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2018/12/18

Cuba's organic revolution | Environment | The Guardian

Cuba's organic revolution | Environment | The Guardian

Organics

Cuba's organic revolution
The collapse of the Soviet Union forced Cuba to become self-reliant in its agricultural production. The country's innovative solution was urban organic farming, the creation of 'organoponicos'. But will it survive a change of government? Ed Ewing reports

Ed Ewing

Fri 4 Apr 2008

Organoponico plaza, Havana, Cuba. Photograph: James Pagram

Below the high ceilings of the Telegraph hotel in Bayamo, south-east Cuba, the barman is mixing a perfect mojito. Rum, sugarcane juice, lime, carbonated water, and a whole sprig of mint.

But the key ingredient isn't any old mint. This is mint, as the Cubans say, "from the patio". Or at least, from the hotel's own rooftop garden.

"It's not very big," says the barman, "just two boxes." But it's where the hotel grows all its mint for its mojitos. And if there's a run on mojitos, what then? "El organiponico," he replies. An organic vegetable garden on the outskirts of Bayamo has all the mint you could wish for, he explains.

Organiponicos are the most visible part of Cuba's unique answer to a very serious problem – how to feed its people. But with Fidel Castro's resignation last month, could this unique system of organic urban agriculture – the world's largest example - be under threat?

Before the revolution nearly half the agricultural land in Cuba was owned by 1% of the people. After it, agriculture was nationalised and mechanised along Soviet lines. Trade with the once great superpower meant swapping sugarcane, which Cuba produced in industrial abundance, for cheap food and materials like machinery and petrochemical fertilisers.

Agricultural revolution

But when the USSR collapsed in 1990/91, Cuba's ability to feed itself collapsed with it. "Within a year the country had lost 80% of its trade," explains the Cuba Organic Support Group (COSG). Over 1.3m tonnes of chemical fertilisers a year were lost. Fuel for transporting produce from the fields to the towns dried up. People started to go hungry. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) estimated that calorie intake plunged from 2,600 a head in the late 1980s to between 1,000 and 1,500 by 1993.

Radical action was needed, and quickly. "Cuba had to produce twice as much food, with less than half the chemical inputs," according to the COSG. Land was switched from export crops to food production, and tractors were switched for oxen. People were encouraged to move from the city to the land and organic farming methods were introduced.

"Integrated pest management, crop rotation, composting and soil conservation were implemented," says the COSG. The country had to become expert in techniques like worm composting and biopesticides. "Worms and worm farm technology is now a Cuban export," says Dr Stephen Wilkinson, assistant director of the International Institute for the Study of Cuba.

Thus, the unique system of organoponicos, or urban organic farming, was started. "Organoponicos are really gardens," explains Wilkinson, "they use organic methods and meet local needs."
"Almost overnight," says the COSG, the ministry of agriculture established an urban gardening culture. By 1995 Havana had 25,000 huertos – allotments, farmed by families or small groups – and dozens of larger-scale organoponicos, or market gardens. The immediate crisis of hunger was over. Now, gardens for food take up 3.4% of urban land countrywide, and 8% of land in Havana. Cuba produced 3.2m tonnes of organic food in urban farms in 2002 and, UNFAO says, food intake is back at 2,600 calories a day.

Organoponico plaza

A visit to Havana's largest organoponico, the three-hectare Organoponico Plaza, which lies a stone's throw from the city's Plaza de la Revolución and the desk of Raul Castro, confirms that the scheme is doing well. Rows of strikingly neat irrigated raised beds are home to seasonal crops of lettuces, spring onions, chives, garlic and parsley.

Guava and noni fruit trees provide shade around the perimeter, while on the far side compost piles sit next to plastic tunnels used to raise seedlings. Outside in the shop, signs extol the virtues of eating your greens.

The shop is open only on Mondays. Produce is sold by the people who work the garden (they keep 50% of sales, so are motivated to produce a lot) to the people who live nearby. In this case, the organoponico serves an estate that wouldn't look out of place in Tower Hamlets or Easterhouse. Yet inside, butterflies flit and the head gardener, Toni, turns sod like he is digging at Prince Charles's Highgrove estate.

A success then? "In terms of improving the diet of the population it has had a beneficial effect," says Wilkinson.

"And it has been a success in terms of meeting some of the food security needs," he says, "but it has not resolved the problem since the island still imports a great deal of food."

