April 15, 2005
Vamos bien!
There are billboards in Havana with the statement above. "Vamos bien!" We are doing alright! Everything is hunky dory! All is great!
Of course, the mere fact that castro has to keep reminding everyone of how good they are all doing makes you wonder. Certainly, if you're doing so well you dont need a constant reminder. You dont need someone telling you night and day that you live in paradise when it's plainly obvious that you do.
It's only when it's painfully obvious that you don't live in Eden that those who are responsible for your plight must constantly pull the wool over your eyes:
Cuba - a great place to visit By joe warmington "VAMOS BIEN," says the slogan on several billboards in Central Havana, which sport the smiling face of a uniform-clad Fidel Castro. "Everything is fine," they tell me is how it translates."Fine for him," says a Cuban friend. "There is only one person in Cuba and his name is Fidel."
Everything, however, is not fine enough for this person to offer her name in print. "I would go to jail," she said. "It is very dangerous for me."
Not true? An overreaction? Don't say that to the Women in White -- a group of brave women who every Sunday gather at a Catholic church to protest the stiff prison sentences given to their husbands, who are incarcerated for up to 28 years for daring to speak out against the communist dictator.
Now don't get me wrong. I love Cuba, particularly Havana. It's a fascinating city with lots of positives, including low crime levels and a major focus on family time. Also, despite the U.S. trade embargo and the lack of aid since the collapse of the Soviet empire, the people of Cuba are surviving. They don't look hungry and they live happy lives in a country where cars from the 1950s are plentiful and the buildings of beautiful Spanish architecture are decaying at a rapid rate.
It's clear paint is difficult to come by and even if it's available it's hard for people to afford on the average $15 a month they earn. But there's something refreshing about the simpler existence and there's even an allure to Fidel, who definitely still has scores of supporters both on and off the island.
But there are realities of Cuban life I discovered this week which can't be ignored. I was inspired by these Women in White, who to me are far more impressive than the secret police or network of 200 women working for Castro who recently shouted them down with words like "worms" and then later allowed an stick-beating attack on a male organizer in his home.
Message sent. There is no question who is in charge. Everywhere you go, there are billboards talking about the struggles of the revolution, posters of legendary Che Guevara and anti-U.S. propaganda like the recently removed Swastika outside the American diplomatic office. "Castro thinks he's Jesus Christ -- he thinks he's the messiah," a Havana doctor told me. "He has killed imagination here."
This is achievable when you are on TV all the time -- and on every channel. The president is regularly seen delivering a five-hour speech in which he slams his hand to his desk as he talks with an aging voice about the horrible "Americanos" and such achievements as securing 100,000 new Chinese-made rice cookers.
Don't laugh, says the doctor. "Many people here survive on rice and beans. We live a dark nightmare here," he said.
This is especially true for the Women in White. I got a taste of their ordeal since I too was chastized for talking with them and taking their picture.
"Remember, this is Cuba," says my friend, "not Canada."
My friend stayed in my hired-taxi when a member of the secret police demanded of her to know who I was and what I was doing there? "He's just a tourist," she said.
As I was talking with them a man claiming to be a "professional journalist" interrupted me. "Go away or you will be in a lot of trouble."
The Women in White also looked nervous. "We appreciate you coming," said one.
She said all they want is their husbands released -- and perhaps even a change in their beloved Cuba. They are not alone, but among the few who dare say it.
When will it change? "When he dies," said the cabbie. "When will he die? Only God knows and I think even he has doubts."
The doctor agrees: "I know his personal physician and at almost 79 he's in good physical health. He says he will live until he's 120. We all say, 'Oh my God, we can't handle another 40 years.'"
Everything may be "Vamos Bien" in Cuba. But not for everyone.
Posted by Val Prieto at April 15, 2005 07:55 AM
Comments
A few years ago my husband and I went to Cuba with a group called Eldertreks. We always had a place in Coral Gables and my family had spent many vacations there. My brother learned to speak Spanish there. We were just off the plane (we travel a lot around the world) when I realized I had entered a giant prison. Everything around me was horrible and false. The sex tourists disgusted me, the magnificent building of Habana were in shambles and I would have left immediately if I could have. Every face that looked back at me was sullen and why not! On my return we were nabbed by customs and years later had to pay $2000 to the government.(The tour brochure was slippery on this point.)I almost didn't mind paying it because in a way it was a fit ending to the worst travel decision of my life. It is the island of beauty with the oxygen succked out of it.Hauntingly however music was everywhere-that grand music I still hear hints of in Merida in the Yucatan. The music that he cannot suppress.
