CUBA, CUBA CUBA
Say what you want about Castro–(we CAN, after all, Cubans not so much)–he managed, through design or neglect, to keep Havana beautiful.
Run down, crumbling, many buildings barely habitable–even the national baseball team has to play during the day because their stadium lights are broken and the country is too poor to fix them. Where things barely work, where time is arrested, where a failed ideology wheezes along on life support long after its inventors and sponsors abandoned it–at least, at least Havana is un-****ed by time. Where Moscow and St Petersburg brim with newly uglified buildings, malls, and the old cookie cutter concrete blocks leftover from the workers’ paradise, Havana looks like a shabbier but still gorgeous version of its older self. When it all changes, as it surely shall, I hope Havana’s waterfront, the malecon, the old hotels, the facades, the Nacional, the Tropicana, the cars–they remain–at least in appearance and design–the same. I’d hate to see fast food signs, the boutique hotels, bottle service, frat bars and canary yellow Lamborginis of the douche side of Miami. When everybody’s wired and connected and chatting freely, watching 500 channels of cable and voting their minds, I hope the mojitos don’t start coming in sno-cone form, the old neighborhoods dug up for golf courses or water parks.
It’s easy, I know, to over-romanticize the unspoiled. Especially when “unspoiled” means “poor”. But look. Look.
Whatever your politics, however you feel about Cuba–look at tonight’s show and admit, at least, that Havana is beautiful. It is the most beautiful city of Latin America or the Caribbean. Look at the Cuban people and admit that they are proud and big hearted and funny and kind–and strong as hell, having put up with every variety of bullshit over the years. On these things, I hope we can agree.
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Thanks for taking the time to sit down and write this, its prety interesting stuff when you think about it.
When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new surveys are added- checkbox and already when a comment is added I get four emails with the exact identical comment. Will there be in any manner you are able to remove me from that service? Thanks!
Dear BFP It appears that after a day of trying to get comments posted it still is not happening.
Have I been banned or what really is the matter it is very fustrating.*******************BFP Replies…Hello WIVI believe that Auntie Moses sent you to your room for the weekend after you AGAIN posted sexual innuendo in a comment. (And yes, it was you at your IP)So you were dropped to “moderate all the time” and told so in a response to your comment.I’ll take you off moderate now, but try not to incur the wrath of Auntie Moses as she is in a foul mood this weekend after catching Cliverton doing something that he promised he wouldn’t do anymore.Robert
Gracias por tener los huevos e ir a mi pais , muchos con el tan solo hecho de pensar en el que dirán los ultraderechistas e intransigentes , ya con eso basta y el miedo se hace más grande que su mismo deceo …… Gracias , muchas gracias , grande eres y grande serás… Respetuosamente. Juanmirko.
After i initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!
What you’re saying is completely true. I know that everybody must say the same thing, but I just think that you put it in a way that everyone can understand.
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I would assume now since Castro is no longer in the picture and his brother is more pro democracy, we should see some changes soon right? scenery pictures
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Thanks tony for having The oportunity to travel with you in TV. It s wonderful your program. I would say i Am addicted to tony bourdain. The way you describe The places, Food, people, and all The fascinaty way to talk. Do you have a book?
Yes, I agree with you. I was a professional tour guide and had many tourists from the US here and they all loved the same thing…the fact that havana was NOT spoiled with MacDonalds signs everywhere and despite there are areas that are really awful, there is a restoration going on with the Historian office with the target to restore and keep the history of every single house, monument, etc. Just check at the Old Havana Hotels and see what I am talking about. Thanks.
Watching the episode of Anthony in Cuba took me back to my hometown. I really appreciate him exposing my culture to the rest of the world.. Anthony has the best show ever! He is so daring by exposing himself to different cultures and foods that are foreign to him. Love this show 100%.
I just got back from Cuba. I got to go to a bunch of the places Tony visited! I'm writing about my experiences here:
http://www.travelertourist.com
check it out!
"Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them; government officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning from windows. One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their trade in Havana. Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the slot machines, was one of the poorest, and most beautiful countries in the Western world."
— David Detzer, American journalist, after visiting Havana in the 1950s
"Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years … and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state – destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista – hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend – at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections."
— U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, October 6, 1960
Anthony did an excellent job; You are just throwing it away!!
Stop being a virus… please be a Vitamin C!! stop political debates.
Let's live what Cuba was/is… our beautiful country.
