The Mother of Invention

Since Cuba lost oil imports from the Soviet Union, they've had to overcome the loss and learn how to make the necessary adjustments to daily life, and the article focused on their education, medicine, housing and transportation. These are all facets of life we, too, face, and can perhaps learn from how they've handled the loss of oil and managed to build and maintain a sense of community. As far as medicine goes, they've done a great job at providing health care or some kind of medical attention to people. As it stands now, there's one doctor for every 167 people, and they emphasize providing preventive medicines, instead of trying to fix those who are already ill and perhaps getting worse. Their level of health is also very high, being that most folks walk or are active on a daily basis and have a good diet. For schooling, the ration is a 1:16 teacher student ratio, and 1:42 teacher - population ration. This is outstanding, and speaks loudly to the amount of attention students receive and the quality of their education. After the fuel loss, they couldn't use their cars, and what cars or vehicles were used were limited to public transportation, which utilized every available space to fit people. 2 million Chinese bikes were imported to help people get around; walking, carts, wheelbarrows and anything else that moves is used to transport goods and people from place to place. This has helped slow their lives down as they rely on more simplistic methods of transportation.

What's important about Cuba's situation is that they've truly managed to live without an abundant oil source. With that channel of energy closed off, they've clearly developed stronger communities and lived very well without the use of oils. The U.S. can certainly turn to Cuba's model for a simplistic standard of living.

Though Cuba is a lifestyle I'd certainly like to take up, there are some hiccups in the situation that are notable.
First, Cuba is very small in comparison to the U.S., being roughly the size of Pennsylvania. This in and of itself makes simpler, more eco-friendly transportation a viable option. With the number of (long) distance commuters today, switching to bikes or walking really is difficult. It isn't impossible for everyone; if people committed to biking farther, and maybe if work sites eliminated dress codes (it's okay to abandon the business attire after a 20 miles bike ride..) this could look better for those farther from work.

The author of the article also states how they identify better with the Cuban way of life (right on board with them there, it sounds wonderful); but they made a couple of comments (page 2 and 7) about the U.S.'s decision to ban visits to Cuba as efforts to keep us from learning about their culture. From what I've known and read about the embargo situation, it's more of a statement against their political platforms than our reluctance to learn from their successful standards of living. We've sacrificed some great learning opportunities here, and considering our current oil addiction, we should be taking notes, but I think this is a result, not the purpose of the ban on Cuba. Hopefully, all will be settled sooner than later and we can openly visit and apply some of their principles to our society as we face a similar crisis.

A question I have is, not whether the principles of Cuban living can be applied to us, because I think they can be, but rather, can these be applied to our society as a whole given the number of factories, buildings, machinery, developed areas we have. To stop cold turkey is seemingly ideal, but is the simplistic life really attainable for us? Have we compromised that opportunity?

AH, do we need to physically eliminate the areas/machines/vehicles that use the resources we don't have so we can finally learn to live without them? Like taking the whole cookie jar away so we don't have the temptation of grabbing from it. Hopefully not that extreme.

Also, I liked the Cuban phrase, "Necessity is the Mother of invention". I totally agree with this, or at least I think necessity should be the driving force of invention. I'm reading a book on the philosophy behind capitalism, and it discusses the relationship between innovation (invention) and profit. It reads,
"From the point of view of an individual, a successful innovation is a source of profit. From the point of view of the community, a successful innovation is an engine for progress" (Pejovich 3).

These two approaches seem to represent our two cultures; the Cuban phrase shows that necessity is what ignites progress and innovation, whereas for us in our economic system, profit ignites innovation, not necessarily necessity. One might argue that profit is a necessity, which, to some degrees it is, but there are limits to that approach.