And change is on the horizon, which might be good for living standards, but not so good for Cuba's commitment to pesticide-free food.
The US trade embargo is losing its "symbolic meaning", says Julie M Bunck, assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisville and author of Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in Cuba, and as that happens, "Cuba will evolve, embrace the market in some way, begin to produce and buy and sell normally." General farming will "most likely" move away from organic methods says Wilkinson. Farming on a large scale after all, he says, has seen a reduction in pesticide and fertiliser use mainly due to "financial constraints, not choice". But, he notes: "Organoponicos fulfil a local and specific need and are unlikely to disappear." He adds: "The commitment to organics in agriculture may not be 100% because of climate and the need to boost production. But policies that encourage environmental protection will continue so long as the present government remains." When that changes, Cuba's unique experiment with organic farming will change too.

Topics

1812 CUBA'S Agricultural Revolution: the Cooperative Farms

CUBA'S Agricultural Revolution: the Cooperative Farms

CUBA’S Agricultural
Revolution: the Cooperative
Farms
TOPICS: Agriculture Production In Cuba

Cooperative Farms In Cuba Sustainable Agriculture

12/18/2018 CUBA'S Agricultural Revolution: the Cooperative Farms
https://www.cubabusinessreport.com/cubas-agricultural-revolution-the-cooperative-farms/ 2/6

An organic farm near Havana, Cuba. Photo: Cuba Business Report
staff

NOVEMBER 10, 2016
Cuba’s agricultural strength lies in its ability to produce
organic foods grown on its cooperative farms. But the
concept of the cooperative farms is not a new idea in
Cuban society. Cuba established the rst
cooperative
farms following the enactment of the agrarian reform
laws in 1959 and 1963. The worker cooperative farms
were created after the Cuban Revolution following the
theory that farmers shared machinery, land and
management resources to increase agricultural
production.

In 1961, the Asociación Nacional de Agricultores
Pequeños (ANAP) (Association of Small Farmers)
was founded. The government then gave 45% of
farmland to farmers who were willing to work on the
land as a cooperative. Today, ANAP is responsible for
managing resources and the dissemination of
agricultural research and technology.
Prior to the legal reforms, only a small fraction (8.1%)
of the population owned 71% of the land. The agrarian
reform laws led to the redistribution of land to more
than 100,000 peasants who started rural farming
associations. Later these associations merged into
Credit and Services Cooperatives (CSSs) where
members could obtain farm supplies and machinery on
credit. In the 1970s, some of the CSSs merged to form
larger Agricultural Production Cooperatives (CPAs)
that pooled land resources and began collectively
farming and working the land.
In 1993, a new form of cooperatives called Basic Units
of Cooperatives Production (UBPC) emerged,

whereby members owned all the farm produce,
machinery, and farm inputs. The government offered
farmland free of charge but the land is not actually
owned by the farmer. The farmer takes charge of the
land and agrees to cooperative farming. The
government then provides support to the farmer by
making available low cost loans for farming equipment,
machinery and tools, livestock, and irrigation systems.
New technology and agricultural research is provided to
the farmer by the research institutes. Data published by
the National Ofce
of Statistics and Information shows
that UBPC‘s control and manage 44.6% of Cuba’s
farming land.

The cooperative farms accounted for 64%
of all agricultural activity in the country.
Today there are more than 5,700 cooperatives across
Cuba. Approximately 8o% of all agricultural production
is based on the cooperative farming model. The
produce grown at these farms provides food for
domestic consumption enhancing food security, food
for export and provides employment for more than
300,000 people. Crops are diverse, ranging from
sugarcane farming, coffee, cacao, tobacco, fruits, grains,
and vegetables.
Although Cuba still imports much of its food, the
government has implemented measures to help attain
food security and to rely less on food imports.

Cooperative-based farming is a central part of the plan.
Government motivation for upping the number of
cooperative farms include boosting food security,
increasing landownership, increasing the open markets
where farmers can sell farm produce, provide lowinterest
loans and affordable credit to cooperative
members, enabling participation in the coop
organizations, stimulating economic growth and enabling farmers to access agricultural inputs and
machinery by pooling resources.
The ability of farmers to sell the produce of the
cooperative farms at the local markets, basing the price
market prices has been a positive move. This has made
cooperative farming lucrative for those who work the
land. Earnings can increase based on productivity of
the farms. There are reports of farmers on some state
farms earning as much as 60 CUCs (well above the
average salary) a month along with the benets
that
come with the job.

