Cuba - Lonely Planet [29]
Cuban women have been liberated in the sense that they have access to education and training of any sort they desire. In fact, women make up 66% of the professional and technical workforce. But, like everywhere, a glass ceiling still exists in some fields (eg politics) and the home is still largely the woman’s responsibility, which translates to a ‘double workday’ – women go to work and then come home, to work. Thanks to specific government policies, such as one-year guaranteed maternity leave and free day care, it’s easier being a mother and a career woman in Cuba. Children are an integral part of life and kids are everywhere – the theater, church, restaurants and rock concerts. It’s refreshing that Cubans don’t drastically alter their lives once they become parents.
That women are turning to hustling to make some extra cash or attain baubles is disturbing. While some jineteras (women who attach themselves to male foreigners for monetary or material gain) are straight-up hookers, others are just getting friendly with foreigners for the perks they provide: a ride in a car, a night out in a fancy disco or a new pair of jeans. Some are after more, others nothing at all. It’s a complicated state of affairs and can be especially confusing for male travelers who get swept up in it.
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In 2008 the state-owned oil company Cubapetroleo estimated that there may be as much as 21 billion barrels of oil in Cuban waters, a potential haul that would give Cuba a greater capacity than the US and put it in the top 20 oil producers in the world.
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Most homes don’t have computers or flat-screen TVs, infinitesimally few have internet access and disposable income is an oxymoron. All of this has a huge effect on lifestyle. What makes Cuba different from somewhere like Bolivia or Appalachia though, are the government’s heavy subsidies of every facet of life, meaning there is no mortgage, no health-care bills, no college fees and little tax. Expensive nights out cost next to nothing in Cuba where tickets for the theater, the cinema, the ballpark or a music concert are state-subsidized and considered a right of the people. Now if only there was the transport to get there. Still, with a set of dominoes or a guitar, a bottle of rum and a group of friends, who needs baseball or the ballet?
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ECONOMY
Nearly destroyed during the economic meltdown that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the Cuban economy has defied all logic by its continued survival. Given new life with a three-pronged recovery plan in 1993 that included the legalization of the US dollar (retracted in 2004), the limited opening up of the private sector and the frenzied promotion of the tourist industry in resort areas such as Varadero and Cayo Coco, net advances have been slow but steady with much of the benefits yet to filter down to the average person on the street in Havana or Santiago. Throwing off its heavy reliance on old staples such as sugar and tobacco, Cuba’s recent economic development has spun inexorably toward Latin America in the shape of new trade agreements such as the 2004 Bolívarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) accords that have exchanged Cuban medical know-how for Venezuelan oil. Other modern economic mainstays include nickel-mining (Cuba is among the world’s largest producers) and pharmaceuticals. Along with the rest of the world, at the time of writing Cuba was significantly impacted by the 2008–09 economic downturn.
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China is Cuba’s second-biggest trading partner (after Venezuela). In 2008 the Chinese extended a US$350-million credit package to repair and renovate Cuban hospitals.
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INNOVATIONS OF THE SPECIAL PERIOD
When it comes to inventiveness in the face of austerity, the Cubans are world champions – primarily because they’ve had to be. Burdened with a crippling economic meltdown in the early 1990s, society was forced to mobilize behind what Castro termed a ‘Special