Leaving Cuba is easy for some

Stephen Gibbs, BBC:

Moving home, they say, is one of life's five most stressful experiences. It comes in at number three. Ranked a bit below bereavement, a bit above divorce.

But in Cuba it is different. Packing up a home in Cuba is easy.

The reason is that you do not have to go through that agonising problem of wondering about what to do with all your junk. You can sell it, or give it away. All of it. In a matter of hours.

Cuba is a place where almost all consumer items are prohibitively expensive, or, more likely, not available. And scarcity breeds desire.

Most Cubans, and plenty of foreigners living on the island, spend the majority of their time not thinking about the country's future, or transitional governments, or the health of Fidel Castro, but on rather more mundane things. Like how to find a square meal, a fridge that works, or an electric fan.

I had a first-hand glimpse of all this when I returned to my home in Old Havana, just days after hearing the disappointing news that I was one of three foreign correspondents to be stripped of their press accreditation by the Cuban government. Our reporting was deemed "negative" by a nameless committee.

As I entered my apartment the phone was ringing. It was an ex-pat friend whom I had not heard from for some time. The conversation went along these lines: "I am so sorry to hear you are being thrown out," he said, "what a disgraceful attempt to intimidate the foreign press."

And then, after a brief pause, the real point of the call: "That sofa in your living room... are you selling it? And what about the microwave?"

As the news spread that I was on my way out, my Cuban neighbours congratulated me on what they saw as a promotion. Sadly, and often inaccurately, many Cubans assume that anyone who is leaving the island is going on to better things.

Then came the not-so-subtle requests for a farewell present. I soon realised that anything would do. A broken watch, a 2005 calendar, all were received with embarrassing gratitude.

...

When China decided to open up to the west some of the first entrepreneurs to cash in were antique dealers who made fortunes buying the old stuff and bringing it to the US to sell. In Cuba the people have had no choice but to make do with old stuff from cars to appliances. Someday it may be worth something.

While there has been a US embargo it does not stop other countries from selling to Cuba and the Chinese would be happy to sell them the same stuff they sell Walmart. The Japanese and the Europeans would be delighted to sell the Cubans cars. Alas, communism has left them with no money with which to buy anything. Perhaps, if they were converting their sugar cane to ethanol....

Others attempt to explain Cuba's poverty, but don't seem to notice the impact of communism. The boom in Israel described above makes an interesting contrast. That country too, has been faced with a boycott by its neighbors and still thrives without natural resources.