things you didn't know re: Cuba that will surprise the heck out of you [View All]

[ensho]

http://counterpunch.com/valdes09252009.html


What the BBC Missed
Cuba, Hurricanes and the Internet


Fernando Ravsberg of the BBC reports that Cubans now are permitted to have access to the Internet via the Cuban Post Office. <1> Such a decision has been characterized as "free access" to the Internet. Actually, the service is not free because the Cubans will have to pay per minute of use. In fact, the BBC notes that the service is "expensive." Thus, free apparently does not refer to how much it costs but to the fact that anyone who has money can have access to it. You know, freedom is a function of capacity to purchase.

In the 1950s it used to be called "people's capitalism." Strangely, the BBC did not discover that Cubans invented, over 15 years ago, a service by which access to email is free via the Joven Clubs and the Viejo Clubs within each municipality. In the last 5 years more of those neighborhood clubs offer connectivity to the Internet at no cost to the user. Granted, the service is similar to taking a book out of the library. You have to sign in so that you are allocated time of access on a particular day and time. But, the BBC really meant "free" from government interference, if you can pay. This raises another point, as Saul Landau has noted, "People who criticize socialism love to attack Cuba for anything 'capitalist' that it does -- like charge for Internet use, like Starbucks." <2>

The source for the BBC story, we are told, was the Gaceta Nacional de Cuba, the Cuban version of the US Federal Register. That issue, apparently, is not yet online. Unable to find that item, I opted to read at the most recent issue of the legal compilation from August 19, 2009. That particular issue of the Gaceta contains a number of other laws and regulations. Oddly enough, neither the BBC nor anyone else seem to pay attention to the Gaceta, although one can assume that the BBC reporter reads it. One piece of legislation caught my eye. It dealt with the aftermath of hurricanes in Cuba.

Robert Sandels has noted, "Cuba has an unmatched record of saving lives and property during hurricanes. Cuba does not wait until the damage is done and then CNN rushes to report the dollar amount of damage. Cuba prevents most of the damage by preventive measures such as mandatory evacuations, including pets and household goods." <3>

Resolución No. 90/2009 covered Work and Social Security. <4> Apparently this item is not as important to the BBC as getting connected to the Internet. Yet, the Cuban legislation states that when workers are unable to go to work because of a natural disaster, they will continue to receive pay. What an outrageous idea!. Moreover, during or after a natural disaster, if a male or female worker has to take care of a child because a child care center cannot open, the worker will continue to receive his/her basic salary. How come the BBC did not report on that? Seemingly, connectivity is the key in this age, not salary security.

Also if a worker's home has been destroyed or partially destroyed, the work place will release the person or persons from regular employment so that he or she can work on rebuilding or fixing his/her home. During the period of absence from regular work , the worker or workers will be paid the basic wage. How much time a worker will be granted to labor at the home outside the workplace will be agreed by contract with the employer. Those darned Cubans think that a home is more important than Internet.

Even more disconcerting, the workplace is to help the worker find construction materials for the home. If the worker does not have construction materials available, and the employer cannot find such materials, then the worker would be expected to return to work until the materials are found and then he or she will be released from his/her regular job responsibility until the home reconstruction is terminated.

The worker will be allowed to stay away from work up to a year if he or she can demonstrate that the absence was necessary for home reconstruction. The worker will continue to receive a salary.
-snip-
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our Barons better not read this - they will have strokes and or nervous breakdowns.

and demand that Cuba be bombed immediately.