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Journalism of Courage
Over a year after the Communist government replaced the US dollar with convertible peso, the greenback remains in the hearts and hands of Cubans. Prices of most goods are still listed in dollars. Tens of thousands of families get handouts from US relatives in dollars, much of it funneled in to skirt the Cuban state bank8217;s 10 per cent cut for conversion. Taxi drivers, private restaurants and people with rooms to rent still accept dollars.
8216;8216;We have more trust in dollars,8217;8217; said a partner in an Old Havana 8216;8216;paladare8217;8217;, the private but heavily regulated eateries some Cubans are allowed to operate.
With state salaries averaging 15 a month, boom times are hard to see. The government raised salaries of most state workers by 25 pc this year, but inflation of 4 pc, an artificial devaluation of hard currencies when the convertible peso was introduced, and a crackdown on pilferage and private enterprise served to counterbalance that increase.
8216;8216;You can8217;t survive without doing something on the side,8217;8217; said a 39-year-old teacher who sells salsa CDs and cassettes. 8216;8216;We work to eat. That8217;s all our salaries cover,8217;8217; said a nurse who left the job to work as a hotel maid. 8216;8216;You need dollars from tips or from family outside for clothing 8230;8217;8217;
The quest for social levelling has pushed down the haves, rather than lift the have-nots. Street crime has become rampant in Havana, and begging widespread. 8216;8216;The same government that created great equality in the 8216;60s is now presiding over a system of rising inequality,8217;8217; said Damian Fernandez, head, Cuban Research Institute, Florida, estimating that as much as 25 per cent of of the country of 11.2 million lives in extreme poverty.
Los Angeles Times
