Castro Resigns!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Shawn]

What about in the future? Like after it opens up, and the casino(e)s take over, etc.

Of course you'd need a passport. You need one to go to Canada and the Bahamas. Why wouldn't you need one in Cuba?

Don't take this as a defense of Castro, but my understanding has always been that Raul was the quintessential devil sitting on the shoulder of Fidel. He's a terrible man, and if you look at periods of repression and bloodshed in Cuba, you usually see his fingerprints around it. He's far worse than Fidel.

I agree quite a bit with Guillermo, that investment and development has been going on in Cuba for some time, and the U.S. is the one that is the one missing out. Granted, it's slow, and it's under the strict control of the government, but it's not like the island is as isolated as people in this country like to believe sometimes. The U.S. is largely sitting on the outside of development opportunities because of the embargo, and I suspect other countries are poised to take better advantage of any loosening of restrictions in Cuba. You can bet that were they to relax the policies in Cuba, they will make it very difficult for Americans to move in there. The Europeans already have businesses onshore, as well as banking and government ties. That's a huge advantage.

Just a few years ago, Cuba abandoned the dollar as a currency in Cuba, and moved to the Euro. Many people laughed it off as some sort of feeble attempt to spite the U.S., but given the decline of the dollar, and the fact that Europeans are the primary travellers and investors in Cuba--it's doesn't look so silly any longer.

Maybe after Raul dies or leaves office, there could be some kind of shift in Cuba--perhaps their version of Gorbachev. Who knows. But I think that is the time I would look for big change in Cuba. It's conceivable that under Raul, things could actually get worse.

 

[guillermo]

Hey DadsDream, first of all thanks for all the best wishes. Believe it or not I try to read the forum everyday, but I prefer not to post because I don't like to participate in debates about american policies and politics (altough I follow closely and have my opinions on this regard).

Besides that, I am freezing myself in this skating-ring called Montreal, we are breaking all records of snowfall (3 meters so far), but besides that, life is good.

I agree also with Shawn about the personality of Raul Castro, but I am quiet optimistic about the future in Cuba. I think that are going to be able to build a democratic system if they are left alone. They have great levels of education and they can build institutions that can defeat the huge bureaucracy that currently rules the island. My only concern is that foreign interests, including cuban-americans may complicate the matter. There is a lot of resentment between the exiles and the ones who stayed.

Money won't be the problem in developing the country, actually I think they will turn around in one generation, faster then the "asian tigers" or what China is doing right now. Just hope that the economic development will support a democratic transition, not a tool to keep control of the population.

 

[Complex Kid]

He resigned? With the same team? I didn't even know he was testing free agency. Did we bring him in to take a look? Does he have intangibles?

Of course not, the Patriots get all of the old talent. Watch he's going to bounce back like he is in his early 70's now!

 

[TulsaSaint]

You're kidding right? No bulldozers? Old Havana a museum city?

Havana is crumbling. I saw a documentary several years ago, at least 15, that showed how bad Havana was. The film was smuggled out. I can just imagine how bad its gotten.

If you are a tourist in Cuba, they keep you to the areas that are nice. I work with Cubans who have visited in the last few years and they say the in order for anyone to come in and "rebuild" Cuba, the place will have to be bulldozed. The buildings in the cities are very unsafe.

And I hope I'm wrong, but it will be quite some time before Communism falls on the island.

Old Havana can be rebuilt, I'm sure. The old city of Salvador, the colonial Brazilian capital, was crumbling until the 1990s, when UNESCO gave a boatload of money to fix it up, and it's now a nice little tourist mecca. And the buildings actually are really quite beautiful.

 

[DadsDream]

- Cellphone ban lifted.
- TVs, VCRS, electronics, now for sale to the public.
- Foreigners-only hotels opened to general public.

Now, they're giving plots of land to private farmers. In a communist state, that's an admission that the collective system doesn't work because there's no incentive.

They still have to sell what they grow to the state, but it marks a tremendous shift at the most fundamental level of communistic ideals.

Let's hope those farmers don't end up like the kulaks did.

MSNBC
Cuba giving land to private farmers
Idea is to revolutionize farming, one tiny plot at a time
April 6, 2008

GUIRA DE MELENA, Cuba - In a country where almost everyone works for the communist state, dairy farmer Jesus Diaz is his own boss. He likes it that way — and so does the government.

Living on a plot of land just big enough to graze four dairy cows, Diaz produces enough milk to sell about four quarts a day to the state.

This is independent production on a tiny scale, but it has proved so efficient that Cuba has decided on a major expansion of its program to distribute underused and fallow farmland to private farmers and cooperatives.

READ MORE
Cuba giving land to private farmers - Focus on Cuba - MSNBC.com