To date, the successes achieved by cooperative-based
farming have improved local food production and made
it easier for farmers to access farm inputs. Increased
food production has led to food import reductions
reported at $15 million in 2011. If inefciencies
within
the system can be addressed, Cuba could one day
achieve total food independence.
At the same, an ecosystem of farm produce markets
where prices are solely dictated by supply and demand
is taking root across the country. Farmers have also
benefited
greatly, with over 13,200 farmers receiving
training and farm equipment courtesy of a program run
by the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture in partnership
with the European Union and UNDP. About 366
cooperatives have also received agricultural equipment
and training via the program. Landownership among
Cuba’s rural dwellers has also improved signicantly
thanks to the cooperative model.
The American embargo against, however, still continues
to negatively effect agricultural production in Cuba.
Fruit production, cacao and coffee production,
livestock, pig farming, bear the consequences of this
policy. Access to new farming technology, delays in
shipping from and to Cuba as well as increased shipping
costs hinder development.

The world has much to learn from Cuba’s organic,
sustainable agriculture and its cooperative farms.
Cuba’s agricultural revolution has improved the
country’s food security and empowered the urban and
rural farmers. The concept of cooperative farming has proven to be a successful, highly functional and
sustainable. Removing the barriers of the embargo will
allow this rich land to feed its people and export its
surplus.

Cuba's agricultural revolution an example to the world - seattlepi.com

Cuba's agricultural revolution an example to the world - seattlepi.com

Cuba's agricultural revolution an example to the world

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE, THE INDEPENDENT Published 10:00 pm PDT, Saturday, August 12, 2006

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cuba agriculture .com - Cuba Agriculture Information

AGRICULTURE IN CUBA TODAY

Cuba is now one of the world leaders in biofertilisers, with a highly impressive production of organic food. This agricultural approach has breathed new life into rural communities and done a great deal to stem rural migration to urban areas. It is the envy of international organizations promoting organic farming and sustainable development. Cuban farmers and researchers are applying traditional and alternative technologies to food production and forging ahead towards their ultimate goal of total sustainability.

Another area in which an innovative approach has been applied is that of urban agriculture. Havana is the largest city in the Caribbean, housing 20% of Cuba’s population. Food shortages and the lack of fuel for distribution had a catastrophic effect on the city in the early nineties so the establishment of private gardens, state-owned research gardens and popular gardens employing around 25,000 urban farmers has been of inestimable value in maintaining the capital’s food supplies. The popular gardens range in size from a few square metres to large plots of land which are cultivated by individuals or community groups. They yield important food supplies to local communities in addition to the medicinal plants prescribed for all manner of ailments by local yerberos.

In 2006 one cannot yet declare that everything in the Cuban garden’s lovely, but it would be churlish to deny the agricultural achievements of recent years:
By 1999, there were gains in yields for 16 of 18 major crops, potato, cabbage, malanga, bean and pepper yields having higher yields than Central America and being above the average yields in the world.

By the end of 2000, food availability in Cuba reached daily levels of 2600 calories and more than 68 grams of protein (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation considers 2400 calories and 72 grams of protein per day to be sufficient).

By 2002, 35,000 acres of urban gardens produced 3.4 million tons of food. In Havana, 90% of the city's fresh produce came from local urban farms and gardens, all organic. In 2003, more than 200,000 Cubans worked in the expanding urban agriculture sector.

In 2003, the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture was using less than 50% of the diesel fuel it used in 1989, less than 10% of the chemical fertilisers and less than 7% of the synthetic insecticides. A chain of 220 bio-pesticide centres provided safe alternatives for pest control.

The ongoing National Program for Soil Improvement and Preservation benefited 475,000 hectares of land in 2004, up 23,000 hectares in 2003. The annual production of 5 million tonnes of composted soil by a network of worm farms is part of this process.

At the time of writing, the Cuban government is heavily committed a close partnership with Venezuela and potentially with other left-wing Latin American governments. Agreements with Venezuela include the constitution of a bilateral enterprise to promote agricultural development, training and biodiversity. For several years Cuba has been exporting its city farming ‘revolution’ to Venezuela, despite sceptical remarks from Venezuelans about why so much effort should be put into urban farming when there are thousands of miles of fertile farmland so far uncultivated in the country.

It is to be hoped that in the wake of new international economic agreements, the important progress made in Cuban agriculture will not be relinquished to renewed reliance upon costly imports, a facile short-term solution with –as has already been observed in Cuba - catastrophic long-term implications. It remains to be seen whether the Cuban administration will have the vision to continue to espouse sustainable agriculture.

