CUBA!!! FILE DIRECT!!!!

[John Pleisse]

This will be good for GA....eventually. And soon, my #4's will be worth the avgas!!!! Seriously, how long do you think it'll take for democracy and free travel? Great minds on this board, would love your take.

[dcrogers11]

I had a friend travel there this past summer and had a great time.  There are daily flights out of Cancun I believe.  I know my Canadian friends have always enjoyed going there for vacations.  Thinking politically, it may be a pipe dream to think that Cuba will change much until all the Castro regime is dead and gone. 

Don

[Piloto]

The travel restrictions from the US are due to the US government. Thousands from other countries (Europe and Latin America) visit the island freely for tourism and business. I personally do not see any justification for the current US embargo against Cuba. Over 50 years it has proven worthless. Castro won. He outlived JFK, Reagan, Chavez and others. And is peacefully cleaning his graveyard shovel for the next one. On his shovel handle he engraved the names of all those that went ahead of him. Castro's survival secret: "the opposition is in Miami not in Cuba". He gives free inner tubes to those against him and point the way to Miami.

 

José

[DaV8or]

When the Castros are dead, relations will be normalized. I don't expect Cuba to suddenly to become a democracy though. I expect them to stay Communist like Viet Nam did. I don't expect Cuba to change much at all. It will remain broken down and struggling, but free to travel to directly. Until they allow foreign investment and ownership there, nothing will really change and maybe they really don't need to change, I don't know. If the Cubans are happy the way things are, it's all good. IMO, the last thing the US, or anybody else needs to do is try to pressure Cuba into being kind of western democracy. They need to come to it on their own... if they even want to.

 

Please, no more "nation building".

[John Pleisse]

I think this is a watershed. I have been vehement about Obama and make no bones about his short comings. I ooze red and I can promise you, this is a smart move. Things will happen fast from here on out. Americans will be laying on the beach in Verradero within two years. Raul is almost 85 and he knows he can reverse the tide. A full democracy within a decade, maybe sooner. The people of that country deserve prosperity and this is like the Berlin wall coming down.

[yvesg]

Have been to Cuba about a dozen times for vacation, always with the airlines. I did start to make plans to fly there with the Mooney eventually... hop to Bahamas and then Cuba. But if things normalize between them and USA it will be much easier from the Keys.

Would be fun to have a group (like the Caravan) fly there.

Yves

[Rwsavory]

Christmas in Havana.  I like the sound of that.

[fantom]

Two years, prosperity like before Castro, fake democracy, 1% rich and the rest in total poverty. Havana made Las Vegas look like the bible belt.

Sure...the 'good old days.'

[Guest]

The travel restrictions from the US are due to the US government. Thousands from other countries (Europe and Latin America) visit the island freely for tourism and business. I personally do not see any justification for the current US embargo against Cuba. Over 50 years it has proven worthless. Castro won. He outlived JFK, Reagan, Chavez and others. And is peacefully cleaning his graveyard shovel for the next one. On his shovel handle he engraved the names of all those that went ahead of him. Castro's survival secret: "the opposition is in Miami not in Cuba". He gives free inner tubes to those against him and point the way to Miami.

 

José

Jose,

It must be Christmas, I find I'm agreeing with your post.

Clarence

[cbarry]

Since when did the Castro family agree to lessen their strangle hold on the Cuban population? The saying goes: "for a communistic country to move toward a democracy, the democratic country (that provides monetary aid...)must move toward communism."

[PTK]

The travel restrictions from the US are due to the US government. Thousands from other countries (Europe and Latin America) visit the island freely for tourism and business. I personally do not see any justification for the current US embargo against Cuba. Over 50 years it has proven worthless. Castro won....

The entire world, except th US, is in fact trading with Cuba and the Cubans are still fleeing on rafts!

What does that tell you?

It tells me that the problem is not the U.S.! It's the Cuban dictators sacrificing the welfare of their people for their personal agenda against the U.S. Yes, they may have won but their people lost!

Where the U.S. is wrong in a sense and appears to be applying double standards is we have a trade embargo with Cuba but trade with China! And arguably China is worse than Cuba as far as human rights, prisons, etc.

Do we have a policy not to trade with communists or don't we? If we do than we must not trade with them across the planet or alternatively, get rid of that policy and double standard.

[John Pleisse]

Two years, prosperity like before Castro, fake democracy, 1% rich and the rest in total poverty. Havana made Las Vegas look like the bible belt.

Sure...the 'good old days.'

 

Bama used the word...."unions" in his speech today. Also, 1955 preceded modern welfare states and the kind of social engineering post 1960. Think about it.......these people can't buy or sell anything. Will it still be f'ed up? Sure.

Rubio was spitting bullets today.

