Best wishes to the people of Cuba-

[Kevin48438]

The embargo is because of the Cuban government stealing of US property in Cuba.  (late 50s, early 60s). Just like if the US government were to confiscate all airplanes and hangars currently in US airports that are owned by foreign companies.  It has nothing to do with the government/economic system Cuba claims to have.

The US and Cuba are enemies.  Just ask the Cuban leaders.

Over 100 countries in the world embargo the sale of arms to Cuba (and many other places as well).

Cuba seems to be able to sell, somewhere in the world, almost all (all?) that it produces.

Food and medicine are not embargoed by the US.  Cuba can buy as much as they like from the US or any other country.

Since “the revolution” Cuba has never been self-sufficient.   They required “gifts” from other communist allies.  Gifts on the scale necessary to make Cuba whole are never free in the long term.

[El Presidente]

9 minutes ago, Kevin48438 said:

The embargo is because of the Cuban government stealing of US property in Cuba.  (late 50s, early 60s). Just like if the US government were to confiscate all airplanes and hangars currently in US airports that are owned by foreign companies.  It has nothing to do with the government/economic system Cuba claims to have.

The US and Cuba are enemies.  Just ask the Cuban leaders.

Over 100 countries in the world embargo the sale of arms to Cuba (and many other places as well).

Cuba seems to be able to sell, somewhere in the world, almost all (all?) that it produces.

Food and medicine are not embargoed by the US.  Cuba can buy as much as they like from the US or any other country.

Since “the revolution” Cuba has never been self-sufficient.   They required “gifts” from other communist allies.  Gifts on the scale necessary to make Cuba whole are never free in the long term.

Some truths, some half truths, some rubbish. 

It sums up this mess nicely 

[JohnnyO]

Here is yesterdays Miami Herald in Spanish. Notice the matching boots for most of them, very young dudes and it looks like they dont want to be there. Saw a video today where the Avispas Negras were whacking people laying down on the ground with their sticks. Also, on Twitter a group of the AN's took a group picture as to say "Look at us, aren't we cool?" Senator Marco Rubio (FL) asked the public to identify those people dressed in black and swinging sticks so as to deny entry into the US. The food issue is a long one. For a time, say pre-2008 you could bring as much food as you wanted. Limits were only based on airlines restrictions. But groups like USAID and Miami travel/mula agencies were over-doing it. The agencies were sending a person with (20) 70 lb bags with the Charter companies and Cuban Customs did not like that much. USAID sent to dissidents on the island and that did not sit with them well either. Instead of slowing it down by allowing say only one bag, they went to the extreme and shut that down. Allowing food does not just benefit the mula agencies. A lot of it is sold and resold, benefitting the vendors. Many of the food items just aren't available especially spices/seasonings so the families do benefit. There are many here in Miami/FL that take down goods only for their families. Many stay there 2-3 weeks at a time blowing wads of cash on meals and necessities. Hell, when I go down there I take cases of beer. You can get more smiles from a case of beer than anything else. On a side note this is what it takes to get to Cuba now from Miami with the charter companies; $2000 for the ticket, $6/lb for your checked and carry-on bags. Several tiki-tak fees for the COVID tests and after July 15, a 14 day quarantine. With American you might get on 1st class for about $1700 and the standard bag policy. So they are not making it very desirable to go there. John

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, Kevin48438 said:

Cuba seems to be able to sell, somewhere in the world, almost all (all?) that it produces.

Yes but the buyers pay in their currency and Cuba can only spend it back in that country. They end up in a lot of direct trade situations. Euros are easier to be sure, but the US sanctions any western/European banks that deal with Cuba. The last Swiss bank (PostFinance) stopped dealing with Cuba in late 2019. Not to mention Cuba is pretty far away from Europe to sell agricultural goods. 

There's no doubt that the Embargo has hampered the Cuban economy but we have a 62-year stalemate. And there are regimes that are far worse that the US doesn't embargo. The Cuban government has shown no desire to reform in order to lift the Embargo so categorizing it as ineffective isn't debatable. At this point the regime prefers the Embargo as a propaganda tool. 

