#Cuban Trade Embargo

[thenewdemocratus]

Foreign Affairs: Carlos W. Fernandez & Eric Lorber: Opening Cuba to Telecommunications Investment

Source:Foreign Affairs I agree that opening up the Cuban telecommunications industry and allowing for others to be involved there outside of the Castro Regime is a way to not only open up Cuba and open up a better relationship between America and Cuba, but the two government’s, is not only a good way to open up Cuba, but also a good way to open up the Cuban economy. The Castro Regime decided in…

[transgenderer]

Hot take apparently but it is in fact bad that Cubans still drive cars from the 50s (I previously thought this was because of the embargo, then realized that made no sense because countries other than the US make cars, I checked and Japan trades with Cuba, apparently it's a result of a govt policy that used to prevent private citizens from buying cars and now taxes them at well over 100%). People like the aesthetics of repairing rather than replacing but especially with older cars it quickly becomes far more costly in terms of human labor hours, which is bad, and also those older cars are super unsafe in the case of a crash, which is very bad! Like. Come on. We can consider things other than aesthetics, we're not fascists

[terrence-silver]

Any random 80s Terry headcanons please :)

---

― Undoubtedly fell into the (in)famous aerobic craze of the 80's, or rather, was the aerobic craze of the 80's, where he appeared in multiple extremely high-end, glossy, legitimate and very stylish articles concerning body wellness. Not of the neon spandex variety that was fresh and hip. I mean, truly elegant stuff that only aided his image of a positive benefactor that 'cares about the role models young people consume'. If Kreese had his life-size cardboard cutouts of himself on the entrance of the Cobra Kai dojo, Terry Silver had entire exclusive Men's Health type periodicals detailing how he balances high-powered Yuppie corporate work as CEO and maintaining an immaculately trimmed physique (humbly speaking).

― Relished in having an All-European staff at the time (an English secretary, a Czechoslovakian butler...a Swiss pool cleaner for the laughs and gags, for all we know.) because it was a personal showcasing of wealth on his part and served to cement the idea that America's an exceptional World power during that particular decade, and that he, by extension of money being that plenty and that exceptional, can have a handful of classy, Old World employees and all the status symbol and traditionally associated 'mystique' that entailed as being their Boss (and not the other way around). Economy was booming. He was booming all around. He wanted to show off, simply because he could. So, he did.

― Was possibly embroidered and secretly or not so secretly in cahoots with multiple corrupt governments Worldwide going through the tumultuous transition from dictatorship to an unstable democracy during the 70's and 80's, which tactically allowed Terry (and Dynatox, by extension) to, yes, you guessed it, dispose of toxic materials with ease in the Global South and in Third World Countries as a whole. Toxic materials that would be deemed illegal and absolutely out of the question in any developed ones, but were passable if you knew the right people and officials in (throws dart) Nicaragua. Or hey, case and point, in Borneo. Basically, I am convinced Terry Silver had some very questionable and bizarre names marked down in his phonebook.

― Case and point; to keep it properly 80's --- drugs. Cocaine! He got all of his substances and narcotics right from the source, directly from the people that produced it just for him. Cleanest, purest, highest of quality, because his organism and taste palette deserves the best. Same as his Cuban cigars, which were deemed illegal due to a trade embargo with Cuba at the time. Generally, if one keeps their brain open, again, just envision the type of acquaintances and contacts Terry knew and was connected with during the decade to get ahold of all of these goods. I don't know, it is hilarious (and a little frightening with the right context involved) how plausible and easy it is to imagine a crossover between The Karate Kid III and Narcos, for example.

― On a slightly lighter note, I feel that all throughout the decade, Terry Silver had the tendency to disguise himself; as various things, yes. A hobby all of his own. Hard done by dojo owner, regular Joe Schmoe at the club downtown, struggling martial artist, blue collar guy of the most ordinary variety or just another nameless stranger on the street. You name it. Pre-Internet era, when it was infinitely more difficult to recognize someone, look them up or photograph them in public, he enjoyed going about unbothered and just observing things. People. Situations. Being a bit of a voyeur and a prankster of his own variety, he liked seeing and experiencing how people treat him when they think he's just some nobody and playing with their mind through it for his own amusement.