In the long term, when the United States’ trade embargo is finally lifted and cheap agricultural products become widely available, it is unlikely that Cuban farmers will be able to compete without returning to intensive agriculture, unless skilled marketing initiatives are applied to promote the currently excellent standards of Cuban organic produce.

Viva la revolución: Cuban farmers re-gain control over land | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

Viva la revolución: Cuban farmers re-gain control over land | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

Improving nutrition and food security - global development professionals network

Viva la revolución: Cuban farmers re-gain control over land
As the state loosens its grip on food production, Cuban farmers and independent co-operatives will need support to help solve the country's agriculture crisis

Alexa van Sickle

Wed 12 Mar 2014

Cuba has begun lending unused land to farmers and co-operatives to boost food production. Photograph: Javier Galeano/AP

-----

Last year, Cuba spent over $1.6bn (£1bn) on food imports, an unsustainable amount for an economy that has been struggling since the end of the cold war and the collapse of its trading partner, the Soviet Union, through which it also lost 80% of its pesticide and fertiliser imports.

Today, Cuba still imports about 60% of its domestic food requirement, making it highly vulnerable to price increases, changes in food supply and the impacts of natural disasters.

Since 2007, President Raul Castro, noting its connection with national security, has made food security a priority. State farms hold over 70% of Cuba's agricultural land; about 6.7m hectares. In 2007, 45% of this land was sitting idle. In 2008 Castro allowed private farmers and co-operatives to lease unused land with decentralised decision-making, and loosened regulations on farmers selling directly to consumers. Since 2010, Cubans with small garden plots, and small farmers, have been allowed to sell produce directly to consumers.

However, agriculture in Cuba remains in crisis. A government report issued in July 2013 showed that productivity had not increased. But there have been some successes and valuable lessons in the past few years that can help foreign aid organisations target resources and support.

Learning from successful co-operatives or farming initiatives is key, according to Christina Polzot, Cuban country representative for Care International.

"I think the greatest contribution is capacity building, especially as it relates to building management capacity at the local level," she said.

One successful example comes from Cuba's 'urban' agriculture. Urban farms are now thought to supply around 70% of fruits and vegetables consumed in cities such as Havana and Santa Clara. Vivero Alamar is an urban co-op just outside Havana that has sustained growth for 15 years. Co-op president Miguel Angel Salcines believes that the key to achieving food security in Cuba is to train agricultural workers with a 'vocation' for farming, and continuous upgrading of equipment.

The Cuban agricultural sector remains highly de-capitalised, but aid organisations can to some degree support it with agricultural materials and appropriate technologies. They can also boost the capacity of private farmers by training local farmers in sustainable agricultural practices, and helping co-ops develop modern business practices.
Canada, one of Cuba's biggest donors, provides technical training in planning, environmental sustainability, and also gender equality for effective management of farming. It also helped increase Cuba's forest cover by 1%, by planting 106,000 hectares of new seedlings.

Researchers can identify inefficiencies in the supply chain and where possible make recommendations.

Care in Canada also helped improve dairy production (pdf) – which has been a huge challenge for the country – by building and furnishing milk collection and conservation centres in co-ops, and advising on the supply chain. They also made infrastructure improvements for individual farms and created an exchange programme for Canadian and Cuban farmers.

In 2007, Castro had called the milk collection and distribution system "absurd" after finding that in Mantua in the west of Cuba, a few bottles of locally produced milk would make a long journey, but then return and be delivered to the house next door.

But Cuba has other challenges beyond the production system; it suffers from salinity, erosion, poor drainage, low fertility, acidity, low organic material content, poor retention of humidity, and desertification. One obstacle to increasing productivity has been a lack of knowledge among farmers about improving and conserving agricultural resources.

A pilot progamme implemented by Cuba's Soil Institute and supported by the United Nations Development Programme, to improve the conservation of soil, water and forest land, gives 35 agricultural units training, technical assistance, and supplies – targeted at their own specific challenges. It includes planting forest trees on farms, searching new sources of water; no-till farming; live barriers to erosion made of plants and rocks, and using organic fertilisers.

Aid organisations in the country should also support agricultural initiatives in Cuba's easternmost – and poorest – provinces, which are most vulnerable to coastal flooding.

Although the reform in agriculture has gone further than in many other sections of economic life, it may still be too early to gauge the effects. Polzot says it is possible that the reforms will increase autonomy because, for example, the more recent reforms have allowed private co-operatives to handle their own commercialisation.

