Cuba !

Cuba impressions


19th Feb, 2008 : As i was about to board the flight to Cuba, Ipsita, my wife, called me to say that Fidel had resigned and that I should be careful. Afraid of me, I asked her, cheekily?
My remark could barely conceal my apprehension- what if he kicked the bucket while I was in Cuba ? That would stop the country and all my plans would go awry.

On my way

That was that, as I boarded the Copa America flight from Panama to Havana. Minutes after take off, the view below presented hundreds of ships and liners, all scattered about like mosquitoes in a drain. Of course, they were on the Pacific-Atlantic crossing through the Panama Canal.

Sometime later, it was the azure waters of the Caribbean sea. I thought that this could hardly provide the platform with regards to what to expect in Cuba.

I was very keen to observe life in a communist state (or should i use the word Socialist). My experience of living in communist land was restricted to Calcutta of the 80s and early 90s (with strikes, bandhs, cholbe na, load-shedding et al ), and I was very keen to figure out what Cuba would be like. Of course, everyone knows about the Cuban cigars and rum, but I was sure Cuba would be much more than that.

As the plane neared its destination, the top views presented an image of systematic agricultural plantations, huge farms and round shaped greens. The roads appeared to contain very few vehicles. A few railway lines visible from top. Most of them appeared to be used for transportation of goods to and from sugar plantations.

Land, ahoy !

In a few minutes we land, and what I can see is a run down airport, not crowded at all. The airport is named Jose Martin airport. I see American trucks from the 50’s, tractors, manual trolleys, bored workers. A generally deserted look. As I walk through the aero-bridge, into the terminal, there is a huge row of flags on the roof, representing some 200 + countries. I think it represented every country in the world, with the exception of Kosovo, which had declared its independence a few days ago. The Indian flag is on one corner, and makes me feel real good. I can recognize many of the flags, and yes, there is also the flag of the USA.

From the flags, on to an escalator, and into the immigration hall. Queues, police, and ….. bow, wow…..dogs ! I notice at least a dozen dogs roaming all over the place, sniffing around bags and people. The dogs are from all hues: terriers, labradors, white, black and brown. They are running around excitedly, sniffing nonchalantly. As one who’s shit scared of canines, I miss a beat so many times.

The queue moves slowly; one of the dogs is sniffing at my bag; I notice a policeman looking intently at me, I give a wry smile which he doesn’t reciprocate.

With my heart still pounding because of the dogs, the lady at the counter asks about visa. I show her all documents. She asks where is it issued from. Nova Delhi, La India I say. Still confused, she takes my passport to a senior, returns a few minutes later. The she asks me why I am in Cuba. As I answer, she says her duty time is over, and the next person would handle my ‘case’. Enter the next person. A middle aged lady. She comes into the kiosk, takes a long time looking at my passport and is unable to understand anything. A few minutes later, she realized she was not putting on her glasses. …..


Outside the airport, it is not the usual hustle and bustle that might be associated with a country’s main international terminal. There are a few buses, some cars from the 50’s, and a few Korean cars. The public transport consists of cars (serving as shared taxis), buses, trucks, horse carts and lots of innovative things that one can think of.


Its not all about money here, honey

Deciding to change some money into the local currency, I am informed there is a 10% penalty on changing US dollars. Other currencies like Euros, Canadian dollars, Pounds can be changed at prevailing international rates.
Cuba has two currencies, the CUP and CUC (cuban pesos, CUP and the Cuban convertible (Pesos) CUC , pronounced cook )
For the record, 1 CUC = 24 CUP= 1.25 USD. Most of the locals use CUPs, while all of tourism and foreigners expenses are in CUCs.


Economics: making ends meet

With this in mind, I ask my Cuban acquaintance about economics of living in Cuba. She informs me that an average Cuban gets a salary of about 15 CUC equivalent (400 CUPs) a month, which means almost 20 US dollars a month.
So, how would a Cuban manage with that meager amount ? Let's see:

Every person gets a certain free (under certain circumstances, at negligble cost) quota of ration.
Typically, this is- (I forget the exact quantities)

- A few pounds of bread every week
- A few pounds of rice every week
- A few pounds of meat every week
- A few pounds of beans every week
- A few pounds of sugar every week
- One bar of soap every alternate week for bathing
- One bar of washing soap every alternate week for washing
- One dish cleaning detergent every month
- 3 liters milk per child till the child is 7 years of age.


(the joke is you bathe all week long for a week, and then wash your clothes all week long in the next)

Healthcare is free. Health facilities are reasonable, and Cuba has a thriving medical tourism industry, in which many people from Canada, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and some even from the USA, come and get advanced medical care, eg surgeries, transplants etc done at almost one-fifth the prices it would take in their home countries. Even at these one-fifth levels, it is good enough for Cuba, and this is a very thriving industry.
Of course, the standard of healthcare for the medical tourism industry is far superior that available for ordinary Cubans, but most Cubans are still reasonably happy about what they get for health. A person i met told me that his wife was unable to conceive, and she was going in for in-vitrio fertilization at a local Havana hospital, free of cost !

