Flickering lights

摘要

The vote on June 3rd by the Organisation of American States (oas) to lift Cuba's 47-year suspension from the regional block did little to lift the island's weary population, who face deeper hardships from an austerity programme their government began this week. Cuba faces the return of the frequent power cuts that were common in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, its hitherto paymaster.rnBuses and trains have been cut. State-run shops have been told to switch off their refrigerators for two hours a day. Bakeries must not bake in the evening, when power consumption peaks. Foreign firmsrnwanting to take more than a few hundred dollars out of the country now need the central bank's permission. These and other retrenchments reflect a growing liquidity crisis. The price of nickel, once Cuba's leading export earner, has slumped. The global downturn has hit tourism. Oil production remains plagued by inefficiency.