This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Bienvenido a Cuba!
By: Chris Tell at http://capitalistexploits.at/
Our good friend “Kuppy” aka Harris Kupperman, hedge fund prodigy, occasional writer at Adventures in Capitalism and Chairman of Mongolia Growth Group (YAK:V), our favoured means of playing the Mongolian Real estate boom, recently visited that bastion of chronic political ideology gone wrong – Cuba.
He has written no less than 4 fantastic articles on his travels there and over the next week we’ll share them with you. I’m sure you'll enjoy them as much as we have.
——–
It all started as I was grabbing coffee with a close friend of mine. After a very successful, but exhausting year in Mongolia, I was looking for a holiday location where I could unwind. The prerequisites were that there be limited phone or internet access to avoid roping me back into work. I wanted a place that I could truly escape to and that business could not find me. I was worried that it would take some far-away land to achieve this goal—an African safari—or some deserted Pacific island. I had already spent the morning spinning the globe around on Google Earth—nothing piqued my interest.
Then my friend suggested the obvious; "How about Cuba—the forbidden fruit of American travelers? Your cell phone won't work, the internet is impossible to access and business won't come and find you—heck, business cannot even legally exist in Cuba."
"…But won't that take months to get the visas in order? I need to leave immediately as I'm due in Mongolia, during the first week in January," I replied.
"Don't worry. I'll get your visas sorted out. Let's just say that I know people… (wink, wink) Besides, I've been there many times in the past decade. It's finally starting to wake up and shake off communism. You need to see it now, so that you have perspective on it in a year or three when Americans can start investing there."
48 hours later, my girlfriend and I were on a plane to Cuba with a visa for the "purposes of attending worship services…to interact with the people of Cuba…to the purpose of friendship and worship." Those of you, who know me well, will appreciate the irony and incongruity of me getting a visa to do missionary work—then again, the last half century of Cuban history is full of incongruent ironies.
Having lived in Miami for the past decade, I have met plenty of Cubans and heard the disheartening tales of Cuba and the Castro brothers. I expected to find the world’s largest tropical gulag. Instead, I found a cheerful country, full of warm friendly people, some of whom seem to genuinely admire the government—despite its arcane rules and habitual dysfunction. I also found many who were illegally saving their money in US Dollars and plotting their escape from Cuba.
I expected to find an island mired in misery with chronic scarcity of basic goods. Instead, I found a place that was remarkably devoid of extreme poverty—a true anomaly in Latin America. Given the inevitable failings of a purely socialist state, I expected much worse. If you remove the top few percent of wealthy Argentines, the average Cuban is roughly on par with the average Argentine in terms of standard of living and Cuba’s infrastructure is a good deal ahead of Argentina’s—something I certainly did not expect to find.
I expected that men in green army uniforms would harass us as we went about life—typical of military dictatorships with a suspicion of America (we have spent the last half century trying to topple the government). Instead, the police presence was less than that of Manhattan and the military is effectively out of sight. The only government representatives that we met were in Museums—they were both helpful and amazingly patient as I fumbled for words in Spanish.
In many ways, it was an island of contrasts and unexpected surprises. My friend with the visas, was also correct, Cuba is beginning to open up and transition to a market economy. While there is no business to be done by Americans (yet), I spent my week in Cuba trying to cut the Gordian Knot of misconceptions, misinformation and failed economic plans that have characterized Cuba’s last half century of economic dysfunction. I expected to see another failed socialist state, impossible to revive—a Zimbabwe off the coast of Florida. Instead, I was both surprised and impressed by the country and its potential as a future investment destination.