But as yet, farmers are not allowed to import supplies or purchase produce at will. Armando Nova, a Cuban economist, suggested in a paper last year that the system would be more efficient if farmers did not have to wait for supplies to be assigned and delivered by the state; there are still delays in transport and a lot of spoilage.

There is concern among farmers that the government will at some point change its mind, scale back the reforms, and seize the land leased to farmers – and that it is unwilling to cede all control of the process.

In November 2013, the government issued a decree placing the management of food production entirely in non-state hands, to run experimentally in selected districts before going nationwide in 2015. For the moment, it seems the Cuban government is committed to its goal of putting Cuba on the road to food security. Aid organisations can help ensure that these initiatives are successful.

Alexa van Sickle is assistant editor of publications at International Institute for Strategic Studies. Follow @IISS_org on Twitter
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waginn
12 Mar 2014 5:36
56

I can't pretend to know how to grow food in Cuba but I am a farmer. Anyone who has read Frank Dikotter's book Mao's Great Famine must see that when decisions are made with a " one size fits all " policy from an out of touch ruling class that disaster follows. Stalin in Russia , Mao in China and Mugabe in Zimbabwe were not renowned for their understanding of farming.

When farmers, like any small businessman, see that science and logic has gone out the window and been replaced by political doctrine then they will stop investing and try to ride out the storm , if too many of them fail then a great amount of first hand knowledge is lost when they leave the land.
To get this knowledge back onto the land takes a large amount of time and encouragement, they have to feel that if they can grow two ears of wheat where they grew one the previous year that process can allow them to improve their own lives as well.
Interestingly in Britain during the war years many farmers were forced off their farms for not being efficient by the Ministry of Agriculture (War Ag), their land was given to those that were adopting the modern methods necessitated by the German navel blockade. So in this instance there was a " more stick than carrot " approach which left a lasting impression on the next generations of farmers.

" Armando Nova, a Cuban economist, suggested in a paper last year that the system would be more efficient if farmers did not have to wait for supplies to be assigned and delivered by the state; there are still delays in transport and a lot of spoilage."
This sentence will send a shudder down the back of farmers in this country, you grow your crop then lose it because the fertilizer is late getting to the farm or as we used to hear of in the USSR you grow the crop then can't harvest because the diesel for the combine has been pilfered by corrupt officials.
I wish the Cuban farmers the best of luck.
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Fernando Leanme waginn
12 Mar 2014 7:11
01

I was young and lived in Cuba, and saw first hand the utter destruction of Cuba's agriculture by Fidel Castro. And I read a statement by Guaicapuro Lameda, a Venezuelan socialist who quoted Fidel saying "people have to be kept busy, even if it's looking around for food".

The hunger, the food lines, the lack of water, the terror, all to keep that degenerate regime in power.....
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JulioRayuela Fernando Leanme
17 Mar 2014 10:19
01

I was young and lived in Cuba, and saw first hand the utter destruction of Cuba's agriculture by Fidel Castro.
---
Elsewhere you say you left Cuba with your parents when you were five years old. Are you really saying that your deep interest in and concern for – not to mention knowledge of – political and economic issues pre-dates your having attended even a primary school? Fernando "Readme", your precocity impresses me.
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zuftawov943
12 Mar 2014 9:31
12

For all the errors - not least Fidel's ill-informed involvement in trying to breed disease-resistant cattle that would yield milk at western European levels - Cuba has fed its people, despite a trade embargo imposed by the USA and despite the vicissitudes of Cuba's relations with the USSR - and despite many a hurricane.

Not always fed them well - indeed not - but not badly in Latin American terms, not badly when compared with the plight of the poor in the semi-arid lands of NE Brazil whenever the rains have either failed or turned too copious.

It's important to remember what an enormous difficulty arose from the peevish rejection of Cuba by the US, which had been the source of a very high proportion of Cuba's agricultural and industrial imports, and had been the market for a similarly high proportion of Cuba's agricultural exports.

All of a sudden, circa 1960, that inter-change ceased, to be all too inadequately succeeded by a clumsy link with a Soviet Union that knew little of tropical agricultural and allowed Cuba little advantage within the dilatory, erratic Comecon, the Soviet bloc's international commercial mechanism that was denominated in distrusted roubles of mysteriously varying values determined in Moscow.

