The Once Great City of Havana

The Once Great City of Havana. “The biggest problem with foreign journalists when it comes to Cuba is that they take everything at face value. ‘So-and-so said he’s very happy that the revolution gave him an education and that he has free healthcare.’ Yet so-and-so ain’t so happy because his daughter has to sell her ass to tourists because while he’s educated, he can’t earn a decent wage. And so-and-so isn’t so happy that he’s got to find medicines and other medical supplies to take to his daughter while she’s in the hospital. That kind of stuff never gets reported.” That seems to be the way they treat Castro Jr. in this country as well.

This post was last modified on January 26, 2021

Bonfire of the Absurdities: After 35 year career writing software for IBM mainframes, am now self-employed contractor thinking of joining a union and striking for higher wages. Cured morbid fear of heights when I learned to look at them as lengths standing on end. Uncompromising in refusal to accept browser cookies. Amateur investor who has accumulated a small fortune in the market after starting out years ago with a large one. For recreation, I run, hike, kayak and play tennis but will not consider synchronized swimming under any circumstances.

View Comments (71)

  • Ya know, having lived went to school and worked in S.FL over the years I have run into plenty of Cubans. The ones who came to the states on leaky rafts, inner tubes, mattresses filled with cocoanuts, and anything else that would float kinda tells you everything you need to know about socialism.

    • You live in Germany, right? Wasn't the Berlin Wall the only city wall designed to keep people in rather than keep invaders out? Another endorsement for left wing politics.

      • That's always been my question. If it's so great under socialism and communism, why is everyone breaking their a$$ES to get away?

        • Dont forget the So. Vietnamese smart enough to get the hell out while getting was good. Tens of thousands perished on leaky overfilled boats. They boarded these boats knowing that their chances of survival were slim, but still thinking it was worth the risk to get away from the coming utopia. Talk to some former Viet refugees. You will find that some of them even were VC. There are books about escaping refugees, ie Born Into War.
          Ah hell, the useful idiots dont want facts...pass the crack pipe.

          • San Antonio has quite a large population ov Vietnam Refugees. Some were willing to talk about their experiences, others were so scared of being found out by NV spies, and taken away to face trial. They were pretty much hard workers, and just wanted to stay under the radar.
            I have a customer here that is also a refugee. Very nice guy, but is very closed mouth about his former life.

          • Some of them were involved with the Viet Cong, and don't want anyone to know, since there is so much negative feeling still about the Vietnam war. And some don't speak because they left the only life they had ever knowm, moved from their ancestors, and determined to make a new life here. They are not wild about reliving what they have lost.

          • sa_rose December 10, 2013 at 12:50 pm
            Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

            Some of them were involved with the Viet Cong, and don’t want anyone to know, since there is so much negative feeling still about the Vietnam war.

            After what the VC did, no one involved with them deserves anything more than being burned at the stake.

            "Gooks in the open making hay,
            But I can hear the Gunships say:
            "There'll be no Chieu Hoi today"
            Napalm sticks to kids....

            Nahhh...I'm not bitter about Viet Nam...... :(

          • I am. As many regulars know, I have some very unhappy memories related toVietnam war and certain members of my family.

          • I work with a guy whose father was an ARVN general. The family has been in the US for almost 40 years now. I've heard his stories of massacres and other atrocities the North Vietnamese did to the people of South Vietnam after the US withdrew in 1975. Yet people defend the left because it always projects the lie that its struggle is for the people.

      • A valid point kick. Can't swear it was the ONLY wall designed to keep people in rather than keep invaders out.
        Seems to be the best known example though.

        As an aside: After the wall fell, and the joy wore off...many Germans wanted the wall back, higher and stronger. They (and I) are still paying for the east Germans (the "ossis" ) The west was pissed that the east got a whole bunch of money to be rebuilt, and they were (and are) paying for it.

        However, talking to the folks who lived in the East zone is an eye opening experience.

  • The author obviously never saw Brownsville Brooklyn in the 1960s and 70s. Cops who were in WWII said it reminded them of Berlin when they marched in in May 1945. You could see for blocks and blocks because somehow the "residents" had actually found a way to destroy brick buildings.

  • A comment after the article posted by Mark Noonan begins "Castro didn't destroy Havana - or Cuba - on purpose; to him, and to those who think like him, it isn't destroyed,at all. It is better than it's ever been. It must be kept in mind that those who conceive of themselves as possessed of special knowledge superior to the masses of the people are unshakable in their view - they are consumed with pride and so view a society controlled by them, under whatever conditions, as better than any other possible society."