― At the height of 80's consumerism, there was no need to downplay his wealth, quite the contrary; if Terry lived in a mansion, it was the biggest, most gigantic brutalist bit of property overlooking all of LA from Beverly Hills. If he dressed rich, he wore a red silky ascot like he's a character straight off of Dynasty (and he knew it too!) If he drove around in a car, it was a chauffeured Rolls Royce, of all things. He trained in a white satin Gi as peak decadence. It was only the coming decades that he, as I see it, choose to strategically go about the route of a bit of stealth-wealth, because it became the new acceptable way of being a member of the 1%, and chameleon that he was, he went and adapted. Flew under the radar. Downsized on purpose. Means, that when the 80's ended, the tenure of him dwelling at the Ennis House ended too. And everything that went along with it as well. Times change. Terry (seemingly) changes with them. The earring in his ear had to go too (once it went out of fashion.)

[zvaigzdelasas]

Reps. James McGovern (D-MA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Troy Carter (D-LA) met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, leaders in Cuba’s congress and its foreign minister, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba told The Associated Press on Sunday.[...]

While officials provided few details about what was discussed, Díaz-Canel and Cuba’s Congress tweeted photos of the meetings.[...]

“We addressed our differences and topics of shared interest. We affirmed our willingness to improve bilateral relations,” tweeted Díaz-Canel Saturday, also noting he expressed the importance of ending the U.S. government’s six-decade trade embargo on the island.[...]

It also comes weeks before the U.S. plans to resume visa and consular services on the island, which had been stalled after a series of health incidents [sic, lmfao] involving American diplomats in 2017.

11 Dec 22

[trashinthealley]

THIS IS AN ADULT BLOG WHICH INCLUDES LABELED RESTRICTED MATERIAL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DEFINITIONS OF COMMUNITY GUIDELINES... IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF LEGAL MAJORITY (18 - 21 YRS. DEPENDING UPON LOCALITY) YOU ARE NOTIFIED AND REQUIRED TO EXIT THIS PAGE IMMEDIATELY, UNFOLLOW AND DO NOT INTERACT 🧐

I AM AMERICAN OF GERMAN/IROQUOIS DESCENT, I AM MESSIANIC CHRISTIAN AND DEMOCRATIC LEANING, I AM PORN/KINK/BDSM POSITIVE HOMOSEXUAL MALE, I AM APLAROALLO PREFERRING THE PRONOUNS HE AND HIM, I AM TAURUS/SNAKE/(CAN'T TELL YOU MY SPIRIT ANIMAL), I AM OLD AND WISE, AND VERY ECLECTIC BY NATURE... AND I HATE "PINNED POSTS" MORE THAN YOU DO (BUT MINE'S BIGGER) 😏

MY ANCESTORS WERE HAPPY ON THIS LAND, LONG NAMED FOR VESPUCCI, IN AND AROUND THE SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY, LONG BEFORE COLUMBUS AND THE COLONIZING SUBJECTS OF KING GEORGE ARRIVED... AND DESPITE A LINGERING GRUDGE WITH MARYLAND OVER THE BEAVER WARS, I AM STILL COMFORTABLE HERE 😌

MY ENTIRE FAMILY FOUGHT THE BRITISH EMPIRE AGAINST "COLONIAL IMPERIALISM" ALMOST 250 YEARS AGO AND WON THE RIGHT TO FORM AND FUNCTION IN THIS UNITED STATES DEMOCRACY WITH IT'S ALL OF IT'S FREEDOMS INCLUDING CAPITALISM, OCCASIONAL GLUTTONY, AND FULL SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE... 🤨

I ADVOCATE FOR COMPLETELY ENDING EMBARGO AGAINST CUBA AND WELCOMING THEM WITH PUERTO RICO INTO THE UNITED STATES... BEING A BIT OF A JÍBARO MYSELF, WITH FAMILY ROOTS IN THE ALLEGHENIES, I ADMIT THAT I MIGHT EASILY RETIRE THERE AND ENJOY THE REST OF MY DAYS IN WILD CARIBBEAN WARMTH, SURROUNDED BY INDIGENOUS COCKS... (I NEVER NEEDED TO SET AN ALARM TO WELCOME THE SUNRISE WITH STRONG CUBAN COFFEE AND A GOOD CIGAR IN ALL MY YEARS OF LIVING IN THE FLORIDA KEYS... WHAT?!) 😧

ALTHOUGH ONE COINCIDENCE IN MY LIFE WAS HAVING A GRANDFATHER WHO WINTERED AS A HANDYMAN IN THE SAME SOUTHERNMOST LOCAL, NONE OF MY ANCESTORS EVER PARTICIPATED IN ORGANIZED COLONIZATION, NOR DID THEY EVER SUPPORT OR PERFORM IN ANY KIND OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, SUCH AS THE CARIBBEAN RUM TRADE, NOR DID THEY EVER OWN ANY SLAVES TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF 🤔

