Cuba-US Dialogue: Understanding Recent Developments

American President Donald J. Trump floated a “friendly takeover” last week. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed Friday that his government is in talks with the US.

Díaz-Canel described the talks as intending to find solutions through dialogue. They aim to address the bilateral differences we have between the two nations.

Trump cut off discounted Venezuelan oil shipments to the island after his Jan. 3 raid on Caracas that toppled Havana’s socialist ally, Nicolás Maduro

The following notes come from a politically savvy observer, friend and Clever Journeys reader who has visited Cuba on at least two occasions:

“Everyone receives thirty dollars a month, whether they work or not,” he and his wife observed. “It costs about $70 a month per person to survive.”

“Common mothers will prostitute themselves for a dollar or two,” he continued. “They have to steal or sell drugs, whatever it takes to get it done.”

“Theft is not considered immoral in Communist countries. Theft is a way of life, and it’s ingrained in them,” he said, noting “And that’s throughout these socialist countries that is why it’s a clash when they immigrate here where our culture is. We had much more respect for everybody and everybody’s property.”

“There are no hardware stores or ways to get things to repair the place you live. I was in 2 homes. Both of them had the same furnishings as the time of revolution stove’s refrigerators. If they worked, were from nineteen fifty.”

“The homes were dirty inside with the same décor and tile paint that was there in 1950. The mansions are falling in as they have nothing to repair anything.”

“I didn’t see a toilet seat in any place. We went as in. There are no places to go get a toilet seat nor can they afford one.”

“Their rations consist of about 7 items. They pay about a dollar per month for them.”

They limit rations to “so many pounds of rice and beans per person. I think it was ten ounces of chicken and maybe a quarter pound of coffee.”

“They have eaten rice and beans three meals a day, seven days a week for fifty years. No one has ever eaten out.”

“Havanna has a beautiful harbor, but you notice there’s nothing in the harbor-no boats, anything that could float left long ago.”

“Medical care obviously is free because you couldn’t afford to even pay a dollar for it.”

“The Bacardi factory wouldn’t pass inspection anywhere. It was dilapidated, but still putting it out.”

“Booze was cheap,” he explained. “Maybe a dollar a bottle (but) don’t know how much more they could get.”

When they spent a night in the harbor in Santiago, they noted it was, “interesting as there are six hundred thousand people and there’s no emergencies.There’s no sirens it was quiet.”

“Despite what the government propaganda tried to tell us, the Blacks and Whites do not get along,” he remembers. “A cabby took us around and when we got to a neighborhood he said this is where the Blacks live. They don’t do anything they sit on their front porches and sell drugs. They won’t work.”

“I went to a baseball game. It was offered to buy a baseball hat from the team. They took it off the third basement’s head. I paid $25: half went to the player, half went to the cabby. But we have to understand that’s a half a month’s salary.”

“The coach got wind of it and offered a Jersey same routine. He went to a dilapidated stadium across the street from the ballpark. He took someone’s Jersey and gave it to us $50–half to the coach half to the cabbie.”

“Despite water all around and fish all around, there was no fishing as there’s no such thing as a place to buy fishing line hooks or anything along those lines.”