Posted on 2/23/2008, 7:58:46 PM by george76
Many Cubans here are fond of saying, "Things are not meant to be understood." After a couple of days, you get a sense of what they're talking about.
Havana is a city of contrasts and contradictions, a place where the most spectacularly restored colonial building can stand near two crumbling structures held in place by wooden planks.
A place that endured a decade of daily blackouts ...
A place where an egg can cost, in Cuban pesos, 15 cents, 90 cents or 1.50 - depending on where it is purchased.
Each Cuban receives a monthly allowance of food, referred to as the libreta, or food from the bodega.
It includes 6 pounds of rice, 10 ounces of two different types of beans, 10 eggs, chicken parts, sugar, salt and oil. Cubans pay for these items, but at a subsidized price.
The rest of the produce comes from the agros. There are two kinds of agros, operating next to each other: the subsidized, state-run agros and the independent ones.
The results can confuse even the best mathematician. For example, at the bodega, a pound of rice is 25 cents but at the agro it's more than 10 times that.
Cubans can get only 10 eggs per month through the libreta. The first eight eggs are 15 Cuban cents each through the libreta; the last two are 90 cents each. A Cuban who wants more than 10 must go to independent sellers, where they cost 1.50 pesos each.
"People who say they can live on the libreta are lying to themselves,"
A nationalized health care system...
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Time to seize Castro’s bank accounts, he has been allowed to rob the Cubans for 50 years. There has always been plenty of foreign revenue coming into Cuba, it just goes into Castro pocket...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.