Not to be cheeky but...

"By the time I got to Cuba in late December 2009, the urban agriculture movement had grown beyond its early desperate phase."

wait, when?

;) just kidding we all make mistakes.

There are other models....

An interesting article, that helps make clear there are alternatives to the current corporatist dominant way of living and meeting one's, and a populations needs.

And one doesn't have to entirely buy into the Cuban model either, to respect what this people have managed to do, independently and creatively, even in the face of the most difficult embargo and harassment circumstances created for them by the Yankee Empire. They certainly put us to shame on many fronts, for all our genuflecting at the alter of, and sucking up pathetically to US imperialism.

That said, had we the national cajones/ovaries to stand up to the Empire, I think we could do even better and more democratically, with a thoroughly democratic economy, free of our own ruling class presumptions of privilege and greed, and without the beaurocratic statism that I still think, hampers the full flowering of the Cuban Revolution. Though I would certainly not presume to tell them how to run their affairs, especially in the very onerous circumstances of ongoing US Empire efforts to hamper their economy, in order to undo their revolution and fought for way of life.

For all I perceive of the shortcomings of their revolution, their bravery and independent resolution to survive and carry on is certainly more deserving of respect than what this country has yet secured for itself, and our ongoing slavish serving of the Empire interest everywhere, including here. Still, we may yet learn something of value from them, snd do it our own way.

do you MEAN

"..any unused city lot, even state-owned, could be taken over by citizens to grow food."

For FREE??? But we don't do that here! We are on our way to bottle the air, so some ENTRIPRINURE can charge people for't. If people don't pay nothing for anything, we'll be in the TOILET in no time flat. Sacrilegious, that's what it is! Law and order requires that THINGS COST MONEY, or else. Just ask Premier Gordo, who presided over the buldozing of all those forestry service rec sites, where families could camp for an affordable fee. Out of ORDER.

Cuba sustainable on the backs of its slaves

No mention that Cuba has the second largest area planted with tobacco of all countries worldwide. Cuba's slave-driven collectivist farms are a disgrace, but no worse than the foreign apologists who are only too willing to swallow the bs from the cuban commissars about all their great progress.

Cuba now imports 60% of its food from foreign sources - including millions worth from the US! Hah - some embargo! Cuba's agriculture is in bad shape, and it ain't the embargo causing it - just good 'ol fashioned communism!

In Cuba, agriculture is going back to basics
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1202424.html

A somewhat myopic view of Cuba, in my estimation

Cuba has imported 53,000 barrels of Venezuelan per day since 2007. The trade between Cuba and Venezuela amounts to 7 billion US, per year. Cuba owes an enormous oil debt to Venezuela. Only government officials, military and the select few who bring foreign currency into Cuba can get fuel. It is not only the US that doesn't do any trading with Cuba, most countries don't because it has little to offer in trade. If the Castros decided to can 1/2 the military and provide access to fuel for even the smallest entrepenuers, Cuba might just have a semblance of an export trade and an economy. NOT US based, but Cuban based. The Castros continue to play an economic shell game.

Coyoteman

"Still, we may yet learn something of value from them, snd do it our own way."

Are you a comedian?

"Cuba faces toilet paper shortage. On Tuesday, a pack of four Cuban-manufactured toilet paper rolls was selling in Havana stores for the equivalent of about 28 pesos, or about two days' salary for the average worker."

"It's insane farm policies lead to frequent shortages of fruit, vegetables and other basic food needs, shortages even more serious than toilet paper,'' he added. ``And all those programs that they have held up for years as successes of the communist revolution -- free education for all through college, universal health care -- well, Raúl Castro just announced they're going to have to make cuts in all of these."

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/1203953.html?storylink=omni_popular

It almost makes Gordo Scampbell's BC sound like a worker's paradise.

Viva La BC Visionistas!

Thank God for Cuba and Hugo Chavez

The balance and sanity of having both in the hemisphere goes a long way to counteracting the excessive benignity of the US empire...

Viva Fidel; Viva Chavez!

Long may they live - Viva Cuba Libre...

It is not only the US that doesn't do any trading with Cuba,

Yikes, can't believe some of the anti-Cuba posts. Last I heard, ships that dock in Cuba for any delivery etc reason, can not then dock or do business in the US.

