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Today’s Cuba is characterised by high literacy and remarkable health indicators that are above those of numerous other countries that have larger economies. This development has come with high costs of sacrifices of the people, said Juan Carretero Ibáñez, the Cuban ambassador to India, in an interview with New Age on June 8. The ‘special period’ as the revolutionary government, as it is still called, decided to call it began after the fall of the Soviet Union that had strong links with Cuba. The economic ties were broken and given an economic blockade by the United States on the island country, Cuba faced decades of immense hardship. Ibáñez himself was part of the revolutionary government since he was only 16. He has worked closely with both Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known as Che, although his Cuban humility keeps him from speaking about his own glory days of the revolution of the late-1950s and the early-1960s. Excerpts:
   New Age: Cuba has come far despite the proximity of the US and its economic blockade for decades now. How has that come about, especially given the socialist ideals espoused by the regime?
   Juan Carretero Ibáñez: Our country has developed only because its people could unite on the ideals of justice, dignity and equality. It is also due to the effort and dignity of the people that Cuba has been able to come as far as it has. Quite naturally, this implies a lot of sacrifices, sacrifices that were shared equally by the destitute and leaders alike. Today our development indicators are better than those of many developed countries, including the US. Our education system is very modern and there are some 60,000 students studying in universities. Now there is a housing scheme for everyone in the process. But the situation was not like this. We have had to come through extremely hard times since the fall of the Soviet Union.
   Given that 75 per cent of our economic links were with the Soviet Union, Cuba was in grave trouble since its disintegration. Cuba used to export sugar at a special rate, higher than the market rate, to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union used to sell cheap oil, about 13 million tonnes of it, to Cuba. But once the shipments stopped Cuba was strapped for energy. There was no electricity. The roads were empty because they did not have the fuel to run vehicles. People walked for miles on end to get to their offices. We had reached the absolute bottom in 1993. That was when it was the worst.
   At one point we started manufacturing and importing bicycles to make people’s lives easier. That was when we put in a number of reforms in the economy. We decided to open up the country for investment with relaxed restrictions and put our efforts to develop the tourism industry. With the foreign investment, we bought oil, for energy, and spent it on other purposes including oil and gas exploration of our own. We also developed nickel and cobalt mining in Cuba. There were also changes, allowing self-employed people to open up private enterprises but in a limited capacity. As far as foreign direct investment was concerned we ensured inflow of capital, technology and marketing, none of which was available in Cuba, not at least to the extent we desired.
   This was also a time when we began to explore possibilities of reaping harvests of the rich biotechnological and genetic research that had been going on in Cuba for years and had advanced to high levels. Exports of these products also accounted for a large chunk of our income at that time. These included vaccines for two types of cancers.
   But the tourism industry became an engine for our growth and helped us recover greatly. With more stress on oil exploration, we discovered some and currently produce half our domestic need from our own reserves.
   For the last few years Cuba has averaged a growth rate of 12 per cent, although last year was exceptionally high at 14 per cent but I am sure it will be extremely difficult to retain that kind of a growth. We are more likely to stay in the double-digit growth figures.
   NA: Discovery of oil must have helped the country much, as far as energy is concerned.
   JCI: It most certainly has. But it is not that we are content with the oil and are looking to spend it lavishly. We understand that conserving as much as possible is crucial for our energy security, especially having passed through those hard times. So we named the year 2005 ‘the year of energy revolution’ and the programmes are still going on.
   Earlier we had these really large power plants. They were expensive and polluted much; they were inefficient too. And given that there are several hurricanes sweeping over Cuba every year, if one of those power plants were damaged, it would take weeks or sometimes even months to repair, and that naturally led to serious load shedding across the country.
   As part of the revolution we distributed diesel-based generators to every municipality, which are safer and more efficient. Besides, if a single one is damaged, it only affects a few thousand people of that municipality and not the entire country. They are also easily repaired. As a result, we have been able to eliminate the use of kerosene across the country. There still might be pockets in the mountains of Sierra Maestra, where there is no power, since the national grid does not cover those areas, but we are trying to provide them with solar panels. As I said the programme is still going on. We have also set up three parks with solar panels to supplement the power supply. The power plants are still there as a backup and they can be turned on if and when needed.
