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Omaha Steve

(99,061 posts)
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:02 AM Sep 2014

Cuba cracks down on goods in travelers' luggage

Source: AP-EXCITE

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans braced Monday for a clampdown on the flow of car tires, flat-screen televisions, blue jeans and shampoo in the bags of travelers who haul eye-popping amounts of foreign-bought merchandise to an island where consumer goods are frequently shoddy, scarce and expensive.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Cuban-Americans fly to and from the island each year thanks to the easing of travel restrictions by the U.S. and Cuban governments over the last five years. Their Cuba-bound checked baggage has become a continuous airlift that moves nearly $2 billion of products ranging from razor blades to rice cookers. The baggage carousels at Cuba's airports often look like they're disgorging the contents of an entire Wal-Mart or Target store. Many families bring special trailers to carry the bags of their returning family, which often weigh many hundreds of pounds and include items such as bicycles and flat-screen TVs.

But the Cuban government on Monday is enacting new rules meant to take a big bite of that traffic, sharply limiting the amount of goods people can bring into Cuba in their luggage, and ship by boat from abroad. The Cuban government says the restrictions are meant to curb abuses that have turned air travel in particular into a way for professional "mules" to illegally import supplies for both black-market businesses and legal private enterprises that are supposed to buy supplies from the state.

Among ordinary Cubans, reactions have ranged from worry to outrage that their primary, and for many only, source of high-quality consumer goods may be throttled.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2011, file photo, travelers wait in line with their luggage at Miami International Airport before traveling Cuba in Miami. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans and Cuban-Americans fly in and out of Cuba each year thanks to the liberalization of U.S. and Cuban travel rules over the last five years. On Monday, Sept. 1, 2014, the Cuban government will enact new rules meant to take a big bite of that traffic, sharply limiting the amount of goods people can bring into Cuba in their luggage, and ship by boat from abroad. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140901/cb--cuba-mules-1d9b734616.html

