
Discovering Cuba: Economics, Entrepreneurship, and the Future - bmmayer1
http://brianmayer.com/2016/09/discovering-cuba-economics-entrepreneurship-and-the-future/
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miller_joe
FTA

"When I told people I was going to Cuba, the reaction was predictable. I was
told I was lucky to witness Cuba because it was ‘”untouched.” I was told
something along the lines of: “Oh, you get to see Cuba before Starbucks and
McDonald’s go down and ruin it all.” I heard the same thing from some
Americans I met at El Floridita. I confess part of me shared in this naive
romanticism about Cuba, that somehow there is a ‘purity’ to Cuba that will
soon be ‘corrupted.’ I was wrong about this. Not only because of my naiveté
about the condition on the ground in Cuba, but because of the insidiousness
such a belief implies about what the Cuban people want and deserve.

“Untouched” is a romantic way to look at the poverty that Cuba has become.
There is nothing romantic about poverty. Poverty is sad. Poverty is sick
children and malnourishment. Poverty is no books or school supplies. Poverty
is no toilet paper, no soap, no toothpaste, no clean water, and unmet basic
needs. Poverty is constant exposure to punishing heat and humidity. Poverty is
torn up shoes and broken cars. Poverty is dangerous tools and equipment. Worst
of all, poverty is wasted human capital: time spent waiting on lines for food
instead of producing goods and services to better society. Poverty is
unwritten literature, unsung music, unconducted experiments, undiscovered
breakthroughs, and unfulfilled ambition."

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Written by someone who sounds like he should go spend some time in inner city
Detroit, Baltimore, etc. etc.

I've been to Cuba, off the beaten track, many times. Eaten home cooked meals
in Cuban homes. Picked up hitchhikers and talked to the locals as best I
could. etc. I've never seen anything there as sickeningly awful as the
contrast between brutal Want and Decadence that characterizes the U.S.

Can't stand smug libertarians. Really can't.

~~~
andrenth
There's no contrast because everyone is poor, quite lovely.

Unless you consider of course the political elite, those who fight for the
people while wearing Rolex watches and have them live on food rations. Then
you'll see a lot of contrast.

------
victornomad
oh man... what a vision of the world... I cannot stand these america-centric
visions...

One of the things that we talk among the people who keep going to Cuba or have
relation with it is the fear of change to what the US capitalism will bring.
Its sad to think about Havana with Mc Donals, Starbucks, H&M, Coca Cola ads
everywhere and people just thinking about money and more money killing the
amazing and unique culture they have.

Its sad that nowadays, no matter where you go, you find the same, same crapy
food chains, same repetitive top40 music, same h&m aesthetics and the same
boring hipster coffee culture... and not forget about hamburguers and bacon
everywhere... the american dream!

~~~
abreu
Oh come on. 'America-centric visions'? What's on earth is that even?

Havana had all of those things you name. Havana was then a modern, stylish and
clean city. A capital of the Americas. It was a city of culture and energy. It
was a city of business, tourism, architecture, pleasure and work. Havana had
more cars than any European city at the time. Havana had infrastructure,
Havana was connected to the world. In 1849, newly developed communication
devices were demonstrated in Havana. Today such actions are oppressed and
could lead to imprisonment. In 1900 the first international phone call was
made from Key West to Havana. Today Cuba ranks lowest in the Americas in
telephone/internet penetration. Pre 59 Havana was a city rich in musical
talent. Antonio Machin, Perez Prado, Beny More, Cuban contradanza, danzon,
mambo, cha cha cha, were hugely popular and influential in the development of
genres such as jazz and tango. Pre 59 Havana was a flow and ebb of musicians
between Havana and New Orleans.

What you truly want is poverty and stagnation to prevail. Havana is not a zoo
for you silly tourist to enjoy. Havana is a city inhabited by people VERY
tired of bad roads, crumbling buildings, lack of essential products such as
eggs, toilet paper, pencils, and what not.

