Putting a Hand Out

NEED TO KNOW

Putting a Hand Out

CUBA

In the early period of Cuba’s communist regime, the island was remarkably safe. Violent crime rates were low. Guns were scarce. Critics would counter that undue repression of Cubans’ freedoms was the reason for this security, while others argued that Cubans didn’t mind giving up their liberties to be safe.

The late leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, even once bragged that Cuba was “the safest country in the world.”

Those days are over now. While government statistics say the Caribbean country is still safe, Cubans who spoke to the BBC claimed they are mourning loved ones killed in gang wars over drug markets and that they fear walking the streets at night.

This spike in crime comes, unsurprisingly, as the island’s economy is collapsing. As Le Monde explained, more than 96 percent of Cubans surveyed said they faced challenges finding a meal. The same people said the Cuban government’s food rations – called the libreta – were not enough to feed their families.

Inflation in the wake of the pandemic coupled with American sanctions are the immediate causes of the problem. But the slow decay of the communist model eight years after the death of revolutionary dictator Fidel, and three years after his brother (and successor) Raúl stood down, is also to blame.

Cuba used to export sugar. Now the country imports it. It buys eggs from Colombia. Even those supplies are in jeopardy, however, because Cuba now lacks foreign currency. It receives milk powder from the United Nations. Rolling blackouts attest to its crumbling power system when storms like Hurricane Helene aren’t battering the island. Medicine in the much-ballyhooed Cuban health system is hard to find, too.

“The result is growing inequality, unrest and emigration,” wrote the Economist.

Around 850,000 Cubans have arrived in the US since 2022, the biggest migration between the island and the mainland in history, reported El País. In the two years through 2023, around 1.12 million Cubans fled the country in total. Experts warned of “demographic depletion” where too few people and too few offspring lead to crippling economic problems as society ages.

The situation presents the US with a problem. American officials want to see a pro-democracy, pro-free market government takeover in the Cuban capital Havana. But if that shift requires millions of Cubans to take to the sea to seek asylum in the US, noted World Politics Review, American politicians will have a crisis on their hands.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, meanwhile, is looking to China and Russia for help. If the US won’t permit American companies to invest and operate in Cuba, Newsweek reported, the Cuban government has little choice but to seek out other powerful patrons whose governments share its autocratic bent.

That’s called “doubling down” in geopolitical parlance.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Letting Go

CHAGOS ISLANDS

The United Kingdom on Thursday agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending a decades-long dispute over the Indian Ocean archipelago that is home to a strategic US-UK military base, Politico reported.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth announced a “seminal moment” in their political agreement over the archipelago’s future.

Under the deal, the UK will return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, except for the island of Diego Garcia which houses a US base for naval ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

Diego Garcia Island will remain under US and UK jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.

The agreement will also see Mauritius implement a program of resettlement, while the UK will provide a financial support package to boost development in the archipelago.

In a joint statement, the two countries said the agreement “will address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians.”

The dispute over the archipelago dates back to the 1960s.

Mauritius has argued that it was forced to give up the islands after it became independent from the UK in 1968. The UK expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s so that it could lease Diego Garcia Island to the US for military use.

The two allies have jointly operated the base there since that period, according to the Guardian.

The recent agreement follows rounds of negotiations that began in 2022, three years after the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that the UK had unlawfully separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius.

The court said the UK was “under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”

The previous Conservative government had rejected calls to return the islands, countering that the ICJ’s ruling was only an advisory opinion.

Despite receiving support from the current Labour government and the United States, the decision to cede the archipelago sparked criticism from the Conservative opposition in the UK.

Shadow Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, who is running for the Conservative party leadership, argued that the move “compromises both our national security and the stability of the region.”

The Chagossian community also remained divided over the agreement, with some saying they would have preferred self-determination to being under the jurisdiction of Mauritius.

Chagossian Voices, a community organization for Chagossians based in the UK and other countries, admonished the British government for failing to consult with the islanders before making the agreement.

Go Home

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Dominican Republic will start deporting 10,000 undocumented Haitians a week in a new plan that is being hailed at home but which is igniting concerns from human rights groups because these refugees would be returned to a country suffering staggering levels of violence, Le Monde reported.

