Weekend Box #105: Cuba’s Civil Crisis, Reasons to Be Cheerful? & more
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.
CUBA’S CIVIL CRISIS
Rare protests erupted in Cuba this week, driven by escalating tensions surrounding power disruptions and food scarcities amid an economic downturn in the Communist-led nation. Demonstrators took to the streets in Santiago, the country’s second-largest city, demanding access to electricity and provisions in a nation heavily reliant on fuel and food imports from allies such as Russia and Venezuela.
Videos circulated on social media capturing protesters gathering on the outskirts of Santiago, an uncommon occurrence in a country where dissent is typically met with force. While protests were reported in other provinces, Havana, the capital, seems unaffected at present.
Acknowledging the peaceful protests, the US embassy urged the Cuban government to respect its citizens' rights and address their legitimate grievances. The enduring trade embargo upheld by Washington against Cuba has strained relations between the two nations since the Cuban revolution of the 1950s.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel attributed the unrest to “mediocre politicians and terrorists on social media lined up from Florida to fire up the streets of Cuba,” and blamed US involvement, a claim rebuffed by the US State Department as baseless.
Cuba’s energy and economic crises have been exacerbated both by the Covid-19 pandemic, sending inflation soaring to 30% and essential goods in short supply, and recent drastic measures by the government. These include significant increases in fuel prices, which have increased the hardships faced by the population. Amid the turmoil, Cuba has continued to rely on its alliances for support. President Díaz-Canel recently extended congratulations to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his controversial re-election.
Despite its historical reluctance, Cuba accepted food aid from the UN’s World Food Programme last month, highlighting the severity of its food insecurity. Protests, though infrequent, have become symptomatic of mounting frustration with the government's handling of the crisis, echoing the widespread demonstrations in 2021 that resulted in hundreds of arrests and charges.
Image credit/EU2017EE Estonian Presidency on Flickr/License
TUSK’S IN POLE POSITION
What a difference six months makes. In the Autumn, hopes for Poland were low after the right-wing Law and Justice Party had spent 8 years dismantling the pillars of liberal democracy. Today, many of those measures are being reversed and there is a sense, both internally and internationally, that the country is back.
The difference is leadership.
Donald Tusk – Poland’s former prime minister and latterly president of the European Council – returned to the premiership in December and has wasted no time unwinding the policies of his predecessor. He has removed partial judges from their posts; disbanded the state broadcaster that had become tainted by political interference, replacing it with a new independent institution instead; and his government recently passed a general law “to remove the effects of the constitutional crisis of 2015–2023.” It’s all very ‘move fast and break things.’
The same is true on the international stage, as this week’s meeting of the so-called “Weimar Triangle” in Berlin proved. The grouping of France, Germany, and Poland was conceived in the early 90s, but has lain dormant for much of that time. Tusk’s arrival in the German capital was seen by many as a sign that Poland is ready to change this and to play a significant role in European affairs once again.
The meeting came as France and Germany continue to take different approaches to the war in Ukraine. President Macron’s recent sabre-rattling has not landed well in Germany, where Chancellor Scholz favours a more diplomatic tone.
Enter Tusk, who wasted no time in being clear where his sympathies lie. “Ukraine needs less talk and more ammo,” he said, siding firmly with the French President. His German hosts quickly discovering what the Polish people know to be true: Donald Tusk is not messing around.
Image credit/Gage Skidmore on Flickr/License
THAT’S SHOW BIZ
There’s a cliché about politics being a kind of showbusiness that doesn’t bear repeating here, yet it is hard not to see the lines between politics and performance increasingly blurring. Ofcom has taken a stand by ruling that the right-leaning, ‘anti-woke’ GB News, known for stoking the flames of the culture war with its reportage, has repeatedly breached impartiality standards by allowing MPs to present – though with no real consequences for the broadcaster.
The regulator concluded that GB News had broken rules by allowing serving MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg to act as newsreaders, news interviewers, and news reporters, meaning that viewers could not be assured that the news was being delivered to them in an impartial, unbiased manner.
