Same old band with a younger guy on lead vocals
Well, reform is coming to Cuba, or something like that, we hear from the Obama opening apologists. However, read the new rules, and then it's a little different.
In other words, the new man is just like the old man, as we see in this report:
Cuba is set to adopt constitutional reforms that will recognize private property and the market economy, to update its legal system.
Yet it does not want to abandon socialism, which in Cuban terms values health care and education but also frowns upon differences in personal wealth.
So what's new? The answer is nothing.
Down in Cuba, communism will prevail, and those connected to Castro Inc. will continue to get wealthy making money with all of those foreign investors the regime wants to attract.
Eventually, these reforms will have to be reformed, perhaps when the younger brother joins the older sibling at the cemetery.
In the meantime, the island's economy will continue stuck in the communist quicksand.
Cuba cannot create jobs by simply doing joint ventures with European or Mexican hotel companies. It needs to attract the kind of investment that hires accountants, salespeople, distribution specialists, and so on.
Unfortunately for the communists, no one in his right mind is going to invest in an island where you have no say in the fate of your enterprises.
So Cuba is still Cuba, no matter how much the little brother wants to persuade the foreign media that things are different.
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