Reflections on Cuba

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As you probably know, I was in Cuba between January 1 and January 8 this year. A few people were interested in hearing my reflections on Cuba, so I decided to share reflections and comments on Cuba as a country and on its people, two of its major destinations (Havana and Varadero), its lifestyle/society, its economy and politics.

Disclaimer: I can't claim to know everything about Cuba. I've only been to Varadero and Havana and passed through Matanzas and Mayabeque Province. While the two are the top destinations and the most interesting, and one of them (Havana) is certainly a major 'Cuban' city all around, I can't really claim to know what it's like outside of the big resorts besides anecdotal evidence heard locally from Canadians who know the place way better than anybody in Canada. But on the other hand, unlike 80% of Canadian tourists, I didn't go to Cuba exclusively to burn on a beach and be an obnoxious idiot who couldn't care less about the actual place and I actually went to Cuba to see the country and stuff. From this standpoint, I'm pleased with what I see and did. The only problem with Cuba as a tourist destination are the Canadian tourists, as there seems to be no escaping from loudmouth Anglo retard and vulgar Franco retards.

Varadero

Varadero is Cuba's oldest and top tourist resort. It is basically a long, narrow peninsula extending into the Straits of Florida about 140km east of Havana. Tourism and catering to tourists in all ways is basically the sole economic activity, though there appears to be some private homes along the beach. The population is very well off by Cuban standards, because hotels pay better than usual jobs, souvenir/trinket sellers make tons of cash and get random gifts from tourists. Apparently the life is good because a lot of fake homeless people fake being homeless to get tons of money, I was told the story of a homeless guy with 2 homes who made more cash in a day than some local doctor.

There are a sh**tload of hotels, who range from older and more modest (3-4 stars) in the east end of the peninsula to newer, huge and high-end hotels (4-5 stars) in the undeveloped but high-growth west end of the peninsula (which has entailed destroying a natural reserve, but nobody cares about birdies when you can build a hotel anyway). There is also a golf course which kind of separates the two ends of the peninsula as it stands on a cliff which is the only natural obstacle to one of the world's nicest beaches: a huge stretch of dry white sand. I stayed in an older hotel, which would be seen from the older state of the bathrooms and amenities in general, but since I'm not one to complain about that I don't care.

Hotels were originally - apparently - mixed-enterprises owned half by the state and half by some multinational (often Spanish) hotel chain but apparently the state makes life hard for the multinationals and all hotels are basically heavily state-owned.

Tourists usually complain that food in Cuban hotels is pretty bad or at least offers little flavours and choices, and I've heard that complaint from one of my cousins who stayed in one of the new high-end hotels (Iberostar something something). Some of the criticism makes sense given the American embargo on the country. However, I can't make the same complaint as I ate some really good stuff. The croissants at breakfast were stellar and 6000 miles better than the disgusting gooey stuff they dare sell in Canada/US. There was some good paella, great fish and excellent pasta. The hamburgers which I ate there easily beat some of the gooey soft "hamburgers" you get at Micky D's these days. The fries were great, and weren't soft noodles like in some places here and in Europe.

In terms of safety, Varadero is extremely safe - obviously way safer than Mexico where everybody is a criminal. The reasons are pretty obvious; Cuba would be bankrupt were it not for tourists. Apparently you get canned for 5 years if you steal from a tourist, which is a big factor in dissuading people if you further imagine how Cuban jails actually are. As I said, Cuba's economy is heavily reliant on tourism and unlike Mexico it would go bankrupt (if it isn't already, but that's another matter) if tourists were scared of going. Canada is obviously the top country; when I left on December 8 the only departures scheduled out of Varadero that day were all Sunwing flights to Canada. Other major sources include South America, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia with France/Francophone Europe and the UK probably as somewhat lesser sources. And because tourism is so important, the regime doesn't give a rat's ass what you do in Cuba as long as you're not like actively working to overthrow the regime (or kill people).

The roads are also of highest quality in Varadero, they're miles better than the roads in Quebec. But it's apparently just a show as the roads outside Varadero, Havana and the highway between the two are third-world standard (like Quebec then). Every Cuban guide complained about the state of the roads.

Havana

Havana is definitely a great city and one of the nicest cities I've been to in my life. Anybody who has a chance to go should really take it, I myself would love to go back to Cuba just to stay 4-5 days in Havana and visit all the museums and attractions.

