A Glimpse of Cuba: March, 2004

After the 1989 collapse of Cuba’s principle trading partners in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Cuba expanded to a two-currency economy that caused the flight of educated professionals to sectors where they can earn the dollars needed to access the dollar economy such as tourism or foreign investment.  Centralized economic control results in little incentive for students to enter professional fields and many youth have left to seek better economic opportunity. Even though the Cuban economy has diversified in the last decade, it is hobbled by a US embargo that appears to injure citizens far more than the Cuban government. The 40-year-old embargo, which Cubans describe as an unjust blockade, is imposed unilaterally by the US without the recognition of any other nation.