Help me someone, name the US bill that prohibits this.

Lots of other countries have businesses in Cuba, trade with Cuba, alas, many playing on desperation.

Agriculture/literacy was one of the first things Fidel Castro tried to tackle, with the little brigadistas. Kids who had reading skills but didn't eat things that came out of dirt were sent with lanterns out into the farming areas to teach people to read and learn about food by helping with farm tasks.

Literacy improved. Farming savvy and skills largely didn't.

I remember a very pretty gusana in Victoria with big hair and long fingernails complaining that her family had to leave Cuba because her father was a doctor and she was stuck in a cornfield. 60s. I wasn't big on ag in those days either.

I was, by 89, when I visited Cuba and wondered why no one urban grew anything. By then I was eating as much as I could from what used to be a parking spot in the alley behind my house in N Burnaby. Everything grew up everything and I have somewhere a funny photo of the little rat up the plum tree that I'd let grow back.

In Cuba, as here, however, there was a huge divide between people who did and did not grow food and have chickens. Post-89, Cubans wised up. We largely haven't.

I was busted for chickens ten years ago. Duncan city council avoids changing the bylaws with the stupidest excuses. It is still also illegal to grow dandelions, and people dilligently yank out much more nutritious plants to grow lettuce. What's with most lettuce? Meat eaters eat lettuce or at least require some visible on the table. Real eaters want much better than lettuce!

The Cuban food revolution has been wonderful, people really do grow what they can wherever, bravo, bravo, can we do this here? Have we learned from it?

We do not need to import, and neither do Cubans, when it comes to food. Early menstruation and breasts are not progress. My mother was 17, I was 14, girls now frequently "mature" at nine or ten.

Transportability is not the best thing about food.

Back to the article, Wendy Holm has been organizing tours for Canadian farmers in Cuba for years now, and roses, roses, to Wendy, such an inspired and inspiring woman.

Monsanto and a few others in the agri-biz

are no doubt busy talkin' to folks in high places. I can hear talk of a conspiracy comin' to a vacant lot near you, soon.

“When times get tough, and food is scarce, and the government helps, city people will grow their own.”

Can anyone spot the dependant variable in this equation?

Technology ueber alles

Don't you worry, KWD, I'm certain that very soon Monsanto will bioengineer veggies that can grow on asphalt.

Turn Cuba's tobacco fields and golf courses into growing food

Castro family (Fidel, Raul, etc) and their top communist cronies are incredibly rich, having profited handsomely off the backs of Cuban forced labour. They're also profiting off of growing cancer-causing tobacco!

Well, now they can pay something back by turning over the huge spread of Cuban tobacco plantations and golf courses into grow food!

Hey, Castro cronie Chavez is now railing against golf courses, so put the Varadero golf club caddies out into weeding the rutabaga fields:
http://www.varaderogolfclub.com/en/home.asp

Chavez holes out with his 'bourgeois golf' offensive:
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=7bdc8904-e07e-4dea-985b-cc9ddb7748a5

too late

ME2, they already exist, and it seems little can be done to stop their spread. In fact they’re even capable of driving. I see them all the time. They’re the new, non-genetically engineered variety of potato head one sees trying to multi-task while talkin’ or texting on their cell phone.

Anti-Cuban?

Sorry to disappoint, I'm not "anti-Cuban" or paranoid about "Communism" or whatever label is put on the autocratic, political system that Cuba has. I travel to Cuba on a regular basis, have for the past 12 years or so. I see what I see, I see without the benefit of government "hosts" or unsubstantiated propaganda.

where's the beets?

OK, so, where does this organic goodness go? I spent a month in Cuba a few years ago and food was scarce. There was one produce market to serve all of central Havana, and it consisted of two long tables of veggies and fruit. Other "markets", in smaller cities, were mostly empty--you might find a small pile of bananas on one table, and that's it. I wonder if the produce is going the same way as the beef--straight to the tourist resorts and not to the tables of ordinary Cubans.

A real urban/rural revolution needed...

“When times get tough, and food is scarce, and the government helps, city people will grow their own.”

Can anyone spot the dependant variable in this equation? Wrote KWD.