But 99% of the economic problems Cuba faces is due to it's lack of economic freedom. 

[Nino]

15 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Some truths, some half truths, some rubbish. 

It sums up this mess nicely 

Quote

But 99% of the economic problems Cuba faces is due to it's lack of economic freedom

Yep it does - replace blockade with embargo and you get the drift ... 🙂

The Blockade does not prohibit fishermen in Cuba from fishing, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade does not confiscate the harvest from the peasants, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade does not prohibit Cubans on the island from doing business freely, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade did not destroy every sugar mill, textile factory, shoe store, canning factory, the dictatorship did;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that they pay you with toilet paper pesos and sell in stores for American dollars; the dictatorship yes;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that Cubans are beaten and imprisoned for thinking differently, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that there are hundreds of political prisoners who have not committed any crime, the dictatorship has;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that they send you American dollars and they give you toilet paper pesos or CUC in the Western Union, which is the same garbage, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that the dictatorship builds hotels and the roofs fall on the Cubans' heads, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that hospitals in Cuba are collapsed, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not guilty of not having water in the houses by not maintaining the aqueduct system, the dictatorship is;

[dgixxer252525]

Now in FL people are getting ready to go with unlimited food restrictions to take food to families. Weird because I thought the embargo wouldn’t allow this? Or was it the internal blockade? 
 

To the people I have offended with my fiery comments, I am truly sorry. This is a very personal topic for me, as my grandfather was imprisoned for 6 years for speaking his mind. Not imprisoned by the USA, but by Cuba. I also need to be more sensitive to the plight of others who have chosen to do business with this dictatorship. I have read the Bible verse that says “forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.” 

all I want is true freedom for my people. I want to be able to buy Cuban cigars here in FL. I want my family to be able to come visit me here in Tampa. I want to be able to take my boat to Hemingway and spend a month there in the summer with no fear. More than anything though, I want my grandfathers actions all those years ago to be validated. 

 

[ElJavi76]

5 minutes ago, dgixxer252525 said:

Now in FL people are getting ready to go with unlimited food restrictions to take food to families. Weird because I thought the embargo wouldn’t allow this? Or was it the internal blockade? 
 

To the people I have offended with my fiery comments, I am truly sorry. This is a very personal topic for me, as my grandfather was imprisoned for 6 years for speaking his mind. Not imprisoned by the USA, but by Cuba. I also need to be more sensitive to the plight of others who have chosen to do business with this dictatorship. I have read the Bible verse that says “forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.” 

all I want is true freedom for my people. I want to be able to buy Cuban cigars here in FL. I want my family to be able to come visit me here in Tampa. I want to be able to take my boat to Hemingway and spend a month there in the summer with no fear. More than anything though, I want my grandfathers actions all those years ago to be validated. 

 

Daniel I feel your pain brother and I stand with you. It hits a little different when you have skin in the game. I don't think it's a matter of opinion... if you don't have family there, try being respectful to those in pain here feeling great impotence that we cannot do more. 

My grandfather found his father hanging from the rafters of his barn back in 1960 after the revolution told him they would be confiscating most of his land. Soil he had worked with his own hands for decades. The old man was in his late 70s and I guess he felt no need to continue living in this new system. In an alternate universe without communism and bs I might have inherited acres upon acres of land in Pinar del Rio and I'd be growing the tobacco we all smoke today. I daydream of that sometimes. 

To be clear... I think people need to understand this isn't JUST about food or medicine. They're screaming and chanting LIBERTAD. They want their freedom not a piece of bread. 

#SoSCuba #CubaLibre

[dgixxer252525]

2 minutes ago, ElJavi76 said:

Daniel I feel your pain brother and I stand with you. It hits a little different when you have skin in the game. I don't think it's a matter of opinion... if you don't have family there, try being respectful to those in pain here feeling great impotence that we cannot do more. 

My grandfather found his father hanging from the rafters of his barn back in 1960 after the revolution told him they would be confiscating most of his land. Soil he had worked with his own hands for decades. The old man was in his late 70s and I guess he felt no need to continue living in this new system. In an alternate universe without communism and bs I might have inherited acres upon acres of land in Pinar del Rio and I'd be growing the tobacco we all smoke today. I daydream of that sometimes. 

