The world’s economic crisis is causing great strife everywhere, even in the hurricane ravaged gardens of the people’s paradise in the Caribbean

Cuba is limiting how much basic fruits and vegetables people can buy at farmers’ markets, irritating some customers but ensuring there’s enough—barely—to go around.

The lines are long and some foods are scarce, but because the government has maintained and even increased rations in some areas, Cubans who initially worried about getting enough to eat now seem confident they won’t go hungry despite the destruction of 30 percent of the island’s crops by hurricanes Gustav and Ike last month.

At least as the scurvy and night blindness sets in, the health care will be free.