the corporate fiasco in the Gulf.

The freedoms we fought so hard for as commoners which incidentally you think you own whilst you suck up to, gasp, communists (China), was earned with blood and sacrifice. Freedoms which came about due to the efforts of those who valued freedom above servitude to fat nobs!!!!. Freedoms which you have no real stomach for where it obstructs your profitibility. 27 American companies have just set up shop in Shanghai, and this dwang rails on about communism and dictatorships. (Admit it, you nong, you aren't averse to doing business in "communist" nation states run by corrupt freeloarders like you, are you?)

The American Revolutionares spared the English nobility by fleeing the country. The French on the other hand, resorted to Madame Guillotine. Guess what in store for your bloated bros?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'P')resumably you believe the regular reports in Granma (Cuba's English language online newspaper) on the perilous state of poverty and rampant racism in Madoff's America, Timmac?

Expecting a capitalist MSM to report objectively on a system that seeks to kneecap them is like expecting a creationist to embrace a Darwinian piece on evolutionary evidence.

The mere fact that you expect me to give this self serving propaganda (do you even know what that is?) anything more than a cursory glance simply demonstrates the neglible functioning of your old grey matter.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'C')astro, Che, and the rest of the hero's who fought for and consolidated the glorious Cuban revolution will forever be in a special place of high honor in their afterlives. Their selfless uncompensated struggle on behalf of the dispossessed and poor will be forever treated as the holy work of wondrous ever-holy saints.

We need more just like them!

[eastbay]

People are poor in Haiti and it has absolutely nothing to do with their capitalist economic system. People are poor in Cuba and it has nothing to do with Communism. These places are simply poor. That's how the world is. Some places on earth are poor and others aren't.

The reason Cuba is so much nicer ( and nearly all visitors will tell us the place is an absolute wonderland!! ) is there is no exploiting class. No maniacal struggle among the masses to eke out an existence (as most Cubans did before the revolution) begging from gangsters and clever self-enriching parasites.

It's now as close to a paradise on earth as we can get and post peak Cuba will be comparatively an absolute heaven on earth... unless the revolution fails in which case Cuba will degenerate into a pure horror beyond anyone's belief.

[timmac]

Off topic. Unrelated to thread. Avoid the personal. Stick to the subject.

[green_achers]

I can only think of one thing sillier than knee-jerk communist apologists, and that's knee-jerk anti-communists. That fight is over. "We" won, remember? It's been a paradise ever since.

[americandream]

Freedom! Your China corporate dictatorship worshipping pals on Wall Street wouldn't recognise the concept even were it to suddenly transmutate, spout fangs and bite them on the asss.

Any freedom enjoyed in the West is as a direct consequence of the enlightened left and their vision of a world ruled by reason, not the inconsistent moneyed classes or their moronic apologists in religion (the divine rights of kings ring a bell?).

As usual, the opportunistic right not only seize our achievements, they continue to denigrate the urge for a fair society even whilst they trip over themselves in their rush to set up shop in "communist" China. Hypocrites!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'C')astro, Che, and the rest of the hero's who fought for and consolidated the glorious Cuban revolution will forever be in a special place of high honor in their afterlives. Their selfless uncompensated struggle on behalf of the dispossessed and poor will be forever treated as the holy work of wondrous ever-holy saints.

We need more just like them!