MY FAMILY LIVED AND WORKED NORTH OF THE MASON-DIXON LINE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR UNTIL SLAVERY IN THIS COUNTRY WAS RIGHTFULLY ABOLISHED... I RESIDE AT THE NORTHERN END OF THE DIXIE HIGHWAY, WHICH WAS ONCE ALSO THE NORTHERN END OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, BEFORE CONTINUING TO MONTREAL QUEBEC 🥱

I WAS BORN IN A CITY NEAR DETROIT MICHIGAN NAMED FOR THE WYANDOTTE TRIBES, ONE OF WHICH LIVED THERE, NOW THE WYANDOTTE NATION PRIMARILY OF OKLAHOMA, WHO IRONICALLY WERE MY IROQUOIS ANCESTORS' ENEMIES (EVEN TO THE POINT OF FIGHTING ALONGSIDE THE BRITISH DURING THE REVOLUTION, CAUSING THEM TO BE DRIVEN FROM THEIR LANDS) 😔

SOME OF MY OWN DISTANT RELATIVES HAD THEIR FREEDOMS REMOVED, THEIR SOVEREIGNTY LIMITED AND/OR THEIR RESIDENCY REVOKED ON VARIOUS UNCEREMONIOUS HISTORICAL OCCASIONS... MANY OF MY DISTANT COUSINS NOW LIVE IN THE COUNTRY KNOWN AS MEXICO, PRIMARILY THE STATE OF OAXACA, BY CHOICE OR NOT, AND I WILL ALWAYS WELCOME THEM HERE IN THE "NORTHERN" UNITED STATES (¡MALDITA SEA EL MURO FRONTERIZO!) (¡ELIGE TU TEQUILA: TE MOSTRARÉ QUIÉN ES UN GRINGO!) 🤠

I AM DISABLED AND SELF-SUPPORTING, FILING TAXES EVERY YEAR, WITHOUT COLLECTING ANY GOVERNMENT OR EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS... I THEREFORE HAVE AN ADMITTED LOW TOLERANCE FOR WHINING -- AS I DO NOT OWN A BANK, NOR OPERATE A CREDIT UNION, NOR SECURE GRANTS FOR ANY 501C3 ORGANIZATION MYSELF 😬

I RESPECT ALL RELIGIONS, OR THE ABSENCE THEREOF, INCLUDING MY OWN -- WHICH MAY VARY SLIGHTLY AS I CONTINUE UPON MY LIFE PATH... AND FINALLY I AM GLAD THAT IN MY OWN LIFETIME, THE LGBT+ COMMUNITY OF WHICH I AM PART HAS WON, AND CONTINUES TO EXPAND UPON, EQUAL LEGAL AND SOCIETAL RIGHTS BASED ON HUMAN SEXUALITY AND IT'S RESULTANT CHOICES 🤓

I FULLY SUPPORT ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ACHIEVE THE EQUALITY, FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND JOY -- INCLUDING WEALTH -- THAT THEY, THEIR FAMILY, THEIR FRIENDS, THEIR RACE, THEIR RELIGION, THEIR SEXUALITY, THEIR (DIS)ABILITY AND THEIR COUNTRY OF BIRTH AND/OR RESIDENCE DESERVE(S)... HOWEVER... 🙄

IF YOU WISH TO LABEL ME, MY FAMILY OR MY COUNTRY AS "WHITE SUPREMACIST", "WHITE PRIVILEGED", "IMPERIALISTIC", "COLONIZING", OR ANY OTHER INACCURATE (REVERSE-)DISCRIMINATORY TERM, SLANDER ME THUSLY, AND/OR LAY BLAME FOR THE TROUBLES OF YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR RACE, YOUR COMMUNITY OR YOUR COUNTRY HERE: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME ON THIS URL... 😠

THE SAME CONTINUES TO HOLD TRUE FOR SERIOUS DISCRIMINATION OF ANY CLASS, AND SUSTAINED HATEFUL SPEECH OR BEHAVIOR EVIDENCING SUCH (I.E. GAY/BI/LESBIAN/TRANS, BDSM/KINK/PORN, ACE/APL/ARO/ALLO, MENTALLY CHALLENGED, PHYSICALLY DISABLED, CHEMICALLY DEPENDANT, HOMELESS, JEWISH, MUSLIM, WHITE, BLACK, ASIAN, ARABIAN, LATINO...) -- ALTHOUGH I CAN OCCASIONALLY ENJOY BOTH GIVING AND TAKING A LITTLE BAD-JOKING AND A LOT OF IRONY IN MY OWN FIELD... (SORRY ABOUT THAT, YOU'RE (NOT) WELCOME) ☹️

