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First, believe nothing you have heard about Cuba. The country,
it's people, ecology, economy and ambience are entirely different
from the quick and slick impression that most Norte Americanos get
from television soundbites or an article in Newsweek. This is a
country of spectacular natural beauty and incredible architecture,
inhabited by a people of strength, grace, intelligence and monumental
pride.
We ... Yankees came as a
"delegation" to the Fourth
International Convention
on Ecology and Sustainable
Development hosted
this year by Cuba.
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They are kind, even to the little dogs that inhabit the street
and belong, it seems, to no one and everyone. The best educated
and most accomplished of the Cubans I have met are ingratiatingly
free of ego and bombast, and far more balanced than many of their
counterparts in the states.
There are many poor. In a sense, all are poor, but there is hardly
a hint of poverty. We tourists amble leisurely through the darkest
streets at night, are pockets packed with cash — they don't
take American Express — expensive cameras swinging from our
belts, surrounded by throngs of mostly Afro-Cubans and feeling not
one touch of fear. I would not even drive through a similar Stateside
neighborhood at night.
We sixty or so Yankees came as a "delegation" to the Fourth International
Convention on Ecology and Sustainable Development hosted this year
by Cuba. Our sponsoring organization is Global
Exchange, a San Francisco non-profit dedicated to promoting
international people-to-people understanding through trips such
as ours. The conference has participants and speakers from much
of the Western hemisphere, with Cuba and the US most strongly represented,
but also with contingents ranging from Canada to Equador. As the
developing world grapples with issues of sustainable development,
the Cuban model, which began to develop under emergency conditions
during the "special period" a decade ago, has become the focus of
great international interest.
The monoculture
of sugar... is
being phased out
for a polyculture
of vegetables and
medicinal plants...
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The "Cuban model?" Cuba was once dependent on the Soviet Union
and Eastern Block for much of its trade and vital material. The
better established communist countries provided their offspring
with money, machinery and, of equal importance, oil, or at least
the means to get it. When European socialism collapsed, Cuba was
suddenly left to its own devices, and the world's community expected
a humanitarian disaster. But the mass starvation that was predicted
never came about. Instead, Cuba embarked on an almost instantaneous
campaign to convert its agricultural production from a mechanized,
oil dependent, monocultural model to the "more labor intensive"
(work creating), organic (no petroleum-based fertilizers or pesticides),
diversified (small farms with food production, not money making
as their raison d'etre) system.
The monoculture of sugar, Cuba's main export to the Soviet Union
and elsewhere, is being phased out for a polyculture of vegetables
and medicinal plants supplemented by chicken and pork. The result
of this greening of the revolution is that there is enough food
for everyone and, as Cuba is a socialized country, everyone is fed.
Another result is that few are overfed, partially because food
is rationed (there is enough, not to much as in the US) and partially
because the government has sponsored a variety of programs to educate
people about healthy eating. Few and far between are the obese that
are so common in the States and other Latin countries.
Building on its decade of success in sustainable agriculture, Cuba
has now embarked on an integrated, long-range sustainable energy
program. A recently formed national energy department takes a holistic
view of energy conservation and production, bringing together city
planning and building science and transportation with alternative
energy production development concentrating on solar photovoltaic
and biogas sources. (Biofuels provide as much as 30 percent of the
country's fuel during the sugar cane harvest.)
National parks have been
expanded and Cuba is one
of the first countries to
complete its preliminary
biodiversity count.
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Despite its poverty, due in great measure to the U.S. embargo,
Cuba has also managed to put a "disproportionate" amount of its
resources into expanding its biodiversity protection programs. National
parks have been expanded and Cuba is one of the first countries
to complete its preliminary biodiversity count. These programs are
accepted by the people because a number of educational campaigns
on many levels have enabled them to understand the importance of
the connection between all forms of life.
While the transition to a completely sustainable society—mandated
by recent amendments to the Constitution—is just underway in
Cuba, this country is far ahead of the rest of the world in many
ways. While the US and the industrialized North continue unabated
their patterns of addictive consumption, and most of the developing
is world is doing its best Las Vegas imitation, Cuba, initially
driven by necessity and now prompted by success could find itself
in a position of planetary leadership.
............
This is only a dispatch, written while traveling and sent on the
fly. I have gathered lot of information about Cuba's sustainable
policies on this trip, and ECOTECTURE will devote an entire issue
to Cuba in the near future. Look for more on this fascinating and
vital subject.
PSW
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