While GB News has argued that the ruling is a “chilling development…for freedom of speech,” they will face no sanctions for it. They simply must ensure they do not break the rules again. The broadcaster has stated its intention to keep politicians as presenters, and an internal memo has reportedly circulated urging staff to make programming “too watertight to attack.”
It’s interesting that this comes in the same week that the government declares plans to refer the takeover of The Telegraph and other titles by Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI to a regulatory probe, after an outcry about foreign ownership and its potential threat to Britain’s press freedom. A ban on foreign governments owning newspapers is also due to come into force.
It seems we only want our wealthy financiers to use their media interests to influence the cultural conversation if they’re home-grown (or from Australia).
There is an inherent risk in blurring the lines between politics and showbusiness: it gets ugly. Sometimes, you end up with figures who use a form of politics-as-showmanship to gain influence, and then we all have to deal with the consequences. Another example from this week: Donald Trump was interviewed by fellow showman Nigel Farage. Can you guess where that was broadcast?
ARE DRUG GAMES A MUG’S GAME?
The Weekend Box recently covered the challenges facing the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. While significant, these pale in comparison to the controversy being courted by the Enhanced Games, which drew fresh criticism this week.
The self-described ‘Olympics of the future,’ the Enhanced Games plan to allow athletes to take steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in order to ‘see what humans are truly capable of.’
Unsurprisingly, the premise has been ridiculed by influential figures in the traditional sporting world. When asked about the concept Lord Sebastian Coe, current World Athletics president, said, “It’s bollocks isn’t it?” He added that any athletes “moronic enough” to compete in the Enhanced Games would face a lengthy ban from traditional events.
On Tuesday Australian Sports Commission boss Kieren Perkins added to the criticism: “The idea of an Enhanced Games is laughable… Someone will die if we allow that sort of environment to continue to prosper and flourish."
Yet the Enhanced Games has significant support, not least in financial backing. In January this year the Games announced a multimillion-dollar investment round with funding from Christian Angermayer's Apeiron Investment Group, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan.
The brainchild of Australian businessman Aron D’Souza, the Games states its ambition to be ‘the most efficient international sports event’ and ‘the safest international sporting event in history.’ It claims that the private funding will enable them to pay athletes fairly for their participation, while free medical screenings prior to competition will improve their safety (as opposed to the Olympic Games, in which no mandatory health screening exists outside of the post-event drug testing).
No date or venue has been set for the event, although its website states: “Many exciting announcement [sic] will be made over the coming months.”
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL?
The world often feels like a deeply sad place. 2024 might be one of humanity’s worse years in recent times, with war raging in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East; famine; the manifold impacts of climate change; and the rest.
Over to the UN’s World Happiness Day, which landed this week, to cheer us up. The Day was created to recognise the importance of happiness as a measure of human development. If the ultimate goal of human life is to be happy, then public policy should reflect that.
The Day marks the release of the UN’s World Happiness Report, which ranks countries by their happiness levels, measured by factors such as income, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.
For the seventh year in a row, Finland was found to be the happiest country. Northern European neighbours Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden took second, third, and fourth place behind it respectively. We are reminded of Bryan Kaplan’s famous quote that alternative country rankings are largely measures of “how Scandinavian your country is.”
Israel took a surprise fifth, explained by the data being collected before Hamas’ 7 October attacks. Other interesting rankings include Costa Rica and Kuwait, at 12 and 13. Less of a surprise is Afghanistan taking last place, just below much of sub-Saharan Africa.
David Cameron championed the "happiness" measure during his time as prime minister, arguing it should be seen as an important measure in determining a country’s success; it wasn’t all about GDP, but GWB, ‘general wellbeing.’ It’s fair to say it’s not really caught on: old Blighty languishes in 20th behind Lithuania and just ahead of Slovenia.
We are at least ahead of all other G7 nations, except Canada. Although the Weekend Box isn’t sure “we’re happier than the French” is much of a boast.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audleyadvisors.com.
The Weekend Box will be taking a short break for the bank holiday weekend. We wish our readers a Happy Easter and look forward to catching up again soon. For now, that’s The Weekend Box officially closed.