Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Cuban ration book (photo: cuba-junky.com)
The free lunch in Cuba is coming to an end, literally and figuratively. Following the decision in September to end nearly free meals at state cafeterias, the government of Raúl Castro has decided to remove two food staples, potatoes and peas, from ration books, which some see as the beginning of the end of the socialist system that has ruled the island since the early 1960s.
Before the change, Cubans could purchase up to four pounds of potatoes for 4 cents and 10 ounces of peas for less than 1 penny a month. Now, people can buy as much of the products as they want, but they will have to pay as much as 20 times more for them. Such an increase could prove difficult in a country where the average monthly salary is only $20.
Dropping potatoes and peas may not be the last change in store for ration books. The Communist Party’s newspaper, Granma, called for the elimination of the cards altogether in an editorial published last month.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Cuba Cuts Back on Rationed Products (by Paul Haven, Associated Press)
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