It's all about POWER, says I.

Good one, KWD. It's waiting for the goddamn sanctioning nod of The State, bourgeois or "communist", whatever ya want to call it, that is the main goddamn problem everywhere right now. Folks have got to stop being such good little kids, organize themselves, and take the power unto themselves. I don't care if you are talking here or in Cuba.

Organize, take the power, and do it.And again, I don't care if you are talking urban gardens or usurping the power of the ruling class and democratizing your work place. Organize, take the power, and do it.

Power rightly belongs to those with the courage to seize it, and make it their own. This has been demonstrated time and time again across history.

just wondering

"Power rightly belongs to those with the courage to seize it,"

Is this a quote from "Mein Kampf"?

Power to the People: 1776

Revolutions sometimes result in increased power to citizens. It happened in 1776 when British colonists rejected Royal rule over the 13 colonies, creating the USA. It happened again in 1789 in France, and it occurred in Mexico and other latin american countries. Unfortnately, the US has slowly morphed into a class system with little resemblance to the principles laid out by the framers of the US constitution. They would be APPALLED at what has occurred in the US (and Canada).

BC is no better. We are seeing a diminishment of our democratic institutions, which are being hijacked by the angry, intolerance of the Campbell regime. And speaking of "mein kampf", there are many similarities between the early 1930's Italy and Germany and the regimes of today. Increased authoritarianism, intolerance for other views, state eavesdropping, rising use of policing, contempt for the rule of law, corporate greed.

In the early 1930's, NO-ONE took Hitler seriously. He was considered a hysterical lunatic. But in several short years, he was in power and commenced one of the darkest times in western history, pulling together a coalition of militarism, corporate greed, nationalism and intolerance.

Could it happen here? That's a very troubling question. With continuing erosion of our democratic checks and balances, I fear for our future.

Cuba ...

Such an interesting place, but depressing. I was there at Christmas 2 years ago, for my 3rd trip, and vowed I would not go back. I was not in Havana, but out in the boonies. I never saw any evidence of people growing food for themselves, but I saw lots of beggars and hustlers. Very sad. I fear you can see what you want to see in Cuba.
What happened to the millions of Chinese bikes? They probably fell apart -- very badly made. I mainly saw people walking and hitching rides.

Mein Kampf and bs...

Actually, one of the times that lesson was taught to, at least the fearless (non-NDP) students of history, with the ears to hear and eyes to see, was the English Civil War of 1642-49. It was this revolution, of course, that gave rise to to the first successful merchant class revolution, which soon followed in France and elsewhere, that ushered in the period of capitalism, which we are yet living through. The bourgeois of that day, finally found the courage to seize power from the feudal aristocracy for themselves, under Cromwell, rising up and defeating then King Charles I. And this, in turn, established the supremacy of, what as well remains down into the present, their own class rule parliamentary system, which they continue to control and manipulate, as their version of what passes for "democracy" as well.

We could talk of many other such examples, of course, as well as Hitler's, but that should suffice to make the point. And it doesn't matter in the least who said it. The issue is, is the observation correct or incorrect. (Actually, I believe it was Lenin who made the observation. And regardless of what one thinks of him or Hitler, it is still true. And the modern capitalist ruling class knows it as well.)

It is only, in my view, the naive, and NDP style "social democrats", who really want to be seen as American style "Democrats" or usurp the place of Canada's "Liberals", to the point of changing their name to cash in on Obama, who think kissy-kissy, nicey-nice and waffle-waffle gets you real power. But then, they think as well, that it's all about winning this or that election within the controlled and manipulated "electoral system" of capitalism that is going to change the world.

Which is far from true, to anyone with half a mind. (Might as well place your erect phallus out an open window, and hump and bump with the world, for all the real satisfaction you'll get.)

But then, they are also subject to such shallow analysis, as to attempt to turn an observation, which may or may not be as well in Mein Kampf, into a cudgel with which to beat their opponents.

I give points for good and scoring repartee, even against me. You get nada, brother/sister.. only scorn.

In the fullness of time...

"Revolutions sometimes result in increased power to citizens."

Good piece, Jeffrey J, and valid points all.

