The Famous Cuban "Toilet Paper Shortage" article

[Michael Tee]

The article, from Reuters last year, seems to have given a shitload (no pun intended) of ammo to the usual anti-communist hysterics who blame communism for every fucking disaster that ever befell the human race.

The article, which I reproduced whole from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5792F420090810, does not blame communism or even the U.S. embargo, but makes it plain that the culprit is the global financial crisis and "three destructive hurricanes" that struck the island that same year.  Furthermore, the article makes it very clear that the shortage was temporary only, due to be resolved before the end of the year.  Furthermore, the article did not point to any actual shortage, but merely stated that "supplies were running short" and "might" not be sufficient till the end of the year.

From this, the anticommunist hysterics immediately conclude that disaster has enveloped Cuba.  A potential shortage - - not of basic food, not of medical care, not of education, but of TOILET PAPER!!!  is held up as an "abject failure" on the part of a system which brought literacy to millions of adult illiterates, and free health care and education to a nation in which only the elites were able to enjoy them before the Revolution.  But all the benefits of the Revolution came at an unacceptable price and that price was - - are you ready for it?? - - a potential shortage of TOILET PAPER in the face of a global economic meltdown and three devastating hurricanes in a single year.  Is it really possible to imagine a more trivial and contrived objection to the success of the Revolution?  I doubt it.

What was also significant was that the article reported that the Cuban government took extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat.  Geeeze, does that remind you of anything?  Like the U.S. government in the fall of 2008 taking extraordinary measures to, uh, like, to . . .   to keep the economy afloat!   Wow, amazing huh?  When a global crisis and three hurricanes hit a communist country, it's pretty much like a global crisis without three hurricanes hitting a capitalist country.  Who woulda thunk?

I guess the difference was, with the capitalist economy of the U.S. on the rocks in 2008, the American people were faced with something a lot worse than a "possible" shortage of toilet paper.

Here's the article:

(Reuters) - Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said Friday.
Officials said they were lowering the prices of 24 basic goods to help Cubans get through the difficulties provoked in part by the global financial crisis and three destructive hurricanes that struck the island last year.
Cuba's financial reserves have been depleted by increased spending for imports and reduced export income, which has forced the communist-led government to take extraordinary measures to keep the economy afloat.
"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," an official with state conglomerate Cimex said on state-run Radio Rebelde.
The shipment will enable the state-run company "to supply this demand that today is presenting problems," he said.
Cuba both imports toilet paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, he said.
One of the measures taken to address the cash crunch is a 20 percent cut in imports, which in recent days has become evident in the reduction of goods in state-run stores.
Cuba imports about 60 percent of its food.
Despite the shortages, prices will be cut between 5 percent and 27 percent for some food, drugs and personal hygiene products, officials said.
A visit to a store in Havana's Vedado neighborhood on Friday found that prices had dropped for mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and canned squid.
One customer, who gave his name only as Pedro, complained that "it doesn't look like prices have been lowered for the fundamental products" such as cooking oil.
Ana Maria Ortega, deputy director for military-run retail conglomerate TRD Caribe, said there will be no shortage of basic goods.
"The conditions are in place to maintain the supply of essential products," she said on the same radio program.
Cubans receive a subsidized food ration from the government each month that they say meets their needs for about two weeks.
President Raul Castro told the National Assembly last week that the government had cut its spending budget for the second time this year and has been renegotiating its debt and payments with foreign providers.
Cuba has long blamed the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the island for many of its economic problems. It also said that last year's hurricanes did $10 billion worth of damage that forced the government to spend heavily on imports of food and reconstruction products.
Castro, who replaced his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president last year, also has complained that Cuba's productivity is too low.
He has taken various steps to boost output, including putting more state-owned land in private hands and pushing for salaries to be based on productivity.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Toilet paper is mostly made from bagasse, which is what you have left after you squeeze sugar cane. Perhaps there is a shortage of sugar cane. I know that a couple of years ago Cuba actually IMPORTED sugar from Brazil.

I speak with a number of Cubans with family in Cuba regularly, and there does not seem to be a shortage of toilet paper. When there is, people buy the national newspaper, Granma, to make up for it. If you have ever read Granma, you might think that this is a better use for it than reading it: it is similar to a church bulletin.

The big shortages at the moment seem to be rice and salt.
There is not much excuse for an island surrounded by an ocean to have a shortage of salt, in my opinion. In Cuba, salt is often sold in bulk: they weigh it and wrap it in a paper cone. So the problem is not in a lack of little round boxes or other packaging.
I have noticed that last year, a pound of supermarket brand salt was three for $1.00 here in Miami. Now it is advertised as on sale at 2 for $1.00. I can't imagine why the price would have risen so much in a year.

[Michael Tee]

<<I have noticed that last year, a pound of supermarket brand salt was three for $1.00 here in Miami. Now it is advertised as on sale at 2 for $1.00. I can't imagine why the price would have risen so much in a year.>>

Maybe some folks like their salt without BP oil in it.    Can't imagine why.

