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Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues

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Raool Castrol
User ID: 429261
10/11/2008 8:48 AM
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Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues

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HAVANA (AP) - Cuba is limiting how much basic fruits and vegetables people can buy at farmers' markets, irritating some customers but ensuring there's enough—barely—to go around.

The lines are long and some foods are scarce, but because the government has maintained and even increased rations in some areas, Cubans who initially worried about getting enough to eat now seem confident they won't go hungry despite the destruction of 30 percent of the island's crops by hurricanes Gustav and Ike last month.

"Of the little there is, there is some for everyone," 65-year-old Mercedes Grimau said as queued up behind more than 50 people to buy lettuce, limited to two pounds per person.

"I'm not afraid that I will be left without food, but it's a pain to think about all the work we are going to have to go through," Grimau added. "Two or three months ago the farmers markets were well-stocked."

Cuba's government regularly stockpiles beans and other basics, and Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said authorities are ready to increase the $2 billion they already spend on food imports annually. The world credit crisis won't affect much of those imports because U.S. law forces communist Cuba to use cash to purchase American farm goods. But imports from other countries bought with credit could become more difficult or expensive.

The government is delivering all items distributed each month on the universal ration that provides Cubans with up to two weeks of food—including eggs, beans, rice and potatoes—at very low cost. In some hard-hit provinces, extra food has been added.

But the rest of the food Cubans supplement their diets with at supply-and-demand farmers markets and government produce stands has dwindled, prompting the government to limit consumer purchases and cap prices on items including rice, beans, root crops and fresh greens.

Rodriguez has sought to dispel speculation about a replay of the desperate early 1990s, when shelves were bare and people survived for weeks on one small meal daily. Cubans who lived through deprivation after the Soviet Union's collapse say the current food situation doesn't come close.

"It is true that it will take us some time to bring the agricultural production up to the levels that existed before the hurricanes," Rodriguez told state television this week. "Nevertheless, there is no reason to speculate or assume that there will be any hunger."

Although Cuba's relative financial isolation partially protects it from the jolts of the world economy, an extended credit crisis could stunt the island's foreign currency income if Cubans living abroad lose jobs and stop sending family remittances, or if potential tourists can no longer afford to travel.

But now, Cuba's top challenge is to increase local production of fruits and vegetables sold at the farmers' markets.
[link to www.breitbart.com]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 523000
10/11/2008 9:21 AM

Re: Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues	Quote
Castro was all sick and in bed, a woman from the US State dept was dispatched to go there and check the stability of the puppet state. Before going she appeared on Don Imus in the Morning live MSNBC. Don told her to quote: "unplug the commie". Everyone in the studio laughed but the State Dept lady. She frowned and did not laugh.

Dread Pirate Roberts
User ID: 521025
10/11/2008 9:52 AM

Re: Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues	Quote
Mark 13:8 "There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains." and one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse is famine Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready? "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28 (KJV)

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 523229
10/11/2008 9:55 AM

Re: Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues	Quote
i wonder how this is affecting the All Inclusive resorts on the island? not at all i'd venture a guess. I bet there is some SERIOUS resentment building up in the waiters and waitresses and all the other employees of those hotels as they watch fat westerners stuff their gobs as their families struggle to feed themselves.

Grahool Castroil
User ID: 429261 (OP)
10/11/2008 10:03 AM

Re: Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues

Quote

Castro was all sick and in bed, a woman from the US State dept was dispatched to go there and check the stability of the puppet state. Before going she appeared on Don Imus in the Morning live MSNBC. Don told her to quote: "unplug the commie".

lmao

Everyone in the studio laughed but the State Dept lady. She frowned and did not laugh.

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 523000

Imus has a good sense of humor! All commies should be laughed at.

Dread Pirate Roberts
User ID: 521025
10/11/2008 10:03 AM

Re: Cuba Rations Produce As Food Shortage Crisis Continues

Quote

i wonder how this is affecting the All Inclusive resorts on the island?

not at all i'd venture a guess.

I bet there is some SERIOUS resentment building up in the waiters and waitresses and all the other employees of those hotels as they watch fat westerners stuff their gobs as their families struggle to feed themselves.

Quoting: Anonymous Coward 523229

I was a live-aboard cruiser. One place we went was the Bahamas, and I'll never forget Freeport, Bimini. All-inclusive resorts line the crystal beaches. To get to them you had to use a taxi, driven by a local black man usually. and he lets ou off and he has to drive back out. Locals are all the employees. Now, it;s nice to have an economy where locals are employed locally, but it was so palpable that they were to look but don't touch. They can work there, they can stare at the chain link fence bordering the US vs THEM property, but they could not really benefit.

I wonder how they felt looking at all the excesses at the resorts when they had to use cisterns to catch rain, grow meager gardens in the limestone pits, and see all that water and food go to waster. The anger in their eyes was evident.

And that was then. It would not take much at all for riots and mass panic and violence to breakout in that tinderbox

Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready?
"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28 (KJV)

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