Posted on 02/28/2020 11:14:19 AM PST by karpov
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Based on my observations and conversations with our translators, there are three classes of people in Cuba. The governmental elite live in gated communities and enjoy what Americans would regard as middle-class living standards. The average person who relies on his own income lives in desperate Third World conditions. In between are people with generous relatives in the U.S. They have more disposable income, but their living conditions are comparable to those of the poorest Americans.
Income inequality is so extreme that Cuba has two currencies, one for tourists and senior government officials—and one for everyone else. Ordinary Cubans use the national peso, valued at 25 to the U.S. dollar. Tourists and the elite use the convertible peso, which converts one-to-one with the dollar (after surcharges to the Cuban government). A soft drink or ice cream costs in convertible pesos what it would cost in small-town America. Given the average wage in Cuba, a trip to the equivalent of a 7-Eleven is a luxury most people can’t afford.
A group from my church returned from Cuba a couple of months ago. Little has changed. We’re still bringing the same basic necessities, and circumstances are still desperate. Conditions in Cuba may be deteriorating further thanks to the collapse of Venezuela, itself a socialist basket case where people are starving and go without basic medicine. Cuba used to receive oil and cash from Venezuela in exchange for what amounts to slave labor performed by Cuban physicians. But those flows have slowed.
One surprise was how many people in Cuba were openly critical of the government. Cuba is not as totalitarian as it was in the early days after the revolution, when the government sent critics of the regime (as well as pastors, priests, artists and others) to labor camps.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I spoke with a Canadian who vacationed there. He said a ragged looking guy approached him on the beach and begged him to bring him some food from the hotel buffet. Said he was starving.
I love watching old movies set in Havana. It was so beautiful
And yet, Burnie holds the Cuban system up as some kind of paragon. Is this a glimpse of the future that the Sanderinistas are ready to shape for the United States?
If so, pretty dubious plan. I can see a LOT of points of contention before a post-Trump administration could bring this vision to fruition.
A Swedish buddy of mine vacations in Cuba. He says service is generally poor everywhere.
But he can hire an escort for a week for $200. And not just any escort - an absolute model. They will be a tour guide, a date for dinner, an overnight guest. The works.
It is great pay for the girl. A doctor works for roughly $20 a week.
“
Breadline Bernie”
“Castro-Sanders”
Pass it on
Meme it
Scream it from The Mountaintops
After the Revolution Castro boasted that one of it’s greatest achievements was that women no longer had to sell their bodies in order to make a living.
Today there are more women in Cuba doing that than there ever were in the bad old days.
Irony: The Mark of Quality Literature.
Does anyone know where the physicians in Cuba get their education?
I was in a fast food place that was showing a Van Diesel movie that supposedly was taking place in Cuba. All the buildings looked freshly painted and new. I knew this Hollywood Cuba was nothing like the real thing.
It is and has been a commie hell-hole for several decades. People are imprisoned, murdered, staved to death and so forth. It is bernie’s paradise. What an idiot. Those supporting him are absolute, unthinking nitwits.
Education? Commies don’t need any stinkin’ education!
To be an attractive woman in this world entitles you to a lot of different choices and dangers
Both my mother and my dear wife hacve both been to Cuba amazingly enough
I told my wife I would’ve lasted about five minutes and then I’d be in some Gulag never to be heard from again!
Apparently the boyfriend she took with her to Cuba was absolutely terrified the entire time of saying anything
What could go wrong?
I hate places where locals harass you, whether it's beggars on Broadway in Nashville, hair braiders in Jamaica or starving people in Cuba. Ragged looking guys approaching me (and the Mrs.) on the beach would be uncomfortable at a minimum. The only person I want approaching me on a beach is the waiter.
...will continue...
ew
the butcher shop?
then don’t vacation in a poverty stricken paradise
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