I ran across this while following a link in comments to Jonn’s article about the death of Fidel Castro. To give some perspective to Castro’s “accomplishments”, thought I’d post links to what I found here.
The article is by Michael J. Totten, a US journalist. It first appeared in the Spring 2014 City Journal magazine.
According to Totten, Cuban officials don’t allow foreign journalists routine entry to Cuba. After reading the article, the reason why should be fairly obvious.
Totten nonetheless managed to lie his way past customs and spend some time in that “Communist Utopia”. But unlike Michael Moore and others, he made it a point to get outside the “tourist zones” and see how the Cuban populace actually lives.
The documents his firsthand observations regarding the conditions when he visited Cuba in 2013 – the conditions outside Havana’s “tourist enclaves”. Totten went out of his way to spend time outside Havana’s “tourist enclaves”, and observe – and later record – what he’d seen. In short, he went to those places where Cubans actually live.
The article can be found here. It’s longish, but it’s definitely worth reading.
Here’s a little excerpt for one TAH reader we all “know and love”. I’ve added emphasis in a few places.
Cuba was one of the world’s richest countries before Castro destroyed it—and the wealth wasn’t just in the hands of a tiny elite. “Contrary to the myth spread by the revolution,” wrote Alfred Cuzan, a professor of political science at the University of West Florida, “Cuba’s wealth before 1959 was not the purview of a privileged few. . . . Cuban society was as much of a middle-class society as Argentina and Chile.” In 1958, Cuba had a higher per-capita income than much of Europe. “More Americans lived in Cuba prior to Castro than Cubans lived in the United States,” Cuban exile Humberto Fontova, author of a series of books about Castro and Guevara, tells me. “This was at a time when Cubans were perfectly free to leave the country with all their property. In the 1940s and 1950s, my parents could get a visa for the United States just by asking. They visited the United States and voluntarily returned to Cuba. More Cubans vacationed in the U.S. in 1955 than Americans vacationed in Cuba. Americans considered Cuba a tourist playground, but even more Cubans considered the U.S. a tourist playground.” Havana was home to a lot of that prosperity, as is evident in the extraordinary classical European architecture that still fills the city. Poor nations do not—cannot—build such grand or elegant cities.
But rather than raise the poor up, Castro and Guevara shoved the rich and the middle class down. The result was collapse. “Between 1960 and 1976,” Cuzan says, “Cuba’s per capita GNP in constant dollars declined at an average annual rate of almost half a percent. The country thus has the tragic distinction of being the only one in Latin America to have experienced a drop in living standards over the period.”
Yep. Just your garden-variety Socialist “worker’s paradise”. Sounds quite a lot like accounts I’ve read of the former Soviet Union, actually.
But the threat from Communism is now “passe”. Remember: Don’t Fear the Commie!
Rot in hell, Fidel. If even a small part of that article is true, you richly deserve it for what you did to your own nation and countrymen. Even the thoroughly corrupt and morally bankrupt bastard Batista was a piker by comparison.
Hat tip to TAH commenter HMCS(FMF) ret for linking to an article in his comments. A link embedded in the article he linked ultimately led me to the gem above.
Comments
37 responses to “Life In Cuba, Circa 2013”
Thanks, Hondo – just finished reading Totten’s article myself. Someone else needs to read it, his ideas on socialism/communism will get flushed down the drain after the eye-opening story about life in Cuba.
Yes, someone else desperately needs to read that article. But my guess is he’s too freaking lazy to do that – even though it’s published in a source that’s reputable and credible.
Further: if he does happen to read it, he’ll likely either (1) deny it represents reality, in spite of the fact that it’s based on firsthand observations from someone who’s been there, or (2) blame it on “imperfect Socialist implementation” or some other such crap. IMO there’s no way in hell he recognizes that the failure is due to flawed and unworkable theory, not bad implementation.
“Some men, you just can’t reach.” Especially those that choose to remain willfully ignorant, ignore compelling evidence, and who are too arrogant to admit they could be wrong.
It’s easier for him to come in here and go into “poo throwing baboon” mode than to open his mind and actually learn something.
Like the old United Negro College Fund commercials use to say, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”.
It must be Bush’s fault.
Not just Cuba, but elsewhere as well. Russia still holds dearly onto a lot of the failed Soviet policies, with just enough tweaking to create an uber-wealthy minority. Ditto China and Vietnam.
If he were still around, Hemingway would be stunned to see what has happened to his old haunt. Cubans certainly aren’t happy about it, but the tourists are another story—especially the world’s remaining Marxoid fellow travelers, who show up in Havana by the planeload. Such people are clearly unteachable.”