I AM TRULY SADDENED THAT THE WORLD HAS COME TO THIS, BUT IF YOU WOULD NOT AFFORD ME/MINE/OURS THE SAME BASIC RESPECT, WELL-WISHES AND HUMAN DECENCY THAT I WOULD FREELY AFFORD YOU/YOURS: A PROBLEM EXISTS THAT IS NOT MINE TO SOLVE 😟

I REMAIN OPEN TO CRITICISM OF MY MISTAKES AND WELCOME DISCUSSION OF OUR POTENTIAL DIFFERENCES, AND YOU MAY FOLLOW, LIKE, REBLOG, COMMENT AND/OR CONTACT ME AT ANY TIME... BLOCKERS, WHINERS, BLAMERS, HATERS, BRAINDEAD, JAILBAIT, AND WOMEN SEEKING SEXUAL FAVOR WILL BE BLOCKED -- AND REPORTED IF THEY ARE BOTS... YOUR MATERIAL MAY BE COMMENTED UPON AND/OR HAVE CORRECT COMMUNITY LABEL SUGGESTED OR APPLIED IN REBLOG IF IT CROSSES MY DASHBOARD 😇

PLEASE READ THE BASIC DISCLAIMERS ABOVE IN THE BLOG DESCRIPTION BEFORE SEEKING LEGAL COUNSEL... IT'LL SAVE US BOTH TIME, MONEY, AND GRIEF... IF YOU FOLLOW AFTER ALL OF THIS NECESSARY NONSENSE, YOU MAY BE NOTIFIED OF MY ADDITIONAL BLOG AVAILABILITY... 😒

THANKS FOR VISITING AND PLEASE ENJOY THE ARCHIVES! 😉

[amelia-rate]

"When Cuba found itself abruptly cut off from trade with the Soviet bloc in 1989, the country entered into an economic crisis of unprecedented severity. Already sidelined from international trade due to US embargoes, Cuba became, almost overnight, a country detached from the rest of the world."

"Presented with a near collapse of its food provisioning system, the Cuban government responded with an overhaul of agriculture on the island, prioritising organic farming methods, the production of useful edible crops and the use of peasant labour. In urban areas, guerrilla gardening initiatives blossomed into new state-supported urban farming programmes, with widespread voluntary participation. These farming efforts have produced ‘what may be the world’s largest working model of a semi-sustainable agriculture’, [1] and in the process, resurrected the country’s local, affordable and accessible foodshed.[2]"

Endnotes: "Today the Cuban government has identified hundreds of large state-sponsored urban farms, 162 school gardens, 7,848 vacant lot gardens, and 34,970 yard gardens (González, 2008, p24)."

[mymetric360]

🤔Is the Cuban economy stable, and are citizens in abject poverty?

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.6 (after 1900)

1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation. 1914 – World War I: U-boat campaign: Two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea. 1914 – World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia. 1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay. 1917 – World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins. 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. 1940 – Estonia is annexed by the Soviet Union. 1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress. 1944 – The Warsaw Uprising occurs on August 1. It is brutally suppressed and all able-bodied men in Kraków are detained afterwards to prevent a similar uprising, the Kraków Uprising, that was planned but never carried out. 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. 1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series. 1958 – Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, outlawing the Communist Party of Chile and banning 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed in Chile. 1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation. 1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom. 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. 1986 – A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet. 1991 – Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives. 1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms. 1997 – Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam, killing 229 of the 254 people on board. 2001 – Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu. 2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. 2010 – Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people. 2011 – War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, seven Afghan soldiers, and one Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan. 2012 – NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars. 2015 – A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.

[thenewdemocratus]

Keith Hughes: Cuba Explained: Ending the Embargo

. I’m not saying ending the Cuban trade embargo unconditionally is a good idea and sure as hell hope that is not what President Obama did. I’m in favor of ending the embargo conditionally. That any American trade and business that goes into Cuba goes to the Cuban economy and the Cuban people. That the Cuban Government doesn’t tax most of it away, or all of it way to boost up their communist…

[comradegarf]

This is a declassified memorandum from Lester D. Mallory, to (at the time) U.S Assistant Secretary of State Roy R. Rubottom. Mallory states both that most Cubans support the Communist government, and that military action in Cuba would be a grave misstep (which was taken a year later anyway).

He therefore proposes that the U.S government should adopt a policy of economically starving Cuba, "to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.".

