Posted on 03/26/2014 7:53:34 PM PDT by Lorianne
Cubas 1950s cars and Havanas crumbling facades have long been its iconic symbols in the American imagination. They dont disappoint, as I discovered on a trip to Cuba last week. But I didnt expect zippy Hyundais with Miami FM on their radios or a private collection of contemporary Cuban art, installed floor to 20-foot ceiling in a fabulous apartment with a terrace overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Both the apartment and the art would put many wealthy New Yorkers to shame.
Cubans remain poor. It would be no fun to live on the $15-35 per month that is paid to most government employees. Even with subsidized (and rationed) staples as well as free rent, health care and education, many neighborhoods of Havana are decrepit. Balconies fall off apartment buildings. Whole buildings collapse into the street. People wait in long lines to collect remittances at Western Union, whose window has a faded poster of Fidel and Raul Castro declaring, The Revolution, thriving and victorious, is moving ahead. The woman in line wearing American flag tightsstripes on one leg, stars on the otheris no doubt in the revolutionary vanguard. Cuba depends for hard currency on remittances from the United States and Europe, as well as payments and subsidies estimated at $9.4 billion per year from Venezuela. Caracas is not in a position to continue that much longer, raising the specter of economic collapse and a massive outflow of people that could present the United States with an unexpected foreign policy crisis on its own doorstep.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Politico, putting the smiley face on Marxism and it’s inevitable results.
Free, free, till nothing matters and everyone is poor but the military.
Obama wants it here, just like Politico
Is Obama ready to do what? Send in troops to shore up the Castro regime?
"Moving ahead" to what? Them commies always force you to imagine "moving forward" yourself, as if just the act of moving itself is proof that the Revolution has succeeded.
Give me a freeping break.
that’s not the story Michael moore told us.
Spending our money to save his Marxist pals.
Another “red line” please.
He’ll be shipping in the new ‘rainbow’ division to sexually assault the children of any dissenters in Cuba.
Is politico “ready” to an objective news source? Sorry I asked.
Quick, Barry, borrow billions more from China so we can
prop-up the Cubanists. No time to waste.
Let President Cruz call for revolution as his first act. The Castro brothers are not entitled to the dignity of a natural death. Think Mussolini, Ceauchescu, Kadaffy. Arafat? lol.
Civil War in Venezuela
Add this to the growing list of things that are not 0bama’s fault:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/
If the Castros are treated any better than Nicolae and Elena ceausescu it would be a shame!
Agree!
Would fleeing Cubans to this nation be as Republican as the 1960s refugees or Democrats in waiting?
“The Castro brothers are not entitled to the dignity of a natural death”
Just to be clear... are you talking about the old mass murdering fleabags in Cuba... or the two La Raza-Soros saboteurs from Texas?
i bet putin is ready.
Make Cuba a County of Fla. and give the peeps EBTs.
Excellent point. The East Germans became “social Democrats”. The Cubans with drive and guts already left. Today’s Cubans will no doubt become “give me the benefits” Democrats.
“Moving ahead” reminds me of a phrase Al Gore often used “we are moving forward”. It is code for the forced march towards socialism and communism
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.