TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

My Week With Fidel & Ernest

BY Dave Ross  on March 19, 2013 @ 4:56 pm (Updated: 8:14 am - 3/20/13 )

We're back in Miami after 8 days in Cuba - a vacation my wife and I chose because a) it's warm, b) we've never been there, c) the US government somehow feels threatened by the cigars, so we had to see them for ourselves.

To travel legally to Cuba, the US government insists that Americans be part of a cultural exchange licensed by the Treasury Department, and board an unmarked chartered flight from Miami...

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...in a special aircraft that takes you 90 miles and about 55 years from Florida. (Which may explain why the flight is $220 per person each way.)

Cuba is a hardcore socialist country - the government owns almost everything, and most workers are paid between $25-$30 a month. Which is why almost every "spontaneous" conversation that people strike up with you on the street here in Havana ("Hello, where are you from?) usually ends with a request for money "to buy milk for the kids." And it's not the Cuban peso they want but the special money only tourists carry (called CUC's) which is what you need to buy the good stuff.

So life is tough. And except for a few historic preservation projects, Havana looks like it hasn't seen a coat of paint since 1959!

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But it's not a prison. You don't see military checkpoints, and no, they don't all want to float to Miami.

Why not? Because while the accommodations are definitely rustic, a lot of stuff is free, including all education from grade school.

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...through graduate school, and of course, health care.

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That includes electrified acupuncture. It does not include privacy, however. I hesitated when I saw this fellow, but our host motioned for me to snap at will. The patient didn't seem to care -- nothing like electrified needles to take the edge off your day.

How about this treatment:

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...all free of charge.

Music is a big deal too.

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Every restaurant, hotel and public square has a band. Favorite songs: Besame Mucho & Guantanamera.

The other thing you'll find everywhere:

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Che Guevara. He gets more face time than Fidel.

Cuba is also the place where your Dad's (or Granddad's) car is living out its golden years.

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Havana is a year-round antique car meet. Some of these have been carefully restored and passed down as the family business. Tourists pay hard currency to be driven around in them.

Here's the old Soviet embassy:

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It exudes a kind of Stalinist warmth. Unfortunately for Cuba it no longer exudes foreign aid. The revolution now has to pay for itself, and that requires a "We're all in this together" mindset:

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That one I agree with. It would remove one more excuse for why the economy doesn't work, because it certainly isn't working the way Cubans expected. It's a patchwork of basic state services and private improvisation. I thought this shot captured the reality pretty well:

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The lights stay on -- but it ain't pretty.

The system was opened up to allow small private businesses in 2011. This is a privately-run tourist restaurant in Trinidad.

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To be legal, it must be operated in the owner's home. But is the bed really used ("Please, take your time, just wake us when you're ready for dessert...") or is it only there for the inspector?


Cubans seem free to speak their minds, and admit the obvious -- that life here isn't easy and the parts of Havana look like they could crumble into the sea at any moment. But they also think socialism is better than the kind of exploitation that preceded it.


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They still seem to believe that it's wrong to get rich, because the only way that can happen is for someone else to get poor. Their priority is to guarantee a basic allotment of food, education, and health care, even if it's at the cost of living in a tiny, poorly maintained apartment building.

Even in Cuba there are those little luxuries.

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Notice she is well within 25 feet of the doorway. (We learned that the secret to proper cigar smoking is never inhale; sip Havana Rum between puffs, and stop when the ash reaches the band.)

In the neighborhoods where the tourist money flows, life, at least on the outside, is like a postcard.

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That's the main square in Trinidad, on the Caribbean coast, about as it was in the 1800's.

This was my first Caribbean experience -- broad sandy beaches, warm breezes, cheap rum.

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Just the occasional botched invasion. Welcome to Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs, where we stopped for lunch! I ordered the pork.

When we got to our hotel in Trinidad at Playa Ancon -- this was the view 100 feet from our door:

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Our group of 18 came from all over the country, Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Chicago, Texas, Virginia, New York City. And I think we're agreed that socialism or not, Americans ought to be able to travel freely here, instead of this charade of booking specially licensed educational tours and flying across the Florida Strait in unmarked chartered planes.

We ought to be able to fly directly to Havana, spread our capitalist propaganda, and then take a red 1961 Thunderbird to the "Floridita" where the daiquiris kept Hemingway reliably intoxicated as he was writing "The Old Man And The Sea."

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I tried one, forgot all my troubles, and we became instant friends.

