Economy grows by 11.8% • Fidel emphasizes the importance of conservation as a principal source of increased material resources. Deputies evaluate the results of 2005 and plans for 2006 POR María Julia Mayoral, Lourdes Pérez Navarro, Raisa Pagés, José A. de la Osa and Alberto Nuñez CUBA is ending 2005 with an economic growth of 11.8%, a year that qualifies as one of the most fruitful under the Revolution, given that it has marked the start of important transformations in the economy associated with real solutions to the population’s problems and the creation of conditions for consolidating development, stated José Luis Rodríguez, vice president of the Council of Ministers, during a session of Parliament that included the presence of President Fidel Castro. In Fidel’s opinion, we are finding formulas and solutions that are useful not only for our country, but also for other nations and the world in general, where the current prevalence is irrationality and unbridled consumerism, among other ills threatening the very existence of humanity. The president of the Councils of State and Ministers, who spoke extensively on December 22, the first day of the 6th ordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power of this legislature, reiterated the importance of conservation as a principal source of increasing the material and financial resources that the nation needs. According to José Luis Rodríguez, a 10% growth rate is expected in 2006. Rodríguez, who is also minister of economy and planning, was once again charged with presenting the results for 2005 and perspectives for the new year. Meanwhile, Georgina Barreiro, minister of finance and prices, detailed the present fiscal year’s budget performance and defended the budget proposal for the new year. Comments were made on both reports by many deputies and the Assembly Commission for Economic Affairs. In the opinion of Osvaldo Martínez, president of that parliamentary group, the economic and social results of 2005 could be summed up, among other achievements, in the completion of 700 projects within the Battle of Ideas, and the extension of social justice through raising the minimum wage, pensions and social assistance payments to the direct benefit of 5,111,267 fellow citizens. Also noted was the rapid implementation of new concepts of developing the electric power system based on conservation and efficiency; the frontal attack against corruption and crime based on the ethical and moral values implanted by the Revolution; and the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, which being Cuba’s and measured in a way appropriate to our reality, expresses real development, devoted to the people and not the simple growth of any type of mercantile transactions, Martínez affirmed. On December 23, discussions are to continue on the lines of the Economic and Social Plan and the proposed State Budget Law for 2006. In addition, the deputies must elect the lay judges for the People’s Supreme Court, for a mandate that extends until 2010. Before discussion began and at the proposal of the Council of State and the presidency of the National Assembly, the deputies approved a message to be sent to Evo Morales, expressing the deep joy with which the government and people of Cuba received the historic victory of the Bolivian people in their elections the previous Sunday, and the proclamation by overwhelming majority of Evo as president of that Latin American nation. OUR CAPACITY TO BE INVULNERABLE "The enemy is trying to destroy everything that we do, but it’s too late for that now," affirmed Fidel, explaining the experiences of the Energy Conservation Program, in which almost 25 billion pesos have been invested ($2 billion) this year alone. Fidel noted that the program was a result of the Bastion 2004 Exercise; the shutdown last summer of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant due to serious breakdowns; and the damage caused by the hurricanes. "This," he said, "taught us a lot, and revealed to us erroneous ideas." He reported that little by little, the energy sector is to become independent in every province, island and cay of our archipelago, thanks to the connection of thousands of synchronized generating groups. It is an ambitious plan, he noted. Such independence has been achieved in Pinar del Río, where there are no more power outages due to generation. By the end of March, Fidel announced, there will be no more interruptions in power for that reason in any other province, either, including Havana and Matanzas. By June, he said, it is possible that the entire country will be like Pinar del Río. "Nevertheless, we will have more power available to the extent that we conserve more. One thing that will bear on that is the operation of domestic appliances that are being distributed to the population: water heaters, pressure cookers, fans, electric stoves and refrigerators. By July, he added, national electricity generation will have 1 million kilowatts per hour at its disposal, a figure equivalent to that provided by three thermoelectric plants at the standard of the Guiteras when they are operating well. The Cuban president mentioned the gradual installation of emergency generating plants for hospitals, warehouses, the food industry and other sectors of production and services. In Pinar del Río, for example, 216 of 260 generators (standardized and with replacement parts) that the province needs for guaranteeing electricity to 245 economic objectives are already up and functioning. "There is no way to block this program," he emphasized, "in spite of the betrayal of certain business suppliers who have had no choice but to admit to the pressure brought to bear against them by the U.S. blockade on Cuba, intensified by the implementation of the Helms-Burton Act." "If it (the United States government) has one drop of honor left, it had better not mess with Cuba in any way," Fidel warned. "It is morally and politically destroyed, and its lies have a response on the part of our country, which is now militarily invulnerable. It could never destroy us," he affirmed. "In order to develop this energy program, we have the support of our main suppliers, China and Vietnam; this cooperation is growing and will keep growing," he affirmed. The revolutionary leaders noted that today, there is more awareness among the population about electric energy use, something that is very positive, because it is absurd than in a country that rations products due to material and financial limitations, an aspect as important as the waste of its resources should not be taken into consideration. He explained that the thermoelectric plants will begin to disappear or be replaced by combination cycle plants, fueled by the natural gas that accompanies oil extraction. "In any case, we will achieve considerable energy savings that could amount to about $1 billion," he noted. Fidel affirmed that the empire cannot take over our country. Its individuals, he said, "dream of destroying the Revolution from within, but they do not realize how wrong they are about the strength and abilities of the Cuban people." He ratified that we will unleash a battle against corruption, crime and any irregularities, a confrontation already being taken on by the social workers and university students, who will be joined with even more force by cadres and members of the Party and the mass organizations. He cited the shameful case of fishermen from the Gulf Fleet, who instead of bringing in fish for their country, dedicated themselves to the illegal buying and selling of electrical appliances. He reflected again on how the road to making easy money corrupts individuals who at certain moments are even willing to fight for their homeland. Responding to the usual accusations from the lords of the empire, he noted that only location in Cuban territory where torture takes place is the Guantánamo Naval Base. The enemy’s hypocrisy is so obvious, that while the Five Heroes – true anti-terrorist fighters – are still in prison, it has declined to explain how, why and with what support Posada Carriles entered U.S. territory. As he stated, the arrest of that individual and his cronies are due in great part to Cuba’s constant accusations.