Posted by: Peggye at April 15, 2005 11:01 AM
What I love about the Left and Cuba is that they make Castro's Cuba the best thing since sliced bread. The Walter Lippmans or Harry Belofantes of the world are always ranting and raving on how friendly the people in Cuba are, how beautiful and exotic Cuban women are, how quaint old Havana is, or how incredible is the sunset on the Malecon is - how intoxicating are the mojitos, how strong the rum is, how sweet the canja, or how beautiful the sound of son or mambo or the cha cha is. What these bozos maricones don't seem to understand or think we are so stupid to understand is that these great things about Cuba have always been there since the island was settled and will always be there even way before castro drops dead and goes to meet his majestic Satanic master in Hell. These great things about Cuba are not Castro's or the Revolutions but are indigenous to the island regardless of what political party is in.
And an other thing - don't let these Castro cultists retarts like Walter Lippman or Ann Sparanese or Medea Benjamin or Mark Rosenswige from the Communist Party USA fool you into believing the revolutionary wonder of free education, high literacy rate, or free medicine. These things too existed way before the revolution. Cubans of all classes and races have always taken great pride in education and the constitution of 1940 - which was one of the most progressive of its time - gave Cuban citizens a higher standard of living then most developed nations. I should know - I come from a Cuban medical family where most of my relatives were doctors - and the fact was that regardless of financial situation no one was ever turned away from lack of funds. The same was with education in pre kkkastro Cuba. everyone got a chance. My father was able to study at Havana U for his dentistry for next to nothing at that time. And if you did not have the money they would give it to you on the honor system providing you worked hard as hell and had good grades. One just had to devote all their time to studying however. The Left doesn't like to hear this because they are so wishy washy with education in the first place - frowning on hard work and lower standards in all directions. My grandfather on my moms side a working class man of no social standing was able to work and go to night college to better himself even while raising 3 daughters and holding a full time job. In pre Castro Cuba. What has happened is that the retarded satanic left has hi-jacked Cuban history and like all Marxists mo-fos they have re written it to suit its political agenda.
Whenever you hear some starry eyed Stalinist or coked up movie star going off and becoming aroused as to how wonderful kkkastros Cuba is because of the free this - and egalitarian that - DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD THEY ARE SAYING - THEY ARE LYING TO YOU BIG TIME - THEY ARE MEMBERS OF A CULT!
Posted by: Mario at April 15, 2005 11:21 AM
"there's something refreshing about the simpler existence"
Quaint.
Posted by: j.scott barnard at April 15, 2005 12:07 PM
Peggye:
Cuba was blessed with "something" that it is quite indefinable. I had an uncle that used to say it was the “winds”.I have travel most of the world and I am yet to see a sunset like a sunset from El Malecon.
After being away for 30+ years I got my first whiff of Cuban air and it was unmistakable. Now mix that with the characteristic Cuban sense of humor, affability and Joie de vivre and you have MAGIC.
Now, the Cultists falls in love with the beauty of a country or their women or their music or god knows what else, and they give credit to Castro or he just plain TAKES credit for everything!
I have ACTUALLY heard people say that the state of decay in La Habana is a “nice touch” like visiting a movie set or “stepping back in time”
Not bad for a week vacation, but live with THAT for 46 years.
Look at an aerial view of La Habana in 1959 ( I wont say 1958 cause I will be accused of being a Batistiano. White booties wearing Batistiano no less)
Look at it now; in fact MOST of the postcards they sell in La Habana are from pre-Castro days
Not a DAMN thing has been done to improve the conditions of life for those people.
The tallest building in 1959 is STILL the tallest building! The widest Ave is STILL the widest Ave.
These were PUBLIC works, No propaganda, you didn’t see 75 Billboards with Batistas’s face and 90 zillion slogans on your way to Santa Maria del mar and the country functioned spectacularly. Batista stole MILLIONS and the city of La Habana was (like my mom used to say .. “Una tacita de oro” a “little golden cup”)
Your tax pesos AT WORK !
You hear how the decay of la Habana is offset by the “other advances in social welfare. But in 1958, there use to be a “First Care Triage unit” within 5 minutes of anyone’s house. By LAW every night there had to be a at least one pharmacy open within a 10 square block area.
If you could afford $3.50 a month you would join a private hospital, if not there were 12 Public Hospitals in La Habana. Castro has not built NONE!
So here you have a place that was so magical that even after 46 years of continuous defacement still holds it’s enchantments. Like a perfectly beautiful woman who at the twilight of her years has not lost the sparkle her eyes had in her youth.
And THE BEAST has NOT-A-GOD-DAMN-THING to do with that spar
Posted by: KillCastro at April 15, 2005 08:28 PM
Interesting irony in the comparison to Canada. "Remember, this is Cuba," says my friend, "not Canada." People think that Canada is some sort of paradise, almost in the same way that Castro thinks that "his" island is one. But this is just not so --in either of the cases.
If Canada were an island, it'd be an island of corruption, fraud, and theft perpetrated by the ruling party --which has been around longer than Fidel. Perhaps that explains the odd attraction Canadians have to Castro's Cuba.
Posted by: kaqchikel at April 17, 2005 05:01 PM