Dibs on “Imperial Fucktones” for my next a Capella band name.
9 Likes
As to your second point, the British version of “irritating” to me seems like my doctor’s version of that endoscope being “a little uncomfortable”.
3 Likes
Priebus is apparently Greek Orthodox. He presumably wants to re-fight the Battle of Lepanto.
I needed to get home to take a picture of this. It’s from the 50th anniversary of the revolution. This is what US policy towards Cuba did. It created a propagandist’s dream for covering up the failures of Castro’s rule. It allowed the ‘revolution’ to continue until this day. Every scarcity, every famine, every heavy handed silencing of dissent wasn’t due to a refusal to adapt economic planning, failure to diversify crops, or for the convenience of an autocrat. It was caused by the empire to the north and its embargo. It was a rallying cry for solidarity since ‘everyone’* suffered the same privations.
Castro never would have held on to power without the embargo. The US created and used this bogey man and the bogey man used the US. Great job America, I’m sure the families of countless disappeared dissidents appreciate our strong anti-Castro stance. Hasta la victoria siempre.
*You better damn well believe party officials have some pretty sweet housing and something other than fatty pig belly and potato starch bread on the table.
7 Likes
Ok, before I get into my food rant I just need to clarify that pork belly is a melt in your mouth delicacy when cooked right. Now here goes my rant… I highly doubt pork would be that easy to get for the average Cuban, let alone cheap. From what I have heard (from friends who have gone to Cuba) and read about food in Cuba and based on what I know about the average poor working class meal in Latin American countries (beans, potatoes, sometimes rice, and masa and/or chicken if you can get them): The average Cuban’s meal is primarily focused around beans, rice, and sometimes potatoes.
For my project, I allotted myself the same items on the ration, plus an average salary of $16.60 to buy the rest of my food. During June, I ate little animal protein, no dairy products, very little fat, but probably consumed more rice and beans than I had in a year. When I could, I ate fruit and vegetables daily.
-ANITA SNOW, Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201103.html
2 Likes
Yeah, not happening on the limited amount of propane you’re trying to stretch through the month. My point was the inequality that the average citizen is not getting anything close to choice cuts. Those go to the hotels and people of influence. Everyone’s equal, just some are more equal than others.
Heads indicate freshness.
My experience is colored by being restricted to Havana, but pork was readily available. These shots are from the local market where the CUP was the only currency accepted, thus a market strictly for Cubans as non-Cubans were restricted to using the CUC. The meat “aisle” made up about 1/5th the market and did a brisk business.
I would the say the meals I shared with people in their homes were probably the best they could put forth, as anyone tries to do for guests. But even casual meals included some form of meat. After three weeks there this Southern boy had had enough pork to put me off it for a while.
Bonus:
Here’s what happens to the family mausoleum when Castro doesn’t like your last name.
P.S.
I’m not Cuban, I just can’t stand dictators.
PPS
One more, just because I like it:
PPPS
Thanks for catching the tpyo
3 Likes
Wow, those photos are amazing! Please consider my food rant voided. I have never been to Cuba, so I am just going to confer to you on all of this. I would have never thought that pork would be that readily available, consider me extremely jealous of the amazing experience that trip must have been. [quote=“critter, post:169, topic:90138”]
My point was the inequality that the average citizen is not getting anything close to choice cuts. Those go to the hotels and people of influence. Everyone’s equal, just some are more equal than others.
[/quote]
100% agree with your point on that. In my reply I was just being overly pedantic (and wrong!) while simultaneously wanting to talk about food 
.
2 Likes
Don’t get me wrong, there is a great deal of food scarcity, and a lot of what is available has poor nutritional or caloric value, but some things aren’t as hard to get as you’d think. Growing up in Florida I had an entirely different idea of Cuban food compared to what is there now. I lost a fair amount of weight in my short time there.
I was there in '09, and flights out of Miami had gone from 12 seater prop planes to commercial jets a few months before. The influx of cash and goods from the lessening of US restrictions were already having an effect.