THE PRESTIGE OF THIS ISLAND "We will be the educators of the doctors that the world needs today," affirmed Fidel after giving the example of the selfless work being carried out by Cuban doctors in Pakistan, where in just a few weeks they have attended to some 300,000 patients. "They are carrying out a heroic feat in that far-off country, in the middle of an intense winter. Those professionals could be in Louisiana if the Bush government had accepted their presence," he commented. That denial provoked anger among many needy residents. Fidel also mentioned the willingness of our doctors to go to Zimbabwe to take on the terrible AIDS epidemic, which is causing the deaths of millions of Africans. In that sense, he defied the United States and Europe to gather 200 non-military doctors – 100 each – capable of going to that continent to concretely contribute to dealing with that terrible situation. "And if they were to do that," he said, "we would acknowledge it with honor." CONTROL OF WASTEFUL SQUANDERING At the request of the Cuban president, who asked for further illustrations on wasteful squandering in the country and the new control measures implemented, Enrique Gómez Cabeza, who is leading the social workers, listed the results of a study on the use of fuel in an agricultural enterprise in Consolación del Sur in Pinar del Río. The study showed that those working the land received 12% of what was allocated to the enterprise; 30% went to plowing the soil, and 50% of costs were not associated with productive work. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment has exposed the misuse of tractors and trucks. As an example, he noted that thanks to those devices, it was found that 61% of the distance traveled by a water tank truck in Holguín was associated with business that had nothing to do with distributing the liquid. The youth leader summed up that the inventory taken showed diverse irregularities like the fact that registered tractors do not actually exist; that others are not registered; the failure to report certain cases of theft; and the disparity between installed motors and the description that appears on their documentation. OTHER DETAILS OF THE DISCUSSION At about 7 p.m. when the session recommenced, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque informed parliamentarians that in Bolivia, great popular outrage had been provoked when it was revealed that a radio station announcer in Spain passed himself off as Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and broadcast a conversation with Evo Morales on a station belonging to the Catholic Bishops Conference. The Bolivian president had confirmed his conversation with the "phony" Zapatero. Felipe stated that the world sees this "interview" as an act of racism, mockery and disrespect toward President Evo Morales, who has just been elected with 54% of popular support. Fidel commented that gratitude should be expressed to those announcers, because what they actually did was to help radicalize the Bolivian process. Ricardo Alarcón invited the deputies to continue reflecting on the reports presented by José Luis Rodríguez and Georgina Barreiro. Those who spoke included the Reverend Raúl Suárez, Luis Carlos Suárez Reyes and Juan José Rabilero, who pointed out the comprehensive nature of the reports from the two ministers, which provide further arguments for continuing to defend our revolutionary project. Everything included in the budget of our society and economic investment is in the interest of those with fewer resources, Rabilero affirmed. Carlos Lage, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, referred to the drought, and stated that the report gives an impression of the extraordinary efforts made by the Cuban people in the course of this year, the advances gained and the firmness of the measures being adopted in order to guarantee the coming years as well. It is good to know, he said, that all of those efforts and results were obtained under drought conditions. He noted that hurricanes tend to be more spectacular because they at least provide water, but drought brings nothing positive, and he described it as "a silent disease," which causes apparently imperceptible but tremendous damage. Lage reported that as a consequence of those conditions, the country had to invest 250 million pesos in 2004 and 2005. He also noted the additional urgent investment that the country had to make in order to resolve water supply needs for the population and agriculture, along with other emergency water projects. In reference to other data backing the magnitude of the effort in this area, he said that during the most difficult moments of the drought, some 20,000 motor vehicles had to be mobilized to distribute water – trucks, tankers, tractors –, which entailed substantial expenditure in diesel and gasoline. Just during 2005, he explained, between 25 million and 30 million in fuel was spent to provide the affected population with water via motor vehicles. The seriousness of the situation, he noted, determined that in 2004, the country’s leadership decided to implement a program to deal with the effects of the drought. That required approving investments worth $182 million, begun in the present year and which will continue into 2006, including those aimed at improving water supplies for major cities. Another program mentioned by Lage was the recuperation of water distribution networks in major cities, which are currently suffering losses of more than 50% of the water pumped. At Fidel’s request, José Luis Aspiolea, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, listed