Over the next few pieces, I will take you through my week in Cuba—the misconceptions, the obvious failings and occasional successes of state-planned socialism. This collage of stories was the result of dozens of conversations with ordinary people that I met during my vacation—hotel employees, barkeepers, waiters and especially taxi drivers (who tend to have the best pulse on the economy in every transitioning economy). These people ranged from life-long communist ideologues to those who truly despised the government; however, the majority of the people I met, were simply divorced from politics, frustrated with socialism, but appreciative of the occasional benefits that it brought. I stayed true to my mission of escapism. I did not speak with any senior government officials and I did not engage in any business. Rather, I ate, drank and travelled myself ragged, through dozens of cities and over a thousand kilometers of back roads. Let's just say, that I'm not the type of vacationer who sits on the beach…
Bienvenido a Cuba!!!
Photos by Mili Martinez
——–
Watch out for part II next week.
- Chris
"Cuba may be the only place in the world where you can be yourself and more than yourself at the same time." – Pedro Juan Gutiérrez
»
- advertisements -
Their is no true communism as their is no true capitalism. Just honest or not. I liked Cuba, as a tourist I was "gold". Did not see enough our stay long enough as I only saw a small fraction.....but liked my Potemkin experience.
Going back to Nicaragua. Bluefields for the first visit as I have seen and stayed on west coast. Smile, eat, snorkel, fish and keep my mouth shut! Do small seminars on...get this...salesmanship!
As an aside, the book Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus (The Penguin Press, 2005) is to this day one of the 10 or 15 best books I've ever read. It recounts a child's memory of the Mariel Boatlift. It's written by Mirta Ojito who went on to become a respected Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. It's worth the read.
It is a country where most people learn to whisper and shrug and to be suspicious of everyone. On the other side, they have an amazing culture and refugees from the boatlift era, and now their children, have contributed in many ways to American Society.
It's a shame we give preferred trading status to the scum in China, but don't allow a roll of toilet paper to be exported to Cuba. I'd love to visit.
I say old chap, have the IMF and their banking cronies pillaged the island yet?
+1 Not really, no Rothschild controlled central bank.
Nice place to visit, just don't ask the bartender for a Cuba Libre.
Good one. As a regular in the Domincan Republic, I've learned not to asked for one there either. It generally tells the bartender to pour the cheapest shit rum in a plastic cup and spray some boxed cola product in the cup. They always taste like shit. Unfortunately, for 1/2 the bartenders in the tourist parts of country, they know only how to pour Cuba Libres and Presidentes.
I stole that from a Jerzy Kosinski novel (I forget which one) in which the protagonist is in a bar and orders a cuba libre. Bartender who is cuban exile gets enraged and lectures him on how Cuba is definitely NOT free.
Nations of happy children and sad old men.
Having been in Cuba in the late 1960's and more recently the picture painted in this article is quite accurate. I've also travelled widely through Central America. From what I've seen the average person in Cuba is better off than the average person in Guatemala or El Salvador, most of Honduras, and all of Belize. That is simply the truth. One problem that Cuba does have, due to its free education system, are a lot of college graduates without jobs equal to their education. The rest of Central America has a ready solution to that problem, schooling stops at the 6th grade. Water quality is also much better in Cuba even into the rural areas than almost anywhere in the rest of Central America. On one occasion when a travelling companion was injured getting quality medical help was very easy. In a somewhat similar situation in Belize it was almost impossible. The biggest thing I noticed in Cuba was the small police and near totally absent military presence. Except for Costa Rica the police and the military are common on the streets of Central American countries.
Its a very small percentage of the US population that travels outside the US and most who do are visiting more popular westernized culture. That makes it easy to present a distorted picture of other countries and daily life there.
"The biggest thing I noticed in Cuba was the small police and near totally absent military presence."
Uniformed police might be scarce, but those aren't the ones you need to worry about.
The random plain clothes police effort in Cuba is actually quite small. All the locals know who they are and if your curious will point them out. Generally they are in the hotel area where tourists stay and they replace the uniformed police. Its about the same number either way. From what I saw they are to protect the tourists from small time hustlers. Hustlers who are interested in boosting a few bucks off naive visitors.