86 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Cuba cracks down on goods in travelers' luggage (Original Post) Omaha Steve Sep 2014 OP
But...but...how can this be? A Round Tuit Sep 2014 #1
Really? heaven05 Sep 2014 #2
you do not know a thing about Cuba Billy Budd Sep 2014 #3
Get a grip on reality A Round Tuit Sep 2014 #5
so two relatives in Cuba Billy Budd Sep 2014 #8
A trade embargo is not "Blockading Cuba" EX500rider Sep 2014 #11
Yes, but the US is the closest and biggest market cosmicone Sep 2014 #14
"Bautista's cronies" have all been dead for awhile.... EX500rider Sep 2014 #15
Their progeny and DNA lives on ... cosmicone Sep 2014 #17
We see one daily on msnbc flamingdem Sep 2014 #20
No they are not free to do that ....The US Empire is quite evil Billy Budd Sep 2014 #22
"most countries fear the consequences of relations with Cuba" EX500rider Sep 2014 #41
the US creates consequences to strangle Cuba's economy Billy Budd Sep 2014 #48
Cub'a command economy is what strangles Cuba's economy. EX500rider Sep 2014 #55
so in your opinion Billy Budd Sep 2014 #73
For the 3rd time is no blockade. That would involve the US Navy keeping all ships away from Cuba. EX500rider Sep 2014 #77
There is a blockade for the fourth time Billy Budd Sep 2014 #80
Wrong EX500rider Sep 2014 #81
Cuba has suffered economic damages Billy Budd Sep 2014 #82
There is NO blockade...there IS a trade embargo EX500rider Sep 2014 #83
Have you actually been to Cuba? Sen. Walter Sobchak Sep 2014 #71
Lift the embargo, yes Babel_17 Sep 2014 #4
The biggest obstacle are Castro and the "Cuban Exiles" Archae Sep 2014 #6
Castro never gunned down students on the street Billy Budd Sep 2014 #29
That is a damned lie. AngryAmish Sep 2014 #44
There are no Castro death squads Billy Budd Sep 2014 #47
Thanks! I was wildly confused about how Somoza got in there! Judi Lynn Sep 2014 #74
Los Tigres de Manferrer Billy Budd Sep 2014 #75
Great post, couldn't agree more. eom eissa Sep 2014 #65
the US is not the whole world quadrature Sep 2014 #7
They don't have a ton of relatives in other countries. MADem Sep 2014 #9
OK, so smuggling is good or bad ..?..nt quadrature Sep 2014 #18
What does smuggling have to do with any of this? MADem Sep 2014 #19
The US Government punishes those who trade with Cuba Billy Budd Sep 2014 #28
"The US Government punishes those who trade with Cuba" EX500rider Sep 2014 #62
look at my links Billy Budd Sep 2014 #68
Lazily following A Policy Billy Budd Sep 2014 #23
Of course, someone will be along to tell me how Castro and/or Raul blah blah blah MyNameGoesHere Sep 2014 #10
LOVE, love, love your avatar eissa Sep 2014 #60
Shame he was overshadowed by MyNameGoesHere Sep 2014 #70
Funny. Last yr all three major kitchen shopping guides said "don't buy any new toaster." kickysnana Sep 2014 #25
You got it! Outstanding. n/t Judi Lynn Sep 2014 #36
Cuba can't afford to buy anything so we aren't losing much trade Bacchus4.0 Sep 2014 #43
Cause our propaganda is much, much better than our reality. kickysnana Sep 2014 #45
They wouldn't need to have friends and relatives bring them goods if their standard of living was Bacchus4.0 Sep 2014 #46
Let me guess, FR is down today and you're feeling lonely. n/t Monk06 Sep 2014 #31
The US should blockade your house next. /nt Ash_F Sep 2014 #76
That's the best you got? A Round Tuit Sep 2014 #78
Castro condemned and rejected the US economic model Zorro Sep 2014 #12
Because no one suffers under the US economic model..... ForgoTheConsequence Sep 2014 #13
Not to the extent the Cuban people suffer Zorro Sep 2014 #16
Today, not in the past I would beg to differ. n/t kickysnana Sep 2014 #27
There are no homeless people in Cuba. What can you say about the U.S.? Judi Lynn Sep 2014 #37
Cuba sounds like a wonderful place Zorro Sep 2014 #40
Uhh... yeah, actually there are. Sen. Walter Sobchak Sep 2014 #72
you are correct sir ...See Ferguson, Missouri Billy Budd Sep 2014 #26
Racism in Cuba is far worse. joshcryer Sep 2014 #33
and your metrics are ? Billy Budd Sep 2014 #34
N.Y. Times: Best of Friends, Worlds Apart Judi Lynn Sep 2014 #38
This message was self-deleted by its author Billy Budd Sep 2014 #49
Not as a natural result Billy Budd Sep 2014 #24
Cuba's shitty economy is the fault of the "US Military Industrial Complex Empire"? Zorro Sep 2014 #42
here are some metrics Billy Budd Sep 2014 #50
Your bolded text is not a metric Zorro Sep 2014 #52
not really Billy Budd Sep 2014 #53
Again, the US has no "blockade" of Cuba. EX500rider Sep 2014 #63
The only sense this makes is that the flamingdem Sep 2014 #21
I can see why they would do this. Demand for goods from the outside in a closed society can be jwirr Sep 2014 #30
Increasing expectations are dangerous to the Cuban government hack89 Sep 2014 #32
It certainly leads to a more polarized society flamingdem Sep 2014 #35
Why is no one concerned the United States FORBIDS TRAVEL TO CUBA for ordinary citizens? Judi Lynn Sep 2014 #39
Always interesting to see non-capitalism in action, Nye Bevan Sep 2014 #51
Castro speaks Truth to power so he is hated Billy Budd Sep 2014 #54
What is Fidel's net worth? Throd Sep 2014 #56
You have figures from who ? Billy Budd Sep 2014 #57
"...he lives in a modest house ....." EX500rider Sep 2014 #64
Sanchez [alleged bodyguard] is the spy who came in to be sold Billy Budd Sep 2014 #66
So a Russian Shevchenko was lying seems non-applicable. EX500rider Sep 2014 #67
its how the CIA uses defectors a template Billy Budd Sep 2014 #69
Castro per Forbes Billy Budd Sep 2014 #58
Castro speaks like a populist, but eissa Sep 2014 #59
and you know this how? Billy Budd Sep 2014 #61
You Sir are correct warrant46 Sep 2014 #85
I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to fly with a flat screen TV anywhere either. Starry Messenger Sep 2014 #79
I don't see why any Cuban would have any use for Yanqui cachivaches. Dreamer Tatum Sep 2014 #84
USA airlines will miss those extra bags fees! Sunlei Sep 2014 #86
 

A Round Tuit

(88 posts)
1. But...but...how can this be?
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:14 AM
Sep 2014
...an island where consumer goods are frequently shoddy, scarce and expensive.

