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Caribbean-Latin America
Cooking with Fidel
2005-05-29
Hat tip to Orrin Judd.
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Faced with crippling power outages and a grumbling public, Cuba's President Fidel Castro has made an urgent televised appeal for energy thrift, even demonstrating the relative merits of Chinese-made pressure cookers. "Exceptional measures are being taken" to cope with the crisis, Castro, 78, said in an hours-long appearance on state television late Thursday, as the crunch has begun to yield more blackouts, and longer ones, as Cuba heads into the hottest summer months.
"What kind of measures, El Jefe?"
"Exceptional measures, you idiot!"
As if to underscore that he, too, feels the heat, Castro read aloud "opinions" collected from the public, replete with harsh criticism for the blackouts. As local jokes have it, they are more reliable than the power supply.

If other countries have reality television shows, this was the Cuban version of accountability TV. Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia had a somewhat discouraging bottom line: Cuba's power plants are obsolescent and require complex maintenance, which adds to the number of blackouts. She said there are no spare parts readily available for the mostly vintage 1960s and 1970s Soviet- and Czech-technology plants. "You have to special-order them," which also contributes to blackout woes, she said.
And the guys in brown don't deliver.
Yet "May and June are very difficult months, with a lot of tensions," she said, and power simply will not be able to be kept flowing at all times. She said blackouts would continue for now, but did not give a date as to when they might stop.
I'll just bet she didn't.
Castro grilled state power company officials on the program, and they revealed that they need to replace 17,000 kilometers (10,563 miles) of power lines and 44,000 power line poles to modernize the country's distribution system.

It was the 29th extensive address by Castro since he began dramatically stepping up his public speaking appearances in March on problems plaguing the only one-party communist country in the Americas.
Ya know Fidel, you might save some power if you just shut up ...
Last year, a breakdown at the country's biggest power plant that dragged on for months cost Cuba more than 200 million dollars, according to government figures, not to mention regular blackouts. At the time, Castro acknowledged that Cuba has "a weak national electrical system" and launched an energy-saving program.

In April, Castro said normal lightbulbs would be phased out and replaced by fluorescent lighting.
We did that in our household. Four years ago.
He said new energy-saving rice cookers and refrigerators would begin to be distributed, and many Cubans complain that they have not received the more efficient appliances, according to "opinions" Castro read that were gathered by party officials.

In his television appearance, Castro sized up pots and pans, hot plates and fans. "This is the glorious little socialist (pressure) cooker," Castro said, eyeing a locally made model which he said was not up to snuff for energy savings. He gave a middling rating to a Colombian-made cooker and raved about the purported electrical efficiency of a Chinese model: "This is the Olympic champion of pressure cookers," he said, adding that Cuba had acquired two million of the Chinese-made cookers to distribute across Cuba at a heavily subsidized price.

The gravity of the 2004 crisis also led to the firing of then-Basic Industry chief, Marcos Portal -- who is married to Castro's niece and is a member of the Communist Party's politburo -- and his replacement by Garcia.
Soon to be replaced herself. Why, there's only one man who's indispensible ...
Nine eight seven six oil- or gas-fired power plants produce more than 90 percent of the electricity used by Cuba's 11 million people.
Posted by:Steve White

#7  just wondering, but uh, are those tourist resort areas affected by the power outages? No? I thought not.
Posted by: Rafael   2005-05-29 23:47  

#6  "He said new energy-saving rice cookers and refrigerators would begin to be distributed"

"This is the glorious little socialist (pressure) cooker"

So is it a rice cooker, or a pressure cooker? They're two totally different things. Who cooks rice in a pressure cooker? Is that a Cuban thing?
Posted by: gromky   2005-05-29 14:19  

#5  It's energy saving Cuban style.
People cook with kerosine (supplied at a subsidised price by the state).
State finds out this is too expensive.
State gives them new energy saving cookers powerd by electricity.
No more subsidized kerosine.
SAVE
But wait...
Electricity doesn't work, new rice cookers won't work.
SAVE MORE!!!

(OK, no boiled rice for people but you can't really please everybody)
Posted by: True German Ally   2005-05-29 13:39  

#4  Fidel sounds like the Envirodweeebs in this country advocating energy conservation instead of just fixing the power grid. As has been stated numerous times on this site, socialist just don't get the 'cause/effect' concept.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2005-05-29 08:40  

#3  "It was the 29th extensive address by Castro ..."

Extensive? I think mind-numbingly interminable might be more accurate.
Posted by: xbalanke   2005-05-29 08:12  

#2  did I say Autopia? I meant Utopia?

Not enough fuel for it to be autopia.
Posted by: 2b   2005-05-29 07:32  

#1  welcome to the liberal paradise. What better place for Autopia than a tropical island? It's such a lovely place.
Posted by: 2b   2005-05-29 07:31  

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