I'm Back

Okay, as I'm sure my regular reader noticed, posting has been light for a while. First I was busy, then I was away, then I was back and catching up on the news. Now I'm ready to fulminate. Hell, I fired up two posts up yesterday.

Where was I? Cuba. Why? Mrs. Fulminandrew liked the price, and we had the time, and her cousin was just back singing the praises.

So, I've been to another third world pisshole. Hell, I've been to another third world, commie pisshole. For my entire life, I've been hearing people sing the praises of Castro's island paradise. Just this spring, one of my Sunday hockey buddies, after proclaiming "I'm not a commie, but" told me of the good communism did for Cuba, what with keeping out the American influence and all.

Before I light off, I'm going to say this...Taiwan vs China, S. Korea vs N. Korea, W. Germany vs E. Germany. Three comparisons between countries with one racial/cultural origin, divided by American influence on one side, and communism on the other. Three of them are relatively free, open, and wealthy places. Three of them ended up as third world, commie pissholes.

Communism did Cuba some good? Really? I spent a year living in poor, rural China. The conditions the Chinese peasant lives under are horrific. It is a life of soul crushing, mind numbing, back breaking stoop labour, without the most basic of rights and freedoms, and basically no hope of improvement. I can't speak to the labour conditions of the Cuban peasant, I wasn't there long enough to see, but... But their housing is as awful as, or worse than, the Chinese. There is no middle class and they're still using beasts of burden to pull taxis. Shit, even the Chinese have discovered the existence of internal combustion.

We passed a hospital and a medical campus. The vaunted Cuban health care system? Scary. I've seen factories that were cleaner. But, hey, at least the (female) doctors can earn a living, provided they supplement their incomes by turning tricks. Oh, wait, that's NOT a recommendation.

In fact, only two things recommend Cuba. First is the people. Like China, and Vietnam, and Indonesia, and... well, you get the idea, the Cubans are a wonderful people beset with a truly repulsive government. Second is the climate; the place should be a paradise. Instead it's a prison, 90 miles of choppy, shark infested waters from Miami, and still thousands risk death to get away. Poor in Florida beats the ever loving shit out of poor in Cuba.

And now Raul Castro is talking about revitalizing the block-snitch system. Nothing like another heavy dose of totalitarianism to revitalize the old failing economy. Hey, it worked for N Korea, right?

In sum, another trip to another commie pisshole later, Fulminandrew is not budging from his position that communism never did any good for anyone, except the commissars. Anyone trying to tell you different is blind, a fool, or sees himself as one of the commissars.