More thoughts on Cuba

I just got back from visiting my family in Florida this week and there was a common theme in many of our conversations: How much the current situation in our country remind them of what happened in Cuba 50 years ago.

In my last post I said how what was happening with the car dealerships reminded me of hearing about what happened with my grandmother and her beauty salon and in conversation one day she told me that listening to what has been happening reminded her about that also, same with my dad.

When I visited my grandfather, my mother’s father, he kept coming back to the similarities between what happened then and what is happening now. He kept saying that he has seen this before and that people just don’t understand what the consequences are.

While I was visiting with him we went through some old pictures including my grandparent’s wedding pictures and as we were looking over the very few pictures he had from Cuba he pointed to a man in one picture and told me that he was the man that smuggled their pictures out of Cuba, when he left through Mexico. He mailed them to my grandparents from Mexico. The pictures made it to their destination but he never did. He, very mysteriously, was murdered just before he made it to the US. He pointed to several other people in one of the wedding pictures, taken just five short years before the revolution, and told me that they were killed by the Castro government, shortly after the revolution.

I was talking to my dad about the similarities between what is going on now and what happened in Cuba and we got to talking about when they left and I said something about the scene in “The Lost City” when Andy Garcia’s character leaves Cuba and he has to leave everything behind. My dad said that was exactly what it was like; you couldn’t take anything with you at all. Not even family mementos like pictures, things that have no real value other than sentimental value. I had never realized that there were hardly any pictures of either side of my family from their days in Cuba and now I know why that is. I brought home all of my grandfather’s pictures for my mom to arrange for him and as I looked through them the other day I noticed that there were a few black and white pictures in one old album, that I know are old enough to be from Cuba, but other than that, there is nothing. Almost all the pictures pre-1967 are gone. I can’t explain why but it makes me sad to think about that. There are just a few pictures of my mom as a baby and a girl, up until she was 10, there are only a few pictures of my grandmother growing up, there are no pictures of my grandfather until the wedding pictures, he was 27.

So with all the reminiscing last week, I came home and put the lost city on my instant play list on Netflix and some suggestions popped up. One of the suggestions was Fidel. It is a documentary about Fidel and according to it he is a wonderful man and possibly the best thing that has ever happened to Cuba. I beg to differ. There was one old man, a journalist, talking about how great Fidel is from the comfort of Miami. I kept thinking: if he’s so great then why are you in Miami instead of in Cuba?

Of course there were also the American celebrities that think he’s wonderful too. Belafonte and Alice Walker think he has great qualities. But of course they live here in the United States and not in Cuba. I wonder if they would still think so highly of him if they had to live in Cuba, as everyday Cubans, in poverty.
I wonder if they would feel the same way if they had to live like these people:

All these videos are from O-jec.com. They have a lot of great videos, some are subtitled and some you don't even need to know what they are saying to realize how bad the situation is. Check them out.

Getting water in Cuba:



How about food?

There is no translation on this one but this guy interrupts an interview and he's pretty much saying that there is no food and that the people of Cuba are going hungry:



How hungry are they? Well how hungry would you have to be to eat garbage off the street?



And how about living conditions:

This lady pretty much says that tourists have this image of Cuba being so pretty and that the people don't have any need but that in fact they dont have clothes or shoes, that it's hard to get food, that kids are dying because they can't get the medicines they need:







This lady is showing how she works her old stove and then her family buys her a new stove:



Can you imagine if these celebrities that thing Castro is so great had to live like this?

And after seeing that look at these pre-revolution pictures of Havana and tell me which one you would rather live in:

If by Freedom You Mean...

Have you seen any of these Congressional Black Caucus Members that went to Cuba this week talk about their meeting with Fidel?
It's sick really.
I've already said that the embargo hasn't worked and we should just lift it all together so I have on problem with that part of it. What they said about the Freedom in Cuba and the praise they heaped on Fidel was just makes my blood boil.

It was quite a moment to behold," Lee said, recalling her moments with Castro.

Yes I'm sure it was, a defining moment right?

“It was almost like listening to an old friend,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.), adding that he found Castro’s home to be modest and Castro’s wife to be particularly hospitable.

“In my household I told Castro he is known as the ultimate survivor,” Rush said.