The old town was restored by the UNESCO in 1982 and is in great condition as a result. There are some great buildings, nice fresh green parks and small old European streets. The palace of the Captain-Generals/Governors is great, and the museum in there is pretty nice too. The corniche is really nice because of the way the waves crash onto the streets, but the 1920s buildings lining that street are falling apart. The Russian embassy is a huge tower and walled barbed-wire compound. The 'modern Havana' is pretty nice if you're interested by Soviet style architecture and more modern stuff. The Plaza de la Revolucion, where Fidel gave speeches, is basically a huge monumental tower complete with a statue of Jose Marti overlooking a huge parking lot where tour buses park for 5 minutes. Alongside that plaza you have the Interior Ministry (I suppose it must be Cuba's Lubyanka), the Communications Ministry, the National Library, the Defense Ministry and hidden behind the central committee of the PCC. The Capitol/Capitolio is a great building built along the lines of the US Congress, but it is still an impressive architectural marvel. We were told that since the 'triumph of the Revolution' there was no longer any need for it.

Society/Economy/Politics

In terms of currency, the main thing to remember is that Cuba has two currencies. The 'local' one is the normal peso (1 US$=26.5 CUP) which can only be used by locals in certain shops. The other is the 'tourist' one, the convertible peso (CUC) which is at parity with the US dollar. The CUC is used by tourists, and by locals shopping in certain shops. The average daily wage in Cuba, according to our tour guide, is 1 CUC, and Wikipedia says it's generally less than 20 US$ per month.

The Cubans are really nice people who are warm, friendly and relatively open. The annoying part is that you always have 600 people swarming around you to sell useless trinkets (they're nice, though) and random souvenir sh**t or selling you some random thing. There's the factor of them being nice solely in hope that you'll buy something. The other annoyance is that everybody in Cuba basically lives on tips for extra income, so you have people asking for tips - usually 1 CUC - everywhere. Given that most people earn 1 CUC a day, asking tourists for a 1 CUC tip is usually pretty lucrative for them. The only problem is that everybody asks for one: in non-tourist places, there are 2-3 women waiting outside the washrooms and they 'sell' you toilet paper for 1 CUC; in state supermarkets a guy who stores your bags up front asked for 1 CUC. They can't force you to give it (I used the bathroom without 'paying' them or 'buying' toilet paper) but when you do it's extremely appreciated. At the Governor's Palace, I gave a 3 CUC bill to two women supervising the room who had taken pictures of us, and they literally kissed us 5 times and worshiped us as Gods.

The CUC can only be exchanged in Cuba, and not outside the country. There are special places 'Cadeca' where you change foreign cash (or CUPs if you're Cuban) into CUC and back again into foreign currency; all at a nice profit for them (60 C$ gave me 54 CUC, about 4 CUC in their pockets). Banks can also change currencies, but we tried doing that and the bank worked in a very socialist manner, which is to say they didn't work at all.

In terms of US currency, right now it's pretty much out of circulation and you can't pay by credit card if the credit card company is American. But in a crushing blow to the Spirit of the Revolution, the tour to Havana was charged in American and not Canadian. There's an obvious need for foreign reserves in US dollars in Cuba.

For obvious reasons, the black market is very prevalent in Cuba. The tour guide gave us the example of a bottle of cooking oil which cost about 4-6 CUC (can't recall the exact price) which is 4-6 days of work only for a bottle of f-ing cooking oil.

Also, a lot of the souvenir places in Cuba are state-owned shops (Caracol seems to be like some huge state-run chain selling everything from food to souvenirs) and as a result they are both overpriced (15 CUC for a cheap t-shirt, 17 CUC for a small book) and the people there can't bargain because the prices are set from above. The small "private" stands owned by individuals are cheaper and you can bargain a bit. Though they probably still overcharge you for what you get, but, hell, you're helping them and not the PCC and who hasn't been ripped off in Canada/US?

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Society/Economy/Politics

The country is on the verge of bankruptcy, most people are pretty poor and the economy is in shambles outside tourism. It might be tempting to blame that on socialism, and the regime's economic policies are obviously to blame for part of the disaster but it is worth remembering that compared to other Caribbean countries, Cubans are well off: free healthcare, free education including post-sec, cheap transport and housing/jobs provided by the state. The healthcare system is of good quality, though I can't testify about it. The education is of high standard and there is a big emphasis on education. The tour guides we had were fluent in English, and unlike in the rest of the Caribbean, we actually had a tour in French with a guide who besides being excellent also spoke better French than Steve Harper. All to say that while blaming Cuba's economic collapse on socialism is tempting it's not entirely fair as Cubans are still better off than Haitians or Dominicans. The US embargo likely plays a huge role; Cuba is in dire need of foreign investment and especially US investment/capital and while the regime would do well to liberalize its economic policies the US would also do well to end the ridiculous embargo.

