Cuban society in late 2008 appears to be even more divided that ever. Far from the communist ideal as the island is about to 'celebrate' 50 years of revolution I found the island to be a divided land of those with cash and those scraping and existence. It all seems to centre on your ability to get your hands on Cuban Convertible Currency CUC which is supposedly only spent by the tourists, where as the rest of the country spend Cuban Pesos and scrape by. If you are lucky enough to be working in anything to do with the tourist industry you will get paid in CUC. Where as taxi drivers Casa owners and anyone mildly related to the islands visitors gets there hands on this pot of Gold, hard working Doctors, Government workers such as engineers and teachers get paid in Pesos at the equivalent of $30 a month. The irony that I found while my taxi driver could afford to take his holidays outside Cuba another 'illegal' taxi that I took was driven by a hand Surgeon at night after he had toiled all day in one of Havanas main hospitals.
The pictures in this blog post show both ends of Society. Where as The first shows a small affluent Cuban family the second shows a less well off family who have to scrape by with no luxuarys in life.
While shoppers buy their last presents on Christmas eve in Oxford Street, London one more shop hits the wall of insolvency. Financial experts in the UK are predicting that mid January will see up to 15 high street retailers go bust. Already with several days to go in 2008 the numbers are stacking up. Every day seems to add to the gloom with iconic retailer Woolworths now in its death throws. These photos show the perfume store clearing the decks. Look beyond the obvious. On the edges of the pictures people are thinking about buying or sampling the wears.
