The Do-Nothing National Assembly

This week's meeting of Castro's National Assembly accomplished absolutely nothing -- except give Raul another opportunity to turn empty-words into media-friendly headlines.

Of course, it's not like anyone (except for one Miami Herald journalist) actually expected the National Assembly to do something -- for it has no power.

Excerpts from Americas Society:

Cuban Parliament Holds off on Deeper Economic Reforms

While the possibility of immigration reform stole the show at Monday's day-long congressional session, the National Assembly did not publicly address Cuba's many pressing economic challenges.

Some observers expected the Cuban Parliament to finalize game-changing rules permitting home sales at its Monday meeting for the first time since the 1960s. The body did not do so. Despite putting the task off, the Cuban government says it will finish crafting rules governing home sales by the end of the year [...]

Cuba is also struggling just to feed itself. In preparation for Monday's legislative meeting, Minister of Agriculture Gustavo Rodríguez announced Friday that the government would have to import even more food this year than planned, because the state failed to produce as much as it anticipated in 11 categories of foodstuffs during the first six months of 2011. It was the second time this year the government was forced to bump up its outlay for foreign food purchases. Costs continue to mount despite a 2009 agricultural reform that distributed usufruct rights to 150,000 families to farm fallow land. BBC correspondent Fernando Ravsberg says the reform has yet to boost production because it does not address the main problem of lack of access to basic resources such as fertilizers, tools, seeds, tractors, and other inputs. Cuba imports somewhere between 60 percent and 80 percent of its food (official and private estimates vary widely).

The National Assembly also chose not to pass new legislation to confront corruption, a problem that Raúl Castro has faulted with for undermining attempts to boost the island's efficiency. The Provincial Tribunal of Havana convicted six executives from state airline Cubana de Aviación and two from the pharmaceutical Herberbiotec for accepting kickbacks and sentenced them to prisons terms ranging from three to 13 years, according to an official statement released Friday. At a more mundane level, pilfering of resources by poorly paid state workers and a lackadaisical attitude on the part of bureaucrats also act as obstacles to improving economic performance, according to government authorities.