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By the way, the customs agent scolded me at the Miami airport, but he let me keep my six cigars. Nice of my own government to let me keep my own property.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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Comments (76)


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  • Cameron wrote...
    Why would Cuba want to open up to Washington State rules?
    March 20, 2013 6:16 am
    Ban the smoking of Cigars, even in a private club? There goes one of their most viable industries. Half of their foods would be deemed unhealthy and banned by King County Health Department. Those who want to know what National Health care will look like, look at Dave's pictures, Public accupuncture, cupping, thank goodness he wasn't there on prostate exam day! They probably do them out in the parking lot, afterall it's not like there are a lot of cars out there.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sportsguru wrote...
    Welcome back Dave
    March 20, 2013 6:32 am
    As you can see, we have missed you.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • davima wrote...
    Sounds familiar
    March 20, 2013 6:56 am
    "It's wrong to get rich, because the only way that can happen is for someone else to get poor." That sounds exactly like one of our largest two parties ...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    davima
    March 20, 2013 7:08 am
    And that simple logic is way too complicated for you Rightys to understand.Check the stats the Rich have gotten richer in America while those earning less have gotten poorer.Them are the FACTs Jack
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Dave's best post in a long, long, time. Now, as far as the subject of our embargo goes...
    March 20, 2013 7:09 am
    it's long past time to get over feeling insulted that the Cubans dared make nice with the Soviet Union about 50 years ago. We trade with all of the former so-called "communist" countries everywhere else on the planet- but carry a grudge like some teenage girl who saw her boyfriend lured away when we cling to our outdated policy with Cuba.

    Heck, the biggest bad-A communist country, the Soviet Union, self destructed. The second biggest bad-A communist country, China, now quite literally keep the United States financially solvent by stocking the shelves at WalMart with low priced stuff and buying our T-bills to prevent the collapse of our currency.

    Normalize relations with Cuba. Permit free travel, investment, and trade. What are we afraid of? That our own citizens will be so envious of folks who work for $35 per month in exchange for free but lousy food, free but lousy housing, free medical care of questionable benefit, and a collapsing infrastructure that we will clamor to become communist in the US as well? I'll bet 1,000 to one against that idea.

    Our political and economic system is better. Why not use Cuba to demonstrate to the world, yet again, that making nice with the United States benefits a country and everybody living there? Let our free enterprise system and system of constitutional government strut its stuff.

    But, maybe it makes more sense to punish the Cubans living today for the sins of their grandfathers......... (naw)

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    But those sinful 'grandfathers' (Fidel & Raul) are still alive and in charge.
    March 20, 2013 7:22 am
    AFTER they are gone, the Miami Cuban community will soften. but not until.

    Had we ended WWII with a Germany still Nazi governed, how long would it have taken the Jews to forgive? ...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Ron, it was letting a bunch of folks in Miami set our policy with Cuba
    March 20, 2013 7:33 am
    that put the embargo in place to begin with.

    Too bad if the Cuban community in Miami has a problem with the US joining the entire rest of the world in normalizing relations with Cuba.

    Life would be better for the average person living in Cuba if there was more trade and tourism. I can't understand why the often 2nd and 3rd generation refugees now living in Florida (and elsewhere in the US) would be opposed to better living conditions for their relatives still on the island.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Messup number ONE.
    March 20, 2013 7:12 am
    How much longer does a Cuban live compaired to an American?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DesertRez wrote...
    Treading water?
    March 20, 2013 7:20 am
    Maybe about 7 minutes
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    LOL
    March 20, 2013 7:34 am
    REALLY -- LOL !
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    haha
    March 20, 2013 11:37 am
    Look it up,I did.Why does it make ANY difference how much longer it is,the FACT is its longer and I was replying to a ignorant post by Billy Boy
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DesertRez wrote...
    I read an article
    March 20, 2013 7:19 am
    about their cars...was pretty interesting how they come up with ways to keep them running, such as making their own fan belts, etc. Must have been Motor Trend way back.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    Rez
    March 20, 2013 11:43 am
    I have ridden in old US Army busses in Vietnam that had no radiators,they installed 50 gallon water barrels on the roof of the bus ran a hose to the motor to cool it off.When humans don't have access to things they need they can be quit creative in solving problems.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • kato1967 wrote...
    You should have stayed
    March 20, 2013 7:21 am
    They have implemented all the policies you champion on a regular basis. I can't imagine why you didn't ask to remain forever in this beautiful workers paradise.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ontos wrote...
    Maybe you should have stayed in school.
    March 20, 2013 11:14 am
    I doubt your formal education extended beyond the eighth grade.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • e233 wrote...
    I agree 100 percent
    March 25, 2013 2:06 pm
    Ross needs to go to a place where his ideas are implemented the way he thinks they should be in the US.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Historical footnote
    March 20, 2013 7:25 am
    Immediately following the revolution, Castro first attempted to establish diplomatic relations with the United States.

