“Did I get this wrong or did you say Americans are smuggling themselves in to Cuba?” Why on earth would they try to do that I’m thinking, surely they jumped on the nearest boat as soon as Che & friends started getting nasty. I decided a little unbiased history was in order.
The Cuban and Soviet governments decided around September 1962 to place nuclear missiles on Cuba in order to protect it from United States harassment. When United States intelligence discovered the weapons, its government decided to do all they could to ensure the removal of them so they called in the troops. Ever tried fighting a guerilla? Now lets put this in reverse just for fun. The scenario would look like this. The American government decided to place nuclear missiles on their land (oh that’s right, they have loads already). Cuba, a nearby neighbor is concerned and when the Cuban intelligence discovered the weapons, its government decided to do all they could to ensure removal and sent the troops onto American turf. Doesn’t sound too great does it?
The middle & higher classes in Cuba at the time were having a fabulous time, living very well indeed but the poor were still very poor (think of Iran pre-Khomeini in the time of the Shah, there was a huge divide between rich and poor). Anyway, Che & friends got a little rowdy and a little “off the wall” one might say. They managed to recruit much of the population for their revolution. Corrupt leaders fled, as did the Cuban middle-classes, but some loyal to Cuba stayed. Today while the poor have better education, equality among the sexes, very low crime, virtually no rape or child molestation (wish we could say the same about the West), both the poor and middle-classes are still poorly clothed and some are hungry. At least they don’t have obesity! I interviewed a hotel worker who offered to speak in fluent English, or French, German or Arabic, depending on which language I wished to converse with her in. WOW. I need to get my skates in the foreign language dept. She continued “We don’t have quite as much freedom as the West has, but neither do we have the crime, the drug problems, the abuse of women and children, high unemployment. We have the best education, we have the support of every other country except America, we have a large international tourism industry, we are ahead of the game in the scientific field, stem cell research, that sort of thing. The problem is we can’t buy the clothes we like, and food is minimal as Cuba relies a great deal on its farming, but if you are “in the party”, in other words, if you suck up to people in the party, you can get what you want, you are promoted to the highest levels, and life is much better. Isn’t that similar to employees sucking up to their bosses and colleagues in the west to get promotion, except we have to do it to the party? “.
Sucking up is not my type of life unfortunately, but she has a point. Our visit resulted in much discussion with tourist guides who were the only ones prepared to speak off the cuff and insisted on being miles away from anyone else. “Basically life is fine for those active in the party, he pointed out, but less so for less active members. Many people still have to line up for food and getting clothing that fits is difficult sometimes, people are wearing shoes that don’t fit. We rely on relatives and friends from outside Cuba to send better goods in. There are police on most corners in Habana and our equivalent to the SAS law is vibrant, (stop & search), but that is the same as the UK and European laws, and the US in many states I understand”.
Surprisingly, the majority of Cubans do not have any animosity to Americans and indeed welcome them, as does Fidel “unofficially”. He is very happy to get US dollars and has a massive collection already. The “Euro”, the Yen and the Dinar pour into automatically with millions of tourist each year. So where does Fidel acquire his American dollars. From the thousands of US tourists that sneak into Cuba each year making themselves US criminals.
We asked a few American students in Habana what they were doing there and how they smuggled themselves in. Michael, a Yale alumni commented “We do not wish to inherit the negative politics of our fathers, we do not believe a country should stipulate where its tax-paying population should go on vacation, that’s dictatorship!. Cuba is a Caribbean island with sun, fantastic beaches, an fascinating history, an interesting culture, and very friendly people, why wouldn’t we come here? We can go to Japan and they actually bombed us, we can go to Afghanistan, anyone remember 9/11? This whole Cuba thing is outdated, it simply doesn’t make sense anymore, especially to our generation. We are untainted by prejudicial history, remember it was us that sent our troops in”. I enquired of Michael how he got into Cuba and whether he was aware it was illegal as an American citizen. “ Yes we know it’s against the law but we believe the law is not a correct one and would appeal in court against the legality. We flew to Jamaica and got a local flight to Havana. At the airport, they welcomed us, put a white piece of paper in our passport which we were to give back upon leaving, they never stamp American passports, they simply give throw-away visas for the duration of your stay, it’s that easy. We have friends from California who flew in via Mexico and their experience was the same.”
The questions is, is it time to re-think Cuba? Perhaps or perhaps not! Let us have your comment! pointofview@45magazineonline.com
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