Here in Ontario in the heart of the Mid-West, our salt comes from salt mines.  Or used to.  IIRC, the salt mines were somewhere in the Windsor-Detroit area.  I actually think salt derived from ocean water might be a specialty product, because most salt is just packaged as "salt" under various commercial labels (Morton's is the only brand name I can think of off-hand and the slogan "When It Rains, It Pours") but then there is a specialty product labeled "Sea Salt."  So I just figured that it was a lot more economical to mine the stuff than to evaporate it from ocean water, since there was a lot more "salt" than "sea salt" on the grocery shelves.

[Michael Tee]

<<. . .  people buy the national newspaper, Granma, to make up for [shortage of toilet paper] . If you have ever read Granma, you might think that this is a better use for it than reading it: it is similar to a church bulletin.>>

Maybe you'd prefer Juventud Rebelde.  Better-looking babes.

http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you about Granma, although even as toilet paper, it's a poor substitute for the real thing.

[Amianthus]

Here in Ontario in the heart of the Mid-West, our salt comes from salt mines.  Or used to.  IIRC, the salt mines were somewhere in the Windsor-Detroit area.  I actually think salt derived from ocean water might be a specialty product, because most salt is just packaged as "salt" under various commercial labels (Morton's is the only brand name I can think of off-hand and the slogan "When It Rains, It Pours") but then there is a specialty product labeled "Sea Salt."  So I just figured that it was a lot more economical to mine the stuff than to evaporate it from ocean water, since there was a lot more "salt" than "sea salt" on the grocery shelves.

Most "table salt" comes from salt mines. There are large mines in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas (IIRC). Sea salt is more expensive to produce - in industrial quantities - than mining, though a small solar evaporator is easy to make and can provide all the salt needed for a family provided easy access to a salt water source. Also, sea salt includes many salts in addition to NaCl, which alter the flavor. Sea salt from different bodies of water impart different flavors on the food they're used to prepare.

The girl pictured on the "Morton's" label is the grandmother of one of the Minneapolis / St. Paul morning radio personalities.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Yes. I know, salt in the US comes from underground mines. But that does not change the fact that there should be no shortage of salt in Cuba. I know that in Santo Domingo there is are salt production pans east of the beach at Montecristi. And labor is cheaper in Cuba than in the US.

It is true that sea salt costs more in the US than the usual mined salt, I suspect that this is because it is marketed as a specialty product, with a much higher markup. Diets and other trendy recipe books call for "sea salt", which is sold in expensive two or three ounce bottles rather than a plain round box, and that certainly jacks up the price. The increased price is at least partly due to elite marketing.

This is certainly true of coffee. It costs twice as much to buy coffee in bean form than already ground. This is because wealthier people insist on grinding their own beans, and will pay double to do it. There are many products sold this way. Sometimes you pay for what you get and get a better product for paying more, but sometimes the people who sell stuff pile on the advertising and you pay for that. I like expresso coffee, and I have found no real difference between fresh ground coffee in those vacuum packed bricks, which I buy on sale and store in the freezer, and beans that I grind myself and serve immediately. Maybe some people can tell the difference, but I can't, so I do not pay for it. There is not much difference in taste between common salt and sea salt, but I rarely put much salt on anything: only vegetables, and only some of those.

In any case, Cuba is surrounded by a salty ocean, and there is really no excuse for there to be a lack of salt in Cuba, no matter where Americans and Canadians get their salt or how the choose to buy it.

[Amianthus]

There is not much difference in taste between common salt and sea salt, but I rarely put much salt on anything: only vegetables, and only some of those.

If you're taking Lasix, then you shouldn't be putting salt on anything. Use "no salt" instead.

[Michael Tee]

This goes way beyond Lasix - - every doctor I know and every nutritionist wants to reduce dietary salt to an absolute minimum.

I think maybe XO accidentally stumbled upon one of the primary advantages of a planned economy - - when circumstances reduce foreign currency reserves to unacceptable levels, there's a guiding hand on where that currency is going to be spent.  Although a free market might favour salt imports over vegetables or other healthy food, the guiding hand of socialism says no to the unhealthy imports and ensures that the limited resources of the nation will be spent where they will do the most good and the least harm.

[Michael Tee]

<<The girl pictured on the "Morton's" label is the grandmother of one of the Minneapolis / St. Paul morning radio personalities.>>

"Minneapolis and St. Paul lie along a bend in the Mississippi River like the two legs on a pair of trousers.  Where they meet is the University of Minnesota."

Max Shulman, Barefoot Boy With Cheek, one of the funniest books I ever read.  Second only to his masterpiece, The Feather Merchants, a story of homefront America in WWII.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Michael you keep bringing up China as some "shining example".
Hell China didnt start doing better until they loosened up and became business friendly
But even today...where are they on the list below?
I doubt they are in the Top 40!.


