Flag of Cuba

Jennifer Ubah,

Correspondent (North America)

 

HAVANA – The communist country of Cuba seems to be moving towards a more liberal, capitalist system. Two years ago, the government started to allow a minority jobs to be privatized in order to help Cuba out of their serious economic troubles. Today, although the government still has control over nearly every aspect of the economy, things might be changing.

Broadcaster Simon Reeve, who visited Cuba to investigate the state of Cuba’s emerging market economy, discovered that a few people were optimistic about the chance of making their own money without state intervention. He spoke to one man trying to sell items such as kitchen sinks and pipes on the street. He said to Reeve that doing business like this would not have been allowed before and that he is grateful to have the chance to earn extra money. Reeve later discovered that this man working on the streets was actually a doctor, but his salary from his medical work, paid by the government, was not enough to live on.

Another women encountered by Reeve has started to make a living selling houses after years on the streets of Havana as a cheese merchant. No housing market was existent prior to the government allowing citizens to sell their properties. Today, it is even possible to see people on the streets of Havana holding up sheets of paper with a price, selling their homes to the highest bidder. Many seem excited by the opportunity to better accommodate themselves by entering a more liberal economy. New jobs generated by the emerging economy often pay better than state provided work, allowing for people to raise their standard of living though personal enterprise.

Before the 2010 economic reforms, trying to start any sort of business without governmental approval would lead to any products you were attempting to sell being seized and destroyed. However, the Cuban government now hopes taxes from the entrepreneurial efforts of its people will generate money to maintain the public sectors. How this will affect Cuban society in the coming decades is hard to predict but it may help raise living standards among ordinary Cubans as well as aiding in the restoration of relations with the US.