   That is on the supply side. On the consumption side we made sure that every household used energy-saving electrical appliances. So the government exchanged old appliances for cheaper and newer ones from China, for instance. All incandescent light bulbs have been banned and instead we have started using fluorescent lights. Today every household has been supplied with electric rice cookers, since rice is the main staple in Cuba too.
   Last year we saved a billion dollars’ worth of energy bills.
   NA: Cuba is cited as one of the examples of organic agriculture. How did that come about?
   JCI: Like other things, this also happened during the special period when there was a dire shortage of fuel. The tractors could not run and we did not have enough money to buy chemical fertilisers. So among the first things that the government had to do was to prepare 200,000 oxen for ploughing the fields. That itself was a gigantic task. Initially the production naturally dipped and was far from the levels that we could attain with the aid of chemical fertilisers, but gradually it developed and it is sufficient for now. At one point, we also suspended sugar production significantly and encouraged food production for the sake of the nation.
   This has all paid off because the agrarian reform was among the first laws that were passed by the revolutionary government that seized power in 1959. Foreign owned lands and large plots of lands that the owner did not cultivate were nationalised and redistributed among hundreds of thousands of small farmers who had till then no land of their own and were forced to work the fields of the landlords in exchange for a large part of the produce going to the landlords. The law was that, unless one worked one’s own fields, those individuals would not be allowed to own land above a certain area. The rest of all such lands were distributed among the landless small farmers. This naturally increased productivity. So later, when we undertook measures, these helped those very farmers to a large extent, which was naturally the objective.
   During the special period, we quite naturally were forced to look towards more natural alternatives of fertilisers or pesticides and the benefits for not using chemicals in agriculture are quite visible in the countryside.
   NA: Cuba is a small country of some 11 million. Yet it is one of the finest in sports. The education system is also said to be quite modern. With an adult literacy rate of 99 per cent and enrolment ratio, secondary and tertiary levels combined, of about 80 per cent, Cuba is ahead of many other larger economies. What is the secret?
   JCI: There is no secret. It is simple. We believe that every child has the right to education. So no matter where you are in Cuba, every child, even in the remotest area where there are no schools around and no electricity, the government will provide for a classroom, a full-time teacher, a computer, a television, a video player and solar panel to run those appliances. Generally there is a cap of 20 pupils per class so that education is personalised and students do not feel like numbers in a classroom.
   But if there are no schools in a certain area, the government will provide for exactly the same facilities that students get at the heart of large cities. Television is very crucial for the schools because there are educational programmes for different subjects and different grades run by the state television. These act as supplements to the teachers’ lessons and help greatly to understand the subject. Computers are, of course, indispensable in this age and it is all the better to have every child become familiar with it as early as possible. Class hours are eight hours with a full meal for every pupil.
   Besides your regular studies at school there is also physical exercise and sports. And every school has specialised teachers for that purpose. They encourage little boys to try out different sports, all the while looking out for talents. Then there are the sports meets of schools and universities, where in a natural course of the system the best of the best come out. From there on, the promising ones are sent to specialised institutions or universities, where besides their regular studies, they also pursue sports. Of course, at the highest levels, it is very competitive and there must be a lot of effort. But the infrastructure is in place and it is through the normal course that the system produces good athletes and sportsmen.
   But more than that Cuba has a very modern literacy programme that is going on in many countries of the Latin America. This is a specialised course of three to four months, in which time illiterate people are made literate through lessons, television and radio programmes in their own languages. There is such a programme in Venezuela, which is called ‘yo si puedo’ — or yes I can — to rid the entire nation of illiteracy besides other Latin American countries. We also have such a programme running in New Zealand for the Maoris there. The beauty of the programme is that the people are taught to read and write in their own language. It was also recognised by the UNESCO as an example of eradicating illiteracy in the world. The programme, by the way, is run entirely by volunteers.
