o'commissar - The Cuban Model, Not Working So Much

Jeffrey Goldberg - Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. Author of the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, he has reported from the Middle East and Africa. He also writes the magazine's advice column.

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Posted on "The Atlantic", Sep 14 2010

      Last week, there was a bit of a kerfuffle on the international Interwebs about Fidel Castro's statement to me that the "Cuban model" doesn't even work for Cuba anymore.  Fidel himself said, in speech last Friday, that I had misinterpreted his statement, that it was American-style capitalism, and not Cuban-style socialism, that was failing.  This week, the Cuban government announced that it would be laying off half--a-million public sector workers:

      The mass layoffs will take place between now and the end of March, according to a statement issued Monday by the Cuban Workers Federation, the island nation's only official labor union. Workers will be encouraged to find jobs in Cuba's tiny private sector instead.
      "Our state can't keep maintaining ... bloated payrolls," the union's statement said. More than 85% of Cuba's 5.5 million workers are employed by the state.

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"I'm Pretty Sure I Didn't Say This", Sep 13 2010

When translation programs go awry:

"Not alone has he said things like this before, but the on-the-ground absoluteness is that it is a adage that the Cuban archetypal is not working, and that is why they are starting this all-embracing agreement with privatization," Goldberg told reporters.

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