"A Tale of 2 Cubas: Photos"

[Don't Change Your Name]

Conservative idiots (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/9/181646.shtml)

Let's see: they attemp to prove that Cuba is 100% poverty, 100% destroyed, while the tourist facilities are excellent.

First row: a crappy view of Havana, compared to a "non-cubans allowed" beach.
Second row: a "supermarket" and a perfect food ration for the tourists
Take a look at the fourth "Cuba not for Cubans" pic: excuse me but I don't think most shops in the "democratic" capitalist world are like this. In fact the only time in my life i saw this was in airports and in some shoppings (where most people can't spend too much time because they don't have enough money). This pattern is followed by the rest of the strategically well planned pics of this fascist pamphlet.
Of course that all the tourist facilities have to be so coooool, because otherwise nobody will go. If we consider Cuba's economical situation they can't just make tourists not attracted. And after all, this same idiots who create this sites are the same bastards that go and enjoy their damn holidays there.

[Dirty Commie]

Reminds me of a place that is full of slums and tourist shops that make the place look wealthy... the state of florida

We have a situation like that here, everything that is out of site from the tourists and the retirees is a shithole, empty ponds filled with garbage, crumbling inner city apartment builidings covered with billborads to hide the condition they're in.

[Al Creed]

Why is the first pic in Black and white and/or look like a movie set?

You are right, this is propaganda, BIG time.

He acts like Poverty doesn&#39;t exist on the North American Continenet. <_<

[Scottish_Militant]

Most of those pictures are from film sets I think

[Cobra]

Those pictures show "impoverished" workers next to their bourgeois oppressors. Seems like communist propaganda if you ask me. Only its not. It&#39;s capitalist propaganda. How ironic.

Does anyone know what those egg shaped things are in the picture of "Downtown Havana" (the sixth picture down)?

[setumismo]

i think its interesting how its such an apparent crime to have a section of the beach where cubans arent allowed... but on cruise ships the employees arent allowed to mingle with the guests, and there are areas they arent allowed on... or in brasil, the people who live in the favelas (extremely impoverished slums) are walled off from the rest of rio and not allowed in certain parts or on the beach either... why doesnt anyone have a problem with THAT? (...or a problem with the conditions these people live in...)

[perception]

Truth be told those "Cuba for Cubans" pictures were pretty accurate depictions of Havana. Some of the smaller cities are a lil nicer. But for the "Cuba for Tourists" - you notice they were only showing the inside of stores? Most of the tourist hotels are pretty sh¡tty by Western standards. There are a few nice tourist resorts (Cubans ARE allowed on most of the beaches) but these generate a lot more money for the Cuban people than they cost them.

[perception]

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4287211019


some pics I took of Cuba

[dark fairy]

whoa is all i can say ...WHOA....

[Xvall]

Pathetic propaganda. I can show pictures of inner cities in America that look worse.

[Raisa]

Originally posted by Al [email protected] 15 2004, 12:02 AM
Why is the first pic in Black and white and/or look like a movie set?

You are right, this is propaganda, BIG time.

He acts like Poverty doesn&#39;t exist on the North American Continenet. <_<
You try going to some of the places tucked into my part of the world....of Florida...and it is amazing.
And people want to hold Cuba in the flames for their poverty. There is places here that I am amazed people live in. Homes with holes in them and such.

[Sabocat]

The one thing they don&#39;t mention of course, is that even though the buildings may be run down and the people relatively poor in money, they are provided free education and healthcare.

The buildings look like hell because the contractors that built them during the Batista years (from the U.S.) used poor building materials for a seacoast town. Concrete and iron rod. The buildings are literally disintegrating.

[Severian]

What these pictures reflect is the gap between the "First World" and the "Third World" - really, the imperialist countries and the colonized countries.