   NA: It is not only education but the health sector also performs really well in Cuba. In fact, Cuban medicine and medical personnel are said to be among the best in the world. Recently there have also been some programmes with Venezuela under ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternatives for Latin America.
   JCI: See when we opened up our economy for foreign investment, we had restricted health, education and some other sectors that are typically restricted for the sake of national security. It was our belief that health or education is a business of the state not private quarters. So these were always run by the state in Cuba, only to ensure that every citizen is ensured the basic right to education and health. Consequently, medical treatment is also completely free in Cuba, besides education. No matter how expensive the surgery, no matter how expensive the drugs, the state ensures that every citizen has access to them. To maintain such a public health system, we have given much attention to this sector too. As a natural result medical science has improved remarkably. With Venezuela coming up recently and due to the new programme (ALBA) we have been able to engage in joint collaboration based on the basic philosophy of socialist regimes.
   Currently, there are some 40,000 medical doctors serving in 93 countries. Under ‘Operation Miracle’ Cuban doctors plan to operate and bring back eyesight of some six million people in Latin America. Till today we have already successfully removed cataracts of about two million.
   We also donated about eight hospitals, with state of the art technology, to Bolivia that provide specialised treatment besides general treatment for free.
   NA: ALBA, the Bolivarian alternatives programme is only a recent programme that really took off after Hugo Chavez came to power. Before then Cuba has had to fend off the US almost single-handedly. Beginning with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, there have been numerous attempts on the life of the Cuban president, Fidel Castro. There have also been other forms of obstacles and impediments from the US to keep Cuba from advancing. It is only recently that the situation appears to have lightened up a little with socialist ideals sweeping across Latin America. How has it been?
   JCI: Even last November, 187 countries except the US itself and Israel of course, voted in favour of the resolution calling upon the US to put an end to the economic blockade on Cuba relieving suffering of the people. Everyone, with a shred of moral value, was quite simply against the illegal, arbitrary and unjustified measure of the US. But it has hardly affected the US policies. If anything they have recently made it more difficult for maintaining cordial relations between Cuba and the US.
   The US government has put a bar on the amount of money that non-resident Cubans can send to their families back home. They have also restricted travel to Cuba. The US residents are allowed to visit Cuba once in three years or so but only if there are parents, children or spouse in Cuba. They do not seem to understand that in Cuba, family is not just your parents or your children. Your uncles and aunts, brothers and cousins, nephews and grandchildren are all considered family. It is simply inhuman for one not being able to see the uncles or the cousins or the nephews and nieces.
   According to our estimates, the 47 years of economic blockade on Cuba has resulted in losses of about $86 billion. But it is not just that. Cuba has been a victim of American aggression since the first day of the revolution. Together with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Miami-based Cuban mafia and the descendents of the Batista regime, they have launched a number of attacks on Cuba. Our cities have been bombed causing the death of thousands of innocent people and destruction of our sugar cane fields. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed in a matter of only 72 hours when in 1961 the US sent in a full brigade of mercenaries.
   This aggression was also manifest outside Cuba when a commercial airliner was bombed causing the death of 33 passengers on board. And more recently there have been bombings of tourist hotels in Cuba to stop the flow of tourists to this country. The US has also put in place some laws to restrict US citizens from visiting Cuba but some of them do come and visit us by other means. But this is against the US constitution in the first place.
   The double standards reach so far that the US allows marked criminals and terrorists to walk free on the streets of Miami, simply because they have been in collusion with the establishment in their fight against Cuba. The US refuses to take any action against these individuals or extradite them despite presentation of overwhelming and convincing evidence against those individuals.
   The instances are numerous. But fortunately for Cuba, there are still a number of countries that believe in justice and have enough dignity to stand for what is right. It has thus been easier for us to survive, given their support and cooperation.
   You see the instance of the United Nations General Assembly, even the typical US allies voted against them. But then the resolution is not something that is mandatory or legally binding. It is more a moral stand. Thus we have made sure that the resolution is taken up every year, merely to make a moral stand.
