In Today’s Sugar Report: Cuba
Stop the presses! Cuba "hopes," Cuba "expects" to cover domestic sugar needs. Yes, folks, the country that was once described as a "sugar bowl" has been importing the sweet substance, perhaps because their production levels have been akin to those of the Great Depression.
But just to demonstrate how completely the organs of the press have been co-opted, according to AP the production levels were down because of a restructuring six years ago, and the glory years are described in the 1980's. Former sugar growing areas were devoted to farming or forests. Yeah, the capos in Havana consciously missed the opportunity to amass more wealth in order to create more forests. Really. No mention of the true heyday of Cuban sugar, pre1959. No mention of the mismanagement of half a century of communist rule. Nope. And don't give me the shibboleth about the Americans. In 1959, fully half of the sugar refineries were owned by Cubans, up from zero.
And in concert with this earth shattering development comes the announcement that Cuba is to scale back on it plans to produce ethanol. Of course by the time the news makes it to Reuters, it's a question of following comrade fidel's lead. Some cynics might be more likely to suggest that they will not produce it, just as they have not met housing quotas, because they can't; even more likely, given the recent raulian austerity speech, because they cannot afford to divert production from the sweet stuff.
They oughta be ashamed of themselves.
So the "explanation" is that they planted trees. Give the Castro Regime control of the Sahara Desert and within a generation, if not sooner, they would be IMPORTING SAND! -S-
rsnlk,
That's a great point that you bring up and its a good example of how utterly derelict the mainstream media is when it comes to Cuba. They are doing nothing more than shilling for the tyranny.
In Reinaldo Arena's "Before Night Falls" the late, great author says that Castro broke the backbone of the Cuban economy when he came up with the harebrained idea of LA SAFRA DE LOS 20,000,000 [The harvest of the 20,000,000]. Arenas says that this was a technical impossibility. Not only was every bit of energy put into producing 20,000,000 tons of sugar [including the shipping of necessary office workers and professionals to the countryside], but ancient fruit producing trees [that were a vital part of the economy] were fell by the thousands and old forest area was cleared without a single thought of the destruction to the ecology. So that comment by AP that they aren't producing so much sugar now because much of the land is now devoted to forest and farming IS an absolute and UTTER LIE, an intent to make castro appear like an ecologically minded leader who is also an agrarian reformer that distributed land to farmers.
By the way, Reinaldo Arenas, also, says that it was heartbreaking to see how many animals died as old forest areas were cleared and burnt for the sake of castro's caprice!
Pre-1959, as you point out, rsnlk, Cuba was producing more sugar than it does today and this was done without the clearing of vital forest area or without the destruction of thousands of old fruit bearing trees.
Ashamed? Are you kidding? You think these people even know what that means? Shame is only for certain people (you know, like conservatives).
Circa 1969-70, Fidel had a big propaganda campaign for a 10 million ton sugar harvest, when the normal harvest was aroung 6 million tons .(Not surprisingly, Fidel fell short @ 8.5)
One of the big propaganda slogans for the 10 million ton campaign was "LOS DIEZ MILLONES VAN."
Nearly 40 years later, one might say:
"LOS DIEZ MILLONES VAN.
A MIAMI."