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You saw what you paid to see.I've been to Cuba. I've driven down a long back road through farm country and seen a farmhouse beside the road with a big red cross painted on the wall. A doctor lived there and anyone from around could just walk in to his clinic. I've talked to labourers with university degrees and school kids come from all over to a week-long basketball tournament. I've spent days in private houses with suites for tourists, 'casas particulaire', and eaten meals in private homes with tables for twelve paying guests, 'paladares'. I've been down streets and alleys all over Havana and never saw a beggar or hooker or drug dealer or shabby homeless person. here's hitch-hikers everywhere and it's against the law for someone with a government plate to pass them by.
Obviously it's not the ideal society, but obviously the average Cuban is far better off than the average Jamaican or Dominican. And a long way better off than before the revolution. If there had never been a US embargo Cuba wouldn't have had to turn to the Soviet Union to sell sugar and history would have been different.
Lack of maintenance has been the main cause for the deterioration of the structures built before 1959. After 1959, several other factors like poor construction quality and upkeep, use of voluntary workers who lack the necessary skills and defective construction practices have contributed to the deterioration of the housing stock.Castros less visible legacy On “anthropological damage”
https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/15/15631448/cuba-opinion-fidel-castro-anthropological-damage
By Sebastian Arcos
May 15, 2017
A short drive through the streets of Havana is all it takes to realize that Fidel Castro’s most obvious legacy is the devastation of Cuba’s infrastructure. The city that for centuries was one of the most important capitals of the Western Hemisphere lies in ruins, as if it had suffered the ravages of a protracted civil war. The city that once prospered despite pirate raids, a British occupation, two wars of independence, and two popular revolts against domestic tyrants, could not withstand the wanton neglect and sheer incompetence of Castro’s regime.
As bad as it is, the physical devastation is not the worst legacy of the Castro regime. Europe’s recent history shows that infrastructure can be rebuilt in a decade or so. There is a far more pervasive and ominous legacy left by almost 60 years of Castroism, one that cannot be easily perceived by the casual traveler, one that has left an indelible imprint on the Cuban psyche, values, and behavior. Dagoberto Valdes, the sophisticated leader of the Centro de Estudios Convivenciain Western Cuba, has labeled this invisible legacy as the “anthropological damage.”
“Anthropological damage” refers to the long-term behavioral changes caused in the population caused by a fundamentally immoral, pervasive and long-lasting regime. This is not exclusive to Cuba or Castroism, but common to all totalitarian regimes. Vaclav Havel, the renowned Czech dissident intellectual, made numerous references to the “loss of the ethical compass” developed by people under communism.
But you do not need to wonder how things have work out with Fidel Castro tyrannical regime.Fidel was a pretty merciless tyrant, with political prisoners sentences matched in length only in China and on Taiwan (years ago). I wonder how things would have worked out if there were no Soviet Union, no Cold War. No excuses for Fidel, however.
According to the Cuban National Housing Institute the house deficit is estimated at1.6 million units. Of the existent units 75% are over 40 years old, and 60% are in bad or average condition.A short drive through the streets of Havana is all it takes to realize that Fidel Castro’s most obvious legacy is the devastation of Cuba’s infrastructure. The city that for centuries was one of the most important capitals of the Western Hemisphere lies in ruins, as if it had suffered the ravages of a protracted civil war.
But you do not need to wonder how things have work out with Fidel Castro tyrannical regime.
Excerpt from the article above.
According to the Cuban National Housing Institute the house deficit is estimated at1.6 million units. Of the existent units 75% are over 40 years old, and 60% are in bad or average condition.
This video shows the city of Hiroshima 65 years after the atomic blast obliterated the city, and through images compares it to the city of La Habana nowadays. It teaches us that in the long run the consequences of the Castroit regime are more devastating that the weapons of mass destruction.
hiroshima-habana
The crumbling buildings look like a war zone. However, these ruins were not created by war, but by deliberate neglect. The decrepit state of the buildings in Havana after five decades of neglect by the Castroit tyranny, keep causing the death of Cuban living in condemned building.
Fidel Castro unchecked power has been responsible for the economic disaster of the island and devastation of Havana, one of the oldest and beautiful city in the American continent.
Fidel Castro unchecked power has been responsible for the economic disaster of the island and devastation of Havana, one of the oldest and beautiful city in the American continent.
Pure unadulterated USA bull****. Cuba is how it is because of the well over a century of USA war crimes and terrorism. You folks know diddly squat about your own country's vicious war crimes and terrorism.
