Cuba's Entrepreneurs Come Creeping Back By David E. Gumpert
Jan. 26, 2004
... I learned about Cuba's unusual approach to entrepreneurship during a recent five-day tour of Havana and environs. I was there as the closest thing to a tourist American law will allow -- I went with a group from my synagogue under a special "license" issued by the Treasury Dept., to visit and support Cuba's Jewish community. But, of course, I played tourist as well, and could only marvel at the revised economic order Fidel Castro has created.
... Today, tourism accounts for about 60% of the country's "exports." In the process, though, Cuba's supposedly classless society now consists of two classes: the destitute class, including many professionals, who rely on Cuba's nearly worthless pesos, and the entrepreneurial class, which works in Cuba's tourist industry, earning the dollars that make the wheels go round. The most enterprising Cubans find a way to work with tourists, and acquire dollars via tips. Bellhops, waiters, hotel maids, tourist guides, and street musicians earn anywhere from $150 to $1,500 a month from tourists, astronomical sums in a country where the typical salary is $20.
The maids in our hotel scrawled daily notes, in English, wishing us a nice day, and arranged towels into heart shapes on our bed. Professional tango dancers performed extemporaneously at a restaurant during lunch, then passed the hat. A parade of clowns on stilts, complete with trombone players, ambled down a side street during the same lunch, with the last clown holding a pail that quickly filled with dollars. A teenage boy with some artistic talent appeared out of nowhere as my group was taking a walking tour of Old Havana and sketched impressive caricatures of us at $1 apiece.
... Now Cuban parents must deal with children who no longer aspire to become teachers or dentists, and instead covet bellhop jobs. Even the people running the tourist industry seem to be former professionals in other fields. Tony Diaz, vice-director of Havanatur, a $150 million government enterprise, is a trained economist who spent 20 years as a diplomat before taking over at what is now one of Cuba's largest companies. "I consider myself an entrepreneur," he told me at his spacious Havana office, hooked up to the Internet and with CNN playing in the background. He isn't exposed to tourist tips, and he says his salary is only "a little more" than the $20 average, which limits his upside.
So what is his incentive? "My rent is 65 cents. The education of my three daughters is free. Medical care is free." So his incentive, he says, "is Cuba -- making more money for my country. I know the money will be used socially." Unlike the rest of Central and South America, bribery is unheard of, and no one gets fancy cars or houses, as in capitalist countries, he points out.
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