Cuba has proven that capitalism and technology are failures - Page 5 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14885012
W.T.Whitney wrote:...4.5 million tourists visited Cuba in 2017.

No other nation (other than the USA) has restricted travel to Cuba.

Christopher Baker reports that, “On January 18, 2018, Cuba was named ‘Safest Country for Tourism’ at the 38th annual International Tourism Fair (FITUR), in Madrid, Spain … I’ve always considered Cuba to be the safest place in the Americas outside Canada.”


"the safest place in the Americas outside Canada"

Perhaps one of the reasons many presidents of the USA have restricted travel to Cuba is that they're afraid that USA citizens might go there and witness the lack of school-shootings and muggings and obese drivers cursing at traffic, and come away questionning USA capitalism and USA fake democracy?

Travel Ban: The Olde King blinding His own citizens so they don't notice that He's naked.
#14895329
Just got back from two weeks of sunshine and bike rides in Cuba (second trip in one year). Stayed with a Cuban family in one town, and did a lot of exploring in Holguin, the capital of the province.

Three more thread-worthy observations:

People who live in downtown areas of even medium-sized cities have a non-stop social life. People are constantly popping in to visit and discuss the daily events, make deals, find things, source products and services, help out, etc. In North American suburbs, people leave the TV on all day to give "the impression" of sone kind of society happening around them.

Adults respect the very teenage need to "hang around." Rather than harassing teenagers (at gunpoint in the USA) on a constant basis, Cuban youth tend to hang out in small groups (or alone) wearing trendy clothing, and the authority figures totally respect this as part of their growing up process.

Police focus their attention on drivers and drunk people, rather than harassing people because they are teens, or because they are black. Cuban police are constantly stopping drivers, and getting drunk people off public beaches. Car collisions are treated as crimes, and being a teenager is treated as normal. Their target seems to be violent behavior (driving cars) rather than decreasing the self-esteem of youth and minorities.
#14895488
skinster wrote:Damnit, I want to go, but my frands in earl are flakes and that's what's causing it to not happen yet. If I was fluent at Spanish I'd go by myself. :(

Do you find that the thread is sort of a Communist All-Inclusive Hotel Package Manifesto?

And if so, is this a new way of marketing products? Or has Benetton already lead the way with their Aids-themed ads?

Image
#14895538
Image
It was so strange and uplifting to experience an absence of commercialism. No McDonald's, no Burger King, no endless harping about money, waterfront views absent of garish condo towers, on and on. I knew that in America people are addicted to money, dancing to the dollar. Seeing Cuba brought this home ten fold. Americans may have lots of stuff but they are missing the boat and I feel sorry for them.
#14895650
skinster wrote:Do you guys get by okay without being fluent at Spanish?
@QatzelOk @jimjam


I am unable to ride a bike around for 10 days or so like Qatz because I am old. I was damn well determined to set foot in Cuba before I dropped dead so I took the less desirable route of a cruise with shore tours. But it met the minimal requirement of getting me there. I was, however, able to walk and mingle freely and took so many pictures that my battery ran out. I didn't need Spanish, just a friendly demeanor and good smile. I've been to countries where I didn't speak the language and got by ok. Russia was the biggest challenge.
#14895735
skinster wrote:Do you guys get by okay without being fluent at Spanish?
@QatzelOk @jimjam

I had to learn Spanish quickly and I'm not shy at all. I discovered TV again watching Telesur news and documentaries at night.
#14896153
skinster wrote:Telesur is good. Actually somebody told me to watch it in Spanish to help me learn...

I'm not shy either. Why didn't you invite me to Cuba, @QatzelOk, you jerk, you knew I've been dying to go. You hurt me one more time and our relationship will be on a break for at least two weeks!!!

I like biking on my own because I spend most of my worklife with a group of other people that I converse with.

I also don't know where you live or if you would like to go to Cuba.

You seem like you would be happier staying at casa particulars (Cuba's government-approved B n Bs) since you get to see what living in Cuba is really like in them.

