Cuba Slashes State-Subsidised Soap

[El Presidente]

Cuba Slashes State-Subsidised Soap

Cash-strapped Cuban government slashes state-subsidised soap from ration books

The Associated Press

By JENNY BARCHFIELD Associated Press

HAVANA December 29, 2010 (AP)

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12502764

The cost of cleanliness will rise in Cuba after its cash-strapped government announced that soap, toothpaste and detergent will join the growing list products slashed from monthly ration books.

The island's official Gazette said Wednesday that effective Jan. 1, "personal cleanliness products" are to be cut from the ration books that islanders have come to rely on for a small but steady supply of basic goods.

Cubans currently pay about 25 centavos, or about a penny, for a rationed bar of soap. They'll soon have to fork out four to six pesos, according to the gazette.

The list of products available with the ration books has shrunk in recent months as the government trimmed items deemed nonessential. Cigarettes, salt, peas and potatoes have been cut. Sugar, beans, meat, rice, eggs, bread and other products remain.

The ration program began in 1962 as a temporary way to guarantee food staples for all Cubans in the face of the United States' then-new embargo. Designed to tide people over, it has long provided a measure of food security in a country where average wages hover around $20 a month.

Authorities say the cuts are necessary to free the state — which pays for or heavily subsidizes education, health care, housing and transportation — from a crushing economic burden.

Other, more drastic cost-cutting measures have also been announced, including the layoffs of about half a million state workers.

Critics contend that by slashing the ration books, the state is breaking with what has been a sacred covenant of the island's 1959 revolution: to provide all Cubans with at least the basics.

———

Associated Press writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.

[ZAZ]

Wow.......

[cigcars]

*M-m-a-a-a-a-n-n...!!! If our government(s) would allow it, I'd do a bar soap/cigar exchange so deep until ALL of Cuba would be a cl-e-e-e-a-a-a-n son-of-a-gun!!

[CanuckSARTech]

Wow. The news just keeps on getting better.

Looks like I know what to bring when I go there in January.

I've always shied away from the normal "tourist-webpage" recommended items - pencil crayons, pencils, toothbrushes, Tylenol, etc., etc. They get tons of that crap, and get to a point where there's no need to receive it. Instead, my wife and I have always brought boxes and boxes of 3-packs of Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Not sure if you get it in different parts of the world, but it's a very Canadian treat for Easter, a milk chocolate egg that's filled with white and yellow creamy fondant filling. We've always got huge eyes of thank you for bringing a very rare "gourmet" treat, something very outside of the norm to what they normally receive, or can get.

But this new stuff with these ration cuts will no doubt hurt everyone. Looks like lots of small bars of soap, and small tubes of toothpaste, will be a great provision to bring then. WITH the Creme Eggs!

[Bartolomeo]

Wow. The news just keeps on getting better.

Looks like I know what to bring when I go there in January.

I've always shied away from the normal "tourist-webpage" recommended items - pencil crayons, pencils, toothbrushes, Tylenol, etc., etc. They get tons of that crap, and get to a point where there's no need to receive it. Instead, my wife and I have always brought boxes and boxes of 3-packs of Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Not sure if you get it in different parts of the world, but it's a very Canadian treat for Easter, a milk chocolate egg that's filled with white and yellow creamy fondant filling. We've always got huge eyes of thank you for bringing a very rare "gourmet" treat, something very outside of the norm to what they normally receive, or can get.

But this new stuff with these ration cuts will no doubt hurt everyone. Looks like lots of small bars of soap, and small tubes of toothpaste, will be a great provision to bring then. WITH the Creme Eggs!

Love them eggs!

Enjoy your trip in January

Bart

[thechenman]

Now that's just plain dirty...

[sblevit]

Checklist for trip to Cuba:

1. 20 bars of soap. Check

2. 20 bottles of shampoo. Check

3. Condoms. Check

[#2 man]

and how many hands touch the tobacco before you smoke it?

[ATGroom]

and how many hands touch the tobacco before you smoke it?

Might finally get rid of those occasional soapy cigars!