A guy told us that Cuba is basically a museum of the 1950s. In terms of infrastructure and old cars, it's one of the best comments which could be made to sum up Cuba. Old American cars, all pre-1959 (Dodge, Chevy, Ford etc) are still running in Cuba. There are two/three interesting comments which I can make about this:

a) Old American cars are basically all yellow license plates, which indicates a privately-owned cars. In contrast, blue license plates - state owned cars and buses - are largely newer Asian and European (French) cars. Buses for tourists, for example, are Chinese buses. Red license plates (rental cars) are similarly new. Most old US cars are now used as taxis, especially in Varadero. Yellow license plates also include decrepit Soviet cars (Lada, Volga) and a few newer cars.
b) The secret behind keeping the old tanks running is apparently found in replacing the old 50s engines by 'newer' 80s engine. Which entails a huge black market of stolen and 'lost' engines, the guide mentioned how Hyundai was in a fight with the regime over how it had lost so many engines.
c) The use of old cars as private taxis is apparently recent and follows a certain liberalization of the taxi industry. The other new thing - allowing people to buy and sell private cars - basically is a logical conclusion of a crazy little anachronism. In the past, people couldn't legally sell their private car to another owner (and thus transfer official legal ownership of the car to somebody who was not his/her descendant-offspring), which meant that in practice people sold cars under the cover. Which meant that I could sell my old car to X, who sold it to Y whole it to W who sold it to V and so on and so forth, but I retained legal "ownership" of the vehicle and my children would be in right to reclaim the car even if it had been passed through 8 different owners who might not even know me.

Cuban women seem to love to wear suggestive skirts and high heels (they like to dress sexy). It seems especially true of state employees. I was quite shocked at the airport of how many hot security officers you had. The customs agent at departure was a pretty hot woman too. She was also the first customs agent I've passed through since Jordan who wasn't angry, bitter, pissed and obnoxious.

Cuba being socialist, you still have some of the USSR's old customs. I mentioned the 2-3 women who 'guard' the washrooms and 'sell' the paper. You have similar things basically everywhere. There were 6 women standing at some counter at the airport. There were a bunch of guys - pretty old - at the airport who were in charge of giving out luggage carts. There also a surprising number of older males working too.

In terms of politics, there's not much which is not common knowledge which I can add about the functioning of the regime. In terms of people speaking about the regime, while there is still obvious reluctance to directly criticize the regime and its leaders I heard some veiled criticism of the regime, notably from the tour guide, who mentioned negatives about the country in general which could be interpreted as being critical of the regime. He talked about the lack of civil liberties, the ridiculousness of the CUP/CUC monetary situation, poverty and some corruption. The Sunwing Cuban rep said that "we can't keep living like 50 years ago, the world has changed". The tour guide was pretty balanced in his overall comments (showing the undeniable good and undeniable bad of the country's situation and political situation), though there was a small dose of propaganda which seems to be some amusing stuff the regime likes to make people believe about the irony of foreign tourists overrunning the country a la Batista Cuba. The regime's feel-good excuse seems to be that they still own the hotels and run the show, unlike "the Cote-d'Azur which is owned by the Russians". When my mother asked about holding free elections in Cuba, the guide cautiously avoided a direct answer by talking about Cuba's grassroots local-level semi-democratic governance but did kind of signal that some type of change would be welcome in his eyes.

In terms of Cuban perspective on history, the most amusingly ironic thing was the guide's insistence on constantly mentioning Batista's "fascist dictatorship" and "the dictator" who killed so many people and likening him to Videla. Considering the communist regime probably killed or tortured more people than Batista, it's quite ironic. Of course there was no mention of Batista being supported until the last moment by the original PCC or of how in the 30s and 40s he was pretty anti-American. Standard-fare anti-imperialist/anti-US stuff seems to be aimed at the embargo in large part. Yet, I recall that a huge anti-imperialist anti-embargo ad on Cuban TV was followed by some random 90s American music video with some American actors/actresses. There is also some huge thing about 5 Cuban prisoners in US jails for terrorism - so Cuba predictably calls them 'anti-terrorist' prisoners.

There is surprisingly little personality cult stuff around Fidel. Besides some "poem" about Fidel's greatness on TV once, there are no huge Soviet-like posters of him plastered all over the place. The cause seems to be the regime's directive not to build personality cults over living leaders. On the other hand, there is a HUGE personality cult of the Che which quickly gets annoying. Which is complemented by the fact than 75% of souvenirs/trinkets include the Che's face: t-shirts, coffee mugs, random maps and so forth. Besides the Che and other revolutionaries, Jose Marti is obviously highly valued and honoured as well.

On a final note about Torie's comment in the other thread, while it appears to be illegal for US citizens to visit Cuba, the Cuban regime does not seem to place any major restrictions on Americans entering Cuba with a US passport, though I suppose they might ask more questions than to a Canadian because of how unusual it would be. Like Israel, Cuba does not stamp your passport but rather stamps a visa card (half of it is taken off at entrance, the other half is kept by the tourist and detached at departure) and your departure boarding pass (certifying payment of the 25 CUC airport tax). I've heard of US citizens who got into Cuba through Canada, which is the usual way of doing so.

On a note about Cuban customs, for some reason they take a picture of you at arrival and departure...