For the last quarter century, the entire world, the UNGA, has been condemning the US for its terrorism against Cuba by votes of 198 to 2. Guess who the two is, USA and its war criminal partner, Israel.
Castro had to maintain a firm grip because your terrorist CIA and your war criminal governments were always in there trying to regain control of Cuba so the USA could install another of its vicious right wing dictatorships - does Batista ring a bell for any of you sharp historians, to continue stealing Cubans' wealth.
During the last 50 years the construction of new houses has been dismal. The regime statistics in the construction of new houses are cooked. This suspicion is validated by Former Vice-Minister Carlos Lage who near the beginning of 2009 revealed that less than half of the 111,300 housing units claimed built in 2006 were in fact built. Beside the 2002 census data show that of the new housing units built between 1990 and 2002, close to 50,000 were bohíos and adobe structures (primitive countryside dwellings with palm bark or adobe walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs). Those can’t be classified as adequate housing.In fairness to Fidel, his priorities didn't include preserving Havana. The attention went to the countryside, for good or for ill.
During the last 50 years the construction of new houses has been dismal. The regime statistics in the construction of new houses are cooked. This suspicion is validated by Former Vice-Minister Carlos Lage who near the beginning of 2009 revealed that less than half of the 111,300 housing units claimed built in 2006 were in fact built. Beside the 2002 census data show that of the new housing units built between 1990 and 2002, close to 50,000 were bohíos and adobe structures (primitive countryside dwellings with palm bark or adobe walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs). Those can’t be classified as adequate housing.
Carlos Eire excellent op, single out 13 historical facts that could be etched on Castro’s tombstone. Lefties gave Fidel Castro a free pass in all these facts, facts that they refuse to admit up to this day.Farewell to Cubas brutal Big Brother
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...efa856caf2a_story.html?utm_term=.49380ab70e61
People carry a picture of Fidel Castro during a May Day rally in Havana on May 1, 2016. (Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)
By Carlos Eire November 26, 2016
Carlos Eire is an author and the T.L. Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University.
One of the most brutal dictators in modern history has just died. Oddly enough, some will mourn his passing, and many an obituary will praise him. Millions of Cubans who have been waiting impatiently for this moment for more than half a century will simply ponder his crimes and recall the pain and suffering he caused.
Why this discrepancy? Because deceit was one of Fidel Castro’s greatest talents, and gullibility is one of the world’s greatest frailties. A genius at myth-making, Castro relied on the human thirst for myths and heroes. His lies were beautiful, and so appealing. According to Castro and to his propagandists, the so-called revolution was not about creating a repressive totalitarian state and securing his rule as an absolute monarch, but rather about eliminating illiteracy, poverty, racism, class differences and every other ill known to humankind. This bold lie became believable, thanks largely to Castro’s incessant boasting about free schools and medical care, which made his myth of the benevolent utopian revolution irresistible to many of the world’s poor.
Click link above for full article.
Fidel Castro came short, he had the intent but not the full capability to wage asymmetric warfare against the U.S., as demonstrate by the actions taken by Khrushchev. Sergei Khrushchev*, Nikita’s son, relate that when his father was told of Castro’s letter, said: “That is insane. We deployed missiles there to prevent an attack on the island, to save Cuba and defend socialism. But now not only is he ready to die himself, he wants to drag us with him.” Whatever doubts Father might have had about his decision to remove the missiles had vanished completely. “Remove them, and as soon as possible.-Before it’s too late. Before something terrible happens....Allow no one near the missiles. Obey no orders to launch and under no circumstances install the warheads.”Still, from a purely military, asymmetrical warfare point of view, he accomplished an immense task.
But...like so many others, once he won, queue the slaughtering of the loosers.
Fidel Castro came short, he had the intent but not the full capability to wage asymmetric warfare against the U.S., as demonstrate by the actions taken by Khrushchev. Sergei Khrushchev*, Nikita’s son, relate that when his father was told of Castro’s letter, said: “That is insane. We deployed missiles there to prevent an attack on the island, to save Cuba and defend socialism. But now not only is he ready to die himself, he wants to drag us with him.” Whatever doubts Father might have had about his decision to remove the missiles had vanished completely. “Remove them, and as soon as possible.-Before it’s too late. Before something terrible happens....Allow no one near the missiles. Obey no orders to launch and under no circumstances install the warheads.”
* Sergei Khrushchev, "How My Father And President Kennedy Saved The World", American Heritage, Volume 53, October 2002.
Here is another book that you can throw in your travel bag.Very insightful. Thank you. Now I have another book to order and throw in my travel bag.
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