“Havana” Theodore Dalrymple wrote in City Journal, “is like Beirut, without having gone through the civil war to achieve the destruction.” Actually, it’s worse even than that. Beirut pulses with energy. Parts of it are justifiably even a little bit snobbish like Paris. Even its poorest neighborhoods, the ones controlled by Hezbollah, aren’t as gruesome as most of Havana.
Good read. And also – don’t go there.
Cuba’s a long ways from perfect and in larger cities there are some places that get rough at night, but in a general way, it is safe – at least as safe a large Canadian cities. Parts of Havana are certainly run down, but gruesome is a stretch. Saying that it’s like Beirut is silly.
By the way, policemen in Cuba are way more likely to listen to people than in the Canadian city I live in. It would be extremely rare for them to draw a gun.
As far as ‘don’t go there’ goes, well, Cuba is not a very good tourist deal. They charge similar prices for way less quality and there are some pretty resentful people in the tourist industry.
Sad. As dr.suzuki promoted it as a model of agriculture and the shiney ponies brother who got a tingle ala Chris Matthews when he meets Fidel
L said: “By the way, policemen in Cuba are way more likely to listen to people than in the Canadian city I live in.”
Maybe. But they’re also a lot more likely to kick in the front door of your tar paper shack at 3am and make you disappear forever.
What the hell is it with Canadians defending Cuba? What part of “totalitarian Communist murder regime” do people not get?
I’d sooner have a winter holiday in downtown Buffalo.
Try reading the article L ….
The point is not the scope of the decay the point is the CAUSE of the decay.
All Cuba has to do is sit down and make a settlement with the US for all the industry they seized. They could probably talk a decent deal and would probably make back more Yankee dollars in a year. Open up the casinos and other vices and the place would be filthy with cash. The commies trying to create wealth out of agricultural commodities produced by manual labour were simply stupid.
I hear Cuba’s food sucks.
Of course they fall over themselves for Tabarnacos. They can’t afford to alienate one of their few sources of hard cash. That doesn’t change the fact that the moment the Tabarnacos are out of earshot Cubans curse Canada and Pierre Trudeau.
Havana looks to be the future for Quebec City and Toronto.
When the federal money is stopped, they will devolve to Detroit first then Havana.
except the klepyo’s did not even need guns, to enslave the populace.
I’ve never kept a budgie in a cage, but I can assure you that those folks that do, keep the budgie perfectly safe.
I went there about 15 years ago. I felt guilty and still do.
Tipping staff with soap and shampoo. Shakedown of the tourist bus into Havana by the police and the collection on the bus to reimburse the one months wage fine for the driver.
Piles of rubble on street corners where the buildings were slowly falling apart.
It is a Disneyland for tourists with the actors as residents.
They are slaves to the government. Don’t fool yourself.
LASsie said: “I hear Cuba’s food sucks.”
If you read the article you’ll discover they don’t -have- food most of the time. Food is for the tourists and the apparatchiks.
A situation I personally would like to prevent happening here, but YOU keep arguing.
I can only conclude you think living on $20 a month plus rare government hand outs is a great idea.
If so, please fly to Cuba immediately and stay there.
I puke every time somebody goes there on vacation and returns home with glowing reports of,although being poor, the people are soooo happy! Morons all!
I have assiduously avoided vacationing in Cuba specifically because of its totalitarian regime and the history behind it. Apparently the atrocities committed by the Castro regime to this day, enslaving its people and stealing the fruits of their labours troubles too few Canadians, including Justin Trudeau. He was, after all introduced to Castro, whom he came to know as Papa Fidel, by that fellow traveller, Pierre.
Tourists who visit Cuba should be made aware that their spending their dollars in any Communist country benefits only the well-connected apparatchiks.
Weather it is Cuba or Mexico tourists get to see better and be treated better than the locals (slaves to communism in Cubas case).
Why go to these countries where the populace is treated like waste and the tourists enjoy the beaches and amenities, and , most I think, are either oblivious or pretend to be oblivious to the poverty.
“And since hardly anyone is a communist anymore, something had to be done.”
Excellent article,but on this point MJT is wrong. There are more communists around today than there ever were,and unfortunately an awful lot of them are working on the taxpayer’s dime in Canada,the U.S. ,and Europe.
