[HighRoadToChina]

BFL

[happygrl]

Fascinating but sad.

[chilepepper]

One of the saddest things in Cuba are the "Club Med" like resorts in Varadero. Which are isolated from the Cuban public and remote from the cities, usually.

My Chilean father+mother-in-laws went to Varadero, quite beautiful and very 'well run'.

They enjoyed it a lot but wondered why the food portions were so big -- the answer ruined the rest of the vacation.

Of course, the answer as to why the food portions at the hotel were so big is that the waiters and cooks would take the leftover food off the plate and this was a crucial part of their livelyhood, along with the dollar tips -- being a waiter in Varadero is considered a much better job than a teacher or even a doctor...

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[babyface00]

Sounds eerily similar to North Korea, but with better weather.

[Guillermo]

But the people at DU insist Cuba ia a paradise.

[secretagent]

FYI

[bassmaner]

bump

If Curtis LeMay's plan for dealing with the Soviet missles was implemented in 1962 instead of Kennedy's, these people would have a much better life today.

Fidel's regime should be changed NEXT, after Saddam's.

[arthur003]

There has been a glamorous fantasy like image projected by the media including films like Buena Vista Social Club about Cuban reality. I know people who have visited and think of their experience as exotic. No one has written as you have about Castro’s horror and control. Continue to speak out.

[EggsAckley]

I was in the Soviet Union in 1988(?) when the government banned/rationed the sale of vodka to the population. Immediately, there was a run on sugar, and the population was making their own "bathtub vodka." Of course, the solution to THIS was the banning/rationing of the sale of sugar. That's about the time that Cuba's economy really bottomed out. The Soviets used to keep Cuba alive by the guarnteed purchase of Cuban sugar.

[1Old Pro]

How can this be? Rather and his liberal buds say Cuba is a socialist paradise.

[EggsAckley]

Oh, and by the way, EXCELLENT article. BTTT.

[RayChuang88]

Cuba is proof of the type of excesses Friedrich Hayek envisaged with too much government control when he wrote that famous book The Road to Serfdom.

What makes it particularly sad is that Cuba--had it stayed a true representative republic--could have been one of THE richest countries in the Americas. Between many miles and miles of sandy beaches for tourism, huge amounts of arable land, and lots of mineral resources, Cuban exports of agricultural goods and minerals and people all over the world flocking to the beaches all over the island could have made Cuba MANY billions of US dollars in revenue per year.

But with the Castro regime in place, the result is a destitute population living not much above subsistance levels, and now without aid from the Soviet Union, the country is rapidly falling into ruin. :(

[oyez]

bfl

[PoisedWoman]

Are these your personal reminiscences? Who/what is JACHEW?

I went to Cuba a couple of years ago and encountered much the same thing.

[backhoe]

Fidel Castro - Cuba
... Fidel Castro - Cuba. various LINKS to articles | April 14, 2002 ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/665733/posts - January 16, 2003 - 150 KB

[Free ThinkerNY]

Castro-The Stalin of the Carribean

[lodwick]

HUGE bttt - thanks so much for this one. A most fascinating read.

[jjm2111]

Wow, Excellent! Bump to the top!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***Carlos continued to speak in a low voice. He did not want our neighbors to hear, “The government doesn’t provide adequate rations of rice, yet it is illegal to buy rice on the black market. This is the contradictory chasm that disgusts us. Castro profits on the dollars, yet punishes those who try to earn dollars outside the system. The average Cuban is paid 220 pesos ($8.00) per month, which is impossible to live on, so the rest of the time is spent in line trying to obtain rationed items where they can be found—on the black market. Some say it is the way the government prevents Cubans from organizing. We are all too exhausted from standing in line or going hungry to protest. To get by we pretend to go along. We wear a mask and say that all is fine. But people are tired of living a lie.” ***

Bump!!