Cuban Poverty

Cuba is a beautiful country with luscious farm land and beautiful waterways.  Rural farmland is in great condition and an ideal spot to grow fruit and vegetables.  However on further observation one will see past the beauty and into the tainted soul of the country.  In cities there are crumbling buildings and people starving on the streets.  Although it is home to one of the most advanced government funded math and science programs the county still has not solved a big problem.  Poverty.  Under the rule of Fidel Castro little has been done over the years to solve the issue.  While studying the country over the past few weeks the biggest issue that I have seen is the amount of people that are in poverty and living off of welfare.  In addition to the poverty issue I think that a major problem is the growing gap between the rich and the poor in Cuba.  This wealth gap has caused the rich to continue to grow richer, and the people in poverty to become even worse off.

(Santiago, Cuba Slum after hurricane Sandy)

The income inequality of the country does not look very bad when you strictly look at numbers, but  the average wage of a Cuban citizen is just twenty dollars a month.  Twenty dollars.  This small wage amount is barely enough to feed a single person let alone a family.  Due to this fault drug trade and prostitution is very prevalent in Cuba.  Unfortunately when someone is desperate for money they will do whatever they can to get it, even it means giving up your body for money.  Castro does do what he can so that the government can give the citizens a welfare food stipend to live off.  This stipend is very little and has to be rationed out wisely for family's to make it through the entire month.  The situation is often described as "enough to get by."

A life in poverty is a life that no one deserves.  The housing facilities of many citizens are crumbling and unsafe.  Bathrooms are unsanitary and often do not have drinkable water. Fortunately for Cuban citizens the borderline socialist country offers free health care for everyone.  The healthcare is just one of the ways that the Cuban state is working to help the poverty situation.

Cuban Poverty has been an issue since around 1955 when the United States placed the embargo on the country, but it has gotten better over the years.  The education program has worked the country to a one hundred percent literacy rate and the health care system is very efficient.  These efforts have brought the poverty rates to better spots than where it was before.

(Cuban Family in Street)

With the pressing issue of poverty this is just one more thing that the United States should look at before we fully remove the embargo.  In many cases loans are made to the wealthiest Cubans for any business projects.  Loans are not given out to the average Cuban citizen which makes it nearly impossible to get out of the financial situation many Cubans find them selves in.  This is an interesting issue because of the talk about removing the embargo between the United States and Cuba.  Do we really want to support a country that only an elite class gets to benefit from the new money from the United States? I think that before we begin to fully engage in trade we must make sure that some way the money gets into the hands of the middle class Cuban citizen.  The poverty and ridiculous wage of twenty dollars a month is something that Castro needs to work on changing, and something that must be changed before the United States removes the trade embargo.

Thankfully for Cuban citizens there are organizations working with those less fortunate to get them out of poverty.  The Borgen Project works with the people in Cuba to raise awareness of their situation.  The Borgen project also helps the citizens directly with aid to provide people with food security.  They also serve as lobbyist in many places all over the world to fight to end extreme poverty.  Hopefully in the near future they will have in impact in Central America and Cuba.