He wasn't my dictator, but you didn't hear me vocally complain about him either.
The Cubans in my area are rejoicing.
Well.. Who's flying to cuba to bring back boat loads of old 50's iron?
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Well.. Who's flying to cuba to bring back boat loads of old 50's iron?
Not me. You don't want to look too close at those cars. Took a lot of "creativity" to keep them running all these years, especially if you know what island air does to tin.
It was not until the Island opened to tourist that the owners really cared about the looks so they could cart around tourist.
I wonder if a guycould go down there with a barge full of tauruses and luminas to trade for belairs and fairlanes and both sides walk away feeling like they made out on the deal.
In reply to gearheadmb:
Beige corollas
In reply to I was thinking vans or pickups. They seem like they'd be more useful if construction took off.
In other news:
gearheadmb wrote: I wonder if a guycould go down there with a barge full of tauruses and luminas to trade for belairs and fairlanes and both sides walk away feeling like they made out on the deal.
You'd probably be better off exporting classic cars and parts to Cuba, they'd put them to use in the tourist industry.
Classic American iron isn't the only game in town in Cuba. They have Commie cars too, and more recent third worldy machines that have been imported through Mexico.
One of the forklift wholesalers that i know has sold machinery to Cuba via Mexican brokers. The broker buys the stuff and its shipped to a Mexican port, they turn around and put them right on a ship bound for Castro-land .
captdownshift wrote: In reply to gearheadmb: Beige corollas
GiveN the way that Hispanic culture deals with cars here, you're probably riggt. Ae101 corollas and ek civics.
The carry on luggage headed to Cuba with locals has been tons of 50's parts for quite some time.
Um. You guys know that the rest of the world doesn't have an embargo on Cuba right? My company has done design work on some of their power generation stations. The majority of the new cars are Renaults, Toyotas and Hyundais with a few Chinese things mixed in. Most of the 50s stuff has been kept around for the tourist trade. My wife and I took a tour of Havana in a 1953 Buick powered by a 1990s Isuzu diesel truck engine. It was actually really cool. I feel for the Cuban people but they're actually better off than most 3rd world nations.
Wayslow wrote: Um. You guys know that the rest of the world doesn't have an embargo on Cuba right? I feel for the Cuban people but they're actually better off than most 3rd world nations.
I've just spent the better part of 2 hours with a Cuban refugee and heard "his story", as they call it, as well as discussing how they think things will change and living standards.
The rest of the world not having an embargo on Cuba doesn't mean the Cuban people actually have access to all that stuff. The government and the "favored" of the government get it all and the people get little.
He was telling me about The Rake. He said that for everything they make over $30 a month the majority gets Raked off by the government or it's representatives. So they all try to make less than $30. Your car title really is titled to the government and if it's too nice and one of the government workers decides they want it they just take it and give you up to $100 for it. And then The Rake happens.
They have a very good school system, but once you get your degree unless you are working for the government you don't get to use it. The man I was talking to has 4 family members that are Doctors, but weren't allowed to practice in Cuba they had to emigrate. BTW Cuba's version of emigration is to "throw you in the water" which means you have to leave on a leaky boat. Most don't make it.
If you know Cuban people you know that once they like you they will share Their Story. It's a great honor to hear Their Story. The capitals are how they think of it.
It's the story of how they and their family got out of Cuba and what they left behind. I've talked to the daughter of the man who owned all the bus system in Cuba before the revolution. The family of the man who I spoke to tonight owned many properties and an island. His story was learned by him 2nd hand because he and his twin brother were only 5 months old when his mother left the island.
He never knew his dad. He worked at Guantanamo in some sort of support position they thought. They knew his name and it was on his birth certificate but he left soon after their birth.
His mother left on a small leaky boat. There were 20 people on their and it rode low in the water with water coming over the gunwales. They had lots of food, but little water. His mother was the only woman and he and his brother were still nursing.