3 Likes
Is it? I mean, the Russians just put a guy in the White House. If anything we’ve just gone full Manchurian Candidate.
8 Likes
I don’t know if the tensions between the Russians and us are the same as the “cold war” considering a key aspect of what that meant doesn’t really exist. But that’s just my uninformed, uneducated view, so YMMV! 
[quote=“critter, post:169, topic:90138”]
My experience is colored by being restricted to Havana, but pork was readily available. These shots are from the local market where the CUP was the only currency accepted, thus a market strictly for Cubans as non-Cubans were restricted to using the CUC. The meat “aisle” made up about 1/5th the market and did a brisk business. [/QUOTE]
Good post and photos, but I’ve got to quibble here.
You’re right that you visited a market catering to locals, but both Cubans and non-Cubans can and do (and did in '09) use both the CUP and CUC, despite whatever you were told to the contrary. What a visitor can’t do is buy rationed goods, so as long as this place was dealing in non-rationed items you could have shopped there (assuming you had access to cooking facilities, and no particular aversion to meat stored at ambient temp in questionable sanitary conditions). Even stores whose primary function is to distribute rations often have non-rationed (but expensive) items such as rum, cigarettes or cleaning products, so you can do a little shopping in one of those too.*
But that’s essentially a nitpick. What’s really important to note is that pork being readily available (as well as beautiful fresh fruits and veggies) says very little about how affordable these things are to the typical Cuban. And even when a person can afford them, it doesn’t necessarily speak to how well they eat.
When I first visited, in 98 – six years into the Special Period – it was not unusual to see disturbingly skinny adults and undersized children. There were tales of people living on grapefruit rinds, stories of cats and dogs being eaten. Many people weren’t shy about begging and hustling, many more were subtle, almost nobody didn’t hustle or beg if they met a foreigner. (There are periodic crackdowns on those things; I happened to be there between crackdowns.) Even hotel restaurants had slim pickings and were subject to shortages of basics like bread.
And yet markets full of fresh meat and vegetables existed even then, and there was plenty of street food. You could buy a small ham sandwich on almost any street corner for 5 CUP or a greasy little pizza for 10, or two big scoops of delicious ice cream for 3 CUP. But even 3 CUP is a big splurge when your official monthly income is 300 CUP. Those markets you and I both saw with all the lovely food and plentiful meat… they look humble by our standards, but they were and still are luxury spots. (Supermarkets look nicer but they rarely have anything that isn’t packaged, processed or frozen, so for fresh foods you go to the type of agromercado you saw.)
There’s a lot more obvious wealth since you visited in 09 (I also went around then), but my overall impression is that for most people, making ends meet is still a harsh struggle. Ultimately they get enough calories even if too many of them come in the form of sugar and other carbs, partly for affordability reasons and partly because of bad choices, leading to malnutrition combined with obesity and its ailments. Sound familiar?
I don’t think there’s any question that the influx of remittances and growth in tourism are driving growing inequality. So far, a major part of the Cuban government’s approach to coping with that seems to be to capture as much tourism revenue as possible (through direct state ownership of infrastructure, through licensing fees and taxes on independent operators, etc.) and use it to fund the welfare state. It’s the same bandaid they’ve used for 25 years now, and I wonder if it can really cover up the emergence of much greater and more visible inequality for much longer.
I don’t know what’s going to happen. Don’t know if Fidel was pulling the strings behind the scenes for the last decade, or if his merely being alive put the brakes on economic and political reforms. Don’t know if the US is now going to double-down on the embargo, giving the hardliners in the Cuban government their favourite crutch back.
I do know I am neither celebrating nor mourning the death of Fidel Castro. I was no fan, but I do understand how he was not only a product of his time, but in many ways a product of his enemy’s stubbornness. Interesting times ahead for Cuba.