Next comes education. Education is totally free till University, and no tuition fee is to be paid. All schools are government schools, and some of them which i crossed in Central Havana appeared to be in a sorry state. Crumbling buildings, little or no playgrounds, poor infrastructure.

The standard of education, however, is pretty good, and most Cubans i met are happy about it. The University of Habana has good research programs and advanced faculties in many areas related to science, technology, medicine and the fine arts.

Housing is also nearly free, unless you are coming in from outside and looking for a place to rent. But if you stay in the government provided accommodation, the cost of housing is nearly zero.


Transportation by local buses, which are CUP buses, is quite cheap. There are some CUC buses, which are out of reach for most Cubans. The transportation is fascinating, with various modes of transport dotting the streets of Havana. Buses, old Dodge school buses, crumbling half-century old cars (used as shared taxis), coco taxis (a three wheeler taxi, which is extremely cute in design, has three plastic seats at the back, a driver on a plastic seat wearing a helmet, not fully covered unlike the Indian auto rickshaw), trucks- used as buses itself, with a row of metallic partitions to serve as seats and standing space, horse drawn carts, rickshaws, bicycles, Mercedes Benz S-class taxis, other kinds of taxis, buffalo taxis; they all dot Habana's fascinating landscape.

All drivers are game for giving a (paid) lift, and this is especially valuable as it gets them that little extra over the meager 400 CUPs they would be earning.

Other things in CUPs are generally very cheap, for example-
A ticket to a concert: 5 CUPs (USD 0.2)
A cinema ticket 8 CUPs (USD 0.3)



Now, the more expensive part-

A mobile phone connection- 10 CUCs a month (2/3rds of official salary)
Petrol- 0.85 CUCs a liter ( 20 liters petrol = 1 month salary)
A bottle of beer- 1 CUC
A can of Orange juice- 0.8 CUCs
Vegetables- expensive
Fruits- expensive
Clothes- Expensive
A canvas shoe- CUC 8 (half a month's salary)
Flights, trains- expensive
(Yes, there are trains in Cuba, although 70% of the tracks are for goods transportation, linking the sugarcane fields to the sites of production)

All this means that no matter how inexpensive or subsidized some of the basics are, it is near impossible to live on the base salary. And this is a reality most Cubans realize very well.. And thereby, they are always on the lookout to supplement those meager CUPs and CUCs. And what do they do?

A number of people work in multiple jobs. Those who can, work for people outside Cuba (most commonly, offering online services), where they would get paid at much better rates. This is not very common as the use of the internet itself is restricted, and it is only in May 2008 that the government has liberalized rules for personal computers and internet connections.
Tourism being a big industry, people also try to sell stuff to tourists, e.g. packed home food, fake cigars, juices etc.
Buying and selling, arbitrage, to earn a premium is also very common.
Drivers would willingly offer paid 'lifts', and numerous government and private vehicles serve as the means of augmenting those CUPs.
People try and get associated with foreign companies / organizations working in Cuba, which would offer perks and additional money.
People also do all kinds of odd jobs, for those few extra bits of money that could significantly alter the quality of life.

People with vocational skills, eg electricians, carpenters, plumbers are always in demand due to generally poor quality infrastructure, and they offer their services on a private basis to earn more.
This often results in ironical situations wherein a plumber might actually get to earn more than a heart surgeon.
A number of Cubans are on 'duty' to Venezuela, a service in return for the barrels of oils that Venezuela gives to Cuba every week. These include doctors, technicians, scientists who serve in Venezuela and are the unwitting symbols of friendship between Chavez and Castro.

And then, many Cubans have their relatives living outside, most notably in Miami (USA), from where various anti-communist drives keep getting launched. They do send some money back home, although there are restrictions from the US on sending money beyond a certain limit to Cuba.

And needless to add, things like drugs, prostitution, illegal money laundering are some of the time tested ways that Cubans employ to earn that extra bit.

I am sure there would be many other things, but the moot point is that the situation has made people razor sharp to look for opportunities, with the keenness of eye matched only by the swiftness to cash upon that opportunity. As a result, however, the same keenness is missing when people are at their regular (usually, government) jobs and the Cuban standards of punctuality would place Hyderabad and Lucknow,( Indian cities of the Nizams and Nawabs, known for their laidback style of working ), on a very high, professional, pedestal.

Overall, since life is expensive, people prefer to have very few, or no children. Cuba has a birth rate comparable to the most developed countries. In fact, in 2007, the population decreased over 2006 levels.





