Yoani sounds off with skepticism

The newest post up at Generation Y, Chaplinesque, contains Yoani Sanchez's deeply skeptical reaction to last Friday's Granma article detailing forthcoming regulations on self-employment.

El Yuma is working hard for you and reading all he can about the new regs and the various reactions and interpretations to this new experiment with self-employment. Later this week I will post my own take on all these reactions and give you links to them so you can read them for yourself.

For now, let's just say that there is a wide spectrum of reactions, ranging from:

Naive: Hooray, here comes capitalism!  Let's hope it's not too late.

to Hopeful: This looks good, I hope they follow through...

to Doubtful: They keep talking only about order, control, and taxes, not real promotion - don't hold your breath.

to Skeptical: I've seen this movie before back in the 1990s and it doesn't end well.

to Cynical: They just wanted to get rid of half-a-million workers. This is just neo-liberalism under the guise of a "new kind" of socialism. Nothing will change in Cuba until the Castro brothers are dead and gone.

I, myself, am hovering somewhere between hopeful and doubtful.  Like a good academic, I want data and am withholding judgement until I see how this plays out en la practica.  But remember for some people who've been burned before by Big Brother (or the "Big Brothers"), what may sound to you and me like cynicism is for them simple reality.