Political and socio-economic revolutions that result in serious shifts of power, especially in favour of the underclass and working masses, are rare. And they only occur and are successful when the need is overwhelming, of but one prerequisite amongst a number.

And then, at that rare moment, you need a force(s) with the "courage" to see beyond the limitations of the present, and who are prepared to act against old presumptions and class power lineups, in an effort to move society into the realm of entirely new possibilities. So who really 100% knows how this period will be resolved. It may still be left for another generation not yet born. Who hump and bump knows?

I may be ahead of my time. :-) (In which case, I might also as well be behind.) Again, who knows for certain?

Only time knows... or will at least reveal the answer. And by then, we may all be in our graves... and irrelevant. :-( An exponentially increasing good chance I will be. :-)

meine what?

coyoteman, about Mein Kampf and bs.

so, in the end the results justify the means?

While I agree that a revolution is the only hope for a fast remedy. history has shown that revolutions often merely replaces one bad system with another!

The only real hope would be if the citizens of the world were to begin to use their brains, and fat hope that is.

Revolution or no solution...

Again, a shallow analysis, Alive... which presumes that revolution need be a violent thing, in the sense of armed conflict. It often has been and is, of course, because of status quo ruling class violence in defense of their privileged position. But it is not written in stone that it must be, with much depending on the power in numbers preparedness of the masses to act in concert and put an overwhelming presence on the streets (See the fall of the wall, the collapse of the USSR, and even Iran today.). On the other hand, it is a tendency towards timidity, on the part of such as many social democrats, that actually encourages ruling class intransigence and violence.

The ballot box in combination with demonstrations of people power on the streets is what can turn away violence, in the right, well prepared circumstance for radical social change. This latter being all that "social revolution" really is, with or without violence; a radical shift and rearrangement of power within society-, in the case of which I speak, away from the ruling "top" of society, towards and in favour of the working class "bottom".

On the other hand, "the people" have the right to defend themselves no less than the established order, when the latter bring violence and oppression down on them.

The fundamental problem with social democrats, of course, is their over reliance on "legalism" and the ruling class dominated "electoral system", in isolation... hoping to sneak into power and be allowed, by the ruling class, to rule. Which they never are, so they keep compromising themselves into the oblivion of bland. (Such that they can, without apparent contradiction, make as seamlessly good an ambassador to Washington as a Neocon, to be the mouthpiece representative for a Conservative government.)

As for folks using their brains, the same needs to be said of some others no less, who presume to "know", and are in on "the game".

If history demonstrates nothing else in the arena of social change, it demonstrates that "the masses" can come together in the "right" circumstances to do truly great things, that despite your negativity, do move the conditions of peoples lives forward.

"The only real hope would be if the citizens of the world were to begin to use their brains, and fat hope that is." writes Alive.

Which reveals the profound negativity and contempt for "people" at the heart of the social democratic philosophy. Which renders their solutions to be no solution in the cause of transforming society, in the final analysis.

Peak oil

This is the most positive spin on peak oil I've heard, spoken like a true idealist.

My question to author: what happens when the full force of peak oil hits the largest, most oil-addicted consumer nation in the world (USA). You think community garden plots and backyard fruit trees are gonna save the day?

I believe peak oil to be the pregnant elephant in the room, one we are horribly unaware of and unprepared for. We still think that putting a wind turbine on the top of Grouse Mountain and switching to a hybrid SUV (and growing our own arugula in the yard) will somehow stave off this inevitability. It might help ease the certain pain to come, but I am less optimistic than you and the neighbourhood Che brigades in Cuba.

The gathering storm...

"It might help ease the certain pain to come, but I am less optimistic than you and the neighbourhood Che brigades in Cuba."

Fundamentally, I actually agree with you.It is going to get ugly in all likelihood, especially when it hits home to the major industrial powers. (The observation has already been made above by someone, that even Cuba brings in large volumes of oil from Venezuela, for example. So it hasn't really hit them yet either, like it is going to everyone and everywhere.)

It is going to get increasingly complex, fraught with danger and violence, by the major industrial and imperial powers. And restive populations within increasingly failing capitalism is going to more and more be the order of the day.

