And political and democratic reforms are inexistent -- to the contrary, political repression and abuse has intensified.
Excerpt by Cuban blogger Fernando Damaso:
The new possibilities within self-employment are approved by drips and drabs and only after long periods of unnecessary experimentation in the so-called provincial-laboratories (Artemisa and Mayabeque), when they should be adopted and spread more quickly
The physical planning regulations, forgotten and systematically violated over too many years, are very difficult to apply in a country where the deterioration and lack of housing constitutes a national tragedy, without conditions to truly solve things in the short and medium term, despite the aid and credits approved, and so the problem continually worsens, influencing widespread social breakdown.
The new customs rules, which by their volume seem to expand the possibilities of bringing goods into the country, actually limit them by weight and value.
The new travel and immigration law, to go into effect in the coming year, although it eases some of the paperwork, creates new limitations and trades the existence of one document for another (from the white card to the blue booklet), without eliminating them, as well as increases the price of a passport.
The new laws on taxation, also scheduled to go into effect, with some adjustments, this coming year, are still a mystery to be clarified as they are applied.
Courtesy of Translating Cuba.
