Cuba: Here we go again?

Communist-regime- and moronic-American-blockade-induced squalor

hey plenty of credit to go around

I did not eat in any of the paladares citizens operated in Havana 10 years ago, but I talked to people (who knew English) in the parks and the streets and usually gave them money when I was panhandled. I think most of the people in our group did the same. I'm sure we all were partly guilty of gringo complicity, but I don't think "disaster tourism" is the sum total of such travel.

Link: http://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/discussion-why-i-don-t-want-to-hear-about-your-nostalgia-tour-through-cuba/14589/30

is there possibly some residual "oh what might have been" leftist nostalgia for the Castro regime at play here? (which was obviously from p early on an unqualified disaster, from a marxist/leftist perspective) Like oh they almost had a socialist paradise, look at how many doctors they turned out etc.

that forum link is ... interesting. I'm not really sympathetic to arguments that American corporate hegemony does a great job of increasing the standard of living wherever it goes tho.

I'm glad she made the point though: you can't find any goddamn clean needles in this socialist paradise.

Other than the tourist sector, which is reasonably mature already, and sugar is there anything particularly notable for US corporate hegemony to influence? It's not as though Cuba is likely to get a massive increase in revenue in the medium term or that the U.S. is the world's sole purveyor of commercial tat.

The questions about how / when the economic system is going to be reformed and who is going to influence that are much more interesting in the post-Eastern Bloc context, but there doesn't seem like a vast amount to build oligarchies out of.

Not that this question is necessarily answerable, plus to make it worse it seems to presume some kind of definite answer where none is possible. Okay, here goes: how is Alejo Carpentier regarded by Cuban-Americans?

Thanks to a tip from Harold Bloom, I discovered his novels about 20 years ago. "Explosion in a Cathedral" is, I'm sure, permanently tied for best novel I will ever read, I am quite sure. Just an unbelievably good book and I don't know one person who has read it, despite or because of my years of nagging (I'm exaggerating....kind of).

I know Carpentier had been imprisoned in the pre-Castro years, and was happy to act as diplomat for Cuba to Paris in the post-Castro years. I could see people doing this kind of "collaborator" thing with him, and with Julio Cortazar (who I also love). Any info on reactions, etc. would be welcome.

unfamiliar w Carpentier myself (my fave Cuban novelist is easily Cabrera-Infante). altho I was unaware there was any connection between Cortazar (who I also love) and Castro...?

Cortazar made a point of defending left-wing regimes in Central & South America (Cuba & the Sandinistas come to mind), although it clearly made him uneasy too.

is the best Cabrera-Infante book Three Trapped Tigers? I was reading a paperback of that about ten years ago and I LOST it.

yeah that's the one imo

Well I need to go get another copy obv.

Don't miss "Explosion in a Cathedral".

this is getting off-topic but this has been on my amazon wishlist forever:
http://lahistoriadeldia.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/fantomas-contra-los-vampiros-multinacionales.jpg

Looks like P-Funk Cortazar! very exciting.

Carpentier's reputation is high. I prefer The Kingdom of this World and press it on anyone who's interested.

"Kingdom" is the most famous one I think, a huge attention getter - and short too, makes an indelible impact quickly. I need to re-read that one.

What interests me about "Explosion" is the ambivalence: the permanent relevance of the interplay between privileged youth & driven ideologues. I was hooked right from that prologue about the first guillotine heading to the New World as a compass, right down to those insane plot developments. But you know, I'm crazy about Stendahl's "Charterhouse of Parma" for the same kind of reasons: that kind of wide scope novel full of insane passions.

Apt comparison.

