The
Friendly Planet arranges group travel in “humanitarian activities throughout
the world” and contributes to “people-to-people” projects in some countries:
-
Special tours to Cuba since 2010 for
“volunteer-minded travelers to interact directly with the Cuban people, and to
help people in need by bringing medical supplies and educational materials,
which are in short supply and badly needed in Cuba”
-
Kiva Microlending (travelers loan as little
as they wish to an entrepreneur of their choice in the country of their choice)
-
Clean
water in Cambodia (over 200 wells in villages built by Friendly
Planet and funded by some travelers as well)
-
Bicycles
and supplies in Vietnamese schools donated by travelers
Visitors
have to file a “full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will
result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in
Cuba.” This does not sound to me like a free visit of another country but a
state-controlled indoctrination tour.
Mentioning
everyday Cuban life difficulties as stereotypes, the author acknowledges the
multitude of Eisenhower era American cars on the Malecon, Havana’s 4-mile long boulevard
by the sea. Garish murals, pro-revolution propaganda billboards, anti-United
States propaganda, and Che Guevara are everywhere. All her stereotypes were
confirmed.
“Che
Guevara’s face was as ubiquitous as McDonald’s golden arches are here. His
mustachioed mien and disheveled locks appeared on roadside signs and posters, a
reassuring fist pump of perseverance.” Really? Perseverance in the
imprisonment, torture, and killing of people, while oppressing the entire Cuban
population for 50 years? Reassuring the rest of Cubans to better behave in lock
step with the communist regime or else?
The
famous Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) are not mentioned. A peaceful
opposition movement in Cuba, they protest the imprisonment of their husbands,
brothers, fathers, and other political dissident relatives, by attending Mass
each Sunday wearing white dresses and silently walking through the streets
afterwards.
All
controversial topics were answered with “according to the government,” or
“things work this way in theory.” A Cuban teacher earns 450 pesos a month ($17).
I wonder what the teachers in Wisconsin would
think if paid $17 per month. They protested the loss of collective bargaining
for salaries upwards of $100,000 per year. Communism is coming this way, with Marxist
remunerations “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,”
needs decided by the government not the free market system.
In
the Plaza de Armas square, “vendors sold books and souvenirs celebrating Che,
‘the face of Cuba,’ and the revolution.” It is as nauseating as the American
high school and college students wearing Che Guevara t-shirts and bandanas.
The
appearance of an old woman begging prompted the official of the City of Havana
to explain, “Mainly, they don’t want to work. There is plenty of work to be
done, construction, and agriculture. It is hard to find homeless. Maybe one or
two people in the evenings, a drunk person.” (Isabel Leon Candelario)
“The
government – socialist in its politics, communist in its ideals – guarantees
housing and jobs, plus provides free health care and education. Despite ration
cards, the Cubans’ biggest expenditure is food.” (Andrea Sachs)
Since
this is a travel diary, Andrea does not explain the dismal state of the
economy, the tiny dilapidated and shabby state-provided apartments, the
communist indoctrination in schools, and the sub-standard and downright
dangerous medical care or the lack of basic medical supplies, drugs, and
sterile hospitals. Neither is the education of their doctors on par with
western doctors in spite of Michael Moore’s propaganda movie, “Sicko,” which
presents a state of the art picture of Cuban medicine. The reality is quite
different.
Most
Cubans cannot support themselves on the government’s wages so they resort to
black market dealings, accepting gratuities from tourists, tutoring,
translation work, or performing in the streets.
Visiting
an elementary school on a “chewed-up street with flaking facades and chipped
doorways,” the visitor was enchanted by a bust of the national hero Jose Marti
and by a recitation of a Marti poem by fifth graders “by heart and from the
heart.”
Jose
Marti was a writer and political activist called the “Apostle of Cuban
Independence.” He was a symbol of Cuba’s independence from Spain and of Cuban
revolutionaries and those reluctant to start a revolution. Marti fought against
the threat of U.S. “expansionism” into Cuba. His poem, “Versos Sencillos”
(Simple Verses) was adapted to the song, “Guantanamera,” which has become the
patriotic song of Cuba.
The
fifth graders’ poetry recitation brings to mind the poems we had to memorize by
heart glorifying the communist revolution in Romania. I can honestly say, it never
came from the heart for most of us. It was something we had to do in order to
survive another day.
The
author continues, “The first graders were ‘glued to their seats.’ I can attest
from experience that we were not allowed to move from a straight, at attention
position, in our seats, with hands clasped behinds our backs unless the teacher
gave us assignments to write or we had to raise our hands in order to ask
questions. Wiggling, giggling, or note passing were not allowed. Behavior was
graded harshly on monthly report cards.
The
touted Cuban economic reform is dust in the eyes of the Cubans. A few
restaurants opened to cater to tourists and their foreign currencies. Cuba, as
any current or former communist state, charges a high 10 percent tax on
exchanging dollars to peso but none for Euros or Canadian dollars.
Toilet
paper is in short supply and tourists are encouraged to bring their own. I
remember we had rough toilet paper when we could find it and some of it had
visible splinters.
Tourist
donations were encouraged to schools and medical centers in the form of pens,
notebooks, toiletries, and other necessities. If communism is so exceptional
and superior to capitalism, as Castro and his lefty supporters present it, why
do they need donations and help from the “evil enslaving capitalists” of the
free world?
Part of the dictated tour was the Museum of the Revolution, with its collection of “decrepit newspaper clippings, bullet pocked tanks, and Granma, the fishing boat that brought Castro from Mexico to Cuba in 1956.” The next stop was “a sharp pinch of reality” to an apartment complex on the outskirts of town, what “HUD would call a project.”
“The
government had relocated a family recently to a two-bedroom apartment in the
projects after their colonial domicile in Havana collapsed like a dollhouse
made of dry crackers.”
Many
beautiful colonial homes in Havana had collapsed from lack of maintenance under
the Castro regime. They were confiscated from the previous owners and allocated
to families who lived together, sharing bathrooms and kitchens. They did not
have money for upkeep and the government did not provide much maintenance if
any.
The
tropical paradise, the island with so much potential, brought to its knees by
an oppressive “revolutionary” communist government, has a long way to go before
any anemic government enacted economic reforms can bring it back to its former
glory.
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