Fear and restrictions

People experince restrictions in being able to travel. Getting a visa for anywhere is difficult. Even countries like Ecuador, which are amongst the poorer countries in Latin America, are highly restrictive in giving visas for fear of people from Cuba illegally migrating, or staying on, once they get there. Of course, the well known stories about hundreds of Cubans risking their life, and putting everything at stake to get into the USA through makeshift boats, rafts etc are very much true. That being that, the fear factor still runs high, and in many people there is a reluctance to try out such adventurism, and one can notice that most are resigned to their fate of being in Cuba.

The sense of fear, however, is more broad based; it is rare to find Cubans get into a dialogue on the system of governance, communism etc. There is also a fear of the state, evinced in the fear of the police. Many Cubans would prefer to wait at a green signal on the road, if they think it is likely to turn amber soon, as they don't want to risk AT ALL an encounter with the police.

Talking of the police, they are everywhere. At most street corners, at many important buildings, generally, all over the place.

Cuba and the USA

Cuba has its own brand of sanctions for the USA. For visitors carrying US Dollars, there is a 10-15% penalty on exchanging money. Therefore, makes a lot more sense to carry euros or Canadian dollars or British Pounds. I just about managed to scrape through with my cash while in Cuba, as all my wallet full of cards came to naught. While i was aware that American express would not work in Cuba, i was assured by all and sundry that my Visa and Mastercard would work without any problem. But to my dismay, they did not, and wherever they got swiped, i would get the message "Deepak Sapra, Operacion Denegada" which means transaction declined. I was later told by the helpful lady at the counter that even though my card was issued in India (and therefore, not in the USA), since it was a Citibank card, and Citibank being an American bank, the transaction failed to get through.
There are also many posters and billboards which are stridently anti-American in the messages they give. One billboard, seen just outside the erstwhile American embassy compares George Bush to Hitler.

Che !

Fidel, however, is not the person you see the most in Cuba. It is Che. He is an icon of the greatest imaginable proportion. Larger than life, larger than Fidel, larger than everything. One of the best sellers is titled "Motorcycle diaries', Che's autobiographical version about his journey through South and Central America on a motorbike. Che served in the Cuban government for some years after the revolution, before he was killed in 1967 in Bolivia. He lives on in Cuba, on its walls, on its billboards, in its posters, in its calendars, in its diaries, through his quotes which are just about everywhere in Cuba. Half of the murals talk about Che and have quotations from him. There is an interesting book called Che-Fidel friendship as well. Interestingly, all the while, Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, is not much talked about. Who will succeed Fidel, no one even wants to speculate, they would rather wait for the Sunday when it gets decided. And when Sunday did come, it turned out to be a damp squib, as the old guard held the reins firmly, and in a logical progression of monarchical communism, Fidel's younger brother, Raul, 76, was 'elected' as the President and the supreme commander. Fidel, in an article in the Granma newspaper (the official mouthpiece), has vowed to carry on as a 'soldier of ideas'.




Doing business

In business, Cubans are not yet into the global style of operations. Business etiquettes are emerging, they are clearly not yet there, in business meetings. The keenness is missing when people are at their regular (usually, government) jobs and the Cuban standards of punctuality would place Hyderabad and Lucknow, (Indian cities of the Nizams and Nawabs, known for their laidback style of working), on a very high, professional, pedestal.


Visiting cards are only for very few people. If you have a visiting card, you are really important in the scheme of things.

Mobile phones are not common at all, the main reason being government restrictions and also the prohibitively high costs. So those with mobiles, flaunt them and talk loudly in front of everyone, as the mobile is indeed a rare commodity.

In meetings, everywhere, coffee is served. In most places, one would notice cups with CUBITA written on the outside, and ‘Café de Cuba’ on the inside. Cuban coffee is very strong.

Colour of the skin is not a factor in Cuba, and blacks, whites and mixed people live about harmoniously. I also found a greater degree of representation of blacks in all walks of life, including in business, than one would encounter in other countries in Latin America. In fact, the society is fairly egalitarian, and divisions of race, colour and ethnicity appear to be a lot lesser that in nearby countries.



Games Cubans play (besides politics)

Cubans love their sport. Baseball is their favourite. At many places, one can see keenly contested games of baseball, played with a high degree of intensity. Baseball also happens to be Fidel's favourite sport.
Football is also quite popular, and would rank as the next most keenly played game. Volleyball follows. Cricket is also played in some islands, although the passion with which the rest of the Caribbean plays is missing. The sport Cubans most excel in, on the world stage, is Boxing. A few gold medals every Olympics are de rigueur for Cubans. The national stadium in Havana is al geared up, with a huge symbol saying, "Beijing 2008" and adjacent to it, a board showing a young Fidel, waving the national flag.


Habana Libre

The Hilton Havana used to be one of the largest hotels in the Americas, and was renowned for its sophistication and glamour. It was from here for some time that Fidel ran his government immediately after the revolution. It continued as Hilton for a few years after the revolution, after which Hilton withdrew. It was renamed the Hotel Habana Libre. It still retains its splendor, and has one of the most imposing and classy hotel lobbies i have seen anywhere in the world.