To be clear... I think people need to understand this isn't JUST about food or medicine. They're screaming and chanting LIBERTAD. They want their freedom not a piece of bread. 

#SoSCuba #CubaLibre

Exactly…my grandfather passed away at 89 years old in 2018. I would go by his house every single day and once a week he was listening to Rolando Laserie and Orlando Contreras, crying his eyes out about what was taken from him. He was friends with Pedro Luis Boitel, and part of him always felt guilty about escaping the island and not dying trying to fight. He loved the USA more than anything because of what it gave him…FREEDOM, but when he passed and we cleared out his house, it was a shrine to Cuba. He is happy right now up in heaven. Maybe my grandfather and yours are drinking some guayabita and enjoying a smoke, watching what’s to come…we can dream right?
 

 

[helix]

I hope in your lifetimes LIBERTAD for Cuba's people.

[Habana Mike]

A Cuban's perspective:

Yesterday the president and the two prime ministers spoke and for them Cuba is advancing ... I am so disgusted to hear them 🤦🏻‍♂️ They released a series of measures among them they will allow the tax-free entry of medicine, food and articles of personal hygiene ... I'll explain to you so that you understand that even before the pandemic started, if any Cuban traveled to Cuba brought food, medicine or toiletries, they had to pay an abusive high tax and in USD ... on multiple occasions it was asked, the government was implored to allow the entry of those basic things to mitigate hunger, lack of medicine ... and nothing 🤦🏻‍♂️ only until yesterday and after the demonstrations they allowed it 🤬

[JohnnyO]

There is a Cuban living in Panama that has a lot of videos of what's going on in Cuba:

Alain Paparazzi Cubano

He is on YouTube and Facebook. You might struggle to follow along as its only in Spanish and he knows no English. But you'll get the idea from the videos. John

[helix]

Powerful stuff John.

[BrightonCorgi]

My uncle had a shirt factory in Cuba he was forced to abandon during the revolution.  I don't think the factory continued under the regime and he set up the same in Haiti.

[chris12381]

54 minutes ago, JohnnyO said:

There is a Cuban living in Panama that has a lot of videos of what's going on in Cuba:

Alain Paparazzi Cubano

He is on YouTube and Facebook. You might struggle to follow along as its only in Spanish and he knows no English. But you'll get the idea from the videos. John

Thanks for pointing out his channel. 

Alain Lambert has done amazing work for years.  He was one of the first people I ever saw live-streaming in Cuba (all the way back in 2016 and 2017).  I've been a fan for some time.  Anytime a celebriety came to Cuba, there he was following them and filming it and usually got a chance to ask them a question or two.  He would travel outside of Havana to as far as Santiago to film the Carnival (where he got arrested during a live stream), Christmas in Remedios, etc.  He was filming and livestreaming during hurricane Irma.  He then started meeting average Cubans on the street and asking them to show his audience what their homes were like and how they lived.  Some of what he he saw was incredibly emmotional and seemed to affect Alain quite a bit.  I don't think this reporting and his commentary went over well with his government.

If you go back into his videos about 8 to 6 months ago, you will see a video he streamed live inside an aircraft cabin on the ramp in Havana where he said he needed to quickly sell everything he had and leave Cuba for Panama.  He's been there since then.    

[ElJavi76]

With every new video I watch ... this causes the most visceral of reactions. These paramilitary clowns showing up with sticks... You're just as hungry as the Cuban you're beating down. How can you be so idealistic in your communist mind to not see that? They're all wearing t-shirts one or two sizes too small for them. I would do that to defend some, much higher, standard of living. They don't live THAT much better. Completely brainwashed! 

Comments on social media says, you'll find them in Hialeah in 8 months after this falls apart. I hope they don't make it that far. 

[chris12381]

From what I could find out, these videos were recorded yesterday.  No idea on location.  To me, these look like MIG-21 and the helicopter looks like a MIL Mi-17 or newer.  Someone with better knowledge of Soviet era helicopters might know better as to what it is.   

