Cuba Today

I recently mentioned that liberal friends returned from Cuba (right before Castro boxed). ... see: Measure of the Man. As I have indicated, they would not go back for a variety of reason ... but mostly because of the poverty and oppressive atmosphere. However, they did relate a few interesting facts about their experience:

Cuba imposes a 4% tax on converting foreign currency to Cuban currency ... except for American dollars which are hit with an additional 20% surcharge. You had to use this Cuban currency scam because you cannot use credit cards. For less than a week in poverty-stricken Havana, they had to bring in almost $3,000 US.

The primary protein offered at meals was pork ... almost exclusively. And, although they do have cattle, very little beef is eaten. Also though Cuba is surrounded by water, fish is usually not available. Guess why fishing boats are not permitted to fish these plentiful waters? You guessed it ... any boat going out would not come back.

Cuba was once the sugar cane capital of the world. ... and it was the Soviet Union buying this sugar that supplied most of Cuba's hard currency. Today there is virtually no sugar cane grown in Cuba. These fields are all now lying fallow.

They were warned not to talk politics anywhere because everything is bugged -- hotel rooms, cabs, restaurants, even churches. Therefore conversations with Cubans were very circumspect. But as best as they could determine almost every young person wanted to flee Cuba.