Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Happiest Place on Earth

So after more than a half century of communism, Cuba's appeal is that it is so backward? That sounds about right.

While it is disgusting that the Left should glamorize what is essentially an example of the failures of communism for even material progress, which communism purports to solve (let alone the human rights failings), the Cuba that Westerners are visiting should be a warning about communism:

As [Travel and Leisure's digital editor Melanie] Lieberman puts it, “Visiting the capital is like stepping into a vintage photograph: washed-out colonial faƧcades and cobblestone streets bustling with antique Fords and Chevys.”

After all this time, Cuba is a step into the past rather than a journey to a progressive future of wonders?

And no, don't blame the American embargo. Cuba received lavish support from the Soviet Union, and the rest of the West didn't embargo Cuba.

Or are you saying that capitalist America has been so important to economic growth that our absence from Cuba was decisive?

Anyway, the tours you get are designed to give you that Bernie-Sanders-on-honeymoon-in-the-USSR feeling:

This is a Cuba that is clearly reserved for well off Western tourists.  And you have to be. If you go to travel websites or groups that have tours of Cuba scheduled most will cost between $5000 to $7000 for less than one week to experience a Potemkin village tour, where you will be shepherded around the restored center of old Havana, restored tourist sites like Hemingway’s old villa, and the Partagas tobacco factory in Havana.  Finally, if you still need convincing, you will meet with groups of Cubans who will make it appear that life is good and normal in the Castro brothers’ Cuba.

But life is not so wonderful for the majority of the Cuban people. For an honest look at Cuba, one must watch the 2012 movie, Una Noche.

Or read this article.

I wonder if the tour includes a visit to our misplaced Hellfire training missile?

Yeah. Welcome to Commieworld. The happiest place on Earth!