No famine in Cuba - good going, in the circumstances. No reform of land management - bad going, in the circumstances. Now those of us who live long enough will see how the latest, lumbering changes pan out.
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Fernando Leanme zuftawov943
13 Mar 2014 7:06
12

Yeah, we Cubans are happy being fed communist garbage and being your slaves. You see we are uniquely suited to be tortured, abused and murdered. And we really enjoy reading how people like you make excuses for the Castro.

I want you to join our misery as we fight Yankee imperialism. You will learn to clean your behind with Juventud Rebelde, drink sugar water for breakfast, stand in line for three hours for two eggs, keep your mouth shut and never say much, think what they want you to think, and at the end of the day you can shout "Viva Fidel".
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Cubaverdad zuftawov943
13 Mar 2014 19:57
23

Cuba isn't - and has never - fed its people.
Before Castro Cuba was self-sufficient in rice, its staple food, with a consumption per capital of three times as high. Two years after Fidel seized power production had fallen by 50%.
Soviet subsidies kept the regime afloat. Today Cuba needs to import 70 to 80% of the food it consumes.
The Stalinist collectivization and sometimes megalomaniac mismanagement of the sector (Castro's goal to have a 10 million ton sugar harvest) destroyed local food production. Independent farmers were 4 time more productive than the state farms.
Cubans are fad badly by Latin American standards. Even the regime admits to rampant vitamin and iron deficiencies in children.
Your false claim that the scarcity of food is the result of the trade sanctions has been rejected by Raul Castro himself:

"Castro took a few swipes at the U.S. trade embargo that has been in
place since 1962, but made it clear Cubans have only themselves to blame for agriculture shortages."
Castro calls for tight finances in Cuba - CNN.com (26 July 2009)

An end to the Castro regime is the only way to end poverty and hunger in Cuba.

Similar Policies, Different Outcomes: Two Decades of Economic Reforms in North Korea and Cuba | KEI | Korea Economic Institute

Similar Policies, Different Outcomes: Two Decades of Economic Reforms in North Korea and Cuba | KEI | Korea Economic Institute

This article is aimed at analyzing, in a comparative perspective, the economic reforms undertaken by Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) and Cuba since the demise of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The comparison seems pertinent inasmuch as both the DPRK and Cuba are relatively small countries that managed to survive the collapse of real socialism. Although the geographic areas of both countries are roughly the same, the North Korean population is more than double Cuba’s; by contrast, the Cuban GDP per capita is four times bigger than the DPRK’s individual income. Both countries have been ruled by single parties and have undertaken successful dynastic successions, and both countries have tried to maintain, with increasing tribulations, economic systems that advocate central planning and state property.

With different intensities and styles, in the early 1990s the DPRK and Cuba launched partial liberalizations of agricultural markets, gradual reforms of the management of state enterprises, and policies aimed at attracting increasing amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI). Both Cuba and the DPRK started their respective reforms in 1990–91: the former implemented changes that allowed joint ventures in tourism, while the latter allowed the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Rajin-Sonbong (also known as Rason). Cuba undertook additional changes to allow larger, but still small, portions of markets in 1993 and 2008. North Korea, in turn, announced a package of economic changes in 2002; since the late 1990s, though, Pyongyang has been courting major South Korean investments in tourism and the industrial sector. In both cases, the patterns of economic change have zigzagged, with the intention of carrying out the bare minimum of reforms for ensuring regime’s survival.

In spite of the above similarities, economic reforms have had different outcomes in the DPRK and Cuba. Although both countries feature a stop-go pattern, the Cuban economy has achieved a swifter recovery. Cuba managed to overcome theeffects of the crisis caused by the end of support by the former Soviet Union and began growing in the mid-1990s, achieving double-digit rates of growth in the second half of the 2000s. In contrast, by the end of 2009 the North Korean economy was still smaller than two decades before.

My hypothesis is that the main difference in how the DPRK and Cuba handled the demise of their socialist systems of support dwells in the greater constancy of Havana’s policies to acquire foreign currencies. Cuba engaged in, for example, the promotion of FDI, tourism, remittances, and selling of professional services to Venezuela. Although the North Korean government tried to attract East Asian investment in tourism projects and SEZs, geopolitical tensions in Northeast Asia have limited the potential scope of these and other ambitious projects.

Click here for the full publication PDF

Karma & Habit - Jack Kornfield

Karma & Habit - Jack Kornfield

Karma & Habit

In the ancient texts, karma is written as a compound word, karma-vipaka. Karma-vipakameans “action and result,” or what we call cause and effect. This is not a philosophical concept. It is a psychological description of how our experience unfold every day.