This is what they are doing to this day. The embargo on Cuba has been upheld in it's full extent since 1962. It makes it illegal for American corporations to trade with Cuba and for companies that trade with Cuba to trade with America. This has a severe effect on the Cuban economy, considering the U.S is the largest economy on Earth. This effect means Cuba struggles to import the food and medical supplies it needs to survive, which is killing Cuban citizens.

The Embargo is often defended by people citing the fact that it does not apply to medical or food trade, but this is really just for show. The law makes it incredibly vague what is actually allowed to be traded, and the process for organizations or companies to find out is very drawn out and complicated. This practically guarantees food and medicine imports will be all but completely non-existent as well.

The U.N Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, article 2.c, states that: "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" is Genocide.

Joe Biden has yet to reverse any of the further restrictions placed on Cuba during the Trump administration, and has not taken Cuba off the "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list. The U.N votes on a resolution to condemn the embargo every year, demanding it be removed. In 2022, only the United States itself and the U.S puppet state Israel voted against.

[yundk]

(Click on the date to read full story). The quintessential image of Cuba is its classic cars, bright pastel colored American Ford Chevrolets from the 1950s that line its streets. Many say it’s as if Cuba is stuck in the past, that walking down the cobblestone streets takes you back in time. Time here is a paradox. Cuba feels incomplete, as if it’s waiting for something to happen. And there is a lot of waiting. Hours long wait to get your monthly food rations, lines to fill gasoline rounding the block, huddling around the scarce public wifi spots for abysmally slow internet. Life is slow, and while all the Cubans I’ve met take pride in this leisure approach to life, they are wickedly quick in jumping at any opportunity to make a living. Like the rubble that scatter the dilapidated buildings of the city, they are just waiting for a chance to be of service, to lend a helping hand to a neighbor, or to show the next tourist around their glorious city for a few dollars. The people of Cuba epitomize the complexity of the country. Trapped in limbo, yet ready to spark at any moment.

The hustle is real. The scarcity is real. I’ve never been to a place that’s as hard to find basic goods, even food, as here. Supermarkets are virtually nonexistent. Corner bodegas empty out as soon as they are stocked. Cubans receive a monthly ration, a scant package consisting of a few pounds of meat, several pounds of rice and beans, a liter of cooking oil, and some bars of soap and basic necessities. Any extra needs to be purchased at the government owned stores that only take foreign currency and charge exorbitant prices. $4.50 for a can of tuna when the average monthly stipend is roughly $20! This is why everywhere I go, people are asking, change money? Cubans hoard foreign currency, because simply put, their survival depends on it. As does the country. Cuban pesos can’t be used even in their own grocery stores, and no country does business with Cuban pesos. I witness first hand the impact of the US embargo on the Cuban people. The situation is dire. The shelves are empty, no food, no medicine, no toilet paper (we kind of know what that’s like). All import and distribution is tightly controlled by the government, and this has created the black market, which all Cubans have a hand in.

To any outsider, the black market doesn't look so different to any regular transaction that occurs in everyday life. It’s not trading goods in dark alleys. It’s not quick hand offs that only those looking for it would notice. Rather, it’s half open doorways of people’s homes selling beer and cigarettes. It’s a WhatsApp group for chicken legs, shoes, medicine, house appliances, pencils, clothes, cloves of garlic, internet access, whatever you can think of. It’s a complex system of bribes and separate record keeping that employees of both state- and private-run businesses partner in. Restaurants, the most common of private businesses, are only recently becoming more legalized under the country’s reluctant permitting to increased free enterprise. They have to compete in both the government market, with its heavy restrictions, and in the black market, where higher bids seal the deal. Although they are granted special authorization to stock a certain more amount of food, they frequently will have available only a limited portion of their menu, because they can’t gather all the ingredients. They are also essentially all for tourists, meaning that the food is supposed to be reserved for us visitors. Tourism has become the lifeline of country, as the country’s main exports, sugar, rum, tobacco, coffee, are confined by sanctions and have consequently undergone severe disinvestment. Tourists are catered to, as people’s livelihood depends on us, more so here than anywhere else I’ve been. It gives me perspective on why so many are extra pushy when they see us in the streets. It’s the price of a tourist, but an incomparably small one compared to that of Cubans’.

Guanabacoa. The book I read before this trip, The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times, is based here. This is the cradle of AfroCuban culture, and where I had the blessing of being welcomed into the home of a babalao and partaking in a ritual to receive the protection of the Gods and the warriors of Santeria. Santeria is strikingly Cuban: Catholicism, imposed by Spanish conquest, molded by the resistance of African slaves, who understood God and saw His image through their African tradition. Cuban identity is inextricably intertwined with African identity, and Santeria is a proud testament to this history. It is a surreal feeling to walk the grounds of a place I only read about in books, that until just today was limited to my imagination. I came to Cuba to see, if only to catch a glimpse, of what life is like under a different political system in a specific time period. I am getting that, and more. No book could have prepared me for this.