Why do you hate hamburgers and bacon?

~~~
victornomad
I dont consider Cuba as a Zoo, I want them to develop of course. The main
problem is that "opening Cuba" without been carefull will create a really
unstable society, few people getting rich really fast, some others becoming
extremely poor. The goverment probably wont have regulations on that. You can
see that right now in Cuba, people who work in tourism can have access to
"international money" and therefore buy almost wathever they want which by the
way you can find easily in Cuba, you just need to go to the appropiate place
with the money, and legally. This is already creating a quite big divide in
the cuban society.

Cubans lacks some products but they are not poor. Poor is the people who beg
for money, cannot shower, dont have a shelter and cannot access any health
system. When I moved to the US, I was freaking out of how much inequality and
poverty I saw.

I dont hate hamburgers and bacon, but I find the world's cuisine so rich that
its a pity that certain food take over local just because big chains push
markets with $$$. Humburguers it is in fact the king of this, not just because
of the big chains but as well because of meat industry which is quite agresive

~~~
abreu
> I want them to develop of course.

Here is the thing: Cuba used to be 'developed'. Pre 95 Cuban workers earned an
average salary of $6, ranking number 8 in the world, just behind Norway
($6.10). Infant mortality was the lowest in the Americas. In fact, Cuba ranked
third in the world. Public health was comparable to any considered developed
country of the time (e.g one hospital bed per 190 inhabitants vs one per 200
inhabitants in the US).

Contrary to what many believe, Cuban industry was not controlled by US
interests. Au contraire, only 14% of investments in Cuba came from the US. The
vast majority of industry was owned by Cubans, that is the sugar, tobacco and
rum industry.

These truths will become more evident with time as the romanticism surrounding
Castro's revolution fades away and it's opponents get louder. When Fidel said
'History will absolve me', he was right. History will put him where he
belongs: under the chapter 'Plague of Cuba'.

It is safe to believe that much of this can be attributed to what you refer to
as 'US capitalism'. It was partly the idea of American-style economic
development and democratic freedom that fueled Cuban independence from Spain.
Spanish strict trade laws made life very difficult for Cubans, and this became
specially evident under the short lived British rule of Havana, and later the
evident advances in almost every aspect happening in North America.

> Cubans lacks some products but they are not poor

Yes, Cubans are poor. Why should they settle for merely enough to eat, when
they should be eating hamburgers and bacon on a daily basis considering how
fertile Cuban land is. Pre 59 Cuba had a meat consumption comparable to that
of the US. Today cattle is so scarce it had to be imported to have any cattle
population at all. In fact, you can get 10 years in prison for killing a caw
in Cuba today.

> world's cuisine so rich that its a pity that certain food take over local

You can have any of the world's cuisine in the US. In fact, today, the best
Cuban food is found in Florida. I was told by a NYC friend of mine that he had
a Cuban-Chinese restaurant a few blocks away. In Cuba Cuban-Chinese food is
nonexistent today. The scarcity created by socialism has changed Cuban cuisine
significantly (in a bad direction). It is also safe to say that the best
Italian and French food is made in the US (I can attest :-)).

This whole cuisine diversity argument is really insubstantial.

~~~
victornomad
I understand and respect your points but I still think it is just a
western/us-centric vision of the world. Things can be seen from many angles.

~~~
abreu
> western/us-centric vision of the world

Cuba is 'Western'. Unless you are thinking in terms of first/third/developing
countries. In that case, as I've suggested, Cuba was richer than Spain and
Italy pre 59. Today that's not the case. Nevertheless, it is a really vague
classification. I can arguably say that the French see the world at least
slightly different from Americans.

'Marxism' is Western. As the Cuban poet Jose Marti said (this is my own broken
translation): 'The socialist solutions, born of European ills, have nothing to
cure in the Amazon.' (That is, socialism has nothing to do in the Americas).

Cubans have no goals different to what you consider 'western/us': Eat well,
proper housing, transport, culture, education, and so on. And in this the
Fidel revolution has completely failed. There are many indicators that suggest
Cuba would have fared better without the intervention of Fidel's revolution.
That's the whole point. The ruling regime is responsible for the terrible
state of Cuban society and after so many years certainly illegitimate to
continue in power.

------
pessimizer
The US embargo is a _scapegoat_ for the condition of Cuba? What a load. A
bunch of very pretty pictures and a lot of information on the condition of
Cuba today, mixed with a bunch of libertarian nonsense every six or seven
paragraphs. Highly recommended read.