   But regardless of the imperial interests or its aggression against the people of Cuba, the revolution will certainly forge ahead and we will have to deal with what we face as the time comes.

PITY the Q League, the latest target of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s wrath. When did it ever pretend to be a real political party? Now Musharraf wants it to behave like one. It’s like expecting a plant in a hothouse to grow overnight into a mighty oak.
   ‘I bluntly say,’ said the enraged commander-in-chief at a meeting of Q League legislators on Wednesday, ‘you always leave me alone in time of trial and tribulation…you never came to my support.’
   Strange that he should talk in this mode. For eight years he has been a law unto himself, taking everything for granted, deciding everything himself, with little or no consultation, least of all with his political stooges. Now he expects the same stooges, many of them political orphans who wouldn’t be in the assemblies without ISI help, to step forward as his fearless defenders.
   ‘You are not delivering,’ he went on to say. ‘You have lost the war of nerves. You all are silent upon what the media is doing. If I myself have to do everything then what is your purpose?’ A newspaper editorial would be hard put to give a better description of the general’s plight.
   This is all the more strange considering that not long ago he was derisive about the current agitation. It would soon pass, he told his Q League loyalists. They should concentrate on electing him president later this year, and everything would be all right. Now suddenly a different tune altogether. The same newspaper report from which I have quoted said that Musharraf looked ‘visibly shaken’. As well he might. When was twisting in the wind good for anyone’s composure?
   A few days ago it was the corps commanders’ affirming support for their chief, the first time this has happened in the history of Pakistan. A press release said they ‘…took serious note of the malicious campaign against institutions of the state, launched by vested interests and opportunists who are acting as obstructionist forces to serve their personal interests and agenda even at the cost of flouting the rule of law.’
   Malicious…vested interests…opportunists…obstructionists: all in one sentence, verbal overkill reflecting the draftsman’s skill or the confusion in the minds of the corps commanders? Then the touching reference to the rule of law: amazing.
   Even in the edited footage shown on television you could sense some of the unease on the faces of the formation commanders. One fair-faced general was caught grinning in an ingratiating manner (we may assume his promotion or preferred posting is assured) but one or two others looked pretty glum.
   Assailed on all sides by an opposition on the warpath, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the summer of 1977 extracted a statement of support from the then service chiefs. Exactly 30 years later Musharraf is playing the same card. As good an example as any of history repeating itself, but with a difference: Bhutto was an embattled civilian, Musharraf an army chief.
   Army commanders are happiest when a civilian government is in trouble. Then they can look serious, as if worried about the country’s future, and contemplate drastic action. Bailing out an army chief in trouble is a staff exercise they have yet to conduct. What will they do? Nothing seems to be working, neither the heavy guns of the corps commanders nor the water pistols of the Q League.
   As if there weren’t enough fronts already, the presidential camp has opened another one, against the media, especially private TV channels, now demonised in its overheated imagination as the source of all its troubles. The amendments in the law relating to the electronic media are another exercise in overkill. Far from being cowed down, the media is up in arms.
   It is a sign of the times that even on this issue the government has been forced on to the back foot, the prime minister (looking more confident nowadays, I wonder why) has set up a committee to review the amendments. Meanwhile, no action will be taken under them. A victory for the media, another setback for the government: just goes to show the disarray in the official camp.
   Until now freedom of the media was Musharraf’s one great alibi, the excuse which served to soften the outlines of his one-man rule. Now even this fig-leaf has been discarded.
   Remember, please, that back in Oct ’99 his coup was hailed by the English-speaking liberati and many upright pillars of English journalism. Liking what he saw, Musharraf cast himself in the role of free media sponsor, the honeymoon only souring when his troubles mounted. Now with the first real political threat to his rule emerging, the mask has finally slipped, revealing the true face of dictatorship underneath.
   But repression is tricky business. It can work when a government’s authority is intact. But at journey’s end, with the shadows of evening closing in, its use is counter-productive, more an admission of defeat and failure.