I thought that Cuba was a utopian, where all citizens received free goods, health care of the highest quality, a new car every year...why, there was going to be a Costco just down the street from Fidel's home.

I think it's past time for the US to admit that we have damaged and punished Cuba enough, lift the embargo and force Castro and his brother out, so that the citizens may really begin to live a decent life.

Of course, someone will be along to tell me how Castro and/or Raul was democratically elected, by the people, and we should not interfere.

We should not interfere...but neither should we continue to punish a people that are more than ready to throw off the yoke of Castro tyranny.
 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
3. you do not know a thing about Cuba
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:29 AM
Sep 2014

what in the world makes you think Cubans are " a people that are more than ready to throw off the yoke of Castro tyranny"....you do not see the proportion of the population in prison in Cuba that one sees here in the US...the Cuban Police do not regularly kill, beat, gas, or tase the people of Cuba ....one does not see a Militarized Cuban Police in armor vehicles with automatic heavy machine guns and camouflage gear confronting folks like we do here in the US. Get a grip on reality . Learn something other than the US Empire talking points on Cuba .....

 

A Round Tuit

(88 posts)
5. Get a grip on reality
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:46 AM
Sep 2014

Yes sir, I shall.

Please forgive me for not realizing that my opinion is worthless since it was based upon first hand knowledge from the two relatives I have living there.

They are just two of a few million that consider the whole damned island to be a prison!

I am properly humiliated and I beg your forgiveness.

Please give my regards to the relatives that YOU have living there, the one's that are obviously giving you the straight skinny about life in Cuba.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
8. so two relatives in Cuba
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:29 AM
Sep 2014

makes you an expert..."millions consider the island to be a prison"...you know who says that Yoanny Sanchez...she left Cuba for Switzerland tasted life there and returned to prison...odd behavior...I have been to Cuba last in 2000. I speak read and write Spanish fluently [Yo puedo hablar, escribir y leer en Español sin problemas...]...way back in the Eisenhower administration the US decided on a policy of Blockading Cuba to create popular discontent...that Policy has been condemned for decades by the world the last time in October 2013 by a vote of 189- 2 ...overwhelming vote...I did not ask for and do not accept apologies ....

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
11. A trade embargo is not "Blockading Cuba"
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:56 AM
Sep 2014

They are free to buy stuff from the other 200 or so countries in the world.

 

cosmicone

(11,014 posts)
14. Yes, but the US is the closest and biggest market
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 12:15 PM
Sep 2014

So our hypocritical embargo affects them far more.

It is all for Meyer Lansky, the Cosa Nostra and Bautistas who wanted to convert Cuba into a Las Vegas like place. Now we are playing mercenary to Bautista's cronies who had been looting the Cuban people for decades.

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
15. "Bautista's cronies" have all been dead for awhile....
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 12:18 PM
Sep 2014

....and their looting stopped about 55 years ago.

flamingdem

(39,303 posts)
20. We see one daily on msnbc
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 01:11 PM
Sep 2014

in the person of host Jose Diaz-Balart - brother of two congressmen who are progeny of the Batista regime and right wing haters.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
22. No they are not free to do that ....The US Empire is quite evil
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 02:07 PM
Sep 2014

Do you know the Helms Burton Law internationalizes the Embargo...

The Helms-Burton law has internationalized the embargo: most countries fear the consequences of relations with Cuba.
http://wais.stanford.edu/Cuba/cuba_andtheusembargo73003.html



do you know Banks get fined for handling Cuba's business .....
Analysis: U.S. sanctions make Cuba's bank account too toxic for banks
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/29/us-cuba-usa-banking-analysis-idUSBRE9AS0QE20131129

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
41. "most countries fear the consequences of relations with Cuba"
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 09:13 PM
Sep 2014

In 2005 Cuba had exports of $2.4 billion, ranking 114 of 226 world countries, and imports of $6.9 billion, ranking 87 of 226 countries.[ Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%, Venezuela 12.5%, Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9% (2012).Cuba's major exports are sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus fruits, and coffee; imports include food, fuel, clothing, and machinery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#Economy

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
48. the US creates consequences to strangle Cuba's economy
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 07:12 AM
Sep 2014
The US is a vicious war like Empire that has spent over 50 years bullying Cuba and making its population live in misery

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
55. Cub'a command economy is what strangles Cuba's economy.
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 10:56 AM
Sep 2014

Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%, Venezuela 12.5%, Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9%.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
73. so in your opinion
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 05:55 PM
Sep 2014

US pressures, blockades, prevention of deals by threats on those who trade with Cuba and the whole Diplomatic economic and other actions against Cuba by the largest economy on the planet have done no damage and have had no effect ? I would rethink that because those sanctions and other actions have harmed the Cuban economy. All you have to do is think about it....