That Cortazar is lots of daft fun. Fictionalised versions of him and a withering/sexy Susan Sontag and Alberto Moravio and co vs an international conspiracy, inspired by a mad comic book that featured same.

dumb question: does the US embargo stipulate that countries doing business with cuba (say in europe) suffer from any kind of censure from the US? b/c to my understanding most major european countries have some form of trade with cuba.

i have to admit it boggles my mind that not doing business with the united states would hamper a country's economy to the extent that they are lacking in essential medical supplies. though i'm sure the situation is more complex (maybe there's some mismanagement on the part of the cuban gov't as well). i understand how the embargo of iran could hurt its economy because it extends far beyond just limiting trade with a single country, and because a huge chunk of Iran's economy is dependent on one product (oil) that is primarily an export commodity. but i don't know the situation in cuba.

anyway, i wonder how long it'll take congress to get around to lifting the embargo. i imagine it won't take /that/ long, but of course it won't happen while obama is in power.

my partner's dad is a died-in-the-wool castro fan and one of those people who (a) thinks the cuban gov't can do no wrong (i'm not sure what he does with the cognitive dissonance this creates when people bring up their persecution of homosexuals); (b) influx of US money/influence will "ruin" the country. he's a strange mix of very informed (he reads a lot and knows more about cuba than i do, for sure) and oblivious (to anything that might put the castro regime in a bad light).

died/dyed

There are no barrier to European / Chinese trade, as far as i know. Cuba trades freely with other countries (exporting tobacco and sugar and importing most of its food). The GDP per capita is broadly comparable to other countries in the region and higher than Jamaica, for example. It has been heavily reliant on assistance from Venezuela for oil in the past, though, and there's only a limited amount of access to international finance for loans, etc. It has been hit heavily by the economic crisis (particularly the domestic economic crisis in Venezuela) and the variable price for sugar.

Not sure what the medical situation is, other than that it gets a lot of money from medical tourism and that is almost certainly going to lead to a two tier system with gluts and shortages affecting residents more than visitors.

there is about US$400 million exported annually to Cuba (medical and other 'emergency' goods?)

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c2390.html

These people are depraved https://t.co/36mBvvBBfJ

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) March 23, 2020

Nasty!

35 Cuban health professionals arriving in St Kitts and Nevis to help it deal with corona. It's not just high profile countries like Italy that Cuba supports, because unlike the cynics say, they send doctors out of a sense of international solidarity not pr https://t.co/dX821NCXI9

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) March 28, 2020

Some bits on Maradona and Cuba

https://m.thewire.in/article/sport/diego-maradona-social-justice-politics-tribute/amp?

Guardian be doing more propaganda for a nasty regine:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/25/sicily-asks-cuba-to-send-medics-as-italy-fights-second-covid-wave

Some more last minute bullshit:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/11/cuba-us-sponsor-terrorism-blacklist-sanctions-trump

here we go again

can't wait for Pompeo to get the boot

sad trombone

This silver coin commemorating an anticipated (but never realized) Bay of Pigs victory features an outline of Cuba with a rebel invader advancing past a fallen member of Castro's military in the foreground.#HISTINT #Museum

— CIA (@CIA) May 25, 2021

seems president libtrump is extremely cool with continuing to fuck over cuba despite everything he said before, i would be surprised but

Cubans chant "I am Fidel!", as thousands flood the streets in defense of the revolution. pic.twitter.com/dAqyPRiYm2

— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) July 12, 2021

in support of the Cuban government? Now? lol

Yes - end the blockade

Maybe they get a roll of toilet paper for participating

there are plenty of pro-government cubans in cuba.

these are government-ordained counter-protests to the actual protesters (or “worms” in government parlance)

"End the embargo" of course, and I endorse it. "End this oligarchical system which can't even use its excellent doctors to care for its citizens" I endorse too. But I'm keeping quiet about it because American intervention (ain't happening) and a military coup d'etat (ugh) would be calamitous too.

actual protesters

imagine a country where people acted against their obvious best interests, protesting in support of an authoritarian govt that did a terrible job handling covid, without being coerced. cant think of any recent examples.

oh I suspect American intervention is already happening

Joe Biden would never…

watching WH comms debase themselves getting right in line w the likes of Cruz & Rubio (and worse) just gives the game away. It may be years before the extent to which our assets/ proxies are involved come to light, but just as the sun rises in the East…

(and RIP to Obama’s approach w both Iran and Cuba—imo two of the unequivocally good and mildly surprising things to come from from his 2 terms)

The U.S. Coast Guard is monitoring boats heading to Cuba and possibly bringing weapons

I'm not sure what American policy should be now tbh.

Watching each side revert to the received opinions is tiresome, sez this eftist Cuban-American poster in Miami.

I'm conflicted and should not be clicking on this thread.