   This is turning out to be a strange summer for Pakistan: a summer of discontent for Musharraf and his increasingly disheartened acolytes, the Q League just a step or two short of going into actual mourning; but for much of the nation a season of hope. Eight years of militarised democracy is long enough. The yearning for change, now almost palpable, has taken hold of the political class and the intelligentsia, and even ordinary citizens, who have gained little from the economic bonanza of the last eight years.
   Crisis of the state? This is more like a crisis of mediocrity. Remember that the vision in command for the last eight years is the same vision which gave us Kargil. Sept 11 was lucky for it, easing the country’s finances and bringing Musharraf international recognition. But luck doesn’t hold out forever. Even Napoleon’s ran out in the end. And mediocrity is, well, mediocrity, not divine grace.
   Musharraf’s present troubles stem from one all-consuming flaw: an inability to understand that 2007 is not 2002. Back then he was able to fix not just his own referendum and the subsequent general elections but the entire political landscape. His power to fix things is not what it used to be.
   Whatever the Supreme Court decides, whether Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is restored or not, drastic climate change has already occurred. Musharraf’s heart is still set on a phoney presidential election, but he is now in no position to enforce one from these assemblies (whose own term will soon be expiring). The time for such shenanigans is past. Even his own corps commanders, whatever they may say to him to his face, will have a hard time swallowing such an imposition.
   Justice Chaudhry’s role in this crisis is pivotal and enormous. But for his courage and steadfastness the torch we see burning on the horizon would not have been lit. This movement which has already altered the political landscape would not have started. Lawyers, the heroes of this movement, would not have been galvanised into action. Political parties would not have stirred from their sleep. Excitement allied to a sense of expectation would not have filled the air.
   Even so, Musharraf can’t blame Justice Chaudhry for all his troubles. The time was ripe for change. More and more people were getting fed up with the half-truths and clichés of the present hybrid system. Justice Chaudhry did not create these conditions of unrest. They were already there, waiting to be kindled. The true author of his misfortunes is, thus, Musharraf himself, who refused to grow with the times or curb his irrational ambition.
   Even at the Q League meeting I have referred to he could not help making another of his usual pitches about his indispensability. He said he was needed because if he went Talibanisation would follow. As figments of the imagination go, this is audacious. The present lawyers’ movement is all about secular principles, the supremacy of the constitution and the independence of the judiciary, not the mysteries of religious doctrine.
   For Musharraf to raise the spectre of Talibanisation is like a gambler’s last throw of the dice. In this summer of unrest and hope, Pakistan is threatened not by Talibanisation but a genuine return to democracy. Musharraf’s last and ultimate failure is his inability to come to terms with this possibility.

G8 and Africa aid

Whilst agreeing with Anwar Azam, Alimul Saber Chowdhury, Ananya and Sonia Sharmin (G8 and Africa aid, June 11), and indeed I have long exhorted British taxpayers to more carefully consider where their hard earned money is going; would the same prudence also apply to concessions, aid and other forms of largesse apply to Bangladesh? Be careful, my Africanphobes, lest ye eat your words.
   Richard Murphy
   On e-mail

I am glad that present caretaker government, though after much of unnecessary delay, has recently made efforts to try Hasina for her alleged corruption in procuring the MiGs and the frigate during her regime. At the first place, she should justify why a country like Bangladesh (so poor, I mean) should spend so much money to buy MiGs and frigate at this stage. Then she should be asked to explain why obsolete, but over-priced, MiGs and frigate were purchased for the country. The nation awaits the answers it deserves.
   Razib Mohammad
   Canberra, Australia

Bangladesh is a poor country where most of the people are poor. So the government, whether it is elected or not, should give topmost priority in controlling prices of the essentials. It is good to know that Fakhruddin Ahmed’s government at least admits its failure in arresting prices of the essentials. But instead of blaming the international price, he should take some concrete steps to arrest prices of necessary commodities.
   Soumya Rauth
   Mymensingh

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