Cuba

I've just spent eight days on holiday in Cuba. Here are some thoughts.

Cuba is poor. The buildings are crumbling, the transport system is feeble bordering on non-existent. People exist on rations, although no-one appeared to be going hungry. They have the basics of life, please a relatively good education and health care. But many other things we would regard as basic and commonplace in the developed world are difficult to obtain for ordinary Cubans unless they can get hold of dollars - or the convertible pesos that have replaced them.

People's lives are heavily restricted. There's no foreign press or TV, no internet access, no private transport or foreign travel except where explicitly allowed by the government. On the other hand, in many ways ordinary people are better off than in many other parts of Latin America.

To what extent their problems are caused by the government or by US sanctions is not clear. It suits the government to keep things blurred. What is clear is that the sanctions aren't going to bring down the government any time soon. I'm not quite sure what the goals of the sanctions are, but it seems to me that they are pretty much counterproductive. Clearly, Cuba is more use to the American establishment as a bogeyman than as a trading partner. No such problem with China, for example. Far too big and important a country to mess about with. Far too lucrative a market to trade with.

Cubans want more freedom but there is also a clear memory of how things were before the revolution and so for the moment, people are happier to put up with daily hardships than risk the unwelcome attentions of the US and Cuban ex-pats.