After a few days, I needed respite from the chaos of Havana. I found solace in Trinidad, with its quaint, pebbled streets nestled in the hills of the Cuban countryside. In the road to the town, cows and horses frolick the grassy, unpaved sidewalks, and every several miles, a person all by their lonesome is standing with an outstretched hand hoping to sell a bag of mangos or a stalk of garlic. I always wonder how long they wait there, toasting in the sun with nothing to look at but miles of green fields and the occasional car that speeds by. From Havana, I took a colectivo with a fellow traveler from Finland, Maiju. We had been staying at the same hostel but had not crossed paths until today. She was joining in Trinidad some other friends she had met at the hostel, and I was soon integrated into their group. I love meeting other solo backpackers. They are some of the most open, free spirited people I know, with a passion for life that is wonderfully contagious. One night, we were all walking from dinner to our next compulsory destination, a salsa club, and I was talking to another traveler from Holland, Lief. She shared with me how she had dreamt of this exact moment: strolling down the streets, dimly lit by orange hued lights hanging from the doors of colonial style houses, people gathered around the main square singing and dancing, the rhythm of salsa buzzing in the air. I vividly remember one particular day, I was thirteen, and I told myself that one day I will go travel to another land, somewhere far enough that I would have to take a plane. I will see another place, live a life larger than what I had experienced so far. Today, like Lief, I am living my dream.

Here in Cuba, rum flows freely and the city comes alive with music when the sun goes down. The night, with the help of alcohol of course, liberates the spirit, and the difficulties of the day are put to rest. The expression music heals rings true here like nothing else. Dancing is catharsis from the struggles of everyday life, and people stay up hours past midnight like there’s no tomorrow. It is one of the purest expressions of living in the moment that I have witnessed. This is probably the most significant lesson I have learned throughout my years of traveling. I never know when I will have the opportunity to come back to this place, if ever. Maybe this is the last time I will get to walk these streets, see the sweat drops forming on my arms from this humid air, dance way past my bedtime. Right now is the only time I am this age, at this particular chapter of my life. Each moment is to savor, because there may not be another. In Cuba, in the States, wherever I am, be present and exist in every experience without expectation that there will be a next time. Enjoy it as if it were my last.

What was supposed to be a couple days in Trinidad became a week. The friends I made here convinced me more than once to extend my stay. We all became enamored with this place, with its surrounding nature, slow living during the day, and  riveting energy at night. We chased waterfalls, rode horses through remote villages, took hours long lunches, dipped in beaches that were uncomfortably warm, and danced from one venue to another. We shared conversations about life and about how traveling has changed our lives, how it has opened our minds and our hearts to embracing all that this world has to offer, to accepting its ups and downs, to appreciating all people’s stories. Zoe from Australia described the one word she would use to describe her experience in Cuba: surrender. Things rarely go according to plan. You scramble to get dollars and Euros from departing travelers because cards don’t work and many websites can’t be accessed without a VPN. Your bike gets a flat tire on a remote dirt road, and you need to find a hitchhike. Taxis fall through at the last minute, or you sit on the side of the road blasting house music with your taxi driver, waiting for the storm to pass because the windshield wipers don’t work. You decide to stay another day then another day when you had planned only a few days here. Once you surrender and lean into the faith that at the end, things will all work out, you can truly appreciate the Cuban experience.

The best about traveling is the people you meet along the way. The worst part of traveling is not food poisoning, losing your money or passport, or getting stranded in the middle of nowhere hoping for a kind pickup truck to give you a hitchhike. It’s the inevitable goodbye that comes with finding each other in a different land, bonding over this experience that is uniquely ours to share, and at the end of it all, each of us returning back to our own, different countries. We wish we could prolong this moment, have a little more time to create more memories, but time doesn’t stop. So we enjoy our time together as much as we can, because we don’t know when we’ll next see each other, if ever.

Cuba is a place of wonder. I’ve seen a mechanic use the aluminum of a Sprite can to conduct heat for vulcanizing rubber. Motorcycles turned into mini pick ups, guitar strings pulled from spare electric wires, a tuner adjusted by a bar and screws. Rice bags refashioned into handbags or advertising signs, beer cans as sieves for making jam, canons reused as road blockers. In Cuba, “hay que inventar,” and the ingenuity of making something out of nothing exemplifies the vitality of the Cuban spirit. No matter the situation, Cubans will always find a way. It may take some waiting, but what emerges is nothing short of miraculous.

