Yeah, makes me wonder what model (Neoliberal!!! With massive World Bank debt and IMF conditionalities!!) The American government has picked out for Cuba?
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I know my husband and I have peed on the Boston Garden in 1992, but we were drunk not homeless.
But I get what you mean.
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Itâs because poor = lazy ⌠under capitalism. (not my view, just the view of many)
The fact that the Cuban government is âunderstandably paranoid about letting people get on boats freelyâ is actually quite relevant to this discussion of the relative merits of the two countries.
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Plenty of blue-collar workers work in environments without sidewalks and with portapotties for toilet facilities. Iâm not defending ESPNâs ignorant âobservationâ (or Bloombergâs policy towards Willets Point,) but comparing a residential neighborhood with a purely industrial one is apples vs. oranges. Which is what I said.
What if the original picture, instead of being a fairly ordinary neighborhood, had been of one of those miserable hopeless open-sewer shantytownsâ in late-night charity commercials and someone responded with the Willets Point photo as if to say âhey, weâve got it just as bad here in Queens!â
â Not that those exist in Cuba, as far as I know.
But are those blue-collar workers without a pot to piss in all installed in permanent buildings right next to a stadium? Around these parts, all the industrial estates Iâve seen have sewerage and sidewalks. To my eye, lack of them indicates a level of civil neglect that is shameful, whether itâs a residential area or a light industrial one. Which is the point, surely?
Never mind the doubtful equivalence of âsome blue collar workers donât have permanent toilets, therefore none of them need themâ. Not a blue collar worker yourself, I take it?
Wow. THIS is the ESPN moment from the Cuba trip huh? Not this one?
Where a respected ESPN reporter gets to witness LIVE on the air how Cuban security forces treats a dissident? The very last bit with the dissident being shuffled away by plainclothes security agents is particularly chilling.
Wouldnât mind seeing a post about that.
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There is indoor plumbing (water, sewer) in Willets Point. There are not storm drains or sidewalks or other typical infrastructure. Itâs an extremely unusual area for many reasons and absolutely not generalizable to 99.999% of the rest of US industrial zones. If you are interested in why, google it - there are several good documentaries about the circumstances there.
Not so much relevant to a comparison of the actual merits as much as a comparison of the perceived merits, right?
Cubans fleeing Cuba might not have a completely accurate perception of what it means to live in the US if you do not speak English and do not have a job waiting for you.
Likewise, US residents who donât flee to Cuba might have a skewed perception of what life is like in Cuba.
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but ⌠but ⌠what about the American Dream?
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Itâs certainly real!
Americans do have liberties other folks donât. They come at a cost.
But for some people the American dream is a thing they live. Some people can try and never quite get there. Some people think itâs called the American Dream because itâs only possible to have when youâre sleeping.
So the American Dream is real⌠Just not equally distributed.
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At least they didnât shoot him for being black. I think all the times police in the United States have outright murdered someone and then gotten off scot free is particularly chilling.
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Having lived in industrial zoned areas before I can assure you itâs more than one, though compared to other areas the population is low.
For my part when I was young I worked as a night security person in exchange for residency in a used auto lot office/extra room where there were several beds for various indigent personnel/friends on hard times etc. We had neighbours too in other industrial lots, not that we thought of them in a neighbourly way where everyone is on defense.
Census donât count some people, theyâll estimate them, but not well in places with no area zoned for housing of any kind.
Another place I stayed awhile was an old factory converted into music studios, or rather, multiple boxes in a box. Now that place was populated, probably a hundred or more lived there illegally with the wink nod consent of the owners.Also strictly industrial. Both places you had to hike or get a ride for any provisions, no food around except lunch trucks that left at night.
Given the focus of the industry in Willets point there is little doubt in my mind that an indigent workforce/desperate people bed down in businesses there or fringe spaces. Cars are big biz, and cheap labour is cheap labour and indigent, transient workers come cheapest of all.
These areas, Cuban neighbourhood/US industrial zones, arenât particularly comparable because zoning/land use intent, but people live everywhere in my experience.
But some stadiums are deliberately plopped in poor neighbourhoods in the US, itâs well documented. Willets point being a poor comparison donât change anything really.
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[citation needed]
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Depends on if you love America or not.
I dunno⌠Is it?
That sounds exactly like a place two blocks from here, before it got renovated. It doesnât sound unlike my place either. The nearest corner stores are each a mile away.
Anyway, illegal tenants and homeless people definitely do not lodge complaints with the city about not having sidewalks. Not only because we avoid drawing official attention, but itâs just not even on our radars. We donât care about that.
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Even if ESPN had shown some image of appalling poverty, wouldnât the obvious response have been âand here you see the results of fifty years of the Americans using military force to cripple the economy of Cubaâ?
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It gets me a little steamed. Could you tell?
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And he likes it!
We actually have NO way of knowing what became of this guy. You may want to check Human Rights Watch which has been VERY thorough in documenting the incredible upsurge of incarcerations of protests in Cuba.
