Castro Resigns!!!! (1 Viewer)

[DadsDream]

Wondering the same thing.

Castro's death might be a cause for celebration for emotional reasons, but I don't think it changes anything at all.

The ex-patriot Cubans in Florida know that the only thing that will completely turn Cuba around is tourism and gaming...turning Cuba's relatively undeveloped, 1950s time capsule into an international destination.

They've invested heavily in the gaming and resort industries across the board. They'll make their move when the time comes. It's nearly here, but not quite yet.

 

[CT Saints Fan]

Walton and Johnson were speculating that Fidel is already dead and they are just "easing" the people into a new regime.

After seeing recent news footage of Fidel literally shuffling around and unable to walk normally, I wouldn't doubt it.

Either way, any dead Castro is a reason for celebration for many Cuban ex-patriates.

?

 

[TulsaSaint]

The ex-patriot Cubans in Florida know that the only thing that will completely turn Cuba around is tourism and gaming...turning Cuba's relatively undeveloped, 1950s time capsule into an international destination.

They've invested heavily in the gaming and resort industries across the board. They'll make their move when the time comes. It's nearly here, but not quite yet.

Yes, let's all rejoice. Yet another country swallowed up by corporations. Maybe Cuba can become like all the Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American resorts. Fabulous wealth in the resorts ringed by cordoned-off slums for the employees to live in. And the only Cubans the tourists will be forced to see will be the maids and the Cubans dressed up in traditional costumes to dance for them at tourist shows. Cuba will become yet another vacation destination for Americans who want a foreign language (as long as they don't have to learn to speak it), nice sand, hot Latin girls, gambling, and alcohol. As if we didn't have enough cookie-cutter destinations like that to go to already.

 

[stunpals]

He looks pretty good for a dead guy (Bernie - not Fidel)

 

[blackadder]

My brother is recently retired from the gaming industry.

It's not the U.S. government that's going to take over the island, it's international mega-corporations with casinos and resorts. They've got virtually unlimited capital and they'll use everything they've learned in Vegas and Atlantic City.

You saw how fast the casinos went back up on the Mississippi coast? Yeah, when the green light is given, Cuba will make that look like chump change.

Don't you think they will be an little choosy about who they let in and on what terms?

Regardless of what they think about Castro, they likewise are not interested in seeing a Batista return.

 

[DadsDream]

Yes, let's all rejoice. Yet another country swallowed up by corporations. Maybe Cuba can become like all the Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American resorts. Fabulous wealth in the resorts ringed by cordoned-off slums for the employees to live in. And the only Cubans the tourists will be forced to see will be the maids and the Cubans dressed up in traditional costumes to dance for them at tourist shows. Cuba will become yet another vacation destination for Americans who want a foreign language (as long as they don't have to learn to speak it), nice sand, hot Latin girls, gambling, and alcohol. As if we didn't have enough cookie-cutter destinations like that to go to already.

There'll be a twist.

Old Havana will be cleaned up and maintained as an international heritage city, like Venice or Florence. No bulldozers there. The resorts and casinos will ring the surrounding coast, but Old Havana will be like a museum city for the touristas.

 

[DadsDream]

Don't you think they will be an little choosy about who they let in and on what terms?

Regardless of what they think about Castro, they likewise are not interested in seeing a Batista return.

No, they won't set up another Batista. They'll set it up like a corporate board, with a heavy dose of South Florida Cubano investors.

They've been stockpiling money for decades for just the opportunity to give Cuba a complete makeover. They couldn't do it by force of arms, so they're going to buy it instead.

 

[Saint77]

A rather lackluster finish for the grand leader of coo-ba, i'd say.

 

[Shawn]

This seems akin to Leonid Brezhnev being succeeded by Yuri Andropov.

I don't think much of anything is going to happen anytime soon. And there's already plenty of tourism in Cuba--just not tourism from the United States.

It's not like Castro has been doing anything for the past two years anyway, and look what that's changed.

 

[DadsDream]

I think we'll see a U.S. major league baseball franchise in Havana within my lifetime.

 

[Betsy]

There'll be a twist.

Old Havana will be cleaned up and maintained as an international heritage city, like Venice or Florence. No bulldozers there. The resorts and casinos will ring the surrounding coast, but Old Havana will be like a museum city for the touristas.

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.

 

[Saint Mike]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

 

[champ76]

Yes, let's all rejoice. Yet another country swallowed up by corporations. Maybe Cuba can become like all the Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American resorts. Fabulous wealth in the resorts ringed by cordoned-off slums for the employees to live in. And the only Cubans the tourists will be forced to see will be the maids and the Cubans dressed up in traditional costumes to dance for them at tourist shows. Cuba will become yet another vacation destination for Americans who want a foreign language (as long as they don't have to learn to speak it), nice sand, hot Latin girls, gambling, and alcohol. As if we didn't have enough cookie-cutter destinations like that to go to already.

Yeah, those evil corporations will just mess up that socialist paradise they have there now. There goes the neighborhood.

 

[Shawn]

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.

Yes, but people still live in them.

I've been a couple of times. You can go pretty much anywhere, though obviously not near military installations or anything like that.

There are Europeans all over the place, and there are German, Italian and Canadian companies running huge full service hotels. I suspect those companies will be the one's to get first dibs on major development there. And the people who lost the most in the revolution are the people who were forced to leave. The people who stayed aren't going to be too keen on having a bunch of Cubans from Florida come back and lay claim to property and businesses. Point being, that the people that are there will have an interest in moderating the rate of change, and controlling who benefits from it.

You can't just march into Havana, buy up the real estate and start throwing people out of those old buildings. That's exactly the kind of nonsense that built support for Castro's revolution in the first place.

Even if the government were to become more moderate and open to change, I suspect the change will not be the great big bursting of the flood gates that everyone expects.

 

[DadsDream]

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.

Yes, Betsy, I'm talking about the oldest portion of Havana, the old walled fortress city area. There's solid stone buildings and foundations there dating back to Spanish colonial days.

The surrounding buildings, which grew up haphazardly and were poorly constructed, will go, yes.

I trained a lot of soldiers from South Florida. Some of them came from families which still hold original Spanish land grants, signed by Spanish royalty. Those families haven't forgotten that their land was taken from them either.