Philippe Legrain links to a story in the FT a couple of days ago about the phenomenal level of remittances to their families back home by immigrants from Latin American and the Caribbean. I was very struck by the chapter on this in his recent book, and talked about the "suitcase full of cash" which he says is the preferred method for Cuban immigrants with my Cuban friend a couple of days ago. She says that actually it's not suitcasefuls of cash, but in her case suitcasefuls of clothes and sheets. Apparently as a primary school teacher in Cuba she was earning $5 a month, but clothes, sheets, towels cost about the same as in Primark in the UK, and are worse quality.
The solution to survival for most Cubans, apart from relying on family members overseas, is to steal from their employers (who are all state run). In my friend's case, she could not and would not steal from her school, so she made ends meet by taking on private pupils, which she said was "naughty". I said surely it was not "naughty" in the sense of immoral, but illegal in Cuba. She said "'naughty', 'illegal', 'immoral', it is all the same thing in Cuba at the moment."
She would like to bring supplies to her old school, she says, because even a suitcaseful of stationery would make a huge difference to them, but of course her family needs come first. So, if you must visit Cuba "before it gets commercialised", please pack as much as you can into your suitcase for schools, or track down a Cuban person in the UK and ask them what you can take.