Overall, I really enjoyed Cuba and I think anybody who can and wants to go to Cuba should do so ASAP before the political situation changes and before the US policy towards Cuba changes to let the Americans and their money into the country.

I hope I've covered everything and remembered the fun stuff. I don't know if I've hit any of the US stereotypes about Cuba in these 2 posts, so please tell me about any stereotype which I didn't cover in these posts or any other thing which you might be wondering about. I can also post tons of pictures of the major sights in Havana and of old cars.

[homelycooking]

Is there any enthusiasm for the ongoing market reforms under Raúl? I think if there is any potential for Cuban society to undergo gradual change toward liberalism, it will come through change to everyday behavior and ways of thinking. And what is the Cuban perspective on democracy? Either market reforms or democracy could be seen as leading to imperialism and neo-colonization.

Does José Martí earn a place on the touristy trinkets, or did his contributions to literature and Cuban national identity earn him a higher place in the Cuban revolutionary pantheon? And what of contemporary Cuban culture under the Castros? What did you see in art, music, dance, design, cuisine, etc. that is uniquely modern and Cuban and not imported from the US, Europe or Asia or derived from the pre-Communist or colonial past?

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Is there any enthusiasm for the ongoing market reforms under Raúl? I think if there is any potential for Cuban society to undergo gradual change toward liberalism, it will come through change to everyday behavior and ways of thinking. And what is the Cuban perspective on democracy? Either market reforms or democracy could be seen as leading to imperialism and neo-colonization.

Does José Martí earn a place on the touristy trinkets, or did his contributions to literature and Cuban national identity earn him a higher place in the Cuban revolutionary pantheon? And what of contemporary Cuban culture under the Castros? What did you see in art, music, dance, design, cuisine, etc. that is uniquely modern and Cuban and not imported from the US, Europe or Asia or derived from the pre-Communist or colonial past?

It is hard to take a snapshot of Cuban public opinion as there is an understandable reluctance to talk directly about government policy or about alternative regimes. But from phrases here and there, the mood - based on rather anecdotal evidence - seems to favour the policy of gradual liberalization. From both the guide and the rep, I picked up that they favour a slow pace and say that the reforms are best done at the current slowish pace. I also picked up from the guide that he wished that he could have access to the internet at home. At any rate, I did not pick up much popular support for the 1960s conception of revolution and socialism (the guide said Cubans were more 'fidelist' than 'socialist') but there is still a fear of neo-colonialism and imperialism which explains why they favour the slower pace of reforms but nobody actually supports the US embargo. It is hard to comment about Cuban perspectives on democracy. I would assume it is positive because of the liberties it entails, but I might be missing an element.

Marti is largely absent from all souvenirs and trinkets, which could be laid either on the fact that he has a higher place in the patriotic pantheon or perhaps more likely on the fact that nobody (in the tourist mass) actually knows who he is or gives a sh**t who he is. For a stupid Canadian tourist, the Che on a souvenir is obviously far more appealing than having a t-shirt with Marti as the former is recognized and likely to spark interest in Canada.

The culture I've tasted in Cuba is largely older and heavily influenced by the pre-Castro or colonial era. There is a drink called 'Cuba Libre' which ironically is a mix of rum with Coke (or the local bastardized version), but in popular music or dance and even popular art there is little sign of socialist influence. Of course, post-60s architecture and design in terms of official buildings and so forth is heavily influenced by the Soviet Union and the penchant for ugly concrete slabs. The Soviet-style apartments and buildings are still visible but mostly decrepit. They are locally known as 'Khrushchevs' or 'Khrushchev buildings'. In a pretty symbolic humourous remark, the guide lamented Soviet-style buildings as a "terrible waste of cement".

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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Oh that.. Favourite hobby horse of the Spanish ultra-left. I must have a few leaflets around which were shoved to me while walking down Madrid by scary, scuffly loud people with microphones. I might have been the only person paying attention, out of curiosity more than out of actual interest.

Good posts, btw.

[dead0man]

Before I get to my point let me start out by saying thank you, that was an interesting read and that I agree the embargo should end.

I've never understood why the embargo gets blamed for any of Cuba's woes.  It isn't the embargo's fault that there aren't any newish (and by that I mean post 1960) privately owned VWs or Fiats or even Trabants on the roads.  It isn't the embargo's fault that every industry in Cuba has been screwed over by the state (I could list them but we all know government controlled industries are all doomed).  It isn't the embargo's fault that tourism is limited by the state.  It isn't the embargo's fault that nearly EVERY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD refuses to invest in Cuba.  Yes, it should end, but it's got almost nothing to do with why Cuba sucks.

[Silent Hunter]

Thank you for a set of very interesting posts.

Further to dead0man plan's posts, the embargo isn't stopping Cuba from democratising - something it should be doing anyway.