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
77. For the 3rd time is no blockade. That would involve the US Navy keeping all ships away from Cuba.
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 07:27 PM
Sep 2014

And if we can't even stop Canada from trading with them I don't think we are too effective with our "threats".
Has the US had a effect? Yes.

Has Cuba's embrace of a command style economy which never works well had more of an effect. Yes.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
80. There is a blockade for the fourth time
Wed Sep 3, 2014, 12:46 PM
Sep 2014

No matter how many times you repeat it 3, 4, 5 times there is a process of strangulating the Cuban economy in place. I call it a Blockade....I do not know what someone like you calls it...is it really rational to insist as you do that all the efforts over 50 years by the US have had a net ZERO effect on Cuba ...that is simply being crazy or if you are denying such effort what is the Helms Burton law ...what is the world protesting yearly at the UN ? the next massive and overwhelming vote against the UN is coming up in October ...maybe you can clarify to those Nations that condemn the US that nothing is going on ....

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
81. Wrong
Wed Sep 3, 2014, 03:12 PM
Sep 2014
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade.

If a blockade was in effect none of this would be possible:

In 2005 Cuba had exports of $2.4 billion, ranking 114 of 226 world countries, and imports of $6.9 billion, ranking 87 of 226 countries. Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%, Venezuela 12.5%, Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9% (2012)
 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
82. Cuba has suffered economic damages
Wed Sep 3, 2014, 04:27 PM
Sep 2014

from the US Blockade that is condemned by most of the world[2013 vote was 189-2 condemning US policy]....There is no doubt that the efforts of the US to economically hamper and damage Cuba have taken a toll....

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
71. Have you actually been to Cuba?
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 04:43 PM
Sep 2014

All I have ever encountered there were people in a constant state of exasperation with shortages and the cult of personality.

It's ultimately the same song and dance as the Christian Right performs here. But you can't fill an empty fridge or wipe your ass with a cold war era socialist rant any more than you can with one about guns, abortion and gays.

Babel_17

(5,400 posts)
4. Lift the embargo, yes
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:35 AM
Sep 2014

If we lift the embargo then the people of Cuba will use the metric of stocked shelves, and cash in hand, to judge their government. I think we've been lazily following a tradition of embargoing Cuba.

Archae

(46,260 posts)
6. The biggest obstacle are Castro and the "Cuban Exiles"
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:00 AM
Sep 2014

We saw the Cuban Exiles and their tactics first hand during the Elian Gonzalez fiasco.
The Exiles live in their dream world, where as soon as Fidel dies, they just saunter back to Cuba and take up where they (or their parents and grandparents) were before Fidel took over.
You remember, cronyism, banana republic government so corrupt they stink on ice, Mob influence, etc.

As for Fidel, ever since the Soviet Union sugar daddy ended, he's trying more and more desperate methods including some that would make North Korea proud.

This latest stunt is just such.
The stuff they can buy is shit, so they want better quality, but Fidel doesn't want to ruin his "Socialist Paradise" Fantasy Island, so now he's banning most imports like TV's and stuff.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
29. Castro never gunned down students on the street
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 02:16 PM
Sep 2014
Like we did at Kent State and Jackson State during the Vietnam war....Castro does not have the largest prison population ...we have the largest prison population....Castro troops are not facing off against unarmed citizens...our Para Military Police are standing against the people with tanks machine guns and sound cannons....Castro never did medical experiments on people...we did that both here in the US at Tuskegee and we also did it in central America....
 

AngryAmish

(25,704 posts)
44. That is a damned lie.
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:12 PM
Sep 2014

A friend of mine sleeps on his clothes to this day. Why? You develope these habits when you are being chased by Castro's death squads. His grandfather was a high Samoza official, his father was a young official when the revolution happened and he was about 10. They got away to Bogata. Death squad got his dad. Then to Mexico City for a few years, changed their name, and finally got a us visa. A few other jewish cubans got killed in Mexico City.

Fuck castro.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
47. There are no Castro death squads
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 07:09 AM
Sep 2014

Dead Squading is taught at the US school of high tech torture called the school of the Americas in the state of Georgia...they teach testicular electricity courses....Somoza was a US stooge and dictator however he was in Nicaragua not Cuba ....the only operating death squads in Latin America are trained and financed by the US government ....The US stooge in Cuba [you are very poorly informed by the way] was Fulgencio Batista ...he was a tyrant and a Dictator and was never elected to anything ...

