Mar 27, 2008 9:31 am US/Eastern
Cuba Allows Residents To Receive 1st Microwaves
HAVANA (CBS4) ―
An appliance that is taken for granted in just about every home in America could soon be coming to thousands of kitchens in Cuba.
It's the microwave oven.
"In the past, only people with money had them; poor people couldn't have one. The only way was by paying in installments and you had to have a good salary in order to pay. Not any more. Now the revolution gave us one to test and if it works out, they'll give one to whomever wants one," said 91-yer old Ana Magdalena Melian who had never seen a microwave oven until one came to her kitchen courtesy of the Cuban communist government.
About 3,000 households in Las Guasimas, a village just southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana, got microwaves in late December as part of a state-run pilot program.
Over a three month period, families were asked how they used the ovens, if the Chinese made microwaves were reliable and how much electricity they used.
The microwaves were such a hit that Cuba's supreme governing body, the Council of State, is considering offering them to families across the island on credit that could be paid back over a long period of time.
Similar credit programs have for decades allowed Cubans to slowly pay off subsidized color television sets, pressure cookers, air conditioners and refrigerators.
The microwave ovens are symbolic of a new hope for Cuba's future - many are hoping the appliances and the pilot program that brought them to Las Guasimas mean new President Raul Castro's government is ready to do away with longstanding restrictions on some consumer goods.
"What I feel is what the whole town feels. We are very happy. We're living a new experience and the results are satisfying," said Marisa Gutierrez, a 49-year-old housewife.
According to an official-sounding but undated memo leaked to foreign reporters this month, the new government already has approved unrestricted sales of microwaves, computers, DVD players and television sets of various sizes, as well electric bicycles and car alarms - though none of those items have yet appeared on the shelves of state-run department or appliance stores. The leaked memo seemed to suggest the island's improved power grid was partly the reason for the decision to allow greater access to consumer goods which run on electricity.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has provided his close friend and socialist alley Fidel Castro with a number of generous oil subsidies and other aid to help Cuba improve its creaky power grid. Also, credits from China have provided the island's government the cash to buy consumer goods made there.
Since officially succeeding his brother Fidel on February 24, the 76-year-old Raul Castro has pledged to make improving Cubans' everyday quality of life a top priority.
The 'leaked' memo directs that computers, microwaves and other items be sold in top department stores that charge in Cuban Convertible Pesos, worth 24 times as much as the regular Cuban peso, which state employees are paid in. Under such a system, most Cubans wouldn't be able to afford the new appliances they would suddenly be allowed to buy. The government estimates 60 percent of the island's population has access to Convertible Pesos, dollars or other foreign currency thanks to jobs in tourism, with foreign firms or relatives living in the United States. The average monthly salary in Cuba is about 17 US dollars.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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