I know several of my wife’s relatives, Ontario civil service types,who go the Cuba on vacation quite often. Same as the people I worked with in government service back in the 80’s,who determinedly drove Ladas, good little “socialists” who were just “doing their part for the revolution” while living of the taxes of wage earners of capitalism.
Used to love every Winter watching the sh**head with the Lada drive with one hand on the wheel, while with the other he scraped ice off the windshield.
WTF are you talking about? Are you schizo?
Mention should be made of the role the senseless continuation of America’s embargo has had in maintaining Communist rule in Cuba.
Cuba can trade with 200 of the world’s countries and is embargoed by one. I know a Canadian who makes good coin selling embargoed American industrial goods to Cuba. Cuba is a basket case because of the failed experiment with communism, nothing more and nothing less. It has nothing to do with evel Americans and everything to do with stupid Cuban leadership.
No doubt it’s borked because of Communism, but the trade embargo has definitely helped the regime stay in power. Trade is very liberating. It gives the people options other than turning to the state. Not being able to trade with the most important nation puts a real damper on that.
So what you’re saying LAS is that you fully support Harper signing the EU free trade agreement. Right?
LASsie said: “Mention should be made of the role the senseless continuation of America’s embargo has had in maintaining Communist rule in Cuba.”
And you’re calling -me- schizo? Communist rule in Cuba is maintained by main force, the Americans have literally nothing to do with them.
Except for rescuing escaping Cubans out of the sea since 1959. Don’t forget that part.
For fiscal year 2012, the United States exported four hundred and fifty million dollars worth of agricultural products to Cuba. That probably makes them number 4 or 5 largest exporters to Cuba.
Fidel and Raul will soon be chucking their mortal coil and I hope we have better luck than we did with Kim the younger. Our starving first nations are counting on it. All that illegal tobacco trade money has to be invested somewhere, no ?
http://www.thestar.com/life/travel/caribbean/2011/06/01/in_a_reversal_cuba_plans_luxury_golf_resorts.html
It’ll probably end up a lot like former Soviet republics there once the old timers kick off. But with better weather, spicier food and rum instead of vodka.
Would never go to any communist country for a vacation.
Bad enough virtually everything I purchase is made in China.
People no longer bring up the possibility of going on a trip there. They know my stance and I have made it quite clear. They also speak little of their trip on their return. If the do I basically ignore the conversation and speak about something else.
And yes…there are a lot of teachers and gov’t workers where I live that go to the commie “paradise”. Pathetic.
Trade in Cuba ,,, as in exports and imports = a trade balance?
Not so much in Cuba.
The reason the Chinese are in there full swing is because the Russians left.
The Russians got tired of giving their fellow bro’s “stuff” (like tractors, oil,power plants etc.) and getting SFA back. The meager exports of sugar cane and minerals, not to mention crappy Med school grads didn’t add up.
Fidel wanted cash as well as the other “stuff”.
Even though Fidel supplied Cuban troops to the Angolan conflict with SA, The Russians supplied everything that had to be assembled from 2 pieces or more in that exercise to take down the big bad capitalist pig nation of SA.
In Cuba now,, all the new automotive crap(cars buses trucks ) is now Cherry ( the Chinese version of GM ).
And your local Cuban is even more POed with this new “junk” than he was with the old Russian “junk”.
If you want a real brain bend that MJT doesn’t mention,,,it’s taking the tunnel from Havana to Mirimar.
That’s were the embassies are and most NGO headquarters .
They keep that suburb immaculate, and woe to any Cuban peon showing up in that area at anytime. They will be stopped and asked what their business is there.
What else MJT doesn’t mention is the inherent racism endemic to Cuba.
I was told it’s a Spanish colonial thing, but in any event,, the darker you are,,,the lower on the food chain you are.
It is very evident at any of the resorts you stay at ,,, but in Havana, it’s in your face when banking and dealing with any bureaucratic custodian .
Went once and never again.
Please read the above comment I made regarding the embargo. With your eyes.
So what you’re saying LAS is that you fully support Harper signing the EU free trade agreement. Right?
I support free trade. ‘Signing documents’ =/= free trade.
You immediately jumped to grabbing partisan points. That’s sad. You need to examine yourself.
“…Cuba is a basket case because of the failed experiment with communism, nothing more and nothing less. It has nothing to do with evel Americans and everything to do with stupid Cuban leadership.”
