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Under normal circumstances, Cuba is a country where
electricity is provided to 98 percent of the population.
There is a single energy production and supply system. The
use of power generators ensures supply to crucial centers
under any circumstances. And this will again be the case as
soon as the power grids are restored.
It is worthwhile giving some thought every day to
the cost of electricity; civilized life in today’s world
would be impossible without it. The situation is still more
challenging at the upcoming time of the year as nights grow
longer and all lights and equipment are turned on at the
same time, especially since most homes have several
electrical appliances.
A reflection on the subject would enable us to
understand the predicament of many countries in the world
that need to make fuel imports. In Cuba water energy never
abounded; it never could since we don’t have large rivers.
Solar energy, a renewable and non-contaminant form of
energy, though costly, is already being used at various
places to meet social needs. Finally, there is the wind
energy that started to be tested under the destructive
danger of hurricanes. The efforts will continue to find a
response to the growing energy needs.
Our electricity production basically depends on the
thermoelectric plants built throughout the country under the
Revolution –they barely existed before—together with the
extensive power grid required in a long and narrow island to
compensate for regional deficits and for the indispensable
repairs.
Nevertheless, it is up to us to save fuel daily
used not only to produce electricity but also in other
national activities such as industry, transportation,
construction, land cultivation, etc. I will not list them
all because there are scores of activities where fuel is
consumed, often more than necessary, both in Cuba and
elsewhere. However, it is worse in our case because we have
grown used to receiving from the revolution many things that
we have not worked for. We even tend to forget that
hurricanes exist aggravated by climate changes and other
phenomena brought about by the so-called civilization.
One data would help us illustrate such situation:
the cost of Cuba’s annual energy consumption, at this year’s
prices, exceeds 8 billion dollars.
On the other hand, if we add up the value of
nickel, sugar and the production of the Scientific Cluster,
which are the three main export items, at the present prices
it would hardly amount to 2 billion dollars; and from these
we must deduct the expenses and necessary inputs to produce
them.
Of course, these are not our only sources of hard
currency income. Our homeland is receiving today higher
incomes from the export of services than it does from
material exports. Perhaps, in a rather short period of time,
we become oil exporters. We are already partly so, but of
heavy crude oil that cannot be refined in Cuba due to our
presently limited capacity.
A conclusion that can be drawn from what has been
said is that to the excessive fuel demand of some state
institutions the response has been categorical: reduce the
activities that you have dreamed of or thought about.
Some of our comrades really dream of meeting all
the “unbridled” demands of our people. What we need in our
State is a strict discipline and an absolutely rational
order of priorities. We should not recoil from establishing
what should or should not be done based on the principle
that nothing will come easy and that the material goods can
only be honestly created through intensive and thorough
work.
The means that we cannot fail to have under any
circumstances are those used in the transportation of
material, foodstuff and resources for the most crucial
productions and services.
I insist on the indispensable and crucial necessity
of physical work and not of useless and ineffective
bureaucratic work. We should not be only intellectual
workers but manual workers as well.
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 2, 2008
5:18 p.m. |