The country where I have felt the most "observed and surveilled" ironically is England. London is positively saturated with CCTV cameras. And, these cameras aren't just taping the scene. There are large manned stations where the video feed is under constant human eyeballs now combined with a variety of technologies intended to identify indivudal faces and such. Now that is a police state to me.
Its hard to imagine, but on my first trip to China, one of the things that really surprised me is that I had to hunt to find police. The police there weren't armed at the time. And, the only place I saw any Chinese Military were the ceremonial guards in Tienamen Square. People here in the US have just swallowed so much distoring propaganda they have no clue what daily life is like in other countries.
For a very accurate picture of modern Cuba, I recommend - Slow Train to Guantanamo by Peter Millar.
jb
One thing is to be a tourist, Mr. Tell, another is to be a perminent citizen....
I was born there, and have constant contact with family and friends still there..
Try living there for a year as a citizen, and then submite an article to Mr. Durden (if the gulag will permit you to do so)..
The situation in Cuba is a perfect reflection of why communism does not work. A lot of "bull" about health care and free college - but in the end they have a failed economy and misery. Their agents tried for years to attack the US throughout the world. Now they want a big hug and Uncle Sam's money.
They can have it once they murder the commie bastards and set the political prisoners free.
Shut down the EBT system in Alabama for 48 hrs and then get back to me.
You mean the EBT cardholders have political prisoners in jail and being tortured! This situation is worse than I thought. Maybe we could get some of the Cuban "pretend" doctors to come neuter them.
Kill the commie bastards!
Fidel will call you out from his hospital bed in Madrid -- ha ha.
US sanctions have NOT worked -- they are in place to appease Cuban emigres who have good reasons to hate Castro and to give talking points to the knee-jerk "anti-commie" US Presidential regimes (tell me why, Mr Bush or Mr Obama, do you need to ban so-called free American citizens from traveling to Cuba?)
"(tell me why, Mr Bush or Mr Obama, do you need to ban so-called free American citizens from traveling to Cuba?)"
Yeah, I mean it's not like it's Vietnam.
oh wait....
Cuba= good medical service and top class athlets
Don't get sick in Cuba. My cousin just about died from a burst appendix in February in Cuba. They couldn't diagnose it.
i would live there the women are beautiful
just dont have any opposition to the power structure. Prison for 35 years for just talking with conviction to others about change will be your ticket. Maybe less time if your audience is small. Similiar to muslim countries, only far better because its catholic. Castro travels in the very high circles. Listing who Castro has shaken hands with would reveal a lot. Look at the smiling monster in north korea, who has his father met in person and shook hands with? Did his grandfather send "white russians" in masks to the ww2 last battles?
If Cuba has any sense, they will impose sanctions on the US, the minute the US lifts sactions on Cuba.
amazing the progress a dictator and his brother ( and lets not forget equally muderous Che) can make with a slew of mass executions at the start...ask your folks kids...the were televised in the US.
Che had balls, and risked them, Jamie Dimon, not so much, how many people are underwater on their mortages in Cuba, oh right, they don't have any.
Cubans are a beautiful and pragmatic people, some of whom use the black market to get ahead.
Yea Che had balls and he was also a MASS MURDERER!
Let's not forget 'pragmatist' and 'connoisseur of cheap watches':
"The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for [Eutimio], so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]. He gasped for a little while and was dead. Upon proceeding to remove his belongings I couldn't get off the watch tied by a chain to his belt, and then he told me in a steady voice farther away than fear: "Yank it off, boy, what does it matter." I did so and his possessions were now mine." -- Diary entry from Sierra Maestra on the execution of Eutimio Guerra as an anti-revolutionary spy (January 1957), quoted in Che Guevara : A Revolutionary Life (1997) by Jon Lee Anderson
"Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel." - Che Guevara
How can they have mortgages on $10.00 a month?
Cubans have as many or more asswipes per capita as anywhere else.
The incidents of boy and girl child prostitutes and whores likely rivals Taiwan and third world countries.
If we're going to "go Cuba", at least let's get it all on the table, not just health insurance.
