Recent photos from Cuba

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/0 ... rward.html

Friend of mine showed this to me a few days back. It's a series of photographs taken in Cuba around the time of the recent Communist Party Congress and the 50th anniversary during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

what the hell is the guy in the 16th picture down wearing?

Looks like a mesh sleeveless shirt. I'm guessing it's designed for the climate.

In China in the summer, you see a lot of guys wearing white "wife-beaters" (why the hell are those even called that?) or even go shirtless in their homes (and in their neighborhood sometimes too) because of the temperature. It's probably the same here.

im just saying that mesh was a looked a little too "hip" for that guy. just my opinion there

Those were some pretty cool pictures. I especially liked the Carter and Castro one.

Komissar_KW wrote:

you see a lot of guys wearing white "wife-beaters" (why the hell are those even called that?)

Because those most likely to beat their wives seem to hate sleeves and over-shirts as well.

Proud Communist wrote:

im just saying that mesh was a looked a little too "hip" for that guy. just my opinion there

Since when are mesh tanktops hip? Is this 1986?

Sick pictures. Cuba really looks like a wonderful place to live.

Quote:

Cuba really looks like a wonderful place to live.

I dunno, in a docu I watched on a group of young boxers in Havana, their homes were in quite poor conditions and you could easily think they were living in the slums.

One of their fathers (an ex-medalist for Cuba) even said how despite his wins, he's living like this.

It just looked really run down.

Cuba's never been rich, it would be near enough impossible to improve an entire nations living conditions, even Fidel couldn't do that.

Luxembourg is far smaller and has much less resources. People have a much higher standard of living there...

WorkandUnite wrote:

Cuba's never been rich, it would be near enough impossible to improve an entire nations living conditions, even Fidel couldn't do that.

The problem isn't only with Cuba's wealth or the lack thereof. The problem is that it would be damn near impossible to improve an entire nation's living conditions no matter how small the country is when there's a fragging embargo imposed by the world's biggest fragging foam-at-the-mouth-at-anything-remotely-resembling-socialism superpower right next to it.

It's time for the US to end that silly embargo because the Cold War is over and a small island like Cuba isn't going to bring the USA down. They can't use the same tired arguments of the lack of 'economic freedom' and 'democracy' for maintaining the embargo because they're more than happy to do business with China.

Do any of you read the Reflexiones by Fidel, They have some pretty interesting ideas and concerns about the United States and president Obama. Here's an interesting one

http://en.cubadebate.cu/reflections-fid ... ent-north/

Quote:

The Chinese document also reminds us that the United States has violated the Cuban people’s right to exist and develop in disregard of the world’s opinion, expressed by the United Nations General Assembly during 19 consecutive years regarding the “necessity to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba”.

“The United States has failed to ratify several international human rights conventions such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“The data contained in the report by the Chinese government show that the nefarious performance of the United States in this field disqualifies it as “judge of human rights in the world”. Its ‘human rights diplomacy’ is sheer double standards hypocrisy to the service of its strategic imperialist interests. The Chinese government advises the government of the United States to take concrete measures to improve its own human rights situation examine and rectify its activities in that field and stop its hegemonic actions whereby it uses human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Tails wrote:

It's time for the US to end that silly embargo because the Cold War is over and a small island like Cuba isn't going to bring the USA down. They can't use the same tired arguments of the lack of 'economic freedom' and 'democracy' for maintaining the embargo because they're more than happy to do business with China.

True, ideally, the end of the Cold War should mean that the embargo should be lifted, especially given how the US is willing to deal with the Chinese on "friendlier" terms, and not to mention the Soviets even during the Cold War. But it bears remembering that on top of ideology, bourgeois politicians always have to think about their re-election. Anyone calling for ending the embargo would lose a lot of "cred" for being "soft" in foreign policies. This is true at the national level and especially in Florida -- remember the existence of the Cuban "exile" community there... I can't say that they're all liars putting up a facade to get the US government to fund their "freedom" projects, but I'm sure a lot of them are, but some might be genuine anti-communists. Regardless, they'd never let a politician in Florida live it down, regardless of party affiliation, for suggesting the end of the embargo. With the way reactionaries are in the US, any politician who suggests this in general is going to get a lot of crap, no matter which party they belong to. Those who suggest ending the embargo would suffer politically, and even if put to a vote, it would most likely not pass. Such is politics in a bourgeois democracy, where politicians rely as much on capital and preying on deep-rooted popular sentiments. I'm not apologizing for this, but we should keep this in mind whenever we say things like, "The US should do this." Sometimes, even if someone wanted to do it, they'd get shot down and hurt their political career. It sucks, I know, but that's the world of bourgeois democracy in a nutshell.

I was in Cuba in 2006. It isn't as bad as they paint it. Sure, there are zones in Havana which are rather worn, particularily in the outskirts, in which abandoned houses abound, but overall, the buildings are for the most part habitable, despite the problems arising from the blockade. There were even small neighbourhoods of small, single family prefab houses, which, albeit they weren't exactly terrific, were far better than what I expected to find when I took flight to the island.

I ought to post pictures of that trip sometime...

WorkandUnite wrote:

Cuba's never been rich, it would be near enough impossible to improve an entire nations living conditions, even Fidel couldn't do that.

Cuba might have never been rich, but it wasn't exactly poor to begin with either. As it has been said above, I think the blockade is the one to blame for most of their problems, particularily in the last 20 years. Back when they were actively trading with the Soviets, things were going quite well for them.

Havana isn't anywhere near as bad as Detroit Michigan or Gary Indiana...

Detroit:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 79,00.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/synthetic_tom/sets/22995/

Gary is actually trying to lure Hollywood to film movies in the city by showing them what a crap hole the city is. They see it as a selling point

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/us/21cncgary.html

"In 2010 Gary was the location for 24 movies, most of them attracted by the city’s visually arresting decay. With 26 productions already shot in 2011, this year is a record one for Gary’s nascent film industry."

Take a drive through the entire mid-west of the u.s. and you'll see places far worse than Cuba.. :-(