A good way to begin to understand karma is by observing our habit patterns. When we look at habit and conditioning, we can sense how our brain and consciousness create repeated patterns. If we practice tennis enough, we will anticipate our next hit as soon as the ball leaves the other player’s racquet. If we practice being angry, the slightest insult will trigger our rage. These patterns are like a rewritable CD. When they are burned in repeatedly, the pattern becomes the regular response. Modern neuroscience has demonstrated this quite convincingly. Our repeated patterns of thought and action actually change our nervous system. Each time we focus our attention and follow our intentions, our nerves fire, synapses connect, and those neural patterns are strengthened. The neurons literally grow along that direction.

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh describes the karmic process of conditioning with another metaphor: the image of planting seeds in consciousness. The seeds we plant contain the potential to grow when conditions support them. The seed of a magnolia or a redwood tree contains the whole life pattern of the plant, which will respond when suitable conditions of water, earth, and sunlight arise. A Chinese Buddhist text describes these seeds: “From intention springs the deed, from the deed springs the habits. From the habits grow the character, from character develops destiny.”

What we practice becomes habit. What may at one time be beneficial can later become a form of imprisonment. Andrew Carnegie was asked by a reporter about the gathering of riches, “You could have stopped at any time, couldn’t you, because you always had much more than you needed.” “Yes, that’s right,” Carnegie answered, “but I couldn’t stop. I had forgotten how to.” Habits have a collective nature as well as an individual one. When King George II heard the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the first performance of Handel’s Messiah, he was so moved that, against all form, he stood up. Of course, when the king stands, everyone else must stand as well. Since that day, no matter how the performance is done, the whole audience stands. While this is a harmless convention, societies can equally repeat destructive habits of racism, hatred, and revenge.

We can work with habits. Through the mindful process of RAIN, we can rewire our nervous system. The genesis of this transformation is our intention. Buddhist psychology explains that before every act there is an intention, though often the intention is unconscious. We can use recognition, acceptance, investigation of suffering, and non-identification to create new karma. Through mindfulness and non-identification, we can choose a new intention. We can do this moment by moment, and we can also set long-term intentions to transform our life.

Setting a conscious intention was important for Tamara, a woman who ran a community food bank. She had come to meditation to bring balance into her life. But when she first sat quietly and tried to sense her breath, panic arose. She struggled as if she couldn’t get enough air. I had her relax and shift her attention from her breath to her whole body for a time. Later when she went back to her breath, the panic arose again. Staying curious, she actually remember the woozy feeling of ether. She flashed back to stories of her birth. Tamara had been born blue from lack of oxygen and her mother told her it took a long time before the doctor could get her to breathe. In meditation Tamara learned that she couldn’t control the breath of the feelings of panic, but she could set an intention to be present with kindness and then let go. Setting a positive intention changed her meditation for the better.

Then in 2005, Tamara went down to Louisiana for two months to help with food distribution for the survivors of Hurrican Katrina. She discovered that she needed the same focused intentions she had developed in meditation. She met people who were in the grip of the same kind of panic she had discovered within herself. They were frightened, angry, stressed out, trying to stay alive. Often the people in charge were in equally difficult states of overwhelm and shock. Tamara soon realized she couldn’t control the people or situation any more than she could control her own breath. At time she became reactive, and when this happened she would breathe, set an intention to be present with goodwill, then let go. Repeatedly setting a kind intention got her through the two months without being terrified or burned out.

This excerpt is taken from the book, “The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology”

북 주민, 김정은 관심 삼지연사업 동원 불만

북 주민, 김정은 관심 삼지연사업 동원 불만

북 주민, 김정은 관심 삼지연사업 동원 불만
워싱턴-서재덕 인턴기자 seoj@rfa.org
2018-10-12

북한 김정은 위원장이 삼지연군의 김일성-김정일주의연구실, 개건된 삼지연군 여관과 삼지연읍 종합상점, 삼지연읍에 신축된 주택, 완공을 앞둔 삼지연 청년역과 삼지연못가역 등 시설들을 시찰하고 있다.
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앵커: 북한 당국이 김정은 국무위원장이 각별한 관심을 쏟고 있는 양강도 삼지연군 꾸리기와 관련해 계속 자금 공출과 인원 동원을 지시하는 것으로 알려졌습니다. 이 때문에 북한 주민들의 불만이 커지고 있다고 하는데요. 서재덕 인턴기자가 북한 내부 상황을 살펴봤습니다.

