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| Cuba needs modernising – but it can manage without McDonald's | Cuba needs modernising – but it can manage without McDonald's |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Though the chain once loomed large in my children’s lives, nowadays I try not to think about McDonald’s more than a couple of times a year. So it came as a shock to discover that decades of economic sanctions mean that Cuba is one of the few countries in the world without a single branch of the fast-food restaurant. | Though the chain once loomed large in my children’s lives, nowadays I try not to think about McDonald’s more than a couple of times a year. So it came as a shock to discover that decades of economic sanctions mean that Cuba is one of the few countries in the world without a single branch of the fast-food restaurant. |
| No Starbucks either, no Coke (though Sprite seems to have been smuggled in). In a world of cloned high streets, awash with mostly bland global brands, it’s an extraordinary thought. “Maybe it will be a good thing that McDonald’s doesn’t open. It will be the first step towards our death,” the Guardian quoted a Havana hotel concierge as saying after the US president, Barack Obama, arrived to shake hands with his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro. | |
| You can’t imagine George Osborne saying that, can you? Or David Cameron, though Jeremy Corbyn would probably sign a Commons motion to that effect. When most free-market Tories think McD’s they think safe and affordable convenience food that provides 1.9 million jobs worldwide, not the low paid McJobs or the environmental damage done raising beef cattle. . | You can’t imagine George Osborne saying that, can you? Or David Cameron, though Jeremy Corbyn would probably sign a Commons motion to that effect. When most free-market Tories think McD’s they think safe and affordable convenience food that provides 1.9 million jobs worldwide, not the low paid McJobs or the environmental damage done raising beef cattle. . |
| Related: McDonald's 34,492 restaurants: where are they? | Related: McDonald's 34,492 restaurants: where are they? |
| So, like Dave and Jez, the Havana concierge is both right and wrong. Cuba can manage perfectly well without McDonald’s and the tax-“efficient” Starbucks. But its people have lost a lot by virtue of 56 years of isolation, not all of it externally imposed, as well as made some gains. As Castro reminded his visitor, decent healthcare and education matter, but there is a price in terms of liberty and opportunity. | So, like Dave and Jez, the Havana concierge is both right and wrong. Cuba can manage perfectly well without McDonald’s and the tax-“efficient” Starbucks. But its people have lost a lot by virtue of 56 years of isolation, not all of it externally imposed, as well as made some gains. As Castro reminded his visitor, decent healthcare and education matter, but there is a price in terms of liberty and opportunity. |
| But McDonald’s? I first encountered its golden arches on my first US visit in the mid-60s (“Two billion hamburgers sold” was its proud boast then. It’s past 300 billion now) and was at the UK launch as a reporter in 1974. It took place at the Café Royal in Piccadilly, not in its opening south London McD’s. It has enjoyed another good year in the UK in 2015, but suffered closures in the US. | But McDonald’s? I first encountered its golden arches on my first US visit in the mid-60s (“Two billion hamburgers sold” was its proud boast then. It’s past 300 billion now) and was at the UK launch as a reporter in 1974. It took place at the Café Royal in Piccadilly, not in its opening south London McD’s. It has enjoyed another good year in the UK in 2015, but suffered closures in the US. |
| And for many in emerging countries, Cuba too I suspect, the brand has become a soft power symbol of entry into the modern consumer world most of us take for granted. Here’s a poignant example I don’t forget; it’s usually one of my annual McDonald’s moments. | And for many in emerging countries, Cuba too I suspect, the brand has become a soft power symbol of entry into the modern consumer world most of us take for granted. Here’s a poignant example I don’t forget; it’s usually one of my annual McDonald’s moments. |
| In the Philippines in 1986 for the protracted struggle which led to the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos by the Aquino family (like the Castros and the Bushes they are a political dynasty, intermittently in power ever since), I was travelling with Simon Winchester, legendary ex-Guardian journalist, then freelancing from Hong Kong, now a successful author living in rural New England. | In the Philippines in 1986 for the protracted struggle which led to the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos by the Aquino family (like the Castros and the Bushes they are a political dynasty, intermittently in power ever since), I was travelling with Simon Winchester, legendary ex-Guardian journalist, then freelancing from Hong Kong, now a successful author living in rural New England. |
| As we dashed off in a cab one morning, Simon grabbed a couple of burgers from the McD’s next to our hotel in Manila. Being a generous chap, he tore a bit off his and offered it to the cabbie who carefully put it aside. Why? “I want to take it home and share it with my family, they will be keen to try it.” | |
| It was one of those moments when a huge gulf opens up between people. What has cost Winchester a few Filipino pesos was beyond the reach of our driver. | |
| That sort of story should serve to remind high-minded progressives not to be too snooty about other people’s treats. Some folk think opera is weird, too. Global corporations of all shapes and types bring pleasure as well as innovation and economic gain to our societies. But they have huge corporate clout and their excesses, cynical or thoughtless, need to be checked by the countervailing power of governments and regulators, acting on our behalf. | That sort of story should serve to remind high-minded progressives not to be too snooty about other people’s treats. Some folk think opera is weird, too. Global corporations of all shapes and types bring pleasure as well as innovation and economic gain to our societies. But they have huge corporate clout and their excesses, cynical or thoughtless, need to be checked by the countervailing power of governments and regulators, acting on our behalf. |
| When it comes to low wages, it’s not just McD’s of course. And journalist Eric Schlosser famously stuck Fast Food Nation on both the production and consumer problems of the industry. | When it comes to low wages, it’s not just McD’s of course. And journalist Eric Schlosser famously stuck Fast Food Nation on both the production and consumer problems of the industry. |
| And does McDonald’s pay its fair share of tax, for example? The company insists it does. But surprise, surprise, plenty think it doesn’t, including the European commission. Burgers may be low-tech, but their lawyers seem to be as high-tech as Facebook, Amazon and Google. | |
| The chancellor, George Osborne, makes quite a thing of being tougher on corporations (and the super rich) than Labour was, though the small print is often less reassuring. No incumbent politician should pretend it’s easy, boasting of tax revenues they are going to collect – in the future – by shutting down loopholes, and no opposition rival should simply throw mud at failure. I know they try at successive summit conferences, but this is one area where cross-party, international consensus to tackle a global problem would help us all. | |
| At a boys’ rugby match at the weekend I chatted with a parent who is involved in trying to increase power supplies to Myanmar – formerly Burma – where demand is expected to rise sharply now that voters have a government that will listen more to what they want. | At a boys’ rugby match at the weekend I chatted with a parent who is involved in trying to increase power supplies to Myanmar – formerly Burma – where demand is expected to rise sharply now that voters have a government that will listen more to what they want. |
| Like Cuba it is a long-isolated country in need of modernisation, but in danger of being spoiled in countless ways, Chinese-built hydropower, for example. McDonald’s too perhaps. | Like Cuba it is a long-isolated country in need of modernisation, but in danger of being spoiled in countless ways, Chinese-built hydropower, for example. McDonald’s too perhaps. |
| In my comfortable corner of west London our branch recently closed down in the face of upmarket burger competition. But smug middle-class grins quickly went sour when the lease was purchased by Poundland. I spent years finishing off my kids’ half-eaten McDonald’s and buy one once a year for old times’ sake. I find Poundland much more useful. | In my comfortable corner of west London our branch recently closed down in the face of upmarket burger competition. But smug middle-class grins quickly went sour when the lease was purchased by Poundland. I spent years finishing off my kids’ half-eaten McDonald’s and buy one once a year for old times’ sake. I find Poundland much more useful. |