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TUDBACqbokEtVnYB9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RrJp8Wz8CYYYRzok6

Hopefully just a show of force. 

[El Presidente]

7 hours ago, dgixxer252525 said:

 

To the people I have offended with my fiery comments, I am truly sorry. This is a very personal topic for me, as my grandfather was imprisoned for 6 years for speaking his mind. Not imprisoned by the USA, but by Cuba. I also need to be more sensitive to the plight of others who have chosen to do business with this dictatorship. I have read the Bible verse that says “forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.” 

 

Yes, alluding that members would miss the old cars, cheap cigars and cheap women was offensive. You are damn right you should apologise for  your  snide/sneering and disgusting tone.  I would keep reading the rest of the bible. 

 

[JohnnyO]

6 hours ago, chris12381 said:

Thanks for pointing out his channel. 

Alain Lambert has done amazing work for years.  He was one of the first people I ever saw live-streaming in Cuba (all the way back in 2016 and 2017).  I've been a fan for some time.  Anytime a celebriety came to Cuba, there he was following them and filming it and usually got a chance to ask them a question or two.  He would travel outside of Havana to as far as Santiago to film the Carnival (where he got arrested during a live stream), Christmas in Remedios, etc.  He was filming and livestreaming during hurricane Irma.  He then started meeting average Cubans on the street and asking them to show his audience what their homes were like and how they lived.  Some of what he he saw was incredibly emmotional and seemed to affect Alain quite a bit.  I don't think this reporting and his commentary went over well with his government.

If you go back into his videos about 8 to 6 months ago, you will see a video he streamed live inside an aircraft cabin on the ramp in Havana where he said he needed to quickly sell everything he had and leave Cuba for Panama.  He's been there since then.    

One thing that I saw last night with Alain Paparazzi Cubano is that he identified many of the "Avispas Negras" with images of them, their families members and names. The video with the dude knocked out on the sidewalk getting whacked with the sticks is too much. John 

[chris12381]

5 hours ago, ElJavi76 said:

With every new video I watch ... this causes the most visceral of reactions. These paramilitary clowns showing up with sticks... You're just as hungry as the Cuban you're beating down. How can you be so idealistic in your communist mind to not see that? 

As @Nino pointed out in earlier comments when he mentioned the Eastern Bloc countries, these guys are key to how these fights are won. 

With enough people protesting and in the street, it is not unlikely that a portion of those that have the power (the guns) start to realize that they too are hungry, they too have family who can't get medicine, they too go home to dark houses, etc. In other words, they are not any different from those they are fighting...and are fighting for something that isn't worth fighting for.  They might not want to see the massive changes many envision:  But they know they don't want more of the same. 

If that begins to happen...se acabó. 

 

[PigFish]

18 hours ago, Nino said:

Yep it does - replace blockade with embargo and you get the drift ... 🙂

The Blockade does not prohibit fishermen in Cuba from fishing, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade does not confiscate the harvest from the peasants, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade does not prohibit Cubans on the island from doing business freely, the dictatorship does;

🇨🇺-The blockade did not destroy every sugar mill, textile factory, shoe store, canning factory, the dictatorship did;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that they pay you with toilet paper pesos and sell in stores for American dollars; the dictatorship yes;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that Cubans are beaten and imprisoned for thinking differently, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that there are hundreds of political prisoners who have not committed any crime, the dictatorship has;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that they send you American dollars and they give you toilet paper pesos or CUC in the Western Union, which is the same garbage, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that the dictatorship builds hotels and the roofs fall on the Cubans' heads, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not the culprit that hospitals in Cuba are collapsed, the dictatorship is;

🇨🇺-The blockade is not guilty of not having water in the houses by not maintaining the aqueduct system, the dictatorship is;

BIG F'N Bingo!

Read about that recent head of BLM (self-proclaimed Marxist) buying millions dollars of real estate with BLM proceeds. Typical Marxist. Would be nice if neo-Marxist actually told the truth about it. What it really is. Their actions speak plain as day!!!