Know this:
Their name is Capitalist Exploits
To be forwarned is to be forarmed.
The "exploit" is for you to buy into this fantasy. There is no fraud without a fairy tale.
Ex-ploit
Noun. a striking or notable deed; feat; spirited or heroic act
What a shame the english langauge has been so corrupted by the chattering mobs.
I visited Cuba about seven years ago and found the people to be very warm and hospitable even then before any rumours about relaxation of Communism rules. I have also visited North Korea and found the people to be nice there also. I wonder if I would ever find the same hospitality in Tel Aviv not that I would ever even think of going to that country. Just don't believe the propaganda that these countries are pariahs because they are not
"I visited Cuba about seven years ago..."
GUARDS! SEIZE HIM!
Hey Ob, I've been there a few times. Tel Aviv is like NYC, bustling, busy, but not as rude. In the less crowded areas, people are warmer. Kinda like here, only more so. Why wouldn't you even think of going to "That Country"? 800,000 jews kicked out of Arab countries in 1948, and 30,000 square miles of land they owned confiscated and the ones who weren't murdered by the Germans and their sympathizers and accomplices have turned the place into a first world country with lower infant mortality, less or little violent crime, longer life expectancy than the US.
Oh yeah and don't tell me about "Occupied palestine" as nobody belonge here unless your forebears were here pre Columbus, we raped and kiiled them and stole their land, at elast thye have casions...
Zionist agent...
If it weren't for the Jews in Israel, Israel would be named Palestine right now and be a shithole like Iraq, Iran, Saudi, Jordan. Overcrowded and smelly and dirty, with sharia loving bastards running things.
You are not a zionist supporter if you acknowledge that the Jews have made Israel a beautiful developed country compared to its neighbours.
You fucking anti-semites need to start learning the difference between Zionists and Jews, you dumb morons here on ZeroHedge.
I don't sympathize with the Zionists, nor with Israel's foreign policy at all. But if somebody were to put a gun to my head and choose to live in Israel or Egypt I'd choose Israel any day.
Same with USA.
Sure it's full of fat ass poor rednecks that shop at Walmart, but if somebody put a gun to my head to choose between USA or Cuba, I would choose USA any day.
All you anti-Western pricks, better go live in Egypt, or Syria, or North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba for one year as the regular folk live there. Then come and spill your shit about how bad the West is.
Classic 'chosen people' bigotry.
And the 'developed country' was paid for with our money.
The Jews squeeze billions of dollars in aid from US tax payers each year, via their paid whore politicians. Add to that "surplus" equipment from the US military nearly free and whatever they can steal. "Chosen" people is the ultimate racial supremacism. We would thrive without them. What state would they be in without someone to parasite off? General Patton commented that Jewish displaced persons from Eastern Europe were more like animals than people in their habbits. My guess is that they would go back to their former slums.
Nice job- keep up the good work!
Nice job? The guy shows up in Cuba for a quick jaunt and is now an expert? Gees.
For a good movie on Netflix about Cuba see "Una Noche". It's a pretty accurate portrayal of life there and the story of some young people trying to escape.
If you've been to Cuba you also know that:
Cuba has free healthcare for citizens
Education through college is free although college grads are waiters and have to perform other menial tasks since there are no jobs for them
Cuba exports their collge grads, especially doctors, all over Latin America and they are obliged to send a huge amount of their salary back to support their government. Many find a way to defect and never return.
There are virtually no cell phones in the hands of ordinary Cubans so a twitter revolution is impossible.
Ordinary Cubans are poor but most have nice clothes sent by their US relatives.
Cubans have a simple style of life and visiting a small town you will find most people just hanging out chatting with friends and neighbors.
There is zero starvation but basic food allowance is abysmal.
Ordinary Cubans make about $10 per Month.
Visitors to Cuba pay exorbitant prices for most things compared to what Cubans pay however for a price just about anything is available
Private business is making a comeback and it is common now to see private grocery stores and bed and breakfast hotels in peoples' houses.