I'm not sure that it is a time that can be avoided, but if it is to be at least mitigated against, and viable alternatives struck, people have to begin to organize goddamn soon, and force through the changes in society that will be needed, over the objections and feet dragging of the status quo order of privilege and power that is capitalism. That, or we are certainly in for a dog eat dog time.

There is going to be a culling, no doubt, of ideas and people. It has already begun in many parts of the world, particularly Africa. And you know that the ruling class will be working mightily to ensure that it is we, the lower orders, who will be the culled, on the day that everything is in chaos and up for grabs.

The process has already begun, even within the so-called "advanced" capitalist societies, with the growing theft of social resources and economic "share" from the working and underclass. It is the already wealthy and their corporations who are already getting the major share of social welfare assistance, while the lower classes are being increasingly thrown to the wolves, within already failing capitalism. And the curve is about to get steeper, as the "recovery" that is coming just around the next corner turns out to be another illusion as well..

negative may be correct

coyoteman:
I did not know that I speak on behalf of the social democratic philosophy.
My observations are strictly my own, thank you!

Yes, there have been "solidarity" efforts here and abroad, and violence can be avoided.
That does not validate the idea that might is right.

If you think it is negative to state that people do not use their brains, then perhaps you work for the entertainment industry? they seem to think that any trash is fit for human consumption.
Obviously a positive attitude in your opinion.

Naiveté and Reality...

I have concluded with my brain, which is at least as good as yours, that, at least, some capacity for might is right. At least it works. We have the entire history of humankind and the historical examples of its ruling classes, who still use "might" on a daily basis, as a demonstration of the fact.

Naiveté can be dressed up to sound "nicey-nice", but it will never replace a healthy dose of "reality" in effective analysis and the cause of progressive social change.

Cuban Urban Farms

Does anyone remember those first, innovative, totally radical, delightful garden plots beside the freeway...introduced by the B.C. NDP for the kind benefit to any citizens who wanted to grow their own food? It was after their first heroic win in the 70's. ( that was even before the appearance of the Green Party)!

Canada v Cuba

In fact, Canada's econological 'footprint' (7.6 hectares per person) is about 5 times that of each Cuban citizen's .

In fact, a report released by Global Footprint Network and WWF Canada reveals that while Canada is endowed with abundant natural resources, it also has the 4th highest Ecological Footprint per person of all nations. If everyone consumed like Canadians we would need 4.3 Earths to support us.

What the world needs now is more 'Cubas' and fewer Canada's...

Cuba's 'footprint' is just a little over 1.5 hectares per person.

Misleading stats

Gwest, have you ever considered that Canada's footprint is larger because Canadians are engaged in higher value added activities, live a higher standard of living and are generally more productive than Cubans? If all you do is take your simple measurement without considering other important factors, you end up with simplistic and very misleading conclusions.

Do a logic test? Have you ever been to Cuba and witnessed the poverty? Or the pollution generated by their aged cars? Cuba is not capable of inventing and supporting the Blackberry- it simply doesn't have Canada's intellectual capital. Really, what kind of life do you want for Canadians- it looks like a vision where we have cheap medical care at any cost. And the cost of Cuba's collectivism is oppression, no freedom of speech and a much lower standard of living than Canada. No, our system is far from perfect, but it's better than Cuba's decrepit dictatorship. Sure, most Canadians want to help the poor, but they don't want to become poor in doing so.

Oh, just wait, I can understand why so many of you Cuba commune lovers are surfacing. It's the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Now I understand.

It is not a simple measurememt

Understanding and learning aren't easy - that's why we have the kind of problems we do today.

The simple fact of the matter is that:
If everyone consumed like Canadians we would need 4.3 Earths to support us.

If there are people out there who see themselves to be nominally intelligent and well-informed who can't see that IS A PROBLEM then we are truly doomed.

There are other measures

For example the UN human development index.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/

And, for someone who digs down a little deeper into the statistics they’ll find that in many areas Cuba is at or very near the top of the UN's rankings.

Not in per capita income of course but, given the impact of each Cuban on the environment - compared with that of each Canadian - it's not difficult to ascertain why the world would be much better off with more Cubas and no Canada at all.

