Cuba: A touching beauty

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune ^ | 3-17-02 | Catherine Watson--Senior Travel Editor

[Luis Gonzalez]

"This means that Cuba's revolution is being corrupted from the bottom up, with greenbacks gnawing at it from underneath..."

I don't know where to begin.

I guess the only one not to blame for the complete failure of Cuba's economy, is the man running the show for over 40 years.

When we traded openly with Cuba, it was called exploitaion, when we do not trade with Cuba, it's deemed to be oppresive.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I am writing a letter to the editors in regards to this article. I am going to tackle just one subject out of the many available here: the fact that Castro brags that everyone can read, yet they are not allowed to read what they want.

I challenge each and every one of you to do the same. Just a short note taking this political editorial by a travel editor apart.

Luis

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"The old men are too frail to schlep luggage at hotels. And the old women can't seductively sidle up to foreign men and whisper enticements in their ears -- something you can see on any busy street, any day or night, in Old Havana… Other old people pick up a few dollars by begging around Havana's exquisitely restored historic buildings, like those on the Plaza de Armas and the Plaza Viejo.…Beggars aside, a tourist runs into examples of the corrupting power of dollars literally every day and in unexpected places. ……….. Education and health care typically combine to lower birth rates all over the world, but those achievements weren't what struck me most. It was how peaceable everyone was together."

Barf! This writer is a fool and a tool for Castro. If anyone can stomach more of this rot, check this from the Boston Globe.

Cuba's lessons on caring for children--Let's hope it can and that as more Americans visit Cuba's shores, we can learn something from the Cubans - about how to raise our kids here, how to instill in them self-respect and cultural pride, and how to give all of them a chance to be happy, creative, and productive adults.

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So while the island nation is 90 miles from Florida, and just about everybody seems to have a relative in the States, Cuba might as well be half way around the world like China, a Communist country we do trade with.

This writer needs to read the posts to this: Why is China OK, but Cuba 'enemy'?

[The Great RJ]

I can't believe it.. Cuba was supposed to be the worker's paradise .. the great utopia imagined by college professors in all the ivy league universities ... perfect socialism. I'm devastated. </sarcasm

[Slyfox]

"It's too bad we didn't have a war with your country," one younger man said wistfully,
during a conversation about such hardships. "Vietnam is doing pretty well."

After Castro dies, if the new regime even hints at better relations with the U.S., Cuba will
probably get all the McDonald's and Walmart's they can stand.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When Castro's dead, a cheer will come up from Cuba that'll be heard in the Florida Keys.

[SamAdams76]

I agree, once Castro goes, things will change in Cuba drastically. Almost overnight. I have been predicting for years that Cuba will, in our lifetimes, be a close ally of the United States and will become very rich. It will become a huge vacation and resort destination for America and you will be buying Cuban cigars at the WalMarts in North Dakota. They will turn capitalist so fast your head will spin. Castro's hold on Cuba will prove to be a historical anomaly.

[Luis Gonzalez]

From your keys to God's ears my friend.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Wasn't it about a year after McDonald's opened in Moscow that the USSR fell?

[tbg681]

Cuba: Paradise as envisioned in news rooms, faculty lounges, the upper reaches of the Democrat Party, and other places of "progressive" thought.

Said Churchill: "Utopian dreamers...and socialist nightmares"

[sakic]

Soon Castro will die and things will get marginally better for Cubans economically. Then they'll hate America just like the rest of the Carribbean.

I won't give my money to any of those countries anymore. Five trips to many different countries, including a honeymoon, and I've yet to find one where they like Americans. For the most part, almost all of their economies are in the toilet despite their living under capitalism. The poverty throughout the Carribbean is staggering.

As a friend of mine put it, "Go to Hawaii. It's a prettier version of the Carribbean where they won't all hate you."

Cubans will have their freedom, no small deal, but their lifestyles will change little, if at all.

[Slyfox]

Wasn't it about a year after McDonald's opened in Moscow that the USSR fell?

Alrighty then, let's get MickyDee's into Cuba. Pronto!

[Luis Gonzalez]

Obviously, you know very little about Cuba.

[sakic]

If you disagreed with something I said you could have discussed it instead of answering like a 7 year-old.

As soon as Cuba becomes free, many will leave for America. The rest will live under the same conditions as the rest of the Carribbean. After we help them they will hate us.

See the rest of the world for reference purposes.

[SamAdams76]

I disagree. The United States is not hated in the Caribbean countries. Puerto Rico wants to become a state, for crying out loud and the Dominican Republic is not that far behind. And if we were hated in Cuba, then why are so many of them desperately trying to come to our shores?