programs aimed at reducing those water losses, and said that the country is currently acquiring the resources needed for beginning work next year. Fidel spoke at that point, noting that efforts must also be made to reduce water losses in people’s homes as a consequence of leaks, and noted that sometimes families do not have the minimum resources needed to make those kinds of repairs. "These are investments that we must make," he said, "because the ‘little’ things should go hand-in-hand with larger plans." Misael Enamorado, first secretary of the Party in Santiago de Cuba, spoke on the water supply problem in that province. In response to questions from Fidel, he also commented on advances being made in the construction materials industry, which will make it possible to accelerate construction plans in that eastern province. For his part, Otto Rivero, vice president of the Council of Ministers, described as "very important" the reaction among political and administrative leaderships to making every project of the Battle of Ideas a battle of the people. "If we want to build a polyclinic in three months," he noted as an example, "we need 600 men, 300 per day, and the rest at night." The issue of health was taken up again by Fidel, regarding the possibility of graduating some 100,000 doctors – in addition to Cubans – over the next 10 years. In order to have an idea of what that means, he noted that in the United States, and using conservative figures, training that number of doctors would signify a cost of $25 billion. "That is the Revolution’s capacity for creation," he said, "in conjunction with the medical students in Venezuela being taught by Cuban professors, who number 40,000. That would be the equivalent of $35 billion, although, he said, we are not going to charge the Latin American students." Likewise, he commented that Cuba is training doctors in African villages, with the help of audiovisual resources, using solar panels, computers, televisions, video players, DVDs and interactive programs. "This gives an idea of what can be done by our country, which in 1959, at the time of the triumph of the Revolution, had 6,000 doctors, and those who remained afterward numbered 3, 000," he continued. "There cannot be the slightest doubt that the world will acknowledge what we are doing." With respect to that topic, Carlos Valenciaga, a member of the Council of State, read out a statement from the First Lady of Panama, the wife of Martín Torrijos, regarding Operation Miracle. She said that she was moved by the patients who received surgery for free in Cuba, including older adults and children, who had suffered from eye problems for a long time. "This will be an experience for all of the Latin American and Caribbean nations," Fidel affirmed, and projecting Operation Miracle into the future, he added, "Some day, that surgical equipment should be taken to other countries, along with our personnel, to avoid having to transfer patients." At the close of this exchange, Francisco Soberón commented on the importance to Cuba of finding its own formulas for implementing socialist principles related to work, and the risks that the Revolution would face if it does not achieve a sustainable economy. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/diciembre/vier23/01econ.html
Well... Cuba's methodology for calculating economic growth, adopted in recent years, takes into account the country's vast social safety net and subsidized services. That differing methodology makes Cuba's growth figures difficult to compare with that of other countries, prompting the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean to omit the island's numbers from its report for this year. Castro defended the 2005 growth estimate, saying "no one should think that we are giving false numbers here." Using the same formula last year, Cuba said its economy grew by 5 percent in 2004. The U.N. commission, using traditional criteria for calculating GDP, said Cuba's economy grew 3 percent last year... CLICK
ok, "Communism", I know you wanna prove how GREAT communism is.. but tell me, what's their economy really like!!! I don't think they would have any great living standard..
Cuba: Telephones: 7 per hundred people Cell phones: 7 per thousand people Internet users: 1 per thousand (with permit only, access restricted) Chile: Telephones: 21 per hundred people Cell phones: 621 per thousand people Internet users: 279 per thousand (no permit needed)
We don't have a great living standard either. The living standard in the United States was better in the 1950s. This is as good as it gets. Assuming you live in the United States. Cuba would be awesome if we had a cooperative world market, but we don't, the living standard there I mean. Cuba is too authoritatian and doesn't have free speech. The difference between a communist economy and a capitalist one is two main things. 1. Cooperation instead of competition 2. The government controls the means of production, instead of some greedy elites. Of course, some things are needed 1. A classless society 2. The abolishment of private property 3. other stuff Whatever, but please don't criticize communism (not the person, the system) without visiting www.marixst.com and reading the FAQ at Newyouth. Being skeptical in ignorance is stupid.
Green, nobody cares about the theoretical communist utopia at marxist.com. The reality is repression and poverty. Capitalism is the only system which is compatible with freedom and it is the only system which has brought any nation out of poverty. Stop flogging a dead horse.