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
74. Thanks! I was wildly confused about how Somoza got in there!
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 06:33 PM
Sep 2014

Fulgencio Batista most certainly was the one with death squads who murdered and mutilated Cubans, hanging them from trees, street lights, stealing them off the streets, sometimes forcing them to dig their own graves, sometimes putting them in burlap bags, adding gasoline, and burning them alive, etc., etc., etc.

One death squad was notoriously vicious: Masferrer's Tigers. Masferrer was a wealthy landowner and politician with Batista's government.

Everyone who knows any Cuban history knows this much. Death squads? US-supported Fulgencio Batista.

Thanks for your post.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
75. Los Tigres de Manferrer
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 06:36 PM
Sep 2014

If I am not mistaken Manferrer was killed by a bomb in Miami..... I am uncertain as to the spelling of his name ...welcome

 

quadrature

(2,049 posts)
7. the US is not the whole world
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:14 AM
Sep 2014

what about that the Cubans don't understand?

they can buy stuff from any country
except the US

MADem

(135,425 posts)
9. They don't have a ton of relatives in other countries.
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:36 AM
Sep 2014

When you make twenty dollars a month, you have to rely on your ex-pat brothers, sisters, cousins, etc., to give you that help. Most of those relations live ninety miles away, in Florida.

The Cuban government is cash - poor. The only reason their energy sector hasn't collapsed is because they indenture medical doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil. It's a culture of scarcity and "make-do." If you don't have an "in," either by being associated with the regime in a close way, or by having a relative who wants to visit the homeland, you aren't going to get that shampoo or rice cooker.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
19. What does smuggling have to do with any of this?
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 01:10 PM
Sep 2014

Those people aren't smuggling. They're bringing goods to their families. The government is cracking down on this. In other words, it has been allowed in the past, and now it is not allowed.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
28. The US Government punishes those who trade with Cuba
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 02:13 PM
Sep 2014

see the fines levied on Foreign Banks for trade with Cuba ....check out Helms Burton Law...learn something...

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
62. "The US Government punishes those who trade with Cuba"
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 02:11 PM
Sep 2014

Its major export partners are Canada 17.7%, China 16.9%, Venezuela 12.5%, Netherlands 9%, and Spain 5.9%.

Just how have we been "punishing" Canada or China for their trade with Cuba?

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
68. look at my links
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 03:24 PM
Sep 2014

Look what the US does to foreign banks who work with Cuba ...please do not blind yourself...
Canada here is an example: Canadian mining company Sherritt International: top executives are banned from traveling to the US because the firm processes nickel ore in Cuban facilities that were once US property.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/120612/us-trade-embargo-florida-law-odebrecht

Odebrecht’s Florida-based subsidiary Odebrecht USA, Inc has earned nearly $4 billion since 1990 on public works projects in the state, according to The Miami Herald, completing landmark structures like the American Airlines Arena and a new terminal at the Miami International Airport.

Meanwhile, another Odebrecht subsidiary, COI Overseas Ltd, is the lead contractor on an $800 million project to overhaul the Cuban port of Mariel, with financial backing from the Brazilian government, which maintains friendly ties to Havana.

That attempt to make money across the Cuban ideological divide appears to have made Odebrecht a target for anti-Castro lawmakers in Florida, which is home to more than 1 million Cuban exiles and immigrants.

here is more ....look at those pages for info on what countries have to do to ward off US hostility because they trade with Cuba...

http://www.nftc.org/default/usa%20engage/Foreign%20Sanctions%20Countermeasures%20Study.pdf

Countermeasures Developed Consciously to Block U.S.
Extraterritorial Sanctions ...................................................................................8
1. European Union ........................................................................................8
2. Canada.......................................................................................................9
3. Mexico ....................................................................................................11

 

MyNameGoesHere

(7,638 posts)
10. Of course, someone will be along to tell me how Castro and/or Raul blah blah blah
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 11:39 AM
Sep 2014

We should not interfere because we should not interfere. You are more than welcome to join that Miami crowd and stage another invasion. Perhaps you can finally rescue your 2 relatives.

eissa

(4,238 posts)
60. LOVE, love, love your avatar
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 12:27 PM
Sep 2014

Camilo Cienfuegos is one of my personal heroes. He was the heart of the revolution. What a tragic loss.

kickysnana

(3,908 posts)
25. Funny. Last yr all three major kitchen shopping guides said "don't buy any new toaster."
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 02:10 PM
Sep 2014

One held up to the minimum standards and that one was about $500. We got a 1930's toastmaster auto lower in mint condition on ebay for $30 and a free one from a neighbor from the 1970's as a backup. All Coffee pots no matter how much we pay for them burn out in 6 months down in our Community Room kitchen (Seniors Building). We love it when someone new shows up with 3 old coffee pots and no place to put them because we will not have to buy any pots for 4 or 5 years.

