sle of Pines

WILLIAM DEVINE
HAVANA

tip-toed through the terenjas
on Cuba’s Isle of Pines we
rt that they're alive and doing
d there are—or soon will be
ess scads of them.

nja” is Spanish for gfape-fruit.
he Isle of Pines, just off the
wn coast of Havana province, is
lan’s language for one of the
Hiest and most ambitious agri-
| development projects in Cuba
aps anywhere.
“agriculture is the big word in
onomic advance of this small
uare kilometres), formerly
populated, but fertile and
Il tropic isle (said to be the
Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Island”’).
e's also a key word about the
ut with proper suspense, we'll
o that later. First, take agricul-
the biggest thing about the
agriculture is cultivation of
fruits—those grape-fruits first,
by lemons and oranges.
of, the following: plans call
nting of some 100,000 acres
fruits by 1970. This will mean
will be as many fruit trees
in the Isle of Pines as there
in the whole of Israel, one of
d’s largest citrus fruits pro-

en all the citrus trees are pro-

g, anywhere up to 1975, annual
will be 490,000 tons of

| fruits. And citrus fruits will be

f Cuba's major exports.

uch has been done already. This

‘abundantly clear as our bus criss-
the isle, For vast stretches,

there were freshly-planted citrus trees,
running off to the horizon for as far
as the eye could see.

This year alone, by last August,
4,000 acres had been planted to Citrus.
But the pace is increasingly cumul-
ative. Because another 33,000 acres
had already been cleared and prepared
for planting. :

Mind, citrus is not the only crop
that is growing in the isle. There
are also gandul beans aplenty for
cattle feed. Eighteen thousand acres of
this crop were planted in the first
eight months of this year, plus a si-
milar amount to pasture, and the re-
sulting harvest was double last year’s.

And coffee. As in every other part
of Cuba, coffee is being sown, inter-
planted between the gandul bushes and
citrus trees. And work is underway
for a giant nursery for no less than 30
million coffee seedlings. (In addition to
domestic consumption, coffee will also
be a big export item.)

But now back to the gandul bean
bushes for cattle feed. The big effort
here is because cattle-raising is the
other big aspect of the Isle of Pines’
agricultural development.

And again, as in other parts of Cuba,
artificial insemination is playing a key
role. Now, in the Isle of Pines alone,
there are 30,000 cows in the artificial
insemination plan.

Cross-bred are Cuba’s cebu cattle—
a hardy but low milk-producing breed
—with Brown Swiss and Helsteins. By
late August this year, there were al-
ready 6,200 offspring from the first-
stage breeding and even 40 from a
second-stage breeding.

The new breeds give much more
milk—an average of 11 litres a day
compared to the cebu’s two litres. And
as the breeding progresses, so will the

milk yields. By 1970, the Isle of Pines
is scheduled to be producing more
than a million litres of milk a day.

Furthering this agricultural develop-
ment is an extensive dam-building
program for irrigation. Nine large
dams are planned, of which six are
already completed or nearly so. And
some 50 smaller dams are also in the
works, Altogether, it’s estimated that
the dams will store, between river and
underground streams, more than 250
million cubic metres of water.

Thus, agriculture, as we've said, is
the big word. But now here's that key
word we promised. It’s simply,
“youth.” Here’s how:

The post-Revolution development of
the Isle of Pines seriously got under-
way in 1964. And it was proceeding
apace when Hurricane Alma struck in
June, 1966, causing great destruction.
To make up the losses, a call went out
to Cuba’s youth, through the Union of
Young Communists, for young volun-
teers, male and female, to get to the
isle.

Volunteer and go they did. To such
an extent that the isle’s population
now numbers 40,000—up from a pre-
Revolution 8,000, although 15,000 of
the new total is a “floating” popula-
tion. Not (yet, anyway) permanent
residents, these are persons who have
volunteered to work on the isle for
anywhere up to two years.

Today, the young people on the Isle
of Pines have gone far beyond recoup-
ing the damage caused by Hurricane
Alma. And, with the prospects already
cited, they've set a goal of truly gig-
antic preparations.

Their work to date, and their deter-
mined pledge for the future, has al-
ready brought their first tribute: the
Isle of Pines is now more commonly
known throughout Cuba as the Isle of
Youth.

The young people are busily con-
firming how apt that name is. We had
a chance to meet some of the youth-
ful enthusiasts, and from those meet-
ings, we can also confirm that the
isle’s new name has been well chosen.

Not only are the young people
working hard; they also spend evening

and off-hours studying to improve
their general knowledge and specific
skills.

And our main impression was that
the young people on the blossoming
isle know well that they’re there for,
with each fully understanding his
particular role. That role, collectively
and individually, is to help push
forward the country’s economy. And
that’s what the young people are do-
ing.

Yet there’s another reason why
they're applying themselves so dilig-
ently. This is a goal—and challenge—
set before them by Fidel Castro in
August of last year when he inaugur-
ated the isle’s Heroic Vietnam Dam.

Why not, Fidel asked, really earn
the name “Isle of Youth” definitively,
by making the isle the first communist
region in Cuba.

And that again is what the young
people, as they told us, have under-
taken to do, But not only with their
work, which incidentally is set at
eight hours a day, but which, as we
heard everywhere we went, is “what-
ever time is necessary.” They've also
set their eyes on other goals.