Like listening to an old friend? How many friends does Rush have that imprisons or murders people that dare speak out against them, that steals people's private property, that lives in luxury while the people he represents live in poverty.
Oh wait, never mind you don't have to answer that.
By the way, in my house Castor is not exactly known as "the ultimate survivor" but it's not lady like to say what he's known as here.

Here is an interview with Congress Critter Richardson on her meeting with Fidel.

Love it when she says that she saw freedom in Cuba and that she didn't see dissent. Well that may have to do with the fact that dissent is met with imprisonment at best. And by the way you are seeing what Cuba wants you to see, next time go off the beaten path and see the real Cuba, see where regular people live, what they have to eat, and what hospitals they go to. Oh and for shits and giggles ask them how much money they make in a month (Here's a hint, I couldn't get a tank full of gas).
Think of this too, if things are so great in Cuba, why do Cubans risk their lives, and die, in inner tubes for the chance of getting to the US? When was the last time thousands of Americans risked their lives in inner tubes to get to Cuba?



Once again, Bobby, I'm glad that murderous dictator could endear himself to you with his sense of humor. It's killer!

Sorry Mom and Dad

I didn't know, until I heard it on the news this morning, that there is a provision in the Omnibus bill to ease travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba.

CUBA TRAVEL AND TRADE

Obama has made clear he favors relaxing limits on family travel and cash remittances by Cuban Americans to Cuba, although he has said the U.S. trade embargo should stay in place to press for democratic reforms.

The Cuba proposals do not lift the overall U.S. embargo on the communist-run country, but would prohibit the Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.

The legislation proposes to allow Americas with immediate family in Cuba to travel there once a year instead of once every three years and broadens the definition of immediate family.

"It's being done in a haphazard way without real clarity about the implications that it all will have," said Republican opponent of the provisions, Senator Mel Martinez from Florida, which is home to thousands of Cuban exiles like himself.

So this is where I feel I may need to apologize to my parents but why stop there?
Why not just completely do away with the embargo?

As the daughter and granddaughter of Cuban immigrants, I know what I am about to say goes against everything I should probably stand for (at least as far as my parents and grandparents are concerned)but here it goes: First of all what exactly is the embargo accomplishing? When it started 40-odd years ago the intent was to isolate the Castro Regime, who at the time was allying with the USSR. They posed a national security threat and the intention was to isolate and undermine the regime and lead to its downfall. Since 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union Cuba really poses no threat and we are the only country with an embargo against Cuba and the Castro Regime is still in power. So I ask is it really working? What exactly is it achieving?

Well, in a speech Dan Griswold of the CATO Institute had this to say:

As a foreign policy tool, the embargo actually enhances Castro's standing by giving him a handy excuse for the failures of his homegrown Caribbean socialism. He can rail for hours about the suffering the embargo inflicts on Cubans, even though the damage done by his domestic policies is far worse. If the embargo were lifted, the Cuban people would be a bit less deprived and Castro would have no one else to blame for the shortages and stagnation that will persist without real market reforms.

Think about it, if Castro is using the embargo as propaganda to show the Cuban people how evil the Americans are and how all their suffering is because of the American embargo then who will he have to blame when the embargo is lifted? Who will they blame when there is no one left to blame for their failed policies.
And it's not just the Cuban government, but other countries blame the US for the economic hardships in Cuba. They don't bother to mention that not only do other countries, Canada, the EU and Latin American countries, trade with Cuba but that Cuba does have limited trade with the US:

In 2000, Congress approved a modest opening of the embargo. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 allows cash-only sales to Cuba of U.S. farm products and medical supplies. The results of this opening have been quite amazing. Since 2000, total sales of farm products to Cuba have increased from virtually zero to $380 million last year. From dead last in U.S. farm export markets, Cuba ranked 25th last year out of 228 countries in total purchases of U.S. farm products. Cuba is now the fifth largest export market in Latin America for U.S. farm exports. American farmers sold more to Cuba last year than to Brazil. Our leading exports to Cuba are meat and poultry, rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans.

So I say, in the spirit of transparency, go ahead and lift the embargo and lets see what happens. If the embargo hasn't fulfilled it's purpose yet then lets see what we can do when we are allowed to go to Cuba and spread our ideas and money on that island. Lets see what we can do when the government cant blame us for their problems anymore.