| In January I spent two weeks in Cuba, and | | | | -or Raoul - is now big chums with Hugo Chavez in |
| before I went I sawthe video "The Power of | | | | Venezuela whichhas lots of oil. (This is fortunate, |
| Community - how Cuba survived Peak Oil" | | | | as all generating plants,large and small, seem to be |
| Cuba suffered an economic shock when the | | | | oil -fueled.) Cuba has sent 20,000doctors to |
| Soviet Union collapsedin 1990. For the previous 30 | | | | Venezuela and receives oil in return. I've not |
| years it had been receivingsubstantial support, | | | | beenable to determine whether this is as much as |
| including technical assistance and cheapoil in | | | | Russia used toprovide. |
| exchange for sugar. All this stopped almost | | | | There is still a transport problem exacerbated |
| overnight. | | | | both by oilshortages and by the lack of spare |
| For the same 30 years the United States has | | | | parts for vehicles. Masstransit is just that: people |
| operated a tradeembargo and travel ban against | | | | packed into goods lorries. |
| Cuba, and this continues to thepresent day. | | | | Government vehicles of all kinds are expected to |
| Cuba has some oil of its own, though not nearly | | | | takehitch-hikers, and yellow-uniformed hitchhike |
| enough fortransport, electricity generation and - | | | | coordinators arestationed at the side of the road |
| crucially - fertilizerand pesticide production. At the | | | | to ensure that they do. Cubawas one of the first |
| time of the Soviet collapse | | | | Latin-American countries to have railways. |
| Cuba was using more fertilizer per acre than the | | | | They are still there, but like the roads they are |
| US;agricultural production fell dramatically. Food | | | | long overduefor repairs and maintenance. |
| rationing wasintroduced but the population began | | | | So has Cuba successfully survived Peak Oil? The |
| to suffer from malnutrition. | | | | countrycertainly suffered an oil shock with |
| The film shows how large state farms were | | | | far-reaching consequences,and while things are |
| broken up intoindividual co-operatives and how | | | | better than they were in the early 90speople say |
| every spare piece of land inthe cities was turned | | | | that things are still not what they were before |
| over to growing vegetables. With nofertiliser, | | | | the |
| agriculture had to be organic, and with no fuel | | | | Soviet Union collapsed. The on-going US embargo |
| fortractors, oxen and horses returned to the land. | | | | has continued tomake things difficult, though |
| Farming becamelabour-intensive; more and more | | | | ironically Cuba still buysmillions of dollars of food |
| people became farmers. | | | | from the US, and Cuban expands in the |
| In the early 90s power cuts were common - | | | | States also send about $1billion back home each |
| lasting up to 24hours. If people could get to work | | | | year. With only |
| (and transport was severelydisrupted) they often | | | | 11m people in 111,000 km2, [UK 60m - |
| had nothing to do because there was nopower. | | | | 242,000km2] the country hasthe potential to be |
| It's only in the last few years that electricity | | | | self-sufficient in agriculture, but thecommand |
| cutshave largely disappeared. The solution has | | | | economy has been unable to achieve this. The |
| come in three ways. | | | | 2006 Annual |
| First, the aging national grid has been superseded | | | | Economic Review notes that MP's at the |
| to a largeextent by building a lot of neighborhood | | | | Economic Committeecomplain of labor discipline |
| generators to replacethe few large power | | | | problems which lead to lowproductivity, corruption |
| stations and the nuclear station that thesoviets | | | | and squandering. |
| never finished. (Not CHP - in that climate you | | | | Do we have a lesson for the rest of the world? |
| justdon't need the heat!) Secondly the | | | | The world willsuffer similar problems from Peak |
| government has manageddemand, and you don't | | | | Oil, but it is unlikely thatthey will arise quite as |
| see filament bulbs anywhere - they're all | | | | suddenly as they did in Cuba. The mostimportant |
| CFL's. There is also a program to replace | | | | difference is that Cuba has replaced its Russian |
| domestic applianceswith more efficient ones. (But | | | | oil,at least to some extent, with Venezuelan oil. |
| Cuba is a poor country, and thevolume of | | | | The world doesn'thave that option. |
| domestic appliances must be small.) Thirdly, Fidel | | | | On a global scale, when the oil's gone, it's gone! |