V and I just spent 3 days (2 nights) in Habana, Cuba.
Habana is divided into two main parts, Habana Vieja (old Habana) and the rest. We stayed in Habana Vieja and, owing to the very short amount of time we had, didn’t see any other parts of Cuba.
Habana Vieja is one of the grandest cities we have ever seen. Very few buildings over 5 stories tall, practically none younger than 80 years old and most in bad need of a coat of paint. A few blocks in the city centre have been done up, but most of the place is in an advanced state of decay, giving the city the air of an unkempt but once very good looking old man. Ultra cool Cuban Jazz wafts out of cafes and divy looking bars alike, gorgeous people walk just to walk and there is a lot of smiling and laughing going on. Despite the trade embargo, Cuba is still a Caribbean island, and the way people strut, stride and roll conveys a sexy alegria that belies the problems that Cuba continues to face. Habana has just leapt onto the top of my “favourite cities in the world” list.
There are a few things that kind of suck about Cuba. There are two currencies – foreigners use the Cubano convertible and locals use the peso Cubano. The Cubano Convertible is worth about as much as a Euro: 25 times as much as the Peso and so foreigners literally pay 25 times as much as the locals. From a step away, it looks like a good strategy for pumping money into the cuban economy, but when you are there you realise that it provides a huge incentive for Cubans to hassle you. We had any number of people try to take us to a café or bar that we were already going and then hit the proprietor up for a finders fee. A couple of other people tried to scam us for a drink. There are police every couple of blocks, and one of their jobs is to stop people hassling tourists, but the police are super relaxed and too busy flirting with girls to pay much attention to dodgy goings on outside their own pants.
But even with Cubanos Convertibles, bounders, lazy cops and everything else, Habana is still a relatively cheap place to holiday. We stayed in an excellent Casa Particular called Chez Nous, and it cost just 30 Cubanos per night for the two of us. Food and drinks were pretty cheap. Cuba is not an expensive place to travel - once you get there it costs about as much as Mexico.
On Sunday night we left Chez Nous at about 11PM to look for one of those famous live music dance clubs. Our first port of call was a local square which was filled with people listening to a very good band that was playing in a café. Good but we were really hoping to find a salsa club. The second attempt failed when we paid 10 cubanos each to get into a club that sounded good from the street, only to find that it was a half empty disco with no band. Damn. We got half our money back because even the proprietor could tell that it sucked. After that we walked around a bit and stumbled on a right dirty Cabaret place that really set us back on our heels. As we walked in, a full scale dance show was underway with long skirts pulled up to show off muscled thighs, fixed grins and crazy dance steps. We ordered a couple of Mojitos and settled in like the dirty pervers we really are. After the first act, a DJ played excellent dance music for half an hour, during which time a hugely stupid fat guy made me move aside so he could sit his lazy arse down, and even though I was with V, a woman touched my arm and made a meaningful offer. Unperturbed, we found a space where we could dance when a good hip hop troupe came out and played to a super chido back beat. Twas like the night before Christmas, but better. And lots lots seedier.
Over the weekend we had, as you do, conversations with any locals who would talk to us about what it’s like to live in Cuba. People complained of police interference in daily life and we have read of such things as the suppression of gay rights. It was explained to me that, while you can vote for the municipal and state representatives, there is no democracy at the federal level. That would piss me right off if I was Cuban. There is a law that controls the entry of Cubans to hotels and it is also quite difficult, I was told, for Cubans to leave Cuba. On the other hand though, everyone has clothes, a house, something to eat and something to do. I’d say that Cuba is a much better place to live than other similarly impoverished countries. I’d rather be Cuban than a poor Mexican or, for that matter, a poor person in the USA.
The GDP is $4,500 per capita, which is only $100 per year more than Bolivia – where a huge portion of the population people live in mud brick huts and survive by means of subsistence farming. A bit of homework has led me to believe that the US trade embargo is the main cause of Cuba’s poverty, causing shortages not just of hard currency, but also of basic foodstuffs, machine parts, clothing and electronic goods. As I mentioned before, most buildings in the city are in bad need of repair, and the cars are, famously, the same ones that have been on the streets since the 50’s. Despite all this, the literacy rate is over 99%, there is free (but very basic) medical care and a good standard of education. It is interesting to compare the life expectancy in Cuba, 78, with that in Bolivia, 66 (the GDP and lifespan statistics are from the CIA factbook). The US started this trade embargo and accompanying sabotage and terrorist activities in the 50’s, it was endorsed by Kennedy, maintained by every president in between, increased under Clinton and now further tightened by Bush. The main complaints Cuban people made to us were about the high price of food, low salaries and other economic problems – all the result of the embargo rather than the Cuban state apparatus itself.
Despite having read quite widely, I have not found a satisfactory answer as to why the embargo exists. The sytem applied to Cuba appears to be the same as that applied in many other countries: first they tried to buy the place outright, when that didn't work they invaded it (Bay of Pigs) and when that didn't work, they decided to cripple it financially. But why keep it up for 50 years. Some say it is because Castro is a dictator, but there is no way that the USA gives a flying fuck about democracy: George Bush rigged his own election, the US has long enjoyed close links to the Saudi Arabian military dictatorship and nowadays seem to get on fine with China’s openly anti-democratic human rights abusing communist government. The main reason for the embargo is probably to prevent the establishment of a good example. Free health care, free education. It’s pretty obvious that if Cuba wasn’t so poor, it would be a nice place to live, and if they could go there, underclass Americans would have to wonder why they are being so heavily done over by their own supposedly democratic government.
To summarise: I had a very interesting and thought provoking weekend. It has not turned me into a communist, but it has reinforced my belief that a government should always provide education and health care. The Cuban experience is definitive proof that even very poor countries can afford to provide these services.
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