Embargoing Cuba for all these years and to still have Cuba outshine us in over all quality of living and health care makes us look really, really stupid and petty. Think of all the trade we missed just cause our puppet, Castro, flipped us the finger and refused to let us assassinate him.



Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
43. Cuba can't afford to buy anything so we aren't losing much trade
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 10:01 PM
Sep 2014

And if the quality of life is so much better there, why are the rafts floating our way?

Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
46. They wouldn't need to have friends and relatives bring them goods if their standard of living was
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 12:11 AM
Sep 2014

so high. The rafts flow in one direction.

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
37. There are no homeless people in Cuba. What can you say about the U.S.?
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 07:52 PM
Sep 2014

Even U.S. vets are left to go begging after they've fought repeatedly overseas against the enemies of US politicians.

National Guardsmen in Texas at the border have been advised to go to charities to ask for food since they haven't been paid since they arrived there.

Zorro

(15,691 posts)
40. Cuba sounds like a wonderful place
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 08:55 PM
Sep 2014

Looking forward to you moving to that paradise on earth and giving us updates with the same frequency you post on DU.

 

Sen. Walter Sobchak

(8,692 posts)
72. Uhh... yeah, actually there are.
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 04:51 PM
Sep 2014

There are panhandlers everywhere and homeless teens have pretty much taken over Havana's main bus station.

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
38. N.Y. Times: Best of Friends, Worlds Apart
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 08:12 PM
Sep 2014

Best of Friends, Worlds Apart



[font size=1] Librado Romero/ The New York Times [/font]

Joel Ruiz Is Black.
Achmed Valdés Is White.
In America They Discovered It Matters.

By MIRTA OJITO

MIAMI -- Havana, sometime before 1994: As dusk descends on the quaint seaside village of Guanabo, two young men kick a soccer ball back and forth and back and forth across the sand. The tall one, Joel Ruiz, is black. The short, wiry one, Achmed Valdés, is white.

They are the best of friends.

Miami, January 2000: Mr. Valdés is playing soccer, as he does every Saturday, with a group of light-skinned Latinos in a park near his apartment. Mr. Ruiz surprises him with a visit, and Mr. Valdés, flushed and sweating, runs to greet him. They shake hands warmly. But when Mr. Valdés darts back to the game, Mr. Ruiz stands off to the side, arms crossed, looking on as his childhood friend plays the game that was once their shared joy. Mr. Ruiz no longer plays soccer. He prefers basketball with black Latinos and African-Americans from his neighborhood.

The two men live only four miles apart, not even 15 minutes by car. Yet they are separated by a far greater distance, one they say they never envisioned back in Cuba.

In ways that are obvious to the black man but far less so to the white one, they have grown apart in the United States because of race. For the first time, they inhabit a place where the color of their skin defines the outlines of their lives -- where they live, the friends they make, how they speak, what they wear, even what they eat. "It's like I am here and he is over there," Mr. Ruiz said. "And we can't cross over to the other's world."

It is not that, growing up in Cuba's mix of black and white, they were unaware of their difference in color. Fidel Castro may have decreed an end to racism in Cuba, but that does not mean racism has simply gone away. Still, color was not what defined them. Nationality, they had been taught, meant far more than race. They felt, above all, Cuban.

More:
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/race/060500ojito-cuba.html



[font size=1]Joel Ruiz, left, who fled Cuba several years ago by boat, now lives in Miami and works in a
bar at night. Achmed Valdés, right, also came over by boat with his wife Yvette. His mother
lives nearby in Miami and he works as a truck driver, delivering mattresses throughout
Florida.

Librado Romero/ The New York Times [/font]


Response to Judi Lynn (Reply #38)

Zorro

(15,691 posts)
42. Cuba's shitty economy is the fault of the "US Military Industrial Complex Empire"?
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 09:54 PM
Sep 2014

I thought it was because of....because of...Beghazi!