They threw a party and ate all the food because they were only going 90 miles to Florida. But because no one was sailor they got lost. Instead of going only 90 miles they went the long way to Mexico. There were fights, people dying and at one time they wanted to throw the 2 babies overboard as shark food to keep the sharks from tipping the boat over as they hit the boat.
Only 4 people survived.
They lived in Mexico for several years with his mother working as a housekeeper/nanny for a family. When they decided to come to America his mother who could neither read or write gathered up all their papers to prove they were Cuban not Mexican and headed north. At the border they took his mother aside and separated the boys from her. They thought she was trying to smuggle Mexican kids across the border. His mother looked white, but they were brown from playing in the sun.
She was held for quite a long time until one day a man came in and asked her about the boy's father. Being unable to read she hadn't been able to see that on the birth certificate the father was shown to be an American. It turned out he was in the military and not just support personel. He was Native American and spoke spanish so she thought he was Columbian or Spanish.
They had found him in Korea and confirmed her story and even shipped him back to the states. Long story short the kids were American and could enter the country and with the father's help his mother also became a citizen.
Being better off than some 3rd world countries doesn't mean they have a life that you and I would think of as being better off than anyone.
You will see pictures of steak in many of the shots of all the celebrations. The reason being is that cows & steak, while they used to be common before the revolution, have been controlled for so long a steak is considered a sign of the well off. So to show they have a steak shows the world they are well off now and have prospered in spite of Fidel.
They have no idea what his brother will do because even tho he's ostensibly been in charge for a while the calls have still all been Fidel's.
Raul is very much a more caring guy than Fidel was. Having said that, I refuse to speak ill of the dead (aside from a few special cases) and will just say this. I feel bad for Raul and family that he lost his brother. I will also respect him as Fidel was one of the few people to give the finger to the US and survive.
mad_machine wrote: Raul is very much a more caring guy than Fidel was. Having said that, I refuse to speak ill of the dead (aside from a few special cases) and will just say this. I feel bad for Raul and family that he lost his brother. I will also respect him as Fidel was one of the few people to give the finger to the US and survive.
i have nothing against saying anything bad about the dead... sometimes, the world is a better place because someone has died- this is one of those times.
Yeah, there are people it's OK to speak ill of, and Fidel Castro counts as the newest addition to that list.
Fidel Castro dies on Black Friday- the ultimate sign of Capitalism.
Poetic.
The CIA's plot to let him die of old age finally pays off..
Wayslow wrote: Um. You guys know that the rest of the world doesn't have an embargo on Cuba right? My company has done design work on some of their power generation stations. The majority of the new cars are Renaults, Toyotas and Hyundais with a few Chinese things mixed in. Most of the 50s stuff has been kept around for the tourist trade. My wife and I took a tour of Havana in a 1953 Buick powered by a 1990s Isuzu diesel truck engine. It was actually really cool. I feel for the Cuban people but they're actually better off than most 3rd world nations.
Oh, no I didn't realize that because I'm a dumb American. I eat at McDonalds every meal and only shop at Walmart.
You know we aren't all idiots right?
In reply to iadr:
So, they are poor because of our embargo? Can't have anything to do with their Communist Socialist Dictator?
My Cuban grandfather would disagree with you. He was ousted by the Castro regime in 1957 like thousands of competent businessmen and leaders. Castro took his businesses (which employed hundreds of people), and ran him out of the country with nothing but the clothes on his back. Companies failed, employees became poor and wards of the state. If Abuelo was still alive, he'd be dancing in the streets of Miami at the death of the man who destroyed the country he loved.
But if you want to flog yourself, go ahead.
My high school Spanish teacher came here from Cuba as a child. She tried on several occasions to tell us how awful the conditions were for her family before they decided they were better off floating here in a small boat but she would breakdown in tears each time. Seeing how much she loved this country and hated Fidel Castro and that more people have died trying to get here than to go back I'm left to assume he was not a very nice person.
blockquote>Wall-e wrote:
Dicks out for El Hombre!
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