I arrive in Jose Marti airport and in the bus I meet an amiable British girl named Stella. She works for BBC radio, and she is meeting some friends in Habana. I chat with her in the cue for the ‘aduano’, or customs agents. The agents sit inside a white box, covered by glass and stained white doors. You cannot see the other side, where your friends and family might be waiting. Whe you enter the box, the door closes behind you, and you must turn 90 degrees to face the agent, hand over you passport, and be interrogated. It is not like an ordinary visit to any country on vacation. You will be asked why you are arriving, where you wil be going, if you will stay in a friend's house(which is illegal), if you will take any private music classes (which are prohibited) and other personal questions. You will be questioned by an unemotional agent, there is no welcome feeling, and certainly no smile. The wait to enter takes 2 hours, during which there are 3 ‘apagons’, or black outs. Stella has never been to Cuba before, so I fill her in on the details most tourists don’t find out while they visit.
Cubans can’t enter their own hotels. There is rampant prostitution in Habana. The management tries to keep the prostitutes out, and if a normal Cuban person tries to enter a hotel they are denied. You will see in hotels however, many prostitutes with foreign, older men. Older European or Canadian women are often seen with young black ‘jineteros’, lit. ‘jockeys’ or prostitutes as well. These jineteros simply pay the hotel and work without any interference. If a farmer owns a cow, and the cow is stolen, the farmer is forced to pay the government for the stolen cow, some $1,000. If the farmer is caught killing and selling the cow, he is imprisoned for 25 years.
If a man kills another man in Cuba he will go to jail for 15 years. The doctors in Cuba, some of the best in the world, are paid the same as a worker in a cafeteria, 400 cuban pesos. This is about $16 a month. Trash men, police men are paid more, about $36. The majority of salaries are in the $15-20 range per month. Here, a pair of shoes costs $60, a toilet costs $100, a beer $1. These items, are all priced in the CUC, a convertible currency, that no one is paid in. The only items you can buy with Cuban Pesos, are food from the farmer’s market, and some stores which sell home products, but the quality is terrible. Imagine carboard toilet paper.
There are a few good points in Cuba, life there is very safe. After all, with four policeman on every corner in Havana checking anyone's identification cards, you are pretty safe. Where can the robber go when he is already in jail? Everyone knows everyone's business; when there is a robbery, the thieves are usually apprehended swiftly. Many people are unemplyed, and the ones that are employed make such a pittance, that taking days off really have no effect on their income. There is more free time to enjoy there than the average American ever has. Meeting someone at the beach, going to their house, having lunch and dinner together happens often, as the Cubans are very friendly, and eager to know about the outside world.The are no pesticides in Cuba, all the food is organic and delicious. The food is very inexpensive for the tourist, but for the Cuban, it takes about half of their salary. The Cubans don’t pay rent, they don’t pay real estate taxes, they don’t pay death taxes to the government. Their water and gas is provided almost free in some cities. Commerce is strictly controlled. Any exchange of real estate is a lengthy, complicated ordeal. In Habana, no one is allowed to move to the city without displacing some one. If I want to move from Santiago, I must trade my house in Santiago for the one I want to move into in Habana and the person in Habana must go to my home in Santiago.
There are only three channels of television available for the Cubans. I consider that a godsend. WIth hundreds of channels showing the likes of profligate lives on reality shows and other drivel, three channels serious reduces the time anyone can lose channel surfing. However, that luxury comes at a price. The channels are state controlled, therefore completely censored, and sanitized. There is no bad news in Cuba. Every afternoon the news about Cuba only shows local, and national events, weather, and finally the international news. When we watch the national news, it always has stories about the cow born to farmer Jose in Baracoa with three legs, the new school being renovated by 'volunteers', or the minister of agriculture from Granma province talking about the rising protein content of their soy. Those volunteers, they aren't so voluntary. They are children and adults called upon by the Party, during their summer or winter vacation to volunteer to work for the government for free. If they do not go, they will have some difficulty entering a university, or having travel permitted to them within the country. Everyday, the Cubans are bombarded with the international news of the wars and calamity abroad, always directed at the US and its allies. We are painted out to be the evil Imperialists, planning a nuclear attack on Cuba, waging war on the middle east and plotting the destruction of the Cuban goverment. There are shows like the " Mesa Redondo" the round table, which everyday, ironically debate round and round on the same issues: the US blockade, the evil George Bush, the problems in Cuba due to the blockade, why the US is threatened by Socialism, the failing US economy, the failing US health care system, the drug problem in the US, and the Anti-Cuba mafia in Miami working closely with the US government to take back the island.
This propaganda is non-stop, on every street corner, newspaper, radio and television channel. The government never takes the blame for any problems in their country, social, economic or pertaining to the human rights of their people. For them, the US is the cause and oppressor, a convenient target for 47 years.
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