In September, the Associated Press reported that Cuba had adopted a policy that would allow access to the Internet through computer facilities at post offices. Previously, Cubans could access e-mail through the island intranet at such hubs, but had little general web access. The announcement signaled a policy change (the resolution that changed the policy was published in Cuba’s Gaceta Oficial, reproduced here), but unfortunately, real progress has been slow. As the BBC’s Fernando Ravsberg stated this week, “The measure is being applied with typical slowness by the Cuban bureaucracy, such that two months after the resolution there is still not a single post office enabled.”

If it is simply bureaucratic delay, then the new policy, when eventually enacted, will have wide implications. It seems that Cubans now have the ability to access Google, BBC, and other websites and news sources, even those in Miami. Internet access in tourist hotels—limited temporarily to only tourists—has been reopened to Cubans.

The price for Internet access remains high (most between 6-10 US dollars an hour), and the Cuban state blames this on the US embargo, saying that its restrictions force them to connect to the Internet only by expensive satellite. But by next year, Venezuela’s fiber-optic cable will reach Cuba, changing this entirely. And President Obama has already authorized US telecommunications companies to negotiate with Havana. These options for potentially cheaper Internet, together with a policy that allows Cubans Internet access, open the future wide.

Jokes between U.S. and Cuban officials? Very unusual. Humor does not usually enter the US-Cuban relationship, but this is funny:

At a New America Foundation reception today, Jorge Bolaños—the Cuban representative in Washington in lieu of a formal ambassador—related a story in which the State Department recently denied a visa to Ricardo Alarcón, the president of Cuba’s National Assembly, three days before he was to come to Washington for a conference. Upon hearing the news, Alarcón asked Bolaños to thank the State Department because it was the first time they had actually given three-days’ notice that his visa would be denied. ”This is an improvement. I assure you this is an improvement,” Bolaños joked.

On a more serious note, he commented, ”There is a lot of hiding and issues on both sides, but everything is possible once we sit down at the table, and everything is possible if we both respect sovereignty, a sense of equality and sole determination for each country.”

Around 200,000 private farmers and their families grow and cure tobacco for cigars under contract with the Cuban state, and tens of thousands more roll the leaves into puros for export. Cuba’s cigar brands, which include Cohiba, Montecristo, Trinidad and Partagas, dominate the global premium market: their sales comprise 70% of the world total (even while they are excluded, of course, from the US market by the embargo).

But demand for Cuban cigars, the “best in the world,” is down. The global recession and a proliferation of smoking bans worldwide have both left their mark, such that demand for Cuba’s cigars fell by 3% in 2008, and is reportedly down by 15% in 2009.

It is for this reason that Cuba has decided to slash the acreage devoted to growing tobacco by more than 30%. Cuba’s National Statistics Office, in a report posted on its web page, said land to be planted with tobacco for next year’s crop would be only 49,000 acres, down from 70,000 acres this year, which was in turn less than in 2008. Cuba’s cigar rolling factories have been operating at well below capacity all year, and with these further cuts in acreage, the crop produced will continue to decline.

As perhaps the most characteristically desirable and successful Cuban product (rivaled at one point, perhaps, by rum), the cigar’s current troubles illustrate the extent to which the Cuban economy continues to flounder while the state struggles to keep it afloat.

Raúl’s promise of a new socialist model continues to evolve in practice:

The Cuban state began a trial program yesterday that closed state-run lunchrooms in four government ministries and instead provided workers with a small stipend for lunch, equivalent to about 60-70 cents. The idea is to see how well it works and whether the lunchroom closures should be extended to workplaces in the rest of the country. As the system stands, the state provides free lunch—usually rice, beans and maybe a little meat—to 3.5 million Cubans daily, at a cost of more than $350 million a year to a cash-strapped government.

This test, then, is significant to the continuing evolution of the country. As Nick Miroff of GlobalPost put it, “For the nearly half-century that Fidel Castro ruled the island before officially stepping down last year, Cuba’s socialist system has tended to place ideology and egalitarianism over efficiency, creating a series of entitlements guaranteed to all Cubans, often at the expense of quality.” Raúl, on the other hand, is out to eliminate inefficiency in order to create a socialist system that will be sustainable over the long term, even if it means getting rid of the free hot lunch.

Likely benefits of the new policy: Cubans who pack lunches will see their take-home income increase; work attendance could increase, as workers only get the stipend if they show up; the Cuban state will save considerably; and the black market for lunchroom items would necessarily disappear (today, around 20% of imported goods destined for lunchrooms are stolen either for personal consumption or private sale).

Likely drawbacks? Unclear. So far workers seem to have mixed feelings: some like the cash stipend better, some say it is only enough for a cheap meal at a snack bar. The lunchroom arrangement received its fair share of criticism previously—for low quality and variety, mostly—so an attempt to solve the problems of the old system might be simply… appreciated.

In the video below, Ann Louise Bardach (author of the new book Without Fidel and the previous Cuba Confidential) and Steve Clemons (of the Havana Note and New America) discuss current Cuba topics: the recent Juanes concert, Fidel, Raúl, the March cabinet shuffle, Cuba’s relations with Venezuela and China, and the case of Luis Posada Carriles.

As we discussed a few weeks ago, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Bisa Williams traveled to Cuba for the September 17 talks on reestablishing mail service between the two countries. Only today, however, did State Department officials tell the press that Williams remained in Cuba for five days following those talks. The mail service discussions had been public, but neither country revealed that the senior US diplomat stayed on.