There, I said it. -Piggy

[El Presidente]

Message from Hamlet 

 

 

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, JohnnyO said:

One thing that I saw last night with Alain Paparazzi Cubano is that he identified many of the "Avispas Negras" with images of them, their families members and names.

That's exactly what needs to start happening. I could never figure out why the soldiers are willing to fight against the communities from which they come. For what, a little money?

There is no "soldier class" like Sparta. None of these soldiers were conscripted as a child. They grew up like every other Cuban. They have families and friends who they grew up with and know full well the truth of the situation. If the only way to get these soldiers to lay their weapons down is to go after these mercenaries' families, so be it. Participation in the oppression of one's family for money is a much greater crime. 

[Nino]

5 hours ago, PigFish said:

BIG F'N Bingo!

Read about that recent head of BLM (self-proclaimed Marxist) buying millions dollars of real estate with BLM proceeds. Typical Marxist. Would be nice if neo-Marxist actually told the truth about it. What it really is. Their actions speak plain as day!!!

There, I said it. -Piggy

I posted the link to that here ( as well as Randy Newman singing "It's money that matters" ).

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57277777?fbclid=IwAR2MxXeu3DsSCoQ8T_Jl2TRv0Yq_1nZNg6_bgUPMDONCBqwvf0QWuJ_rHts

When I gow up I wanna be a Marxist, buy a mansion in Topanga Canyon, condemm my country and support the Cuban regime ... did I miss anything ?

[Nino]

A very thoughtful essay on tourism in Cuba.

Dear Tourists: It’s Time You Knew Why We Are Protesting in Cuba

To those tourists who doubt the veracity of our demands, who question the legitimacy of the people’s protests, you really have no idea of how fed-up we are

Ernesto Pérez Chang

viernes, 16 de julio, 2021 9:56 am

en English

https://www.cubanet.org/english/dear-tourists-its-time-you-knew-why-we-are-protesting-in-cuba/

 

On Sunday, July 11, thousands of Cubans spontaneously took to the streets of the island (Credit: Reuters)

HAVANA, Cuba. – Yes, you, dear tourist. You who have doubts about why thousands of men and women will continue to protest in the streets of Cuba against the dictatorship and on social media, really have no clue about what it means for Cubans to survive in this country on a daily basis.

If you are among those who have come “to visit” and have the impression that you have visited paradise, then I must tell you that your disbelief comes not from doubt, but from cynicism, indifference, opportunism and complicity, because here in this island, misery –material as well as human- is palpable everywhere.

Why? Because, from the infinity-edge pools of the hotels in Havana, from the windows of your hotel room, even from the make-belief Cuban-style familiarity of an Airbnb, you have not really “enjoyed the local color”. In truth, you have been duped, or what’s worse: you had fun and reveled in our daily tragedies.

Did you know that a few yards from any site you might have visited in Havana, and due to the collapse of balconies, roofs and walls; due to the many buildings that come down so frequently they are no longer news; and because of the crumbling down of those urban ruins that “adorn” your photographs… because of all of that, every year, children, men and women die crushed under the debris? Did you ever care to find out why, in spite of living in perpetual mortal danger, families continue to live there?

The regime, and the parasites that live under its shadow, will tell you that it is due to the “blockade”. They will tell you that the U.S. economic embargo bars them from the resources with which to erect decent housing. However, after you have observed closely the well-fed bellies and the healthy rosy cheeks of every one of Cuba’s communist rulers, let me invite you to investigate a little bit about just how many hotels they have built -and continue to build- with “Cuban funds”, without need of foreign capital, as well as the number that, once inaugurated, will fill to 30% capacity year-round, and how many more remain abandoned since long before the pandemic.

This means that, if you are just slightly perceptive, you will notice quickly that something very strange has been happening in our economy. You could affirm, then, that for each hotel room that is built, another 10 family homes are added to the inventory of uninhabitable houses for reasons specified as “in danger of collapse”.

Also, it would be an interesting exercise to take the math a little further to compare the deteriorated hotel-room inventory against the real capacity of available lodging for tourists.