    That is progressive! We have progressives! How fucking progressive will we allow ourselves to become?

    • It sounds like commenter has read or at least understands the stuff Hayek wrote in the Fatal Conceit. He is describing the ultimate 1%ers.

  • The communist can always put lip stick on a pig. Yet is still a pig and the leftist journalist in this country lap it all up.

    If life is so grand in Cuba and all the other communist shit holes, those that wish to live there should pack up their stuff and move there. That way they can experience the utopia that is suppose to be communism first hand. Once there, their US Citizen ship should be revoked and their round trip ticket confiscated.

    • Like Lee Harvey Oswald. Claimed to be a Marxist, went to Russia, gave up his American citizenship and after 3 year-round' t wait to get his a$$ back to the USA.

  • It was Havana during the 1950's, then it was Beirut during the 1970's, then Thailand in the 90's. Now it's places like Dubai, and New Zealand.

      • Yes, and then the more radical members of the religion of peace took over, now it's a war torn shithole.

        • Same in Afghanistan. A generation ago 65% of professionals were women. Now they aren't allowed to read!

          • I've seen pictures of Afghanistan in the 60's or 50's... I showed them to my Mom and she could not believe it. It is dung now in comparison to then... So sad...

  • Yet, that great, engorged whale calling itself Michael Moo-re would have you believe it is utopia, and America should emulate it.

      • Che can KMA. Everytime I see some dumb-ass kid wearing his visage, I ask them if they know who it is. Some can say his name, but not WHO he was. I tell them to research before they wear whatever they have his face on, again.

  • I was recently doing "Guys & Dolls," and there's that plot device where the characters go down to Havana for a wild, fun night. The younger cast members were puzzled. "Who goes to Havana for fun?" I had to inform them that, back then, it was a party place like Vegas is now.

      • Okay either several trolls or a few that take time out of their lives to create several accounts, come on! Seriously...? This is a problem for you? LOL Do you idiots b*tches KNOW how pathetic and small you are right now? And... by the way... racist. You are all racists!

          • Thank you! *hugs* I really didn't do anything specific that I can remember... They are just being racists.

        • Well, the leftist thrive on censorship, they only believe in free-speech if you agree with them.

          Using our main troll as an example, do you think that a paid troll whose aim was merely to disrupt a website would be allowed on *ANY* left of center forum? They'd be banned immediately.

          Hell, you really can't even disagree on the leftist forum sites, that'll earn you a ban and most of us have seen that firsthand.
          The leftist don't want a debate, they are mortally afraid of an idea that doesn't fit into their narrow world view.

          • You are right. That is the price that we pay for REAL freedoms that we do truly tolerate the other. We can choose though to ignore and move on and not engage the person in conversation, but the person can come in here and be all stupid. However there are always limits of course to that as blatantly racists and mysoginistic stuff wouldn't be tolerated.

          • During the reign of the "Spanish Kings" Fernando and Isabella, these trolls would have been rounded up, tried by the Inquisition for heresy and/or blasphemy, handed over to the secular government for execution, be given an 'auto do fe' and burned at the stake as impenitent heretics. Their heresy(s): Donitism, Donism, Manicheesim, Albigensianism, pick your heresy. These particular heresies ranged from a disbelief in the human and/or divine nature of Jesus Christ, to the evils of human sexual intercourse, to the efficacy of abortion, to the joys of sexual orgies, to the value and need for state sponsored (forced) collectivism, to the social and moral necessity for euthanasia (suicide at the hands of another or at one's own hands), to the equality of and often superiority of animal life over human life and these heresies bore in them the beginnings of nihilism, anarchism, socialism, communism, and unfettered and uncontrolled crony capitalism (not a good thing).

            These heresies had certain things in common; 1) they were about defying authority, whether church or state, (i.e., seen as sedition or straight up treason); 2) they were about self indulgence and sensuality at the expense of others, (usually at the expense of those outside the clique); and 3) they were every one of them, at the core, about selfishness and materialism, (we call this consumerism these days)!

            My, my...things haven't really changed much since the 1490's, have they?

          • And Jews. All Jews who would not convert, or who were perceived as lying about their conversion. The inquisitors would send out folk to examine trash, looking for vegetable oil use as opposed to lard!

