CORNEL DACOSTA wrote:
I too visited Cuba and found much to commend about it---but then, I am a
left-winger. But I also believe in criticising things too. For example, I was
genuinly surprised that there was so little public transport by way of bus
provision across the main cities and people would wait for anything like three
or more ours to travel between destinations with which I became familiar. Yes,
I know about the famed health service and Cuba's offer, including to the USA in
a crisis but I wish there were more buses! As I happened to travel by private
taxi all over, and there always was spare capacity, I instructed each driver to
pick up passengers en route and drop them appropriately. Such people were most
grateful to a tourist like me and I wish they did not have to rely on my kind
of 'charity and generosity'.
Just one small other point, I noted how much Cuba was like the Soviet Union
that I had driven around for three weeks in 1968 including the distinctive
smell of the petrol and the rationing system for petrol as well as the
friendliness of the people. As to the health system in America, I can't wait
for Hillary to make it.
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Hi Cornel,
One of the first thing I noticed in Cuba was that the "buses" were converted
Russian SAM transporters. The ordinary Cubans were benefiting from collapse of
the cold war (at last). I once worked for a military contractor in Tanzania.
We built shelters for the SAM transporters. At the time, the Russian Colonels
did not let us get closer than ten feet to the vehicles. Those "state secrets"
now operate as buses in Cuba. You may have noticed that it is customary for
Cubans to line up on the roadside looking for a ride to work. Any truck that is
going empty will stop and people climb into the truck for a free ride. Unlike
their neighbours, Cubans have no fear that the truck drivers or anyone else
will molest them. While transport services may be of laughable standards
compared to the western world, I feel the real measure of their standards is to
compare them to other islands in the Caribbean, much in the same way that one
does not compare the standards in
Goa to the west but rather to the neighbouring states in India.
I spent some time in the good ol' USSR in 1984/85. During that period, two or
three Soviet leaders died and everyone in the USSR was unsure of what was going
on until the official announcement a few days later. I took a flight from the
USSR to India. When I arrived in Delhi, the immigration officer told me that
since I held a foreign passport, he would not allow me out of the airport. I
had previously told him I was planning on visiting the Taj Mahal and then
proceeding to Goa by train. When I asked him why he would not let me out, he
told me that Indira Gandhi had been shot a few days earlier and that Hindus
were still stopping trains and killing Sikhs and vice-versa. One thing
communism has achieved in Cuba is that it has almost wiped out religious and
racial discrimination. Another thing that communism has achieved there is
Cuba's medical services. Countries that provide free medical services that are
better than Cuba's can be counted on the fingers
of one hand.
As far as Hilary is concerned, if she is elected into power, I will be shorting
all the HMO's. When Bush 43 was elected, I switched my entire hign risk
portfolio to oil stocks. When the US invaded Iraq, I added the arms
manufactures to my portfolio. When Bush and co decided to stop publishing the
amount of money they were printing, I shorted the US dollar. As you can guess,
there is a lot of money to be made on the outcome of US politics.
Coming back to Macacas, I read that the Deputy Mayor of New Delhi got killed by
a Macaca attack last month. Apparently, large groups now live in New Delhi. The
Deputy Mayor was trying to flee an attack by the monkeys in his home when he
slipped and fell two stories. Maybe Rajan is right, a six lane highway will
only make it easier for the inhabitants of the less developed areas to arrive
in and destroy the current way of life of Goa's residents ;-)
Mervyn3.0
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