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by victornomad
3567 days ago
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I dont consider Cuba as a Zoo, I want them to develop of course.
The main problem is that "opening Cuba" without been carefull will create a really unstable society, few people getting rich really fast, some others becoming extremely poor. The goverment probably wont have regulations on that. You can see that right now in Cuba, people who work in tourism can have access to "international money" and therefore buy almost wathever they want which by the way you can find easily in Cuba, you just need to go to the appropiate place with the money, and legally. This is already creating a quite big divide in the cuban society. Cubans lacks some products but they are not poor. Poor is the people who beg for money, cannot shower, dont have a shelter and cannot access any health system. When I moved to the US, I was freaking out of how much inequality and poverty I saw. I dont hate hamburgers and bacon, but I find the world's cuisine so rich that its a pity that certain food take over local just because big chains push markets with $$$. Humburguers it is in fact the king of this, not just because of the big chains but as well because of meat industry which is quite agresive |
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Here is the thing: Cuba used to be 'developed'. Pre 95 Cuban workers earned an average salary of $6, ranking number 8 in the world, just behind Norway ($6.10). Infant mortality was the lowest in the Americas. In fact, Cuba ranked third in the world. Public health was comparable to any considered developed country of the time (e.g one hospital bed per 190 inhabitants vs one per 200 inhabitants in the US).
Contrary to what many believe, Cuban industry was not controlled by US interests. Au contraire, only 14% of investments in Cuba came from the US. The vast majority of industry was owned by Cubans, that is the sugar, tobacco and rum industry.
These truths will become more evident with time as the romanticism surrounding Castro's revolution fades away and it's opponents get louder. When Fidel said 'History will absolve me', he was right. History will put him where he belongs: under the chapter 'Plague of Cuba'.
It is safe to believe that much of this can be attributed to what you refer to as 'US capitalism'. It was partly the idea of American-style economic development and democratic freedom that fueled Cuban independence from Spain. Spanish strict trade laws made life very difficult for Cubans, and this became specially evident under the short lived British rule of Havana, and later the evident advances in almost every aspect happening in North America.
> Cubans lacks some products but they are not poor
Yes, Cubans are poor. Why should they settle for merely enough to eat, when they should be eating hamburgers and bacon on a daily basis considering how fertile Cuban land is. Pre 59 Cuba had a meat consumption comparable to that of the US. Today cattle is so scarce it had to be imported to have any cattle population at all. In fact, you can get 10 years in prison for killing a caw in Cuba today.
> world's cuisine so rich that its a pity that certain food take over local
You can have any of the world's cuisine in the US. In fact, today, the best Cuban food is found in Florida. I was told by a NYC friend of mine that he had a Cuban-Chinese restaurant a few blocks away. In Cuba Cuban-Chinese food is nonexistent today. The scarcity created by socialism has changed Cuban cuisine significantly (in a bad direction). It is also safe to say that the best Italian and French food is made in the US (I can attest :-)).
This whole cuisine diversity argument is really insubstantial.