Bingo scar, aye indeed.
Jesus, yes.
I have an old friend who lives in Saint John who defends Castro.
He told me about a young Cuban lady in SJ who had observed that Canadians seem to be unhappy as they don’t smile very much.
We can well imagine why she’s smiling.
The anecdote is a bit off your example but just as puke-inducing.
I told him once to smarten up and consider: would a country that runs out of toilet paper really harbour a first class health care system. To no avail, of course.
Me too: I will not visit Cuba on principle.
Thank you Phantom. Nailed it as usual!
Flood it with tourists and investment, and watch the increase in productivity and wealth.
The wealth and jobs and new business would overwhelm the bureaucracy, literally changing the political economy.
Or it will be concentrated in a political elite.
If the later, there would be a quick late night change of government.
The continued American embargo is now due mostly to the electoral influence of ex-pat Cubans in southern Florida.
American willingly do business with Islamist regimes that want to slit their throat literally, it’s part of their scripture, but not with Cubans who like them and their general culture.
Ironically, the embargo is the main thing keeping the Cuban regime in place. It requires isolation and a threat of invasion, or it’s thin veneer would get washed away in the rainy season.
Mind you if they saw the Mexicans, Cubans would fear obesity, as much as the mafia coming back.
Cuba is definitely not East Germany nor North Korea. It never was.
It’s a Catholic, Latin American/Caribbean culture.
And it’s relatively high level of education will make it’s transition to a modern economy smooth unlike say a basket case like Haiti, which is mired in ignorance, tribalism and superstition.
Europeans and Canadians visit there in large numbers, as do many ex-pat Cubans. No one I’ve spoken to who has visited there mentions any hostility towards other countries or their way of life. And some have traveled all over the place outside the tourist spots.
I’m sure they hate cheap Chinese goods, they disliked cheap out of date Russian goods, too. But acknowledged they had no choice. At that time(80s) the only group I heard them say anything disparaging about were the Russians.
I’m sure the populace feels badly about the dilapidated state of buildings and will rebuild it the first chance they have.
The Americans lead by Richard Nixon began a rapprochement with China that has brought 100s of millions of Chinese out of poverty.
Some day a President will do the same with Cuba. Only with their Latin American and Catholic cultural roots the political system would be forced to adapt. It requires relative isolation for it’s restrictive economic/political ideology to survive.
It would be possible for them to be like an island version of Costa Rica, within a decade.
As for safe from crime that’s a plus for both tourism and business.
Try going to Jamaica and venturing off the guarded tourist spots and see how safe you are. Jane and Finch writ large.
Americans obsession with Cuba is silly. It can’t hurt them and doesn’t want to.
However, their trade with radical Muslim oil exporting regimes is quite literally funding jihad terrorism dedicated to the destruction of Western Civilization all over the world, including North America.
Some day a President will do the same with Cuba.
Maybe, when they pay for the American property they stole.
“What the hell is it with Canadians defending Cuba? What part of “totalitarian Communist murder regime” do people not get?”
I agree, as either they have no experience with family living in a communist state or have been so brainwashed the Marxism is good that they are blind.
The NKVD were always polite when they arrived at 4:00 AM to pick you up. Polite, but firm, a goodbye hug and kiss was allowed, nothing else.
Jay and bitterclinger, exactly. Tourists get to see the Potemkin villages.
What scar said. You can still see the 70 years of Marxist failure in Russia and Ukraine, and the 45 years of Marxist failure in the Baltic states, Poland, and Hungary.
Canada leads in tourism to Cuba.
http://havanareporternews.com/economy/canada-leads-tourists-cuba-early-2013
Cuba. The step sister of Detroit
Socialism’s ultimate future
Canada leads in tourism to Cuba.
Well, we have so much in common…a failed medical system, failed education system. It’s just that we’re so much richer and can afford it…so far.
There is a huge love affair with Cuba here in the Maritimes — it must be that “dependency culture” that Stephen Harper must regret that he called attention to so many years ago. Smart travel agents, however, should be looking to Venezuela as the next “right-on” sun-and-fun destination.
Where I used to work we had a small party every month so that new hires old introduce themselves and mix.
One month, a new hourly worker introduced herself as a Cuban, and that she wanted ” one day to return when it’s free, which I know it will be.”
She made no mention of the US embargo.