First video. There is a lot of nonsense catchphrases that are nonsense. For instance:
"We are suffocating the private sector"
And in the context of the video, it seems that apparently, the "el bloqueo" (the embargo) is at fault.
This is ridiculous. This is conveniently anachronistic. It was Fidels policies, and his goverment's overreach on privatizing industries that started to bleed the Cuban economy. To such degree, that it was 1994 when Cuba goverment allowed citizens to start making "improvised restaurants" that received the name of paladars (in general, the "paladar" consisted of a portion of a "private residency" that a family will put an improvised restaurant in a portion of that family's house, say living room for instance. They were limited, if I remember correctly to 12 chairs (approximately 3x 4 people tables...) although clearly most people had means to circumvent this (aka, paying the "inspectors" to look the other way. an inspector would happily say "there is nothing to look at here")
Furthermore, until after Fidel's death, just about 10 years back, most private enterprises in cuba other than restaurants and renting your rooms in your house, taxi, were mostly forbidden.
It wasn't the embargo... hell no, it was the cuban goverment.
This is one of the 2 main reasons why I don't think Cuba will change anytime soon. People don't fuking want to accept that they are wrong.
Businesses have been burned way too many times trying to invest in Cuba.
The embargo has not prevented businesses to work with cuba... ever heard about Melia Cohiba? Is it a Cuban brand Melia? No... it is spanish company.
Airfrance used (idk if they still do it as of today) to rent planes to Cubana de Aviacion, I think they were DC-10 planes if I remember correctly.
I personally bought and ate hundreds of packages of ground turkey coming from the US by brand Jennie-O. Not in some sort of black market or smuggled or anything. This was on government-run stores!
All of this is mostly nonsense and propaganda. You cannot fix anything of what is going on in Cuban unless you first accept what the problem is. So long as Cuba keeps blaming everyone else except for their backwards stupid system, so long as they choose to be blind... it won't get fixed. And we saw the same shit play in Venezuela... Venezuela didn't have an embargo, and... it had plenty of natural resources. Now, we are not going to pretend life was nice and dandy before Hugo Chavez either... but I'd like you to try to defend that Venezuela is doing better now than it was before.
Watch the first video at 7:30. A few months ago we had similar discussion with another Cuban Fanatic in this forum. The topic... Cuban' medical powerhouse. At minute 7:30... the lady is trying to get refill of Metformin, Lisinopril, Warfarin.... and the pharmacy's clerk is saying "no, no, no" meanwhile you can see the background of the pharmacy is empty. This is not some cutting age medication, this is not a biologic med... this is a 50-year-old med that lost the patent 20 years ago. What about warfarin? This med is 70+ years old! These are not expensive medications, Lisinopril is 5$ in amazon for 30d supply, metformin is sometimes given by pharmacies in the US by free! yes! FREE, pubix gives it for free (ofcourse they also sell you pepsi which is the reason why you need metformin to begin with
, but thats another topic). And Ibuprofen? They don't fking carry Ibuprofen in a pharmacy in cuba? 1000 pills in amazon for $15 usd.... Offcourse, $5 and 15$ might seem like a lot of money for cubans that make like 30$ on a full month working for the goverment... but this is yet another failure of Cuba's system.
Anyhow, not long ago some people that shall remain unamed were praising how cuba were developing vaccine for covid and treatment with interferon and who remembers what other nonsense... meanwhile... the most basic meds ever cannot be filled by regular cubans. Meanwhile, the cuban goverment is sending their scarce doctors to honduras, nicaragua and papanewguinea. Ever been on a plane? Put your oxygen mask first before helping the people sitting next to you. Especially if the reason you are "helping" the people next to you is flat out to show off.
Or what about the "embargo not allowing certain internet sites in cuba"... You fucking kidding me? Until recently the vast majority of cubans din't even have access to the internet. Seriously, shortly before I made it to the US, back in the years 2000-2005, only way to get internet in cuba was to illegally pay someone to steal credentials from their firm, and a few lucky people could use dialup to connect very very very very slowly to a c couple of websites, mostly for emails because even pictures take ages on dialup. It was not until their last reform less than a decade ago, that a very limited internet (and expensive) was opened to most cubans. It is NOT the fucking embargo... it is the fucking goverment doing that. Granted, it is a dozen times better than it was just 20 years ago, but it is MILES away from ideal.
Regarding the 2nd Video:
"Part 3"
"We treat our doctors as war heroes"
BULL SHIT
BULLL SHIT
BIG STINKY BULL SHIT.
My mother was one of those doctors... When she decided she wanted to immigrate to reuinite with my grandmother (my mother's mother)... how did being a doctor served her? Oh... by basically preventing her. The process is complicated... but she had to ask for permission to the ministry of health to leave the country. A process that at best takes 5 years, but most cases took up to 10. Hers was quick, took "only" 6 years and it took this "little" because we owned a nice apartment in Havana that the ministry would keep for itself and assign to one of the big bossess... In fact... thats exactly what happened. We used our appartment, a property that was in my family's name for 50+ years, to bribe our way out of that stinky and corrupt place.
My grandfather was also a doctor. He was for many many years the director of one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country. Shortly before he died, he became ill, he was hospitalized in the very same hospital that he used to lead, that he used to teach other. The doctors that treated him were at some point in the past either colleagues or even students under my grandfather's tutelage. He was a very well respected person and perhaps more relevant in this case, a very well respected doctor. By all measurements, he was a VIP in that hospital. I don't want to recall the specifics of the "care" he received while hospitalized, I will only surmise that it was woefully inadequate, sub-par and discussing. Cuban "medicine" is a fucking like. This "we treat our doctors as war heroes" maybe she was not clear enough, maybe she means "we treat our doctors like we would treat the war heroes of the enemy we just defeated" perhaps that would be more accurate
.
"we feel confidence in cuban medicine" says someone in Part 3... Except, as we saw in part 1, pharmacies in cuba don't carry medicine
See the fucking contradiction? There is nothing to be confident about, it doesn't exist! is a fucking illusion.
At the end of part 3, she says (and I paraphrase)
"some say it is not the blockade's fault but the government, if true, why don't they take the blockade away"
First, let me bring forth that I do not support the embargo at all. Never did. I didn't support it when I was in cuba, didn't support it when I came here, didn't support it 5 years ago, and don't support it now. I disagree with her premise that it is the reason why cuba sucks today... it is not, it is not even in the top 3 reasons. Removing the blockade is not going to make any favors to cuba. The main reason I support removing the embargo is so that they cannot offer this excuse anymore. Although I garantee they will shift into "well... there is no blockade now... but we had it for 70 years so thats the reason why we still suck" and in another 70 years they will be still complaining about the stupid embargo. It is a fucking propaganda machine.
Pay attention, this is propaganda.
How are things going to improve eh?
They are not.
Don't fall for the mirage.