Who owns the land now?…Castro
Who owns the wealth now?…Castro
Who can speak freely now? ..No one
Whose goons harass the people now? …Castro's
Whose whore house is it now?…Castro's
"- Americans owned 70 % of the arable land
- 1% of the population controlled 46 % of the wealth
- 40 % of the population were illiterate
- 50 % of the population lived in Bohio shacks"
You are either completely ignorant, a Stalinist propagandist, or both. Where did you get your (fictitious) information? You are obviously ignorant of the Cuban Constitution of 1940 that required 51% of all capital to be owned by Cubans, and provided subsidized education and healthcare – including a guarantee of PAID maternity leave for working women. This was 19 years before Castro – when emigration to the US was practically non-existent. Look it up, sweetheart.
Batista was bad. The Horse is better? How many are still in prison for political crimes against the revolution? I know one who spent 3 years in a concentration camp and survived. And now there are no whores in Cuba. And the great health care. Please have your camera men tell the people they are capturing on film to not show as many mouths with sooo many missing teeth. Hoorah.
Gee, if things keep going the way they are, you could be talking about the USA, except that China will own 70% of the arable land. and 40%of the population, while not actually illiterate, is functionally illiterate.
One word,PROPAGANDA.COMUNIST PROPAGANDA AT ITS BEST.
Great post.
It amazes me that people forget why Fidel was able to land in Cuba with 82 men and within 2 years have the whole country. What is to stop 82 South Beach geezers from boarding a yacht and trying the same?
"I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear. ”
— U.S. President John F. Kennedy, to Jean Daniel, October 24, 1963
So, when the old man passes, & his brother's times up, what will happen? Do you feel there is hope in the future of Cuba? I can't help but think that the Cuban Revolucion was a direct reaction to a corrupt government abusing the land/people. Just as our president, Barack Obama, a person who represented the people/land was elected in direct relation to, (Bush/Cheney), a corrupt governement well known for abuse of power. I have hope for Cuba. The embargos should stop. There is no threat of a cold war…it may be a beautiful future for this country…what do you think the future might be like for them?
20k were murdered under Cuba's Batista. This information is Cuban history. It is fact. Some bad people who happen to be from the U.S. owned 70% of Cuba. Cuba's Batista just handed it to the U.S. mafia…it was turned into a naughtier Las Vegas…overthrowing that governement was a popular movement. The people wanted it. Now, what Fidel became is a different subject…
Yes, if China wanted their money back, we would have to give them our land and that would be sad. We would have to hope they wouldn't enslave us and turn us into whores and a giant Las Vegas…
I agree. Millions of children in Latin America sleep over sewer grates every night in Latin America, but not a single one of them is in Cuba.
Cuba has given the developing world a new model of development that does not enslave their people to the IMF or World Bank.
All Cuban children read the classics, Guatemalan children can't read at all, and American kids watch MTV.
Hmm, sounds like paradise-so why have you not emigrated there if the US pales in comparison?
Rodney, you are stereotyping here…my father was a child in Guatemala and he is well educated. Life can't be simplified like that…it is inaccurate.
As a Colombian I can say that Rodney is not that far off generally.
Most of Latin America is in shambles, while Cuba graduates thousands of MD's every year. The poverty in Havana is nothing compared to Brazil, Colombia, Peru etc where people live in metal hovels, not beautiful but unpainted villas like in Havana.
Carolina, are you actually a Colombian who has lived in Colombia??? My wife is Colombian and, on average, life is not poverty ridden like you imply and I have been there many times over the past few years to many areas. Regardless, are you also implying that soul crushing totalitarianism is superior to a sense of democracy under Uribe or Santos?
The M.Ds that they graduate are little more than paramedics….many of them wash ashore in Florida each day and can't pass the Medical exams to continue practicing in the US….
Todo lo que has puesto es mentira!!!! te rtemito a la verdadera historia, que el 50% de los cubanos vian en bohios?? eso es lo ultimo que yo pudiera haber leido, jajaja y que el 40% no sabia leer, jajajajaj Que pena me das!!!!!!! Y tu nombre de VENCEREMOS, ya se por donde vienes y a donde te arribas, COMUNISTA!!
Wow! Guantanamo Bay was not build by Bush! The bay was rented by the USA army at the beginning of the 19s for 100 years.
Frank,
Guantanamo Bay detention camp history:
"The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq. " ~Wikipedia…
Cheers!
I guess if Wikipedia says this then it must be true, huh? Were you born after 2002 or did you just crawl out from under the rock after 2002. Guantanamo Bay has been a U.S. military facility for decades.