Rolling blackouts. A worthless currency. A once-mighty industry on life support. Doctors, engineers and students leaving in droves in search of a future. That all sounds like Venezuela, but I’m talking about Cuba.
As Venezuela’s crisis deepens, another — quieter but just as dangerous — is unfolding just 90 miles from Florida. The drama may be smaller, but the danger is real. If Venezuela is wobbling, Cuba is starting to fall.
On Sept. 10, Cuba’s entire electrical grid failed, plunging nearly 10 million people into darkness. It was the island’s fourth nationwide blackout in less than a year. Even before that, much of the country was losing power for half the day. Officials blamed machinery; Cubans blamed the system.
The country’s energy network has become a patchwork of corroded plants and emergency repairs. Over the past 14 months, it has suffered a dozen nationwide outages. Years of neglect and the burning of high-sulfur crude have crippled its power stations. As U.S. sanctions tighten on Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s ability to keep its ally supplied with oil has withered.
Fuel shipments from Venezuela — Havana’s economic lifeline for two decades — now fluctuate wildly, sometimes dropping below 10,000 barrels a day before rebounding. Russia and Mexico have stepped in with emergency cargoes, but neither offers stability. Without steady deliveries, plants sputter and nights become suffocating. In some towns, residents cook by candlelight, charge phones at work, and sleep on rooftops to escape the heat.
I’m shocked that I haven’t heard about this on the CBC. Shocked, I tell you.
New York City in four years. Maybe less. Hopefully less.
They want communism? Give it to ‘em good and hard. Maybe it will cure my woke Brooklyn niece of her TDS and irrational hatred of me.
Canada in 2 years, or less.
Make Cuba great again. Make it the 51st state and forget about Canada.
Yes, it is an object lesson in communism that New York City will ignore. I hope they enjoy it.
Why don’t they use solar?
Sarc.
Ah yes, the favourite tropical vacay location of progressives, Cuba.
“The people are so nice there!”, I’ve been told. Maybe because OR ELSE?
Yes, they have the cheapest vacation there, about 50% cheaper.
Too many stories of food poisoning and health issues.
Would never travel there, but the Progs are too cheap to go anywhere else.
Travelling there is an endorsement of the Boot-on-throat government.
Great. More climate change refugees (sic – Keir Starmer) flooding into the West for our FREE STUFF.
has mikey moore weighed in on this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/cuba/comments/1mw89t3/is_that_really_nice_hospital_in_havana_cuba_shown/
CANADA’S Sherritt International makes 10% of Cuba’s electricity…
https://sherritt.com/operations/power/
Sherritt’s other legacy in Cuba…
https://havanatimes.org/features/whats-happening-in-moa-cubas-nickel-capital/
“BLAME CANADA!!!!”
Yeah, right. Sherritt invested millions of dollars in Cuba, only to see the result confiscated and their processes sent off to the Soviet Union.
That they carried on is testament to the enormity of their goodwill.
Someday there will be a new sheriff in Cuba, and Sherritt will spend millions more cleaning up their environmental disaster and legacy of goodwill.
Sherrit. The whole reason it is an offence to refuse to do business with Cuba because of US law. CEO of Sherrit was Mulroney’s drinking buddy.
Extraterritorial Measures Act
-United States Regulations
(The only regulations from the Act. Only the US and Cuba are mentioned.)
The Act
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-f-29/latest/rsc-1985-c-f-29.html
US Order made under the Act 2015
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/regu/sor-2015-12/latest/sor-2015-12.html
US Order made under the Act 1992
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/regu/sor-92-584/latest/sor-92-584.html
Frederic Bastiat, “The Law,” in 1850, at the genesis of socialism, showing we often don’t learn from our mistakes:
“I cannot avoid coming to this conclusion – that there are too many great men in the world; there are too many legislators, organizers, institutions of society, conductors of the people, fathers of nations, etc., etc. Too many persons place themselves above mankind, to rule it, to patronize it; too many persons make a trade of looking after it.” That was then so how bad is it now? Asked and answered? Progressing to totalitarianism.
Cuba blames the US embargo on their problems not Communism and Corruption.
There are 199 other countries that can trade with Cuba, but Cuba makes a few cigars, some rum, a little nickel and zinc and that’s it. It’s an economic basket case like North Korea.
How do you “trade” with a country that makes absolutely NADA.
Fellow commies in peril might just be the catalyst needed to get our pipeline built. And, added bonus … most of them are POC too. C”mon Comrades, how about some solidarity here!
speaking of cuba and fidel’s legacy and the rumour his lookalike brat wound up our crime minister . . . . when is sumbuddy going to bribe a relative of fidel (shouldnt be too difficult) extrsct dna, then seize a drinking cup or etc from the lookalike, again for the dna, and prove OR put to rest the conspiddddacy?