[Hector]

I guess the real question is whether this will be a catalyst for real democratic change in Cuba. As long as the Castro brothers continue to exercise their brand of communism in Cuba I'm afraid the failed state that Cuba is will continue regardless of these changes. Better trade with the U.S. Will bring much needed revenue to the organs that run the country but I suspect life will not improve much for the vast majority of the Cuban people that want real freedom. I really hope I'm wrong. I hope this will be a catalyst that will bring about the conditions for change that even the Castro brothers will not be able to stop or contain for long. The only thing that will fix Cuba is real democracy. Is this a baby step that will eventually gets us there? Only time will tell. I would love to fly my mooney there some day. I still have lots of family living there. I talked to my Mom earlier today about the possibility of visiting Cuba so she can see her brothers and sisters. Joked about taking the Mooney there. Unfortunately for her the memories are mostly bitter. When you have family and friends executed or jailed for over 20 years for simply voicing their opposition to the regime it is hard to find a silver lining in any of this, at least while the Castro brothers remain in power. I'm hoping for the best, but will not be surprised if it does not end well.

[Piloto]

After the TV announcement today of the US and Cuba establishing embassies. Fidel was interviewed for comments at his country home regarding possible visit of Obama to Cuba. While engraving names on his graveyard shovel he asked "Is Obama with a B or a V?"  "Hope Obama brings more inner tubes" he said. At the Malecon in Havana they are building a big statue of Fidel with his left hand giving away an inner tube while his right hand is pointing toward Miami. At the base of the statue "Viva la revolucion".

 

During the cold war not even the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, Interpol, MI6, the Marines could reach him. He never answer the phone.

[N201MKTurbo]

Communism is an economic system, that left to itself will eventually implode. Communism can only survive when it is the farce perpetrated by a dictatorship to placate the masses.

The problem isn't communism, it is the dictatorship, which only really cares about itself.

[Guest]

Once democracy is established in Cuba perhaps they could borrow the Florida hanging chad counter to make the transition complete.

Clarence

[Piloto]

Communism is an economic system, that left to itself will eventually implode. Communism can only survive when it is the farce perpetrated by a dictatorship to placate the masses.

The problem isn't communism, it is the dictatorship, which only really cares about itself.

The previous USSR and China were very poor countries that transition from monarchies to communism. In the span of less than a 100 years they became world powers able to put a man in space. Democracy is not applicable to many poor illiterate countries in the world. Because voters usually vote for the one akin to them with the most promises but not qualified for the job. 

 

José

[Hector]

Give me liberty, or give me death (Patrick Henry, 1775)

[Marauder]

"Remember the Maine!"

[Piloto]

Give me liberty, or give me death (Patrick Henry, 1775)

 

Just give me money. Liberty without money gets you nowhere

[Hector]

Just give me money. Liberty without money gets you nowhere

The people in Cuba have neither. But with liberty I have no doubt money will come. Under a true democracy Cuba would completely transform within a decade. The misery that is the communism system would give way to hope, entrepreneurship, business, free enterprise. They will flourish, I have no doubt!!

[bonal]

China has money pouring in by the ship load and has had open trading with the whole world and even though there are signs that the people want change things have not changed much at all there in terms of human rights.

[flyboy0681]

The travel restrictions from the US are due to the US government. Thousands from other countries (Europe and Latin America) visit the island freely for tourism and business. I personally do not see any justification for the current US embargo against Cuba. Over 50 years it has proven worthless. Castro won. 

 

 

 

 

We are in 100% agreement.

[Piloto]

The people in Cuba have neither. But with liberty I have no doubt money will come. Under a true democracy Cuba would completely transform within a decade. The misery that is the communism system would give way to hope, entrepreneurship, business, free enterprise. They will flourish, I have no doubt!!

 

Haiti which is a democracy and next to Cuba has a per capita income of $1,300 while communist Cuba has a per capita income of $10,000. Cuba public debt is 35.9% GDP vs 71.8% GDP for the US (CIA World facts book). Health service in Cuba is free and good. Blacks in Cuba do not riot and burn their own towns.  

 

José

[Hector]

Haiti which is a democracy and next to Cuba has a per capita income of $1,300 while communist Cuba has a per capita income of $10,000. Cuba public debt is 35.9% GDP vs 71.8% GDP for the US (CIA World facts book). Health service in Cuba is free and good. Blacks in Cuba do not riot and burn their own towns.

José

Piloto, I don't even know how to reply to that because your idea of what is going on in Cuba is so far removed from reality that I'm sure anything I say will not change your opinion in any way. So let me just touch on one item. The wonderful healthcare system that you seem to think Cubans have. My aunt is a doctor working in Cuba earning $45 a month. Their nutrition is so bad that they are completely dependent on the medicines that we send them from here. They suffer from extreme calcium deficiency, and don't have any supplements, vitamins, or even the most basic pain medicines like Tylenol, Advil, or aspirine. The medical career in Cuba used to be as laborious and difficult as it is in the states. If you wanted to become a doctor you had to bust your ass studying followed by several years of internship. Now Cuba pumps out half-baked doctors by the thousands with only 3 years of study and no practice. They send these all over the world, like Venezuela, in trade for oil and hard currency. These 'doctors' would not even qualify as an RN here in the states. Yes, healthcare is absolutely free in Cuba, but if whatever ails you can't be cured by an aspirine sent by your Cuban relatives living in the states, well then you are screwed. Let me do some simple math here.....45X12=540. No, not even close to $10K.