No subject

of Cuban life. This internal debate on options probably drew to a
close in July. Then, Ra=C3=BAl Castro made it clear that a "structural and
conceptual change" was necessary and that Cuba's government needed to
establish what was economically most efficient and learn lessons from
it.

He also spoke of a future where there was "a predominance" of
socialist property and a "non-monolithic approach to development". He
envisaged a role for foreign investment providing capital, technology
and markets. He used Fidel Castro's words from 2000 to justify this
approach: "It means changing all that ought to be changed. It is
defying powerful and ruling forces inside and outside the social and
national spheres."

Subsequently, Ra=C3=BAl Castro made clear that the new Cuban economic
model would be based on Cuba's tried and tested military economic
model that successfully operates in tourism and other sectors.

He also initiated a public debate to achieve the endorsement of the
conclusions he alluded to in July and it would seem to guarantee the
'socialist legitimacy' of what is being proposed.

As a consequence, a fundamental national debate has been under way on
the economic relationship between centralisation and decentralisation
and the future interconnection between producers, buyers, sellers,
distributors in the chain of supply, as well as on taxation,
encouraging productivity and by extension, material gain.

New economic thinking

This may result sometime after elections to the National Assembly in
November in announcements that lead to significant agricultural
reforms, a new approach to foreign investment in areas regarded as
economically strategic, and to other social and economic reforms.

All of which is not to suggest that Cuba is changing its overall
model or its approach to organised dissent.

Rather, it is beginning to come to terms with its inefficient system
and recognising the need to develop new economic thinking if its
social model is to survive.

Cuba faces the same challenges as all other Caribbean nations. Food
security, energy security, climate change and economic globalisation
all require new approaches to economic and social organisation.

Like others, it has recognised that this requires significant changes
to a system that was, as one young Cuban recently noted to me,
created in the fire of the Cold War.

This is a reality well understood at high levels in Europe, Canada
and most of the rest of the world, where this is seen as presenting
an opportunity for engagement. Unfortunately, it is a view with which
President Bush and his advisers seem to be wholly out of touch.

David Jessop is director of the Caribbean Council. Email:
david.jessop at caribbean-council.org


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Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba
"Un para=C3=ADso bajo el bloqueo"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
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