Posted on 07/06/2006 10:48:21 AM PDT by DigitalVideoDude
CAIMITO, Cuba (Reuters) - They do not come to Cuba for the beaches and tropical mystique that draw more than 2 million other visitors each year.
Instead they come to spend their vacations working in the countryside under a blazing sun, eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others.
They are so-called revolutionary tourists who arrive each year from about 50 countries for a "total immersion" in one of the world's few remaining socialist countries.
"I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban revolution," Carlo Sarpero, a 26-year-old shop keeper from Genova, Italy, explained, as he repaired a school.
Cuba will receive more than 1,200 foreign "brigadistas" this summer for its "social-political" tourism program.
The Caribbean island's government does not measure the program's impact in monetary value, like that of sun and beach tourism which brings in more than $2.5 billion a year, but in political terms.
"A big majority of those who participate become activists in Cuban solidarity groups in their countries," said Gabriel Benitez of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the program sponsor.
Fine post.
And I don't have a problem with Castro fleecing idiots for free labor.
Very useful idiots.
Don't be so shy next time. Five (plus) years is a long time to work up your nerve!!!
Sounds almost like a Holiday in Cambodia.
Can I get these morons to come over and clean my yard for the revolution? Shoosh, you really have to be stupid to spend your own money to pick fruit for free. These guys had to go to college to be this stupid, you can't get that stupid naturally.
Why is this image not working for me?
2300-something years ago one Aristotle taught that both the number and the variety of idiots are infinite. AND HE WAS RIGHT!
Good post. I wondered where all the democrats went...!
Carlo Sarpero sounds like a pendejo especial.
Simple. You're not mentally deranged.
At least he does not claim to be doing anything concrete for the Cuban people! That, of course, would require deposing Fidel!
Interesting that they only want to vacation in the people's paradise - and then go home. Why not move there permanently?
I'm thinking it's more like every 1.3 seconds.
Ya done good, DVD.
The astounding and brazen lunacy shown here by these "turistas" is that they spend a goodly sum getting to Cuba to help the poor when these goobers could stay home and help the poor and needy in their own cities or towns. But, as usual with leftists, that would not satisfy their everlasting itch for self-serving false piety and sanctimony.
Do they have African slave nostalgia trips too?
Manual labor the tropical sun, oh joy.
Mrs VS
They do it in America too. They mingle around a homeless shelter or soup kitchen, like they're visiting a zoo.
Then it's back in the limo to the air-conditioned penthouse to tell their friends about their adventure amongst the poor.
This twist just adds that "associated with mass murderers" tinge of danger which really wows the wine and brie audience.
But they still aren't getting the full Cuban Revolution experience. They are missing the part where "Che" selects a few of them and has them shot for insufficient dedication to the cause.
"...sun and beach tourism which brings in more than $2.5 billion a year..." I wonder what their accomodations are like?
"...eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others...."
There's two mental images which I can't reconcile in the commie workers' utopian paradise of Father Casrto.
Probably the first legitimate work the bulk of these scumbos have ever done in their lives. Perhaps they will discover the "magic" of how the Thief in Chief took the richest country per capita in Latin America and turned it into the second poorest (after only Haiti) in just 50 years.
More evidence that slavery persists in the modern world because some people like being slaves.
Thanks for posting this "good news" thread.
I'm already enjoying the schadenfreude of contemplating these poor dumb b*stard lefties sweating their hides off in the Cuban sun, eating poorly, and best of all, sleeping in wretched conditions!
I'm sure there's a platoon of Canucklehead losers involved, and I can hardly wait for ten years to pass and for these useful idiots to have to admit that they were wrong!
Love that schadenfreude!
Yes, well done. You've been here a long time without starting a thread, haven't you? I did my first one a few days after joining, and didn't know how to search properly, so it was a dupe that got pulled in about 1 minute! You've put your waiting to good use.
True. And P. T. Barnum isolated the sucker reproduction rate in the 19th century. Socialism may be more secure than one would rationally expect.
ROFL!
Honors to you for first Barnum reference in a socialism thread.
"I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban revolution," Carlo Sarpero, a 26-year-old shop keeper from Genova, Italy, explained, as he repaired a school.
Hey! Simple tool! the "revolution" is twice as old as you are!
I don't think you get to call it a "revolution" when it's the same-old-sh1t for nearly six decades.
Sounds like stagnant status quo to me. Where the freak is the freaking "revolution"?
LOL. He's like the commie Tom Sawyer!
useful idiots.. why don't they stay there permanently if it's such a life changing experience?
That makes me just like Hitler.
Once the old bastard has gone for his just rewards Cuba could reap a huge financial windfall for Peeing on the Dictator's grave tourism packages - I think I would sign up for one of those! (I'd also like to own the beer concession nearby LOL).
How frickin stupid can a human being get... numb nut you go to Cuba to help the revolution because you think the revolution helps "up" the poor vs the capitalist that "hold down" the poor ... an what do you find... that after close to 50 years after the revolution most ever body in Cube is poor and there are far more poor in Cuba then in the capitalist country I bet you despise... if you really want to help the poor up... help them be free capitalist
Only in the West do they believe that Bush imprisons his political enemies while at the same time CHAMPIONING Fidel Castro.
What, Castro doesn't offer an optional add-on inner tube float across the shark infested Fl strait, with a thrilling faux apprehension by Cuban gun boats and a simulated summary execution? Now THAT would be a part of the revolutionary experience to remember forever.
Slave labor for Fidel.
Wait, where's Sheehan in all this. I thought she preferred living with Chavez and Castro?
Just think of the fun they could have at Club Gitmo!
"They only pick the fruit that Cubans don't want to pick..."
Leave it to Rooters to call Cuba a "socialist" country.
See what happens when you forget your American Express card??
"I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban revolution," Carlo Sarpero, a 26-year-old dullard and waste-of-humanity from Genova, Italy, said.
Doesn't everything?
LOL! I'd sign-up for one, too.
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