domingo, 20 de octubre de 2013

Extensive listening: Cuba

In 2012 BBC journalist Simon Reeve went to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution.

Two years before Cuba had announced the most radical economic reforms the country had seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world had begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale.

In the documentary, Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of start-up businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth a fortune.

Cuba, famous for its hospitality and humour, is uncertain whether this new economic openness will lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?




You can read the transcript for the first fourteen minutes here.