pe ings who collected rent the oe but the workers had only ae employment, at the sugar mica Oday, much of the housing, % arly in rural areas is provided N oY all Cuban houses have tile 3 Bey washed out as there are PS and no basements. “Win- dows” ete mostly shutters, that is, i. Slats, in the manner of vene- i ass and can be opened or 4 : lever. This is probably be- hough Iving in a hurricane zone _ atge hotels mostly were thutters. wir big buildings have glass lsed to, pout windows as we are “dling ‘ e houses have a sort of a a On city streets there are ove 8S Over the shutters. As we hrough treet gh many very narrow te the skill of our drivers os lating corners was amazing!) € able to look through open Otway itterion and see clean and cheerful Cuba’ teed Most difficult problem is in- eang ‘said To build a modern Cuba Mation ype ractically rehouse the entire Ble stil] 4 the countryside many peo- With ro ash in the old huts of mud having % thatched with palm leaves, Nd no nly one or two small rooms 100 gque conveniences.” About every Castle pure kilometers one sees a OWneq r large mansion, formerly OWne ‘ the sugar king who also Plots of a peasant huts and_ little Of three and. They are the inheritance lalist ae cries of feudal and capi- Bnew ho, To provide everyone with Pecially Ouse will take a long time, es- Woulg n” the blockade conditions. It What unreasonable to expect that etican’ ,SPanish colonjalists and 2d unim Capitalists left unchanged ; oe for 3-4 centuries can tn just ii and all the people rehoused 8 hundr years. Nevertheless, we did Sett]e iad of fine new apartment 80 de S around Havana, in Santi- 1 the me and other places, thanks the Soviet of the socialist countries, Rave cy Union particularly, which Making : an entire factory for the Stabling th prefabricated apartments, Aeientiy €m to build quickly and ef- | The ta SOCIALIST AID Kilometer ond of Cuba is over 1,000 Noun = long. The height of the three Foygh ¢, anges is nowhere great Moisture. gather snow and provide Teh of’ Creeks and rivers are dry ct ne time, the rainy season is Using Bore: Therefore new modern Fnds 9 elites the drilling of thou- na ins ells, the laying of great wa- ‘ns, 9 and elaborate sewage SyS- Will tast viously this is a project that The Several decades. *ecived ne and material assistance , easurable the socialist countries is 1° acknowy] € and Cubans are the first teal men edge it; they appreciate the ry. Ning of international solidar- ho n, : i € instance an entire hospital has been donated, the Lenin Hospital in Oriente Province; all the prefabri- cated sections of the building, and all the furnishings and equipment re- quired as well. Other socialist coun- tries, China, Poland, Czechoslovakia and others have made great contribu- tions of textiles, machinery, china and cutlery, to name a few. Skilled in- structors have ‘been provided, but the * number of these grows less as more and more Cuban workers and_ techni- cians become proficient, resulting from the new free educational policy. Eleven- year-olds in ’59 are now 22-year-old educated young married women. There is some trade with capitalist countries. Britain has sold many buses to Cuba. We saw Canadian flour in a bakery; shipments of livestock and poultry have been on a big scale. Can- adian trade with Cuba could be much larger» were it not for restrictions placed on our country by the United States. CANADIAN SOLIDARITY We visited several schools; they are good buildings, well organized with good equipment and bright, dedicated young teachers everywhere. We were proud to present to a school for the blind three Braille typewriters, pur- chased through collections and dona- tions by the Vancouver Canadian-Cuba Friendship Committee. This Commit- tee has made many donations previous- ly of various kinds; medical and surgi- cal equipment, school supplies, sub- scriptions to medical journals. They are always grateful to receive assist- ance in this work. Many young stu- dents we saw carried school bags just like our youngsters. Most of them wear a very neat uniform, the boys grey shirts and pants, the girls white plouses and light grey shirts. The only industrial plants we visit- ed were a cigar factory and a rum factory, both producing Cuba’s most world-famous products. Most of the : cigars are still handmade. Some ma- chines have been introduced, operated by girls. The handrolling is done by men only. Th rows one behind the other. There were many vacant seats the day we were there because @ contigent had gone to work in the sugarcane fields. Perhaps because it is silent work, that is, no machinery, it is traditional in a cigar factory to have a reader, chosen by the workers, to read aloud (nowadays over a loudspeaker) either from the press or whatever they choose them- selves. Obviously there was no speed- up anywhere although they still work on the piecework system. Women workers and some young boys. were In the sorting and