Presidential spokesman Homero Figueroa said Wednesday that the plan is aimed at reducing “the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities.” He said the deportations would start “immediately” and be done “according to strict protocols that ensure respect for human rights.”

Officials in the Caribbean island explained that the move comes as the United Nations-backed mission to restore security in Haiti has been slow to improve the situation there. Last week, President Luis Abinader told the UN General Assembly that we must take “drastic measures” if the mission in Haiti fails, the Associated Press noted.

Since coming to power, Abinader has taken a tough stance on emigrating Haitians, including building a 102-mile concrete wall between the two countries.

Last year, Dominican Republic authorities deported around 250,000 undocumented Haitians.

Meanwhile, critics and human rights advocates have accused Abinader’s administration of human rights violations. The government has rejected those charges.

Haiti has been grappling with a political and security crisis for years, one that has seen criminal gangs take control of 80 percent of the capital of Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country. The violence has forced thousands to flee and left 700,000 people homeless.

After months of delay, a UN-approved force led by Kenya has been deployed to Haiti in an effort to restore order. The mission includes nearly 400 Kenyan police officers, supported by around two dozen police and soldiers from Jamaica, and senior military officers from Belize.

Bribes, Jets and Regrets

SINGAPORE

A former Singaporean cabinet minister was sentenced to a year in prison on Thursday, the first-ever jail sentence for a high-level official in the country, in a corruption case that has rocked the city-state known for its clean governance, according to CNN.

In a court hearing last week, Subramaniam Iswaran, a cabinet member for 13 years who held the transportation, trade and communication portfolios, pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice and four counts of improperly receiving more than $300,000 worth of gifts.

The prosecution argued that Iswaran had accepted gifts from business people including tickets to London musicals, English Premier League matches, the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, and a ride on a private jet.

When Iswaran was first charged in January, he resigned from his position as transport minister. He initially denied the charges, but last week pled guilty to the five counts.

This case shocked the Asian financial hub, which has long enjoyed a reputation for clean government – Singapore was ranked as the fifth least corrupt nation in the world on Transparency International’s 2023 corruption perception index.

Meanwhile, the last time a government official was involved in a corruption case was in 1986, but the suspect died before he could be charged, the BBC reported.

Singapore pays its ministers a starting salary topping $36,000 a month, well above the national medium monthly wage of $4,000, to discourage corruption.

“Given the amount of wealth that is running through Singapore today … whatever is being offered in terms of compensation for senior political appointees may no longer be sufficient,” political scientist Ian Chong told NPR, adding that this policy for salaries was devised in the 1980s.

Iswaran will begin serving his sentence at Changi, the same prison holding inmates on death row, on Monday.

Meanwhile, the conviction comes at a pivotal time for the governing People’s Action Party. The party has seen a decline in voter support after a series of political scandals, and also increasing voter frustration with the rising cost of living.

Singapore is to hold a general election by November 2025.

DISCOVERIES

Lost, and Found

Sometimes when a beloved band disbands or a musician dies, there is still unreleased music. Last year, for example, fans of the iconic rock band, the Beatles, were able to listen to an unreleased song, “Now and Then” with the help of artificial intelligence.

It’s not too often, though, that classical music fans get the same opportunity.

Last week, however, a crowd gathered outside the Leipzig Opera to hear a piece by the legendary composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that was recently discovered in the Leipzig Municipal Library in Germany.

“Mozart dropped a new single,” wrote one listener on YouTube. “It’s an honor to be one of the first humans to hear this song in hundreds of years,” said another.

The 12-minute piece, “Serenade in C,” was believed to be composed by Mozart in the mid to late 1760s for a string trio and has seven movements. It’s now been renamed, “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik.”

Its first modern performance took place in the Austrian city of Salzburg – where Mozart was born in 1756 – late last September, Sky News reported.

Researchers discovered the manuscript in the Leipzig Music Library while compiling the latest edition of the Köchel catalog, Mozart’s musical works archive, ClassicFM wrote. The manuscript is unsigned by Mozart, and believed to be a copy made around 1780.

Mozart is considered one of the greatest composers in history. A child prodigy, he began creating scores at the age of five, composing more than 800 works before his death aged just 35.

The newly discovered piece is said to have been composed when Mozart was somewhere between 10 and 13 years old, based on the compositional characteristics of Mozart’s early work.

Listen to the piece here.

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