The top rankings of countries by the
UN's Human Development Index of 2004:


1. Norway

2. Sweden

3. Australia

4. Canada

5. Netherlands

6. Belgium

7. Iceland

8. United States

9. Japan

10. Ireland

11. Switzerland

12. United Kingdom

13. Finland

14. Austria

15. Luxembourg

16. France

17. Denmark

18. New Zealand

19. Germany

20. Spain

Sure there are so called "capitalist" countries not
on the list...but whats startling is not one Commi
country can manage to make the list.

Recently when I was in Colorado I was talking to college student
who recently returned from China and I asked him what it was
like?...without blinking an eye he said "outside Bejing it was
shocking the level of poverty and backwardness". He said
"shocking" was not even a strong enough word.

China is still a shithole...just not as bad as when the real Communist
were in charge The Chinese people having tasted some recent success
will only hasten the fall of the Commi's.


But China exhibits another paradox that the West often overlooks:
It is simultaneously a great economic power and a poor country.
In 2005 its annual per capita GDP was $1,400, one-thirtieth that
of the U.S. Even if adjusted by purchasing power, China's per
capita GDP ranks 118th in the world. In fact, China is poorer,
relative to the U.S., than was Japan in 1950, before Japan's
recovery and amazing growth in the second half of the 20th century.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0522/035.html

[Xavier_Onassis]

Being as you call Obama a Communist for favoring universal health care, be advised that every one of the twenty countries mentioned in your list except for the US has some form of socialized medicine.

China has over a billion people. It takes a bit longer to develop a nation of a billion people than it does a nation of ten million. Nearly all of the development China has in recent times has been due to the rule of the Communist Party. They were perfectly awful at this in the days of Mao, but in recent times, China has had a higher rate of increase in the GDP than ANY country, ever. The Communist rulers of China understand capitalism better than the governments of of most capitalist countries.

[BT]

Being as you call Obama a Communist for favoring universal health care, be advised that every one of the twenty countries mentioned in your list except for the US has some form of socialized medicine.

Not what he delivered, not what he asked for, and certainly not what he promised.

[Michael Tee]

<<where are they [China] on the list below?
<<I doubt they are in the Top 40!.>>


CU4, are you even aware that the number 1 and 2 countries, Norway and Sweden, on this list are "mixed economies?"  Meaning that their economic system has both socialistic (state ownership) and capitalistic (private ownership) features?  Furthermore, both Norway and Sweden have extensive social welfare benefits, paid for by taxes on income that are about double the U.S. personal income tax rates.

I have heard your comments on poverty in China and I agree with the general thrust of them.  I've visited China myself.  This is one of those "glass half full/glass half empty" kind of paradoxes, but you need to remember we are not looking at a finished product yet but at a work in process.  To me, the significant factor to keep in mind was what a shit-hole the entire country was, 60 years ago.  They've come a long way under Communism, and if they even brought a half or a third of their people out of the muck in the past 60 years it's probably the greatest single advance made by any people in the history of the world.  And all of it from Day 1 to the present, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and nobody else.  To me, the glass is half full, and they are hard at work filling the remaining half.

To you, I guess, you see this glass as half-empty, looking at what still remains unaccomplished.  Foolishly, IMHO, since you ignore how the glass started out - - before the Revolution, the glass was mostly empty.  Had they started with a full glass sixty years ago and come down to half-full today, you might have more of a point.

CU4, I understand how you must feel, threatened by an advancing Communism whose accomplishments are there for all to behold.  But you have to deal with the realities here.  The realities are that China was flat on its ass for over a hundred years, vicitimized by foreign exploitation and forced in a series of humiliating wars to make territorial concessions to the British, the Portuguese and the international community.  Then came the Revolution and China is not flat on its ass any more.  With 1.3 billion people, sure they still have a ways to go.  But nobody, and certainly no capitalist country on earth, has come anywhere near the progress made by the Chinese people under Communism since 1948.  There is no way that this progress can be credibly denied.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Michael the only reason China is still partly communist is because China is still such a shithole.
When you have a losing record for decades and then win two games thats great
But it is still far far far away from being a champion.
However as soon as the expected progress continues over the next decade or so the Communism will die.
There are no such things as wealthy, modern, high standard of living Communist countries.
So with every step of progress China takes...it's one step towards the end of communism there.
Once people are successful, especially the younger generation they will throw Communism out.
It's just like with the Democrats...
Once Blacks progress far enough...they wont need the Democrats anymore.
The Democrats need Blacks to fail to remain in power
And the Chinese Communist need a large shithole to partly remain or they will lose power

[sirs]

There are no such things as wealthy, modern, high standard of living Communist countries.

Except for the elitests who will simply claim to know better, and thus be justified in their being provided for a much higher standard of living, compared to their peasantry, who are all provided an equal level of misery and forced servitude.  But hey, will give them a "free education & healthcare", and that'll make it all ok