    The government Castro overthrew was largely a front for organized crime. In that era, there were some murky ties between the US Government and organized crime, and Castro's revolution had cost some of the wrong people in the US too many millions upon millions of dollars. Castro was rebuffed by the US Government.

    After being snubbed by the US, Castro turned to Moscow for economic assistance. How dare he? If the US refused to help him, didn't he realize his only option was to hand things back to the crime lords and disappear someplace?

    Fifty years later, we're still pee owed. Time to get over it.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Old story.......Jack Kennedy otherwise approved all those executions.
    March 20, 2013 7:42 am
    Now can you tell us all about how Ho Chi Min would have been an American ally had WE not been so corrupt ?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    So Ron has no valid rebuttal, and brings up the ghost of Ho Chi Min
    March 20, 2013 8:12 am
    US oil companies (also commonly providing utility services there), US sugar producers, and US organized crime controlled most of the Cuban economy in the late 1950's. US investments there were in excess of $1-billion, back in the days when $1-billion was considered a substantial sum.

    In the US, we were very paranoid about the Russians. The last odors of McCarthyism still wafted through society, and we were looking for "communists" under every rosebush. The public was eager to assume that any sort of "revolution" had to be backed by a communist country, and that Castro must have already colluded with the Russians.

    US interests wanted Castro's revolution to fail, so property could be restored to its rightful owners. Eisenhower slashed the amount of sugar that Cuba could export to the United States. With excess sugar to trade, Castro agreed to trade it to the Soviet Union in exchange for crude oil and other commodities.

    Although Castro had traded with the Soviet Union (from the perspective of most Americans an unthinkable act in the late 1950's), he did not officially declare Cuba a socialist country until the day (in 1961) *after* the CIA had attacked the Cuban airfields and landed 1500 anti-Castro mercenaries at the Bay of Pigs.

    After turning back the invasion at the Bay of Pigs, Castro's popularity among most Cubans was off the charts.

    America wasn't corrupt. But we made some serious diplomatic misjudgments at the time.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    I wonder who our President was during the "Bay of Pigs" invasion....
    March 20, 2013 8:29 am
    Oh, snap.....it was JFK...how could that be, a democrat trying to overthrow another country.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Mario Puza wrote FICTION (mostly).
    March 20, 2013 10:11 am
    So, then, did organized crime also kill Jack Kennedy? ... For SUPPORTING their interests with the Bay of Pigs fiasco? ..... And Ike was a tool of the Mafia sugar cartel?

    I do love the 'What If' approach to history. But once you depart from what actually happened, you can play loose and invent facts. ........ In its best form, 'What If' can give us entertaining fiction and speculation - such as what if the South had won the Civil War? Or Kennedy, never shot, as an elder statesman today.

    In its worst form, 'What If' leads to conspiracy theories, Birthers, Truthers and other nonsense. And fodder for the Discovery Channel.

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  • ron prevost wrote...
    typO
    March 20, 2013 12:24 pm
    PuzO
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  • Seattle Dad wrote...
    Very interesting, but not surprising
    March 20, 2013 8:01 am
    What surprised you Dave? Some obvious questions. Why do you allow the false option of Hard Socialism versus the previous exploitation. They're being exploited now. Of course their are no checkpoints. It's an island. Are their travel options for Cuban citizens to simply go to the U.S. or Canada? Or is it an island prison where they're not allowed to leave?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mobeta wrote...
    Dave should fit right in with his Dictator/socialist/marxist views!
    March 20, 2013 8:02 am
    Boy, looks like the communist/socialist/marxist regime is working pretty well down there. Oh yeah, they have great healthcare. Looks like it's top of the line. Take everyone's money and hand it out as you see fit. How about Europe and the government taking their peoples money out of their bank accounts. Can't happen here, think again. As BHO destroys our country this is where will are going because it's fair. Why should we have all the success. Let's bring us down to size! If I were in charge of the country, I would do exactly what BHO is doing to destroy this country form the inside and I must say he is doing a great job! Congrats to all the uninformed people out there. You put in a guy who truly hates america and is doing everything he can to bring it down. I am ashamed to be an American right now.
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