[coinatory]

Bitcoin in Cuba: Why some Cubans are adopting BTC to escape ‘The Matrix’

In one of the world's toughest business environments, private businesses in Cuba have the potential to benefit from the cryptocurrency revolution. Erich Garcia Cruz, a Cuban businessperson and Bitcoin advocate, believes that Bitcoin adoption could grow in Cuba, especially if private businesses recognize the advantages of accepting Bitcoin as a currency. According to Cruz, using Bitcoin in Cuba serves as a tool for individuals to break free from the constraints of the country's centrally planned and officially communist economy. Cuba faces challenges such as limited access to independent press and the United States trade embargo, which restricts Cubans from accessing American products, services, and applications. In contrast, Bitcoin operates independently from the state and lacks a central authority. Cruz suggests that the Cuban

Read more on Bitcoin in Cuba: Why some Cubans are adopting BTC to escape ‘The Matrix’

[kneedeepincynade]

Many of those who call themselves socialists love to boast about their support to Cuba,only to denounce and call for regime change in every single ally of Cuba. This is a symptom of a non serious left capable of existing only with slogans and no serious analysis

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ LA CINA DONA ATTREZZATURE PER MIGLIORARE L'APPROVVIGIONAMENTO IDRICO E GESTIRE LA SICCITÀ A CUBA ⚠️

🇨🇳 Dopo aver donato, il 18/01/2023, 100 Milioni di Dollari alla Repubblica di Cuba, il Partito Comunista Cinese ha donato all'isola caraibica 449 attrezzature per combattere la siccità e migliorare l'approvvigionamento idrico 💦

🚚 Si tratta di camion, bulldozer, torri faro, terne, motolivellatrici e saldatrici ⚙️

🇨🇺 La Compagna Inés María Chapman Waugh, Vice-Primo Ministro di Cuba, ha assistito alla consegna delle attrezzature presso la sede del "Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos" insieme al Compagno Ma Hui, Ambasciatore della Repubblica Popolare Cinese presso Cuba 💕

🇨🇺 Antonio Rodriguz, Presidente dell'INRH, ha ringraziato il Governo Cinese per la donazione, affermando che l'aiuto della Cina è essenziale per lo sviluppo delle risorse idriche dell'Isola 🚰

😭 Attualmente, oltre 400.000 Cubani hanno problemi con la scarsità d'acqua a causa di una prolungata siccità, e non sono previste precipitazioni significative fino a metà maggio, come affermato dall'Istituto di Meteorologia di Cuba 🌧

📄 Per chi volesse approfondire il Tema dei Rapporti Sino-Cubani, può rifarsi a questi post del Collettivo Shaoshan e di Abdala:

🔺Xi Jinping: "I rapporti Sino-Cubani sono esempio di solidarietà tra paesi socialisti" 🚩

🔺La Cina sollecita gli USA a rimuovere l'embargo commerciale a Cuba 🇺🇸

🔺Wang Yi: "Cina e Cuba sono amici, compagni e fratelli" 💞

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ CHINA DONATE EQUIPMENT TO IMPROVE WATER SUPPLY AND MANAGE DROUGHT IN CUBA ⚠️

🇨🇳 After donating 100 million dollars to the Republic of Cuba on 01/18/2023, the Communist Party of China donated 449 pieces of equipment to the Caribbean island to fight drought and improve water supply 💦

🚚 It's all about trucks, bulldozers, light towers, backhoe loaders, motor graders and welders ⚙️

🇨🇺 Comrade Inés María Chapman Waugh, Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba, attended the delivery of the equipment at the headquarters of the "Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos" together with Comrade Ma Hui, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Cuba 💕

🇨🇺 Antonio Rodriguz, President of INRH, thanked the Chinese Government for the donation, stating that China's help is essential for the development of the island's water resources 🚰

😭 Currently, over 400,000 Cubans are struggling with water shortages due to a prolonged drought, and no significant rainfall is expected until mid-May, according to Cuba's Institute of Meteorology 🌧

📄 For those wishing to deepen the theme of Sino-Cuban relations, they can refer to these posts from the Shaoshan Collective and Abdala:

🔺Xi Jinping: "Sino-Cuban relations are an example of solidarity between socialist countries" 🚩

🔺China urges US to lift trade embargo on Cuba 🇺🇸

🔺Wang Yi: "China and Cuba are friends, comrades and brothers" 💞

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[howdoesone]

How does one assess the current state of political and economic relations between Cuba and the United States?