Furthermore, given the fact that Cuba has made the gains for its people despite blockade, tariff barriers, undeclared war and irrational hate for 50 years – the Cuban revolution took place in 1959 – I think its story is pretty interesting….and everyone I know and respect agrees with my personal conclusions. A lot more interesting than the stories of a few aging baby boomers who danced in the mud in upstate New York four decades ago….

Unexplained Consumption Stats, the System and the future...

"If everyone consumed like Canadians we would need 4.3 Earths to support us." wrote GWest.

Not that I agree that every Canadian consumes like this. Just like there is a gross imbalance in economic share within a capitalist economy, there is similarly a gross imbalance in consumption across the classes and their various strata, from ruling to ruled (working) as well. And I don't give a rat's ass about what incentives to rule the ruling class and its CEO flunkies think they need.

The fact remains apparent even within this raw, unqualified stat that GWest gives us here, the never ending growth in cheap labour, production, consumption and profits dynamic that works within capitalism, runs counter to the needs and finite capacity of the planet to supply. (Which explains also the aggressive, war drive instinct so manifest in the system as well, as part of the leading capitalist powers' theft of resources instincts as well, apparent in so many parts of the world... War Without End.)

The time of capitalism's useful contribution to the development needs of the human society, of which the economy is the underpinning part, has passed and become harmful to Mother Earth, as well as the peace and good order of society. It is time to set in motion a new human social order dynamic, more restrained and deliberate, and less dependant upon and committed to the principles of insatiable greed and waste that characterize the present order.

New Order

So eloquent, Coyoteman, but you're dreaming if you think you can legislate away greed and waste. Or that a political party can deliver us from our seven deadly sins. Why, I remember the NDP had a leader named Glenn Clark who was the epitome of union greed and waste. Look, greed, ambition and lust exist in all men and women. The problem with your dream is how does it work in practice? Who will staff the 'Committee against greed and waste'?

As for intellectual capital

Cubans are better educated than Canadians, their health care is better and I daresay they don't have the problems of over-consumption and obesity Canadians do.

As for value-added...don't think so, we've sold off, closed down and hog-tied our productive capacity...at the moment we're a source of raw logs; a place to buy dirty oil; cheap coal; and ... oh yeah, electronic games.

Good luck eating your X-Box.

Some value added!

Greed as encouraged by classism...

First, Bobby, in my day to day working class life, I don't encounter the "greed, ambition and lust" that you say exists within ALL men and women, certainly not at the level you describe. Which is not to say that it doesn't exist, because I'm sure it does. But it's obviously at a much lower level than exists where you are coming from. (And I actually agree that unions, to a degree have bought into the ideology of capitalism, and become, somewhat like the ruling class, each preoccupied with securing their own interests. And this with only passing lip service, or formal regard for the "unorganized", especially those who, in small economic units, have proven difficult to organize within modern capitalist society.)

Marx once said that the ruling ideas of any age, of which behaviours are an extension, are those of the ruling class. And the working class no less has tended, especially during "prosperity times", to fall under the spell of ruling class ideology and mores. The reason being that it is especially in good times, that ruling class ideologies and behaviours seem to work and be what should be mimiced. Greed, like more socially laudable behaviours, is contagious.

That said, because the history of class societies, from the time of slavery, and their gross inequalities of riches between the classes, has been so long, we really can't be sure 100% how people will behave in a more egalitarian social arrangement. Though examining the social behaviours of the really early tribal societies and their greater tendency to egalitarianism within at least their own tribal groups, may give us some clue. (Likewise, consider some modern communal societies such as the Amish and Hutterites, all extremely successful as well.)

Though what we do know for sure is, that the ruling class rich and their greed instincts have always been a problem. Likewise their corruption and tendency to drive societies in the direction of exonomic collapse and war, in search of riches and control over other groups resources.

They will just have to be forced to behave and share, or be crushed, frankly. The Soviets, in their early days, like China, shot those engaged in corruption and theft of the public interest. We will at least have to imprison, and attempt to re-educate them, I suspect... until like errant children, they learn to share, not be bullies. They will simply have to be taught or forced to engage in more socially constructive behaviours, within a new more socially and economically equal arrangement, in which the working masses and other intellectual and community strata have the controlling power over the economy and political institutions. It must be to them that they will have to suck up.

And therein is the key to at least "managing" greed and overweening ambition: equality and democracy.