But the inter-city biking is sublime. Sometimes an hour goes by and no cars pass you. The cockroaches of capitalism are well controlled.
#14896542
QatzelOk wrote:I like biking on my own because I spend most of my worklife with a group of other people that I converse with.


Same. It's like a mini-luxury. When riding it's like, you're forced to be totally aware of your surroundings so you don't hurt yourself, but at the same time you can allow your mind to wander aboot. It's similar to when I did transcribing jobs, where I got on with the work but simultaneously thought about, whatever. Kind of like a robot, who can think. :D

You seem like you would be happier staying at casa particulars (Cuba's government-approved B n Bs) since you get to see what living in Cuba is really like in them.


:up: I like to be away from tourists and near the real people of the lands I visit.

But the inter-city biking is sublime. Sometimes an hour goes by and no cars pass you. The cockroaches of capitalism are well controlled.


That sounds ace.

I'm still trying to make going there happen, hopefully it does in the next month or so. 8)
#14897176
Thomasmariel wrote:Any system that means categorization is incorrect

Why did you make such a vague statement? Were you implying that Cuba is a more categorized system than the USA?

Because part of the communist system's beauty in small-town Cuba is that there don't appear to be large differences in people's income levels. Everyone seems, more or less, to be in the same class.

This is why there is so little crime. This and that the basics are taken care of for everyone.
#14897354
QatzelOk wrote:Why did you make such a vague statement? Were you implying that Cuba is a more categorized system than the USA?

Because part of the communist system's beauty in small-town Cuba is that there don't appear to be large differences in people's income levels. Everyone seems, more or less, to be in the same class.

This is why there is so little crime. This and that the basics are taken care of for everyone.



In theory, socialism is the absence of identity, but if parts of the world (the US) aren't socialist then any socialist system will be forced to suffer; the entire world needs to imitate socialism
#14897435
skinster wrote:Did you visit Soroa, @QatzelOk?

I was nowhere near there.

I have only visited parts of Oriente Cuba. And there's still a lot more to see on a bicycle.

Obviously, in a car, you could see the entire country in a week. But on my bike, it will take years of long visits to accomplish this, if I decide I want to "accomplish" this.

I'd rather just ride my bike wherever it takes me.
#14897441
It's slightly surreal to see a bunch of people talking about being paying tourists to an island nation that brings in tons of money through tourism to ooh and ahh over the quaint natives in their more natural and beautiful way of living.

The juxtaposition between remarking about how they aren't obsessed with consumerism while being a consumer on their island and lining their pockets with your money is just so unreal.

It's really disturbing to think of qatz slobbering over the natives while lounging at whatever lodge the Cuban government has thrown up in partnership with a western corporation and exclaiming about the evils of capitalism.

Just another exotic caribbean destination vacation but for left wingers.
#14897444
mikema63 wrote:The juxtaposition between remarking about how they aren't obsessed with consumerism while being a consumer on their island and lining their pockets with your money is just so unreal.

If you stay off the big resorts like Varadero, it's virtually impossible to "shop" in any recognizable way. You buy whatever you can find, which is hopefully what you need.

I spent a few hours looking for bling and baseball cap souvenirs in the cities, and came back empty-handed and full-walleted each time. I hate spending money, so all these "failures to shop" actually felt good.
#14897446
If you stay off the big resorts like Varadero, it's virtually impossible to "shop" in any recognizable way. You buy whatever you can find, which is hopefully what you need.


Lack of consumer culture is different than poverty and a lack of access to goods. :eh:

I spent a few hours looking for bling and baseball cap souvenirs in the cities, and came back empty-handed and full-walleted each time. I hate spending money, so all these "failures to shop" actually felt good.


The weird dissonance between "I wanted to go buy stuff" and "it's grand there is nothing to buy" is wierd but leaving that alone. It's obnoxious for you to be so enraptured by the quaint lack of an economy that the natives have. That isn't socialism that is lack of access to goods. What you find so charming is their poverty. :eh:
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