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
50. here are some metrics
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 07:22 AM
Sep 2014

Each fall the UN vote is a welcome reminder that the world has not completely lost its senses and that the American empire does not completely control the opinion of other governments.

Speaking before the General Assembly, October 29, 2013 Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared: “The economic damages accumulated after half a century as a result of the implementation of the blockade amount to $1.126 trillion.” He added that the blockade “has been further tightened under President Obama’s administration”, some 30 US and foreign entities being hit with $2.446 billion in fines due to their interaction with Cuba.

Zorro

(15,691 posts)
52. Your bolded text is not a metric
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 09:07 AM
Sep 2014

That's a political declaration.

Let's see the lists that substantiate those statements.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
53. not really
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 09:47 AM
Sep 2014

Cuba is very meticulous in keeping tabs of what the Empire has done to the Cuban people. They said it in front of the whole world and the world condemned the US 189- 2 . the other nation voting with the US is Israel ...'Nuff said...Cuba filed a suit agaist the US in its courts that detailed the names and circumstances of Cuban citizens maimed and or killed by the US.

Living in Coral Gables, Florida is Luis Posada Carriles a Cuban CIA agent who placed a bomb in a civilian airliner on Oct 6 1976...he also placed bombs in Cuban hotels in the 1990s killing an Italian tourist.....this is a US war on Cuba going on 55 years

flamingdem

(39,303 posts)
21. The only sense this makes is that the
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 01:16 PM
Sep 2014

government wishes to sell more of their own goods.

However they are often of poor quality and very expensive.

A couple of years ago they began charging more money for goods at customs. That was to cut back on the mules who were making a lot of money transporting goods. This further cut back has me baffled. Why not simply increase the custom taxes again?

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
30. I can see why they would do this. Demand for goods from the outside in a closed society can be
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 02:16 PM
Sep 2014

dangerous to that society if they cannot produce it on their own.

hack89

(39,171 posts)
32. Increasing expectations are dangerous to the Cuban government
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 04:59 PM
Sep 2014

the more Cubans learn what other countries have, the more they will question why they have to go without.

flamingdem

(39,303 posts)
35. It certainly leads to a more polarized society
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 07:12 PM
Sep 2014

but I thought they were accepting that this is a part of necessary changes..

Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
39. Why is no one concerned the United States FORBIDS TRAVEL TO CUBA for ordinary citizens?
Mon Sep 1, 2014, 08:21 PM
Sep 2014

How can people get whipped up to a froth over Cuban "exiles" and their spawn being told to limit their loads of appliances, bicycles, etc., etc. they are taking to sell in Cuba, while ordinary U.S. citizens are forbidden to go at ALL?
Isn't there something a little ####ed up about that?

Oh, who cares, if there are propaganda points to try to make over excessive efforts to make big bucks from Cuba by these people who have chosen to live here?

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
54. Castro speaks Truth to power so he is hated
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 10:02 AM
Sep 2014


“The world has seen no respite in recent years, particularly since the European Economic Community, under the strict and unconditional leadership of the United States, decided the time had come to settle scores with what was left of two great nations (Russia and China) that… had carried out the heroic deed of putting an end to the imperialist colonial order imposed on the world by Europe and the United States,” said the 88-year-old leader.

He [Fidel Castro] accused the West of “cynicism” and said the trait had become “a symbol of imperialist policy.”

He singled out McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, saying he had supported Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and “participated together with that service in the creation of the Islamic State, which today controls a considerable and vital portion of Iraq and reportedly one-third of Syria as well.”

Turning to NATO, Castro said the alliance’s representatives were reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s feared SS.

“Many people are astonished when they hear the statements made by some European spokesmen for NATO when they speak with the style and face of the Nazi SS,” he said.

“Adolf Hitler’s greed-based empire went down in history with no more glory than the encouragement provided to NATO’s aggressive and bourgeois governments, which makes them the laughing stock of Europe and the world.”
 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
57. You have figures from who ?
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 11:38 AM
Sep 2014

From Forbes ?...if it is Forbes made it up ...Castro does not have Swiss accounts ...he lives in a modest house ..... you won't like my debunk once you put up....

EX500rider

(10,518 posts)
64. "...he lives in a modest house ....."
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 02:22 PM
Sep 2014
A recent book by one of his former bodyguards, Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, reveals that, despite the appearance of austerity, Castro lives a live of luxury with several houses and yachts. The book also claims that Castro makes all the possible efforts to keep the Cuban people unaware of these luxuries.