* That said, there used to be “walls” between CUP and CUC economies, e.g. limits on how many CUCs you could buy from the bank using CUPs, and certain goods were sold in stores that only accepted CUCs. So in practice you would often wind up with “CUP = poor, Cuban” and “CUC = rich, tourist”, and it was much easier to tell visitors they “can’t” use CUPs than to explain all the intricacies. Today, most places accept both currencies, and there are no longer caps on how many CUPs you can trade in at the bank… but the various myths live on, IMO in large part because the Cuban government wants visitors spending plenty of money, not bargain-hunting in the barrios.
6 Likes
Sure, and I did post:
My original point was the inequality of how resources are shared in the socialist paradise, and somehow has become a discussion of whether or not pork is unobtainium. I recognize it’s expensive, hence my stating it was the best families could put forth, but still was of relatively modest quality.
No argument from me.
Me either. I’m not sorry he’s gone, but see above rant about US influence on creating him and maintaining his power.
Thank you for the nuanced explanation. I was staying with extended family and I’m now sure this is the route they took. Perhaps they wanted me to feel a little of the pleasure (mistakenly it now seems) they felt at breaking rules as I had both currencies at my disposal. It did seem circumventing rules was a national pass time.
I was very fortunate to get to travel there when and how I did, and I’m glad my stay there was not tied into the hotel/tourist/discotheques on the Malecón track that it seemed many Europeans experience. I love the country and the people I met and was impressed by how open and warm they were, particularly after they learned we were Americans. I regret the nature of my visa restricted me to Havana and hope that relations do not backslide so that one day I can go back and experience more of the country.
3 Likes
Sorry I missed/misunderstood what you were saying about the pork.
Whoa. I’ve never heard of such a visa. Wouldn’t you have entered on a tourist card like most other foreign visitors? Or was something else going on?
In any case, I expect that even if the new administration rolls back every single Obama initiative, it will remain fairly easy for you, as someone with relatives there, to visit and tour around. They may want to thank the Cuban expat hardliners for their help in delivering Florida, but they won’t want to piss off the hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans who go to visit family every year.
It’s possible that your relatives truly believed you were not supposed to be using the CUP. There are after all plenty of byzantine rules, some of them involving money. But having bought CUPs from official exchange counters and banks both in the 90s and more recently, I know for certain that foreigners are allowed to have them.
4 Likes
Happily and sadly those family members no longer reside there. I didn’t bounce through a third country but had a visa issued through the Cuban Interests Section in D.C., and technically I think I was a guest of the Swiss embassy while there. A (very Anglo looking) white guy trying to get onto the charter flight straight from Miami to Havana caused all kinds of confusion for the airline staff. I also had a tax stamp from the US Treasury allowing me spend funds there (I broke the embargo!)
May I ask, do you travel from the US, and if so through more traditional routes?
5 Likes
I’m Canadian so I just hop on a plane at my local airport. The tourist card (visa) is included in the price of the ticket. No hoops, no restrictions on where I can go in Cuba (except the obvious like military sites and the like). Aside from going to Havana a few times and touring around other parts of the country, I’ve also gone for a couple of straight-up beach vacations. Because winter sucks, and for me Cuba is close and inexpensive.
Today you wouldn’t have to go through hoops like you did. All you’d have to do is self-declare that you’re visiting family, or going to “support the Cuban people” or convert some heathens and you’d be fine. All Cuba wants from you is a tourist visa aka tourist card. (Speaking of family visits, I think you’ll find that OFAC defines “close relative” broadly enough that you could still have somebody there that would allow you to qualify.)
Who knows what will change in the coming months. My suspicion is the US will return to making people apply for a licence from OFAC, but Cuba will still require nothing more from you than a tourist card.
5 Likes
Is there an emoticon for glowering envy?
On the plus, I do live in Florida so this is what winter looks like for me:
5 Likes
Don’t be tooo envious. I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Cuba.
Most of the people are great, it’s reasonably close and affordable, the streets are remarkably safe (from a crime perspective anyway), but the hustlers can be super annoying, the government really is everywhere, a lot of stuff barely works (those last two are not unrelated), and there appears to be a deep current of unhappiness. Whether I’m there for beach or city, I’m always happy to arrive but also very happy to leave when the time comes.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