          • Yes that was wrong. Especially since Jesus was a Jew (as He lived on Earth) out of respect for G-d's Chosen People as it were that was not the right thing to do.

            What I learned was that the King and Queen did the same to Muslims IF that is true and I don't have a reason to doubt it, PERHAPS they felt that it would fair and just to do the same to the Jews. Wanting a country where there was some homogenous thought or maybe at least one link among citizens so there could be a sense of "brotherhood" is not exactly a bad thing, what makes it bad is the way they went about it. Although like I said above giving Jews a pass while doing what they did to the Muslims may not have seem fair nor balanced... however I think that even back then there were MARKED differences on how the Jews behaved in foreign countries and how Muslims behaved. I am sure they knew of Muslims invasions and how they like to take over countries, in wanting to avoid that they went too far (in my opinion) going for the Jews. Although again it may have seem discriminatory to the naked eyes to just go for the Muslims and not the Jews (along side others).

          • You need to bear in mind that the JEWs (Jewish hierarchy; those Jews who had centuries before stated publicly: "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children!") often opened the gates to cities previously under Spanish control to the Muslim/Saracen invaders, or showed them were the city's fortifications were weakest, or showed them secret ways into a city. It took the Spanish nearly eight centuries to get control of their entire country again. Millions of Spaniards died in the process, many good Catholic Christian Spaniards.

            I don't know about you, but if I had a population ranging in the 25 millions of people who were actively engaged in sedition or treason in my country and I knew that they'd been responsible for centuries of warfare, murder, rape, forced slavery, or forced conversion and dhimmitude, I wouldn't have been nearly as gentle on them as King Fernando and Queen Isabella were. It is not for us to tsk, tsk and wag our fingers and cluck our tongues at the solutions of governments of centuries past and presume on our moral superiority; especially when our own government is responsible for the abortion industry, both here and abroad; we're responsible for the worldwide proliferation of pornography; we're responsible for the governmental assault on marriage; we've foisted the homosexual agenda on ourselves and call ourselves enlightened; we've started war and unrest in the Middle East; we've cheated our allies and made pacts with our enemies; we've given rights to murderers and criminals they don't deserve and we've taken the rights of the average American away from them; we've lied and lied and lied to our people and when we get caught, we lied some more.

            We have no right to scold or abjure the Spanish for solving their social and political problems the way they did when we won't solve ours at all. The day will come when we will be faced with the choice between actually fighting and dying for what we believe in (because we won't do it now when it's possible to win), or being destroyed by those very same forces.

          • Well I have the right to do as I like and to think as I like. We CAN disagree, however I can think what I like. With that said, they did what they thought was best, however they could have been less EVERYBODY deserves the same treatment and usher persecution, punishment and death to everybody the same. They could have expelled all Jews and Muslims and be done. That takes care of the issues and that also prevents the deaths and persecution of people who were innocent. The innocents who are expelled at least get a chance to live and to take their property and go elsewhere and form their lives. I can have that opinion if I want to.

          • While there may have been some seditious Jews,. like those who were pissed at the constant annoyance form the Christian government, the vast majority of Jews wanted to do what they had always done. Live under the radar, following the Torah and trying to lead a righteous life separate from others. I also feel that to accuse America of "starting war in the middle east" is a fallacy. There have been wars between the various populations, religions and self proclaimed countries for centuries before America existed. Our mistake (along with the French and the Brtish)_ was to think we could "fix" the problems there.

          • While there may have been some seditious Jews,. like those who were pissed at the constant annoyance form the Christian government, the vast majority of Jews wanted to do what they had always done. Live under the radar, following the Torah and trying to lead a righteous life separate from others. I also feel that to accuse America of "starting war in the middle east" is a fallacy. There have been wars between the various populations, religions and self proclaimed countries for centuries before America existed. Our mistake (along with the French and the Brtish)_ was to think we could "fix" the problems there.

          • I agree. Not all Jews can be painted with the same color as those who did do the wrong thing. There was perhaps a humane solution that just wasn't explored. It is what it is as it is in the past and there is nothing we can do to change it. However we have the right to look back and make assesments if we want to.

            Yes the Middle East has been a problem for centuries. The problem is with superpowers like you said thinking they can fix the world's problems. The issues in the Middle East cannot be fixed through outside forces.

        • I was wondering about that. But remember, I actually had my account here hacked about a year or so ago. It's pathetically sad when you think about it.