The relationship between Cuba and the United States has been complex and tumultuous for more than half a century. Tensions have been high since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the subsequent U.S. trade embargo on the island nation. However, in recent years, there have been some positive steps towards improving relations between the two countries. In this article, we will assess the current state…

[helicrocfmp]

Cold war research

General information

The cold war was a period of time when there was a lot of tension between the USSR and USA after the second world war. It’s called the cold war because there wasn’t a direct conflict between the two however there were lots of proxy wars fought between the two like the Korean war and the Vietnam war. There were lots of ways the two super powers competed other than wars such as trade embargoes, sports, propaganda, physiological warfare, espionage and technological advancements. The cold war started shortly after the second world when NATO was formed which was in 1949 to prepare for a soviet attack and contain the spread of the soviets.

Korean war

The Korean war was the first major conflict after WW2 starting in 1950 only 5 years after WW2. The Korean war was fought between the Soviet backed North Koreans and the Western backed South Korea with both sides claiming to be the legitimate leaders of all of Korea. After WW2 the Japanese controlled Korea was split in two half being given to the soviets and the other half to the US. The war was started by the North when they invaded South Korea however the war would have started at some point even if the North didn’t invade as both sides wanted to rule the other. The reason the West wanted to have influence over Korea is because if war was to break out between the East and West Korea would be very strategically important as it borders China an Eastern country and that would let the West open up a second front for the soviets to deal with much easier. The Korean war never ended and is still going on today however there hasn’t been much or really any fighting going on since the Soviets and West left Korea.

American M46 tanks crossing the Imjin river in Korea

Scottish mortar pit in Korea

Vietnam war

The Vietnam war was a war fought by the US, Australians, New Zealanders and the peoples army of Vietnam or the PAVN against the Veit cong or VC. The VC was backed by the Soviets and China however they didn’t officially fight in the war but the US did. The Vietnam war started only 5 years after the Korean war in 1955 and like the Korean war was a proxy war between the western and eastern blocs. The US pulled out of Vietnam in 1973 due to strong public backlash as well as the war not going to great for them. During the war there were lots of protests as unlike previous wars there was lots of footage of the war and images publicly available. During the Vietnam war both sides used very inhumane methods of winning such as the VCs Punji traps or spike traps and the USs use of napalm and mass bombing of the jungle. During the Vietnam war the VC would make tunnels to help them get to places without US forces finding them so the US had to clear them when the found them which lead to the tunnel rats. Tunnel rats are people that had to crawl through the VC tunnels with only a flashlight and a hand gun to make sure they were clear but often the VC would trap tunnels they don’t use anymore with Punji traps or they would tie a poisonous snake to some bamboo in the tunnel which would stave it so when the tunnel rat would come through they would bite them and usually end up with them dying. Vietnam is very good proof that military intervention doesn’t work as Vietnam is one of the very few countries that are still communist to this day.

Tunnel rat

Puji trap

US napalm strike

Cuban missile crisis 

The Cuban missile crisis was probably the closet we’ve come to nuclear war. The Cuban missile crisis was when the Soviets put nuclear missiles in Cuba which scared the US very much so as previously the Soviets couldn’t hit the US mainland with there ICBMs and would have to use plane dropped bombs submarines but they could now use missiles. Thankfully Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev didn’t resort to blowing everyone to kingdom come but they were very close as the US took it as an act of aggression when the Soviets did it to deter the US from invading Cuba again. During the crisis there was an American aircraft carrier that had spotted a soviet submarine and dropped a depth charge to get it to surface and identify itself the only issue is that submarine was a soviet nuclear submarine that had lost contact with Moscow so they thought that war had already broken out especially now as they had jut been attacked so two out of the three officers agreed to shooting a nuclear torpedo at the carrier which would have most defiantly started the 3rd world war but one of those three officers Vasily Arkhipov said no to launching the torpedo which meant they couldn’t and saved the world form nuclear war.

US plane shadowing a Soviet ship during the Cuban missile crisis

Space race

The space race is probably the most well known part of the cold war due to it being the reason man stepped foot on the moon. The space race was a race to the moon between the Soviets and the US which started with the Soviets putting a satellite in space which terrified the US so they started investing in space travel and satellites. Despite the Soviets early and them putting something on the moon first it was the US that put man on the moon first with the Apollo 11 mission with the US Saturn V rocket the soviet counterpart being the N1 rocket.

Soviet N1 rocket

Saturn V

Map of the three worlds 

The first world: Western bloc in blue 

The second world: eastern bloc in red 

The third world: non-aligned