You could find out –because you have much more access to Internet than your average Cuban, and more free time without worrying about how you will feed your family – about the evident disproportion between a ration of food that a Cuban individual might be able to eat after fighting like a starving dog on a food line, and the food served to a foreigner at the least lavish buffet table of the lowliest hotel.

I can assure you that your notion about “eating” has nothing to do with our reality, and not because our culinary culture differs from yours, or because our idiosyncrasies are different, but, because of political perversity inasmuch as personal wellbeing and prosperity are used as tools of social control.

As such, while food and additional amenities were “assigned” to government leaders and their families throughout these 62 years of dictatorship becoming habitual and charged to the public treasury, so has supplying the markets where we Cubans buy without privileges or remittances from abroad, dwindled. 

The “endemism” of our national hunger has been further encouraged by dozens of state companies that import food and supplies while being run by indolent and corrupt administrators; our agriculture and cattle industries are mired in chaos, in addition to the countless obstacles with which the Communist Party hinders individual initiatives. Let me give you a few examples.

To profit, personally or collectively, from an abandoned plot of land requires a thousand permits from a gang of bureaucrats. Relative to what they earn, and taking into consideration the guarantees provided by law, an old lady who sells homemade food and snacks from her home or at the local street corner, pays more taxes and is more harassed by state inspectors than is the foreign entrepreneur whose hotel consumes, in a single day, the entire supply of water, gas and electricity for a small municipality like Old Havana. Going fishing on a rowboat, without a permit, is almost a matter of “national security”.

And, since I mentioned “sailing”, something that would be a normal activity in any Caribbean island, let me assure you that, from aboard the cruise ship on which you travelled here, or from the yacht where you sunbathed and sipped mojitos, you did not enjoy the view of virgin beaches or keys. You barely saw the desolation of a country laden with prohibitions against us who were born here and live here, relying on a monthly salary that covers one’s livelihood only for a couple of days.

If truth be told, because your pockets were full of US dollars, you enjoyed “privileges” that are forbidden to the average Cuban. For, you see, the average Cuban is considered a second-class citizen, whom the Communist regime forbids from boarding a vessel that will take him or her beyond a mere Kilometer from the coastline, because at the point beyond one Kilometer, a Cuban is no longer a citizen, but a deserter, as if the country were an army barrack and we Cubans were slaves on a plantation.

(We don’t classify as slaves only because our wages are low and below the established level of poverty in the world –we cannot even consider ourselves as living at the poverty level- or because we are paid in worthless currency that has no purchasing power).

You who cast doubts on our demands, on the legitimacy of the people’s protests, have no idea of how fed-up we are, of the magnitude of our accumulated exhaustion and frustrations, of how, in older Cubans, after decades of fear and hopelessness, this has mutated into apathy. But not so with younger men and women who mostly are free from fear and silly ideological commitments. They have become explosively irate, and have rebelled.

If my brief explanation were not sufficient for you to understand what is happening, then I invite you to return, but not as a tourist, not with dollars or euros in your pocket. Return with no intention of complaining loudly if you are disappointed, because to complain –to protest-  publicly in Cuba, for whatever reason, is a crime for which one pays dearly with ostracism and even prison. But you don’t have to believe me. You can corroborate it for yourself. Come back with empty pockets, empty like ours whether we be physicians, engineers, writers or workers.

Come with only the enthusiasm you profess for communism from your capitalist society, with your admiration for “Che” and Fidel from a distance and not from your own experience. Come back only with your slogans, look for a job, any job you please, and then make an attempt to buy or rent a house – what am I saying, “a house”! – a room at the verge of collapse is more like it. And do tell me if you are able to accomplish that. Try, with your hard-earned income, to feed your family and provide then with the other material and spiritual amenities that are basic for human welfare. Do it. I assure you that your doubts, as well as your faith in our “tropical communism”, will vanish.

[dgixxer252525]

That post Niño reads very familiar to what I posted a couple of days ago and got censored. Either way, I agree with the article. 
 

In other news, internet is cut again in certain places in Havana and in San Antonio de los Banos…