[DaCuBaN]

1. The embargo, established in 1962, was motivated by the confiscation, without compensation, of American business and properties in Cuba in violation of international laws that establish monetary compensation to owners.

oooooh I must write to my MP and get him to start the embargo on the USA over the Suez Canal and the FUCKING VETO&#33;


2. The embargo also took on a political character as Castro refused to respect the fundamental rights of the Cuban people. Massive and summary executions without due process of law, imprisonment of political opponents, the dissolution of judicial power, the establishment of "revolutionary" tribunals headed by judges aligned with the political police, the prohibition of free movement in and out of the country, the dissolution and prohibition of political parties -except the communist party - and the intervention of labor unions, were all strong-arm tactics imposed by Castro to consolidate his absolute control and power, eliminate democracy and subjugate the Cuban people. The commercial embargo was a measure undertaken by the United States to send Castro the message that his criminal and anti-democratic behavior was unacceptable and that he would not benefit from credits and trade with the United States.

aha&#33; who are you holding in that annexed territory on Cuba again? oh yeah it&#39;s pow&#39;s without trial isn&#39;t it....


3. Others events that demonstrated the need to adopt measures such as the commercial embargo were the armed infiltration directed by Castro in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala and Colombia with the purpose of overthrowing their governments, and the well known destabilizing and subversive activities in other Latin American countries including Peru, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.


and you&#39;d NEVER send forces in to make a favourable regime change now, would you...


4. In 1974, following the rapprochement between the United States and China, the U.S. also sought engagement with Castro. Unilaterally, President Gerald Ford decreed a partial lifting of the embargo, allowing U.S. business established in other countries or their subsidiaries, to engage in commercial transactions with Cuba. This goodwill gesture on the part of the United States remained unanswered by Cuba, despite the fact that trade between Cuba and American business reached &#036;704 million in 1989. In contrast, Castro&#39;s behavior became increasingly aggressive as opposed to conciliatory. For example, he sent Cuban troops to join the Armed conflicts in Angola and Ethiopia, and was involved in conflicts in the Middle East (Golan Heights) as well as Indochina.


Well they&#39;d starved his people for the best part of a decade by that point and they expect HIM to apologise? Messed up ppl tbph


5. Fidel Castro calls the embargo a "blockade", to mislead public opinion into believing that the U.S. impedes free trade. That is totally false. The embargo is simply "no trade" between the United States and Cuba. The island can trade with any other country it chooses. Cuba can even acquire American products through Panama, Mexico or Canada. Tourist hotels (for the exclusive use of foreigners) are stocked with well-known U.S. brands

I&#39;d call it a blockade - stopping of trade between two nations by one of the nations... what else could it be?


6. Some argue that if the embargo is lifted, Castro will induce democratic change, or at least respect the basic human rights of the Cuban people. However, during the October 1999 visit to Cuba by Governor George Ryan of Illinois, journalists posed the following question to Castro: Would the lifting of the U.S. embargo produce a democratic opening in Cuba or at least lead to reforms? The dictator&#39; response was categorical: "No, we do not accept conditions of any kind."


Yup... playing at their own game &#39;We don&#39;t deal with terrorists&#39; :lol: :D

[Dirty Commie]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26 2004, 09:09 PM

You try going to some of the places tucked into my part of the world....of Florida


what part of florida? I&#39;m the south side of st. petersburg...real shit hole. The north side is amazingly rich.

[perception]

word? North Tampa, &#39;suitcase city&#39; representin&#39; right here. I got peoples on the south side.

[Dirty Commie]

North Tampa...that&#39;s Ybor right? I&#39;ve got friends there...that place is neat, but poor as hel.l

[perception]

Originally posted by Dirty [email protected] 28 2004, 01:06 PM
North Tampa...that&#39;s Ybor right? I&#39;ve got friends there...that place is neat, but poor as hel.l
Nah, I&#39;m talking University Mall area, north of Busch Gardens

[Hate Is Art]

I love Busch Gardens :D Great Them Park, Kumba and Montu are like the ultimate roller coasters :D

My grandparents used to live in Duneden, near clearwater, if you know where it is?

[Dirty Commie]

are you in the area?

I know the clearwater area....the place is creepy, all the scientologists live there.

[Take the Power back]

Even my city has areas to compare to those "bad" pictures. I think just about every major city in the world does, and this is just another shot at Cuba, of course.