Human rights advocacy groups have criticized Castro's administration for committing human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch stated that his government constructed a "repressive machinery" which deprived Cubans of their "basic rights"



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro#Personal_and_public_life
 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
66. Sanchez [alleged bodyguard] is the spy who came in to be sold
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 03:13 PM
Sep 2014

it was in his contract. Use some critical thinking here ...what is he going to write ? what the CIA allows and says ...nothing more nothing less....Castro's Government constructed a "security and sovereignty machinery" to prevent the CIA from murdering Fidel Castro....the CIA own documents make it clear the CIA tried to assassinate Castro...here is what has happened with other books by CIA pets:

SOVIET DEFECTOR ACCUSED OF FABRICATIONS IN BOOK
By EDWIN McDOWELL
Published: July 1, 1985

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/01/books/soviet-defector-accused-of-fabrications-in-book.html

A magazine article charging that a former Soviet diplomat made up important parts of his best-selling book, with the apparent complicity of the Central Intelligence Agency, has evoked heated denials from the American intelligence community.
The story by Edward Jay Epstein, titled ''The Spy Who Came in to Be Sold,'' appears in the issue of The New Republic on sale today. It sets out a lengthy bill of particulars against the book ''Breaking With Moscow'' by Arkady N. Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect.

Mr. Epstein's article seeks to cast doubt on Mr. Shevchenko's claim that he spied for the United States beginning in 1975, while he was the senior Soviet diplomat at the United Nations, until his defection.

It attempts to debunk Mr. Shevchenko's claim that he furnished the C.I.A. with details of Soviet strategy on arms-control negotiations, including the strategic arms limitaton talks.

And it asserts that the ''car chases, meetings, conversations, reports, dates, motives and espionage activities'' in the book, which has been on the best-seller list for 18 weeks, were concocted to create ''a spy that never was.''

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
69. its how the CIA uses defectors a template
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 03:26 PM
Sep 2014

This alleged Castro bodyguard defects...part of the defection deal is he "writes a book" actually the CIA ghost writes it and then its published and mentioned by folks like you...that is how it works...its all manipulation like Iraq WMD and Kuwaiti incubator babies ...its mung LOL

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
58. Castro per Forbes
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 11:57 AM
Sep 2014

In 2003, Forbes estimated Castro's "wealth" at $110 million

In 2005, $550 million

And in 2006, $900 million!!!


Warren Buffett, move over! Fidel's got your rate of return beat by a mile! At least he would, if Forbes were a magazine purveying facts rather than fairy tales.

 

Billy Budd

(310 posts)
61. and you know this how?
Tue Sep 2, 2014, 12:45 PM
Sep 2014

Castro has not organized death squad like we teach in The School of the Americas....Castro is not the one with a huge prison population we here in the US have the world's largest prison population.... no one has been boiled alive in Castro prisons like we boil prisoners alive...Prisoner: I cleaned up skin of inmate scalded in shower; human-rights groups call for federal intervention
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/25/4200651/for-prison-shower-death-inquiry.html#storylink=cpy
Castro does not bake prisoner like in NY
A New York Jail Let A Homeless Man 'Bake To Death'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/19/jerome-murdough_n_4993423.html
Castro uses Medical Diplomacy to bring health care to the Third World and to disaster impacted areas...we bomb strafe and drone attack wedding parties and funerals in the Third world....Its not Castro's Police looking like an occupying army that is confronting "We the People" in Ferguson Missouri...that is our Police armed to the teeth and itching to fire automatic weapons...

Castro lives much more modestly than most small town official in the US.....

Eight-year-old Marlon Mendez, who claims to be an admirer of Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, holds a picture of him and Castro, in San Antonio de los Banos, outside Havana City August 23, 2014. REUTERS/Enrique De La Osa
Thomson Reuters


Mendez holds a picture of him and Castro, in San Antonio de los Banos, outside Havana City



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-young-fan-who-dresses-like-fidel-castro-meets-his-idol-2014-8#ixzz3CB3emUKy

warrant46

(2,205 posts)
85. You Sir are correct
Wed Sep 3, 2014, 07:29 PM
Sep 2014

And you are wasting your time debating with these fascist capitalists.

Cuba is a wonderful place just fly to Toronto and catch a flight

Dreamer Tatum

(10,926 posts)
84. I don't see why any Cuban would have any use for Yanqui cachivaches.
Wed Sep 3, 2014, 04:32 PM
Sep 2014

Their every whim is tended to by the Cuban government.
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