Posted : Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:14:08 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : World
Havana - A lot of looking, a great urge to buy and little money to do so
- such is the cocktail of sensations that Cubans experienced Tuesday, on
the first day of the liberalized retail sale of computers, DVD players
and other electronic home appliances. Many products had not yet reached
the shelves.
"We are getting started today. What we do not have is the products,"
said an employee of the popular shopping centre Carlos III, in central
Havana.
Another of the authorized shops, at the mall La Puntilla, could not
offer the promised computers - which were not to be found anywhere in
Havana - or the microwaves and DVDs either.
"The equipment has not yet arrived, it is currently being boarded for
transport," said shop manager Carlos Grass. "But once the products are
here, we are in a position to sell them in the most calm, most normal
way, to launch the commercialization process."
The Paseo shopping centre on the Malecon, in Havana, did boast on
Tuesday some of the products that Cubans previously had no access to:
rice cookers - very relevant in a country where rice is a staple - DVDs
and electronic bicycles.
However, prices kept many back.
"Everything is really expensive, even more so taking into account what
people earn here," a young man complained.
With great curiosity, he was looking at an electronic bicycle with the
sign "New Goods," and with the price written on a much smaller tag: 794
convertible pesos, or some 850 US dollars.
Beside him, a woman was staring, as if in a daze, at one of the large TV
sets on offer.
"How could I possibly not want to buy it? Do you know how much I like
that flat TV? That would be my life, you can imagine, but ...," she noted.
The "but," of course, referred to the price, some 2,000 dollars.
"Some people can pay that. Those who have relatives abroad and get
remittances can, but people who work here cannot," she said.
The average monthly salary in Cuba is 17 to 20 dollars.
Ernesto was one of the frustrated buyers. The decoration expert, 45,
went with his wife Tuesday to see whether with his salary, around 12
dollars, he could afford anything they could use for the house.
In the end, the only thing he did was to "look," he admitted.
"The truth is, our wages are not enough to buy," he said.
"I don't have a computer, I don't have a cellphone ... I cannot buy, my
salary won't let me. I have to sell my car or the house to buy the
computer," he complained further.
From mid-April, Cubans will be able to purchase a cellphone freely, as
new President Raul Castro continues to lift what he has termed excessive
prohibitions.
However, as is the case in the new access to luxury hotels or rental
cars that were so far just for tourists, prices will be in convertible
pesos and at the rates applicable to foreigners.
Cuba uses a double currency system, with the convertible pesos worth 24
times the ordinary peso most Cubans are paid in.
For many Cubans like Ernesto, then, the new options will remain a dream
at least for now.
"For the average person, there is not enough. They have to raise
salaries or bring down prices," Ernesto said.
Still, most Cubans are happy about the liberalization of the sale of
these products, even if they do not yet have the money to enjoy them.
Carlos, a young man who described himself as a singer, was inquiring
about DVD players. They cost 120 to 160 dollars, he was told.
"Is that expensive? You can imagine! But on the street they used to cost
250 (dollars)," he explained, with reference to black market prices.
"Here there is a good price. We do not really have the money, but we
might put it together," he added.
Maria, a 30-year-old woman, went to the shops Tuesday to "see what they
put out."
She admitted that the rice cookers - one of the star products on
Tuesday, with prices of 37 to 65 dollars - had caught her eye, although
she said she did not yet have the money to buy one.
Still, she was not giving up hope.
"We will be able to buy some things now that we could not buy before.
That is pretty good," she said.
"At least now we can have the chance to buy," Carlos agreed.
The United States dismissed the changes as "minimal" and said the
relaxation of restrictions on luxury goods fell well short of allowing
Cubans to freely express political views.
"I'm sure that for those few Cubans who can afford to go to luxury
hotels, this will be a nice thing," US State Department deputy spokesman
Tom Casey said.
"The civil liberty changes that we are looking for is the ability of the
Cuban people to freely express themselves ... without fear of being
thrown in jail," Casey said.
The United States has refused to hold dialogue with Castro and has vowed
to keep sanctions enacted in the 1960s in place until the island
undergoes democratic reforms and holds free elections.
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