Posted on 05/30/2005 7:04:28 PM PDT by CHARLITE
After a couple of lighthearted columns about my trip to Havana - the latest about Canadians participating in a political march and trying to dance - I came under some criticism from readers who felt that my perspective on the island "was unusually low-key and even somewhat clueless."
I was trivializing the massive problems faced by Cuba and making a mockery of serious political processes. My column was "more of a postcard sent from a half-drunk co-ed to her sorority sisters."
For the record, I was fully drunk.
While I cannot entirely disagree with those assessments, I am unapologetic for anything I have written. If one didn't find a reason to laugh, especially in Cuba, all one would do is cry.
However, I agree that there needs to be some serious reflection on the current state of Cuba and I am devoting this column and the next to painting a picture of life in Havana after centuries of colonialism, decades of communist dictatorial rule and a crippling economic blockade imposed by the United States.
My commentary has to be qualified by several facts. First is that my observations are just that: what I personally saw and experienced. Second is that my gauge is based largely on lectures and interactions with Cubans from the university and third is the brevity of my stay.
Prior to my arrival in Cuba, I had much admiration for the tenacity of this small country in defying the dominance of the United States - especially coming from Canada where we constantly struggle to strengthen our (very different) relationship with the U.S. while maintaining our cultural integrity.
Leaving Havana, I could not help having the impression that the price paid for defiance was simply too high. The U.S. trade embargo has combined particularly well with the legendary inefficiencies and bureaucratic bottleneck of a command economy to effectively destroy the Cuban economy. Signs of this are everywhere.
The infrastructure is crumbling. Most buildings are in such a state of disrepair that it is hard to imagine they will stand for much longer and harder yet to imagine how so many people can live inside. Sewage and other household liquids drip onto the streets from cracks, broken pipes and balconies. There is garbage everywhere.
What is worse than seeing how badly these buildings have decomposed is glimpsing what they were before. Spanish colonial architecture was glorious and characterized by ornate detailing and vivid colours and it is possible to imagine, if one squints and tries very hard, what Havana must have looked like in different times.
There are few consumer goods and fewer places to get the ones that are available. The declining morale of the population at large is reflected by a rampant level of street crime. Each week we had at least one camera stolen or one purse snatched. One incident involved a girl from our group taking a snapshot in front of the hotel and having the camera ripped out of her hands by a passerby.
As foreigners we were constantly harangued by scam artists trying to sell us contraband cigars and other black market goods.
There were several scams orchestrated to milk the foreigners, including writing false bills in restaurants, counterfeiting money and constantly - constantly! - short-changing us at the tills.
As well, we were often treated with what I perceived as contempt and proud resentment. It was very hard to get over these things and try to have a positive experience.
On the other hand, the Cubans with whom we developed relationships were generous to a fault, very affectionate and inclusive. They were down-to-earth and their love of life and music was evident in everything they did.
The contrast between the strangers who treated us with disdain and disrespect and our friends can only be explained by economic hardship and the anti-imperialist indoctrination of the population at large. The behaviour of our friends is, I think and hope, a truer reflection of the character of the Cuban people.
Patrycja Romanowska can be reached by e-mail at: kamazonka@hotmail.com
Castro has always had all the answers, he's always known what's best for his people (just ask him). So why would he need the U.S., with its decadent capitalist system? Why couldn't he build his little communist Fantasy Island without us? Blockade? Why should that matter?
Amazing how anyone can blame the sad condition of Cuba the least bit on the USA embargo. What denial!
Bush's and Americans fault!
Stoopid "amazonka" Eh?
It's just a matter of time.
The failed exhibition of one man's ignorance and arrogance.
I hate to admit this but there's something I don't know: Is it an embargo, or a blockade? I mean, do we simply refuse to trade with them ... or do we actually have the island surrounded, preventing anyone else from legally trading with them?
The author refers to what the U.S. is doing as a "blockade." It is not. The U.S. Navy is NOT blocking Cuban harbors, nor is it preventing ships of other countries from getting to Cuba.
Details of sanctions here:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sanctions/
Castro is free to get any stuff he wants from his socialist pals in the region (Chavez, ...) or from anywhere else. But he chooses not to.
Looks like this Polish named reporterette must be brainwashed with old commie stuff, can't shake it off, Eh?
Calling Bush idiot, will do the "strengthening", Eh? Which cultural integrity? Must be the official Multicultural.
I hope someday I can.
The U.S. is not blockading Cuba. They can trade freely with any other country in the world. The truth is that the socialists don't have a clue about the relationship between output and incentive. Cuba has stores that are for foriegners only that have anything you want yet Cubans do without and cannot go in them and Cuban pesos are not accepted in them.
Canada would be more sure to keep its culture of long lines at the medical clinics if they would keep their people north of the border, rather than having them constantly trooping down to our country to get decent care.
I am sure that our doctors love the color of their money, but I get browned off at their smug superiority.
BINGO! .......and BRAVO, too! I was waiting for a reader to see that error. She no doubt meant "embargo" or "sanctions." However, considering that she is most likely a liberal, then using the term "blockade" sounds more sinister, and implies more blame for America.
Thanks for your comments and the link.
Char
Cuba, like all socialist slop holes is a HUGE suucess. Just ask the NYT. Castro can bring anything he wants in Cuba. Tootsie needs to wake up.
It is good to know that the blocade is working, but I have concerns that again the wrong people are suffering. Castro has a personal wealth of over $400M and doesn't go without anything.
Why is it that evil dictators such as Castro live so long? Absolute power and the ability to squash others like a bug must have some artery clearing, brain stimulus function.
Cultural integrity? Aside from ice hockey, skunky beer in green bottles, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray and a few other pop singers, what cultural integrity are we talking about here?
Not that Canada is a bad place. But this author is talking as though Canada is some kind of intellectual mecca.
When Jane Fonda told an audience that "if you knew what Communism IS, you would get down on your knees and pray that we BECOME COMMUNIST"....do you think this is what she was thinking of?.........'round the clock availability of champagne and caviar baths, "if you know the right people?!"
Char
Touche' ! You spelled it out beautifully. I have been to Eastern Canuckistan many times and never discovered their presumed "culture." Maybe it has to be all about hockey violence and/or poorly piped Scot pipes that they used to play to tourists at the border with NY. Or is it the unintelligible 18th Century French they speak there? Hmmmm?
"Castro is free to get any stuff he wants from his socialist pals in the region (Chavez, ...) or from anywhere else. But he chooses not to"
Chooses not to....or cannot pay? Chavez might give him free stuff but doubt anyone else will. Eh....either way the regime/workers paradise is coming to an end, and soon
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