[Marxism] Passing through Mexico City

[Walter Lippmann]

After eighty-eight days in Cuba, "Un paraíso bajo el bloqueo", 
I've been passing though Mexico City on my way back to Los Angeles.

A few quick impressions.

The best thing about Mexico City is having normal internet access. By
normal I'm referring to what we used to call "high speed", DSL, cable
or whatever others. I'm visiting with friends who live in a large
working-class condominium complex in Tlatelolco, Mexico. My friend
Peter has a wireless router so there's no sweat with me working in
the living room while he works at his desk. People came to work in
the house yesterday and so I had to go out for a few hours, but no
sweat. Within TWO DOORS of the front door of this building are two
internet cafes where normal (remember, we don't call it high speed
here) access costs ten Mexican pesos per hour (equivalent to about
one U.S. dollar.) By contrast, the very few internet cafes in Cuba
cost $6.00 per hour and it's mostly dialup. The only place I was able
to have proper (we don't call it "high speed") was at the Jagua Hotel
in Cienfuegos when I went to cover the Petrocaribe conference. There
total wireless access was included in the hotel package. It was just
great and a nice hint of what the future will be like one of these
days.

Mexico City has wonderful newsstands which contain hundreds of
magazines, many domestic, many from the U.S., all in Spanish, of
course, except for the few magazines which are aimed at Mexicans who
want to learn English. There are several different magazines
available aimed at helping Mexicans learn English. I discovered here
THE NEWS, and English-language daily newspaper here which is pretty
decent as well (ten Mexican pesos, about a dollar). I also purchase
LA JORNADA, the mass circulation left-wing daily which is very
supportive of the Cuban Revolution. In Cuba at some of the better
hotels you can buy a few foreign magazines, but there's nothing
remotely like what they have here in Mexico in Cuba.

Mexican newsstands also feature all sorts of pornography, from
high-level to cheap and vulgar comic book types, whatever suits the
buyer's fancy. There are no newsstands at all like these in Cuba.

It was such a delight here to have normal-speed internet (as compared
with the molasses speed which exists in Cuba) that I was able to
download all sorts of things I'd held off on while in Cuba, large
image files and so on which would have clogged the phone line in a
dialup environment, so I got a great deal of backlogged work done in
the first couple of days, and also found myself back listening to Amy
Goodman's Democracy Now here through the computer.

Beggars are everywhere, lost of them indigenous peoples. Nothing like
this in Cuba where the few beggars are confined to the tourist areas.
Here in Mexico they are pervasive. People selling all sorts of things
from stands on the street are also to be seen everywhere, except in
the downtown Zocalo area where the city administration cleaned out
the army of street vendors some time ago, much to the delight of the
population.

The current round of Cuba's election process will wrap up this
weekend but there's plenty more to come in the weeks and months to
come. I'm very pleased to share with readers of the CubaNews list a
pair of recent articles from JUVENTUD REBELDE about the struggle
against corruption in Cuba. It's one area which I think about
frequently, where in Cuba or elsewhere as it's the source of so many
of the island's difficulties, beyond the blockade, and it's a problem
which can't really be blamed on the blockade, though the blockade is
the context for everything, and it limits what the Cubans can do to
resolve their many problems.

In Fidel Castro's most recent reflection "An Epiphany Gift", he make
some points which we should all ponder. The whole essay should be
studied carefully, but in particular these points. One of the most
problematic areas of Cuban life which I have observed in the years
I've been visiting are the distressing number of people who are able
to live without working. They could never do that in a capitalist
country (unless they were filty rich, of course, or won the lottery)

But in Cuba where housing is either extremely inexpensive or free
(though it may be in disrepair), where health care is free, and
utilities are relatively inexpensive (a monthly basic phone bill was
6.75 pesos last time I checked.), the number of people who live in
one way or another by their wits is indeed distressing. Perhaps the
biggest problem is the low level of Cuban salaries and pensions,
which simply aren't enough to live on. Everyone knows that, and so
the informal sector or black market picks up the slack in one way or
another.

Fidel made these pointed observations earlier this week:

"In this new era in which we live, capitalism is not even a useful
instrument. It is like a tree with rotten roots, from whence only the
worst forms of individualism, corruption and inequality sprout. Nor
should we give away anything to those who could be producing and who
don't produce, or who produce very little. Reward the merits of those
who work with their hands or their minds.

"Just as we have universalized higher education, we must also
universalize simple physical labor; it helps us to at least carry out
a part of the infinite investments demanded by everyone, as if there
was an enormous reserve of money and labor force. Be especially wary
of those inventing State enterprises with just any excuse and then
managing the easy profits as if they had been capitalists all their
lives, sowing egoism and privileges." FULL:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-01-14-2008.html

One of the most problematic areas of Cuban life which I have observed
in the years I've been visiting are the surprising numbers of people
who are able to live without working. They could never do that in a
capitalist country, but in Cuba where housing is extremely
inexpensive or free (though it may be in disrepair), where health
care is free, and utilities are relatively inexpensive (a monthly
basic phone bill was 6.75 pesos last time I checked.). The government
can't just print more money, because all that would do is create
inflation.

I wish I knew what the solution was, but I think Raul hits it pretty
well when he points to labor productivity which must be increased if
Cuba is to be able to take care of its population. The steps being
made to permit more land to go to farmers who produce more should
help. And getting rid of the many regulations which drive people
crazy should also help, because they are the source of much of the
illegal activity which goes on in Cuba. Raul said:

"We are in agreement with those who have warned on an excess of
prohibitions and legal measures, which do more harm than good. We
could say that the majority of them were correct and just in their
time, but more than a few of them have been superceded by life, and
behind every incorrect prohibition lie a large number of
illegalities." http://www.walterlippmann.com/rc-12-28-2007.html

Will be leaving Mexico City later today, bound for Los Angeles. The
things I look forward to most, in addition to being back in my own
space at home is the ability to lie in the bathtub filled with hot
water. Probably that and normal internet access are the things I miss
most about Los Angeles during my working visits to Cuba. On the other
hand, the corrective of living and working in Cuban reality, seeing
it as it is, rather as we might wish it were, helps to ground my
thinking and my outlook on the country. I never stop telling people
that the more time I spend in Cuba, the more I know how little I
really know about the place. I'm more grounded as the years pass and
my Spanish proficiency improves.

While I'm the editor here and happy to do so, others who have been to
Cuba are very much welcome to make your own comments, write up your
own reports, ask questions, pose challenges. The CubaNews list is a
labor of love for me, and I hope for the readers as well. I really
mean it when I say that your participation is welcome. And if you
can translate from Spanish to English, please be in touch. Thanks.

Chao,


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews 
Tlatelolco, Mexico 
January 19, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/














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Walter Lippmann
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
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