“Unteachable”, sounds like someone whose face we wipe our feet on when he craps his britches on a thread.
Totten’s article is superb which I pretty much expect from City Journal. Not surprising in the least, which is depressingly sad.
My German stepdaughters vacationed in Cuba in the 90s. One of them gushed about how beautiful the country is and she loved the vintage cars. In her defense. she was about 12 years old when she went. What excuse do the “unteachables” have?
An “education” from someplace like UC Berserkely?
Proably a damn good guess.
I worked for a guy who went to UC Berkeley.
On his desk, he had a little red book…of Obama’s speeches.
He did NOT see the irony even after explained to him what the Little Red Book is.
I mean, who the hell (except a UCB alum) would have a friggin’ book of all of Obama’s speeches?
Obama probably has one of all his favorite Mao, Stalin, Marx, and Castro speeches. The foreward is probably a snippet from Che.
With background of the ‘sweetest sound he has ever head’–the Muslim call to prayer.
r. You know where it goes.
I am buying you a new keyboard for Christmas 2/17 Air Cav.
He must have spewed coffee on it too many times from reading TAH.
He didn’t just opt for the IPod with all of Obama’s speeches? If it is good enough for Queen Elizabeth, it should be good enough for a UCB graduate.
Actually, I think he was just playing dumb. He knew damn well what the Little Red Book is and liked it that the publishing company had used that meme to bind Obama’s words of “wisdom.”
He was an annoying bastard.
For me, this whole issue of these worker paradises comes down to this: just who is risking life, limb, and fortune to get into these places? Those who speak and write in glowing terms (Craperrnick comes to mind)of these utopias do so from where? Right.
Yep. Which way are virtually all of the boats going – from Florida to Cuba, or from Cuba to Florida?
Which is likely why Cuba doesn’t have an Olympic Rowing or Sailing team, any of them that cam paddle or sail a boat is already on US soil!
And you try to tell them, “If communism is sooooo great, go live in Cuba or China. Please!” they throw a tantrum because they shouldn’t have to leave the US.
Why? Oh well that’s because they want to make the US a destroyed socialist utopia, not go to one they think is so fantastic. Because then they’d see the reality of how “fantastic” it really is for the common folk like them.
From over at Ace of Spades:
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/castro%20island.jpg
Totten has done some very good work all over the world. The guy is always worth reading.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blogs/michael-j-totten
Speaking of workers’ paradise. “The 15 dollar an hour Minimum Wage will set you free!”
©GDC
Absolutely. It will set many people free–of their jobs b/c employers can’t afford to pay $15/hr. to people who must constantly be reminded to wash their hands when they have used the bathroom.
McDonald’s is already trying out automated kiosk’s, one step towards fully automated stores.
The $15 an hour idiots are about to cut thier nose off to spite thier face.
Companies are in the business of making a profit for thier investors, something the left willfully choses to ignore.
Word.
If the $15/hr burger flippers don’t like it, fuck em. They have the same opportunity to open their own franchise.
I am curious if they would pay $15/hr to the person who drops the french fries.
You guys are so literal…sucking out all the hope. The sign over the gate is supposed to inspire them. Shhhhh
The sign over the entrance …
ARBEIT MACHT FREI
“WORK SETS YOU FREE” …I wonder if those souls would have demanded $15 an hour….like they had a choice.
I have a son who works at McDonald’s. Anyone who mentions a $15 minimum wage gets an earful from him, and he’s convinced all of his co-workers why it’s a bad idea. They just made him a manager.
Mr. 2/17. I think you and I had low expectations for Trump. I have enjoyed seeing him wreak havoc among the press though, I must admit…and I think on many occasions he has schooled them without them being aware of it. As the pressure grows for him to “fix” the economy and the middle class, particularly from the disenfranchised Bernie voters et al, I would LOVE to see Trump say (with a straight face) “I will fix the economy and the restore the middle class by mandating a new universal minimum wage for EVERYONE to be $500 per hour.” God, I would love to see the expert commentators commentatin on that for awhile. Goodbye minimum wage bullshit….
Don’t fear the Commie!
Yep, fast food places have a small profit margin (3%), and wages make up more than a quarter of thier operating costs. They make money in volume.
$5 value fries or automation? An easy choice…
Damn, can’t spell their to save my life. Hanging my head in shame…
Ssshhh, the grammar nazis are asleep.
Admitting you are powerless over letter swapping is the first step to recovery….and you have made the first step 🙂
It’s that keyboard of yours. You’ve spewed coffee on it too many times from reading TAH. Yeah, that’s it. . .it’s the keyboard. . .
Blue Oyster Cult