packing. Similarly in the rum factory. We were shown the whole process from the making of the rum to its bottling, labelling and packing, employing men and women. No hurry was at all in evidence. That visit was concluded with a sampling in a small bar for the ey sit at long tables in: benefit of tourists and perhaps the glint in our eye was the most notice- able souvenir we took away with us! As we travelled through towns and villages we seldom saw a garden around the houses although there was often space for it, even in the cities. Perhaps this is a mark of the past when Cubans hardly knew of any other crop than sugar. Some have flowering bushes and trees, of which there’s a delightful abundance. Many have either a banana or an orange tree. It is probable that as they become more and more accustomed to the “new” vegetables and seed is available, home garden plots .will become more wide- spread. SHORTAGES STILL The Cubans were not embarrassed to tell us that many things are still ra- tioned, like meat, fats, milk; and even citrus fruits that are reserved for ex- port, They’ve not had butter for a very long time and in many places we were not served any. Exports permit them to get much needed items from abroad and to hold the balance of their cur- rency. The Cuban peso is level with the U.S. dollar. But much of the ra- - tioning the people are compelled to accept. must be blamed on the U.S. blockade. It was agreed that there are shortage of clothing and that there are many: empty. stores, which capitalist newspapers have made much of. But it is algo true that nowhere did we see any people wearing bad: or shabby clothing. All are well clothed; every. man and boy on the street wore a clean shirt; every woman wore a color- ful attractive dress. Young girls looked little different from ours in their manner of dress. By way of con- trast, in Mexico city we had seen many shabby people, barefoot children. True, they are not rationed as are the Cubans at the present time, but nei- . ther can they buy many of the goods offered because they don’t have the money. Today Cubans have an assured income. and can pay for everything they buy. The young people go out in the evenings, they are attractively dressed and go freely to dance in the big hotels, etc. We visited a replica of an ancient Indian village. The original Cubans were Indians; by various means they were virtually wiped out by the invad- ing Spaniards who later imported slaves from Africa to help exploit the country. Today there are only “Cu- bans”; the descendants of both Spa- niards and Africans and, not impos- sibly, of some of the white exploiters; for instance, at one time the British occupied Havana. Castro has stated proudly that the Cubans are “a na- tion of color” and one can see a great variety of browns and blacks and of features. Everywhere the food served to us was well prepared and attractively presented by efficient waiters and waitresses. Contrary to our expecta- tions, Cuban dishes are not highly spiced. Of course we had some un- known items that were not always ac- ceptable to our Canadian palates but that was our own shortcoming. Menus varied with both meat and fish. Inci- dentally, fish ‘is a comparatively new item in the ordinary Cuban diet. Until recent years there was no fishing in- dustry; many superstitions existed re- garding fish; certain fish were ‘Sup- posed to cause certain diseases. All this is gradually being overcome and there is now a growing fishing ‘in- dustry. One other interesting side trip we made was to visit a former ‘Alberta farmer, George Faulkner who, eight or nine years ago, packed up and went to Cuba to live, taking with him 150 sheep and some machinery. He made a sizeable contribution to Cuban agri- culture. He lives now with a daughter, having at last retired, being 96 years old though talking of visiting Vancou- ver within the next few months. He is frail but alert. He lives in a pleasant home provided him, with a lovely garden and orchard from which, on January 2, we plucked and ate some delicious oranges. This house formerly belonged to Batista’s brother! From what-we observed and in re- ply to some enquiries, it appeared that most Cubans had been Catholics; we saw churches and heard church bells. ‘However, we had the impression that the church had not played such a pro- minent part in the people’s lives, as for example, in. Mexico. Most of the priests were Spaniards and the major-. ity went back to Spain when the Re- volution took place. In conclusion: Christopher Colum- bus called: the Island of Cuba “a jewel.” For 400 years the precious jewel was first owned by the Spanish colonialists, then by U.S. monopolists. Now it is safely. in the possession of the Cubans themselves. By their achievements they are giving this love- ly jewel a new brilliance whose shine is reflected over all the rest of Latin America! << PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 20, 1970-—Page 7