Private taxis are common although figuring out the bus system as a visitor is difficult.
Cuba has the best collection of restored 50s cars with Russian diesel engines installed anywhere.
Cubans are making inroads into more economic freedom although it's a huge uphill battle. The elite there are like the elite in the West, filthy rich and powerful compared to their population at large.
Cubans are very friendly to visitors and treat them very well
Chasing beautiful young men and women is very easy. Even ancient European women have a few young studs hanging on their arm.
"There are virtually no cell phones in the hands of ordinary Cubans so a twitter revolution is impossible."
then what was that story of an US goverment agency creating a cuban twitter ? for whom ?
Having worked with numerous agencies, my guess is they created the tweeter broadcasts w/o first checking to see if they could be received.
My comment on cell phones was precisely for that reason. Either the gov are complete idiots or they are just spending money to justify a budget. I stand by my statement since I know conditions in Cuba very well.
The government resents your claim of idiocy on its part, and shall now retask NASA's goals from 'Muslim Outreach' to 'Cuban Twitter Development' to prove you wrong.
Cuba, Jamaica and Dominican Republic all have about $10,000 per capita annual GDP.
Of these, Cuba has the lowest equality (Gini) but highest HDI (human Development index).
Cuba is mostly white, Dominican mostly mixed, Jamaica mostly black.
Cuba is communist dictatorship, Jamaica is British parliamentary democracy, Dominican is Presidential republic.
Two spanish, one English speaking country.
Perhaps natural resources is more important than race, religion, language, or government.
Cuba has 5 per 100,000 homicide rate. Dominican Republic has 25. Jamaica has 41.
Sounds to me like Cuba has done pretty well compared to its peers.
I don't want to quibble with your numbers but I have a hard time believing the $10,000 per capita income in any of the three. I must admit that I have never been to any of those places but I've heard the Cubans are generally nice people. I've heard that the fuzzy-faced leader is a billionaire, so I suppose that would play into per capita, but it would be interesting to know the real median income of each, but those figures would be generated by a rotten government, especially the CIA, so would be essentially bogus.
I personally have no desire to go to the other two, but Cuba would be a good visit, for me, but not my bride. It's fairly easy to become a citizen of the Dom. Rep., not my cup of cane juice, however. I haven't been to St. Lucia, Grenada, Haiti, nor the Grenadines, most of the others I've visited and have had businesses in the C.I. and Trinidad. I just returned from St. Kitts and it's a nice country, and destined to become much nicer. I love the food, music, and people in almost all of the countries. However, "Island Time" is NOT a myth, a person will live a tortured existence if expecting things to move at even a reasonable velocity, except for some professionals that are entrepreneurial hustlers, my favorites.
Taxes in St. Kitts-Nevis are mostly consumption, insignificant outside VAT, duties, etc. Bad for us, amounts to double taxation, great for other nationalities. Sorry for digressing.
Farqued Up: "I don't want to quibble with your numbers but I have a hard time believing the $10,000 per capita income in any of the three."
--------------------------------------------------
That's $10,000 GDP per capita, not income. I'm sure median income is far lower.
To call these tiny islands, mostly all homogenous, countries, is factually correct, but they belong in a separate group of entities and should NEVER be compared to Nations with 330,000,000 diversified, multicultural, multilingual, multi-religious, and multi-tiered peoples.
IT is a total logical fallacy to say that because one "nation", with 55,000 peeps can provide health insurance and outstranding health care that a True nation of 400,000,000 or 500,000,000 or 600,000,000 can do it too AND expect great health care.
Ditto with any other characteristic you can name.
I'm suspicious of a nation's prosperity when ten yr olds are marketed for sex.
The three I listed are not so tiny, with around 10 million people in Cuba and Dominican Republic, and around 3 million Jamaicans. I didn't compare them to the rest of the Caribbean, where the islands are extremely tiny in comparison.