Cuba is only 90 miles from the Florida Keys. They are our neighbors as much as Mexico and Canada. Once that tinpot dictator is gone and his machine-gun toting goons are disbanded, the United States and Cuba will become very close. I'm not saying that the transition from communism to capitalism will not be without some turmoil. But once the trade embargos are lifted, U.S. dollars and resources will pour into Cuba incredibly fast. You will see one of the biggest construction booms of all time. The vast majority of the 11 million+ people that live there do not support Castro and will be overjoyed to see his imposed communist regime collapse. Those people have put up with a lot crap these past 40 years. Fortunately better days are just around the corner.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You want me to disagree intelligently with your "predictions" of the future?

Let me ask you, what do you base them on? A crystal ball?

Let's base the predictions of the future of Cuba based on the past conditions (pre-Castro) and the present.

Pre-Castro, Cuba was second only to the US in economic status in the hemisphere, and among the top ten countries in the world in per-capita income. Castro's (and the New York Time's) claims of abject poverty were overblown propaganda. Cuba had more television and radio sets per capita than every country IN THE WORLD with the exception of the US.

Cuba had the most newspapers per capita in the world.

Cuba enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the US which made it the prefered vacation destination for Norteamericanos..

Presently, the Americans of Cuban descent residing in the US are quite possibly the wealthiest immigrant group here, having acheived that status in less than 45 years, and billions of dollars are earmarked for investment and development in Cuba once the island is free.

Last but not least, Fidel Castro himself has admitted that nearly 25% of the population of Cuba has shown a desire to migrate to the US, tens of thousands have died trying to do just that. Bizarre behavior for people who "hate the US", wouldn't you say?

As I said, you know very little about Cuba.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Catherine Watson is just another bleeding heart communist sympathizer who in a subtle way has told us that the embargo is what keeps the Cubans poor.

Even if the 40-year-old U.S. embargo were lifted tomorrow, and American tourists and investors flooded in, I can't see how the economic situation would improve in time to help those aged beggars.

No, Ms. Watson, the US embargo it's not the cause of poverty in Cuba but their own corrupt, oppressive and tyrannical government. Cuba deals with most countries in the world. And as you indicate they get paid in dollars from tourists all over the world yet they live in poverty. What makes you think American tourists would have a different effect in Cuba than that of tourists from other countries have had to this day?

And there are tourists, lots of them -- they're just not us.

Right!! Has that helped Cubans get out of poverty? Hmmm, do you think the Cuban government has something to do with this pesky little fact? Isn't it true that all those dollars -- fairs and tips-- end up in the hands of the Cuban government since they are the ones who are in charge of the goods and their prices?

As tourism grows -- Cuba expects more than $2 billion in tourism revenues this year -- the economic gulf widens between those who can get tourist tips and those who can't.

Expect no change at all in Cuba, Ms Watson. No improvement whatsoever over the life of its people.

This means that Cuba's revolution is being corrupted from the bottom up, with greenbacks gnawing at it from underneath, the way warmer water helps soften ice on a Minnesota lake in spring.

Ms. Watson you just told us that Cuba expects more than $2billion in tourism revenues this year. It's not that the revolution that is being corrupted from the bottom up, it's the revolution which is a corruptive enterprise.

Whatever criticisms can be leveled at the Cuban government, it's hard to fault it on what it does deliver. Topping the list: free health care and free education through college. A recent international survey, in fact, rated Cuba's primary schools the best in Latin America.

LOL! Don't you just love it Luis when the socialists give us their usual cliché "free health care and free education?" Well, free health care doesn't matter if they don't have medicine available, even though the US sends medicine and food and other countries do the same. It doesn't matter if they can read when all they read is communist propaganda. As Mark Twain said, "The man who does not read good books is at no advantage over the man that can't read them."

[GuillermoX]

"This means that Cuba's revolution is being corrupted from the bottom up, with greenbacks gnawing at it from underneath..."

That's just about where I stopped reading, and started skimming.

And if this moron believes Cuba has free health care, she's living in a fanatasy. Cuba has free health care like I have free gold nuggets in a box outside my house. Whoever wants one can take one, but the catch is that there are never any in the box, but they are still free.

I have an uncle who is a Lt. Col. in the Cuban secret police. He still extols the revolution (in his monthly requests to his Miami relatives for all sorts of medicines).

[GuillermoX]

Relatively few foreigners hate America. You need to distinguish between their media and political elite and the "masses".