One of these relates to wages and
money, Generally wages range from
65 to 80 pesos a month, below what
many earned in the mainland cities.
But all food, work clothing and shelter
is provided free. And the aim of the
monthly wage is simply to cover ex-
tras and outings.

But all seemed in accord with Fidel
who has stated that overcoming the
“mystique” of money is a main task
in building the new communist man
and woman. And apart from its use for
extras and outings, the young people
told us that money isn’t the important
thing, and certainly not their reason
for being on the Isle of Youth.

What they’re on the isle for, our
young hosts stressed every time the
occasion arose, is to make Fidel’s
words a reality—to transform the isle,
already advanced to the Isle of Youth,
into Cuba's first communist region.

If spirit, enthusiasm and dedication
can do the job, these elements certain-
ly exist in full measure.

Where women are equal

plied Arts in Berlin. She is
atic balance. All individuals i
education, regardless of sex.

By ILSE KAMMERER
igners visiting the Ger-
Democratic Republic
ntly make a_ surprising
ry during their cross-
y travels. The taxi cab
gage may have a woman
driver, the manager of
tel, the policewoman at
cross-road, a crane driv-
h up on a newly arising
— may be women.
nce?

fourth year industrial design

ate ie

student at the College for Fine
designing a model of a special
n the G.D.R. are guaranteed an

The G.D.R. is among the
countries with the largest per-
centage of working women. Cur-
rently 76 percent of all women
of working age are employed.
This means, that one out of two
employed in the national econ-
omy is a woman. Approximately
27 percent of those have a com-
plete university, higher or tech-
nical education. Approximately
9 percent of them hold leading
economic positions at manager-

ial level. Their pay is equal to
that of men, without exception.
It is not surprising, therefore,
that women should also take to
occupations formerly the exclu-
sive domain of the so-called
stronger sex.

The large proportion of wo-
men in professional life is in-
creasingly reflected in their
political activity, too. Roughly
30 percent of all members of the
five political parties are women.
One deputy out of four to the
elected representative bodies -is
a woman. The proportion of wo-
men deputies to the People’s
Chamber, the supreme _ repre-
sentative body of the G.D.R. is
26.4 percent, and in the local
councils it is even as high as
31.3 percent. The Democratic
Women’s League, the G.D.R.
women’s organization, is repre-
sented on all representative
bodies by its own faction. No
discussion on the major events
in home and foreign policy
takes place without their repre-
sentatives.

Women are also working at
top government level. Five are
members of the State Council,
one is Deputy Prime Minister,
another is Minister of Public
Education.

Numerous laws, decisions and
regulations helped women to ad-
vance to those prominent posi-
tion in social life. The first Con-
stitution of 1949 already laid
down as law the principle of the
full equality of men and women,
abolishing all contrary provi-
sions. In the new 1968 Constitu-
tion this principle was further
defined. Thus article 19 pro-

vides, that:

“Men and women are equals
and enjoy an equal status in all
spheres of social, political and
personal life. The advancement
of women, in particular in their
occupational qualifications, is the
task of society and the sate.”

It should not be overlooked,
of course, that the cooperation
of women, the precondition of
their effective equality, is an
economic necessity and makes
an essential contribution to the
country’s continuous growth.
Party and Government there-
fore are making every endea-
vor to give women all conceiv-
able assistance in their advance-
ment at work, in their further
qualification for~ leading func-
tions and in reducing and alle-
viating the burdens imposed on
them by housework and child-
ren.

Two years ago the Council of
Ministers issued a regulation on
the training and further qualifi-
cation of women for technical
occupations and their employ-
ment in leading positions. In
special women’s classes women
with children, in particular,
were given opportunities for
training as engineers or econo-
mists in industry and agricul-
ture during working hours. In
recent years, the number of wo-
men students at universities and
technical colleges has constant-
ly increased. In 1967 there were
31,000 women students enrolled
at institutes of higher educa-
tion; this means one student out
of three was a woman. .

In many towns of the G.D.R.
—in Jena, Dresden, Rostock and

Cottbus among others—institu-
tions known as Women’s Aca-
demies were set ap for all
non-employed women, where
lectures are given on cybernet-
ics, data processing, politics,
psychology, educational science,
art and culture.

The full equality of women,
also within the family, is laid
down within the Family Code,
which came into force in April
1966. There the family in the
socialist state is described as a
community of equal partners,
and the equality of women was
further developed in the sense
of an equality of men and wo-
men. Thus both partners in mar-
riage are equally responsible for
the education of the children.

The state has from the very
outset devoted particular care
to the flourishing development
of mother and child. As early as
in 1950, a year after the foun-
dation of the German Democra-
tic Republic, a law on the pro-
tection of mother and child was
passed, envisaging special care
for the health of pregnant wo-
men, mothers and children, the
provision of nurseries and
creches and the abolition of all
discrimination against unmar-
ried mothers and their children.
No mother in the G.D.R. needs
to brace herself for the expect-
ed birth of a child. Every woman
is entitled to a paid pregnancy
and maternity leave of 14 weeks
altogether. The state pays gen-
erous birth grants, ranging from
500 marks for the first to 1,000
marks for the fifth and every
further child.

Panorama G.D.R.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 7, 1969—Page 9