Cuba's Power Grid Collapses Again. And Then a Hurricane Hit (reuters.com) 19
"Millions of Cubans remained without power for a third day in a row Sunday," reports CNN, "after fresh attempts to restore electricity failed overnight and the power grid collapsed for the fourth time — all before the arrival of Hurricane Oscar."
A report from Reuters notes it was the fourth power grid failure in 48 hours. "On the forecast track, the center of Oscar is expected to continue moving across eastern Cuba tonight and Monday, then emerge off the northern coast of Cuba late Monday and cross the central Bahamas on Tuesday," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The Communist-run government canceled school through Wednesday — a near unprecedented move in Cuba — citing the hurricane and the ongoing energy crisis...
Cuba had restored power to 160,000 clients in Havana just prior to the grid's Sunday collapse, giving some residents a glimmer of hope... Energy and mines minister Vicente de la O Levy told reporters earlier on Sunday he expected the grid to be fully functional by Monday or Tuesday but warned residents not to expect dramatic improvements.
It was not immediately clear how much the latest setback would delay the government's efforts.
A report from Reuters notes it was the fourth power grid failure in 48 hours. "On the forecast track, the center of Oscar is expected to continue moving across eastern Cuba tonight and Monday, then emerge off the northern coast of Cuba late Monday and cross the central Bahamas on Tuesday," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The Communist-run government canceled school through Wednesday — a near unprecedented move in Cuba — citing the hurricane and the ongoing energy crisis...
Cuba had restored power to 160,000 clients in Havana just prior to the grid's Sunday collapse, giving some residents a glimmer of hope... Energy and mines minister Vicente de la O Levy told reporters earlier on Sunday he expected the grid to be fully functional by Monday or Tuesday but warned residents not to expect dramatic improvements.
It was not immediately clear how much the latest setback would delay the government's efforts.
Questions (Score:2)
As a embargoed country, is Cuba entitled to humanitarian relief?
If so, will a certain country get pissy, when Cuba gets foreign aid?
Re: (Score:2)
As a embargoed country, is Cuba entitled to humanitarian relief?
Yes
If so, will a certain country get pissy, when Cuba gets foreign aid?
Nope.
In fact, the USoA will probably offer to cooperate.
If the Cuban Govt. will accept aid from the USoA or not, it remains to be seen.
99% sure the Aid will be rejected if it is done through the military, like the US Army Core of engineers, of hospital ships from the US Navy, or similar things...
Re: (Score:1)
no riots? (Score:2)
why haven't they rioted yet? The police state must be quite strong still.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
On the other hand, the only people that leave the country when a hurricane hits is Rafael Ted Cruz.
Abject Failure of the Cuban Government (Score:5, Interesting)
Even China long ago realized that pure Communism was not a route to success [ft.com]
Chinese officials have been perplexed and frustrated at the Cuban leadership’s unwillingness to decisively implement a market-oriented reform programme despite the glaring dysfunction of the status quo, the people said.
You would think that maybe a close pal like, idk, Venezuela, would at least be able to help with the fuel problem. Except oil production there significantly collapsed under Hugo Chavez [forbes.com].
It's taken a bit longer than the Soviet Union, but communism in Latin America may be reaching its point of collapse as well.
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Surely the 66 years of embargo had nothing to do with it.
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Oil production severely collapsed after US started sanctioning Venezuela, such that they could no longer invest money back into their oil sector.
That's the most nonsensical circular reasoning I've heard in a while. And today I watched some political ads.
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If communism really is the problem then why doesn't the US lift the sanctions and just let it fail on its own? Then the whole world would be in no doubt about how terrible the Cuban system is, even when given every opportunity to succeed.
Claims that it is all due to communism are somewhat undermined when you have your finger tipping the scale.
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and that's putting it kindly.
Why not let Communism succeed or fail on its own merits, then learn something from it to improve our own system? And if it fails, where is the compassion?
People love to look at the world as a handful of political enemies rather than billions of vulnerable people.
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Paranoia over socialism in the US hurts a lot of Americans too.
the important thing is... (Score:1)