3차 남북정상회담 당시 문재인 한국 대통령이 백두산 등반을 위해 방문했던 양강도 삼지연군. 이곳에서 진행 중인 각종 건설공사에는 올해부터 전국 각지에서 많은 북한 주민들이 돌격대원으로 동원되고 있고 북한 당국이 각종 건설 자재와 자금 공출까지 요구하면서 현지 주민들의 불만이 커지고 있다고 일본의 ‘아시아프레스’가 최근 (10일) 자유아시아방송(RFA)에 전했습니다.

아시아프레스 오사카 사무소의 이시마루 지로 대표에 따르면 ‘혁명의 성지’라고 불리는 삼지연군은 2016년 11월, 김정은 북한 국무위원장의 지시로 국제적인 일류급 관광지를 건설할 특구로 지정되면서 북한 당국에서 최우선으로 사업을 추진하고 있습니다.

현재 북한 당국은 혜산시와 삼지연군을 잇는 철도 공사에 집중하고 있으며, 돌격대와 군인을 포함해 수만 명이 동원되고 있다는 것이 이시마루 대표의 설명입니다.

[이시마루 지로] 이번에 삼지연에 파견된 돌격대들은 국가가 우선하는, 말하자면 일급 공사이기 때문에 전국적으로 지원사업이 진행되고 있다고 합니다. 그래서 숙소도 돌격대 책임으로 만드는 게 아니고 도별로 숙소도 만들어져 있고, 그다음에 전국에서 물자도 들어오니까 일단은 굶지는 않는다고 하더라고요. 물론 가족하고 떨어져 있어야 하고 6개월이나 합숙생활, 직장생활을 해야 되니까 너무 힘든 건 틀림없지만 항상 전해 듣는 건 돌격대 현장 노동에 대한 것보다는 조금 나은 편이 아닌가 합니다.

삼지연의 건설 사업은 북한 당국에서 중요시하는 사업이기 때문에 이곳에 파견된 돌격대는 다른 건설 현장의 돌격대들에 비해서는 나은 편이지만, 힘든 상황임은 틀림없다고 이시마루 지로 대표는 덧붙였습니다.

삼지연 현지 주민에 따르면 삼지연 건설에 동원된 돌격대 가운데 토목 작업은 6개월마다 교대되며, 부녀자들은 도로 보수에 자주 동원되고 있습니다.

하지만 돈 있는 사람들은 돈만 내면 동원에 면제되기 때문에 주민들 사이에 불공평하다는 불만이 확산하는 것으로 전해졌습니다.
[이시마루 지로] 주민들 말에 의하면 인민반 회의할 때마다 이틀에 한 번씩 뭔가 좀 내라는 지시가 있고, 그것은 공사에 사용하는 자갈흙, 소모품인 장갑 이런 것을 계속 내라고 합니다. 그것에 대한 경제적인 부담도 그렇고, 공장 기업소·청년동맹에 가 있는 가족들이 현재 동원돼서 6개월이나 거기서 계속 생활하면서 공사에 참가해야 됩니다. 북한 주민 입장에서 보면 굉장히 큰 부담입니다. 언제까지 이 부담이 지속되는가라는 그런 불만들이 계속 나온다고 합니다.

최근 인권행사 참석을 위해 워싱턴DC를 방문한 북한 인권단체 '나우'의 지성호 대표는 11일 자유아시아방송에 인권침해 가능성을 제기했습니다.

그는 강제로 돌격대를 동원해 노동력을 착취하는 것은 물론 필요한 자재를 북한 주민에게 부담하는 것도 심각한 문제라며 이같이 지적했습니다.

[지성호] 돌격대라는 명목으로 해가지고 주민들 특히, 그나마 군으로 가지 않은 청년들을 모집해가지고 중요한 큰 건설장들에 내보내가지고 그들을 일하게끔 하는데요. 가장 중요한 것은 그들이 일을 할 수 있는 장비라든가 시멘트와 같은 자재들이 주어지지 않고, 또한 최소한의 그들이 먹고 일할 수 있는 그런 것들이 이제 마련되지 않은 상황에서 당의 지시니까 따라야만 한다는…

한편 한국 통일부는 11일 국회 외교통일위원회에 제출한 보고서를 통해 북한이 김 위원장이 올해 신년사에서 제시한 4대 중요대상 건설에 인원과 물자를 집중 투입하고 있다며 삼지연군 꾸리기, 원산갈마해안관광지구, 단천발전소, 황해남도 물길 공사 등을 그 대상으로 꼽았습니다.