During those extra five days, Williams apparently met with host government officials and a wide range of civil society representatives to “gain a full appreciation of the political and economic situation on the ground.” She also met with Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez, visited an area affected by hurricanes in the Western province of Pinar del Rio and toured a government agricultural facility. State Department spokespeople would not confirm reports that Williams might have also met with Cuban dissidents, but further details on the trip will likely come out with a bit more time.

This is a classic example of the effect of history, politics and interest group concerns on the US-Cuba relationship: steps toward normalization are shielded in secrecy in order to pad the reaction.

I recently had the privilege of meeting with a Cuban official to exchange thoughts on U.S.-Cuban relations. I took note in particular of the following points he made:

—The official said he was pleased by the recent progress between Cuba and the United States, especially with respect to the bilateral migration discussions that took place in NYC in July (and will likely continue with another round in Havana in December or January, he said), and to President Obama’s April promises to ease restrictions on travel by and remittances from Cuban-Americans. But even the migration talks were not new; they were a necessity that had been paused for five years under the George W. Bush administration. And President Obama’s promises took five months to materialize—why so long?

—He expressed frustration that the Ley de Ajuste (the Cuban-Adjustment Act) was not on the table in the bilateral migration conversations, when this was one of the most important migration issues from the Cuban perspective. Under it, Cubans are treated differently than any other migrant to the United States; there is no cap on the number of Cubans that can be naturalized in a given year, and Cubans are not required to enter the United States at a port-of-entry. Coupled with the wet foot-dry foot policy, the Cuban Government considers this a deadly law.

—He also stood firmly behind the official statements from Cuba on the issue of discussions “without preconditions.” Creating preconditions—i.e. necessary steps that Cuba must take before the United States is willing to even speak directly—means, in his view, that the United States already does not consider the nations to be speaking igual a igual. There is no Cuban official that is not willing to speak to the United States, he said. And Raúl has indeed stated multiple times that Havana is ready to talk to Washington about anything. But Cuba wants to be treated as an equal in such discussions, because as an independent nation it is an equal, and will not settle for less.

—The official I spoke to strongly favored easing of travel restrictions to allow US citizens to visit Cuba, which he said was important for dispelling myths that Americans may have incorporated into their understanding of the country. Americans must see el Cuba real, he argued, so they can see that it is not a country of poor citizens crushed under the thumb of dictatorship.

—Importantly, he conceded that the country is not perfect by a long shot. A country under great pressure, he noted, cannot be perfect, and indeed cannot be normal and cannot afford to have every decision approved by all parties.

This was a rare chance for me to hear these perspectives first-hand, instead of attempting to interpret them through Cuban and U.S. news outlets.

The UN General Assembly will soon reconvene for a new session, and Cuba has again submitted a draft resolution urging for an end to the U.S. economic and financial embargo. This will presumably be the 18th year that a majority of the international community condemns this U.S. policy, as that “majority” grew to 185 countries last year. Only three sided against Cuba’s resolution in 2008—the United States, Israel and Palau.

One of the pillars of President Obama’s foreign policy has been a commitment to support multilateral institutions, but will the resolution this year have any sway with the administration? It has yet to make a difference in nearly two decades of similar votes.

Thousands of Cubans use their privately-owned classic or modern cars to give black-market rides, risking steep fines or losing their cars to the state if caught. In some areas, they troll set routes where commuters wait for a lift. The existence of the illegal business is a necessity for car-less Cubans, who are for the most part not allowed to buy new cars and thus are left dependent upon a deficient public transportation system.

This year, the Cuban state appears to be reconciling demand and supply in its laws. Havana had stopped granting new licenses for private taxis in October 1999, but lifted the restrictions in January. By May, authorities started handing out taxi permissions to applicants, but were so inundated with requests that they quickly suspended the program in Havana and only fully resumed on Friday.

Licensed taxi drivers will pay a monthly fee of $21.50 to drive fellow Cubans (not foreigners, who are driven by a different fleet of taxis), whether they ultimately make that much or not.

It’s a small free-market opening in Cuba’s state-run economy—one that will not lead to riches, but might help alleviate a pressing problem.

– On Friday, Cuban Vice President Juan Almeida Bosque (the communist government’s “number three”) died of cardiac arrest, at age 82. His death was mourned by tens of thousands of Cubans who lined up on Sunday at the Plaza de la Revolucion to pay their respects.

The symbolism of this particular individual is twofold. First, he was one of the few left that fought alongside Fidel Castro in the 1959 revolution, and therefore his passing is a sign of the mortality of that aging generation. And second, as an Afro-Cuban revolutionary, Almeida’s close ties to Castro were seen, especially at the time of the revolution, as a concrete example of blacks’ new access to power and influence in Cuba. That reality was an inspiration to many Cubans.

– Today President Obama extended the embargo on Cuba for another year, as U.S. presidents have done annually since the 1970s. In the context of what has been a gradual U.S. opening to Cuba, and considering his previous statements on the issue, he could not really have been expected to do any differently with respect to the embargo, despite Amnesty International’s timely plea to repeal it.

The President’s decision is mostly symbolic, since the ultimate decision lies with Congress. Under the Helms-Burton Act, the embargo will only be rescinded when Cuba makes certain steps toward becoming a democracy.