Castro Dead

[Pamlicotraveler]

Hey everybody...We could go start a thread comparing anchors over at the Havana Journal forum

[freddy4888]

Hey Sandor, isn't it great to live in a country, where you can exercise your beliefs and I can do the same. Isn't it great to live in a country that if I choose to cruise the world in my boat, I can do it without govt. permission. Isn't great to live in a country that if I disagree with govt. policy, I can express my displeasure by voting them out of office. I don't think the people of Cuba can do the same.

[PBzeer]

I have to ask jef, do you actually read what you post? Or do you just copy it from the Nation or NYT?

freddy - great post

[Boasun]

Yeah!! Miss Debbie and Ben & Jerry's are greatly oppressing me. Along with the mere fact that I'm semi-retired.
If Cuba and other third world nations are so great then why are there are so many illegals immigrants in the USA. Even some Canadians are entering to get better health care. Something must be wrong here!? After aren't we suppose to be looking to immigrate toward a better living standard?? Why are the Americans not departing the USA in great numbers to find a better place to live?
Now I'm not saying that we have the best place to live. But looking around this globe that we call earth there isn't really much better place to live. We will find good places in parts of Europe and Oz/NZ, but they are now having their own undocumented worker problems also.
Also many of the large farms here in the USA are having a hard time getting migrant workers due to the crack down on the so called illegals. A lot of them, illegals, are very hard workers. Harder workers then great many of the so called poor people here on the dole. Yes there are poor people here in the states. But it is due to the fact that they are uneducated (dropouts from school) and whine about how much they have to produce as a paid employee. They support the Democratic party because that party will hand out the dole faster then you can blink.
But then most countries have that particular class of people. Wanting to live high on the hog and not wanting to earn it.
The Cubans that come to the USA are thankful for the opportunities that are available here in the USA and a great many of them are highly successful in their vocations. And this is the same for many other immigrants from other countries.

[sailaway21]

Jef,
I wouldn't discuss such matters on a sailing forum either if I had such limited knowledge of the facts. When discussing any issue, on any forum, it helps to bring some actual knowledge of the topic to the table. In this particular case more is required than a heart-felt belief that things must be inherently better in a socialized society. If I had advanced the notion that Mussolini made the trains run on time and did a lot to restore Italian pride you might have brought up some unsettling details about his army's slaughter of Ethiopians for target practise or all of that unpleasantness during the late thirties and the forties. These would be valid rebuttals to my arguments in favor of disciplined scheduling of public transportation. Half baked notions of comparing life in Norway to life in Cuba generally engender a response similar to a snort.

[xort]

Boasun posted "Why are the Americans not departing the USA in great numbers to find a better place to live?"

But they are, look at all the actors who said they would leave the US if Bush was re-elected. They did didn't they? Haven't heard where they went but I'm sure that with all their money, they could choose to go anywhere they pleased. I'm sure some of them moved to Cuba or Venezuela. No?

[Rickm505]

Nah, those actors probably bought their own islands.

No argument with the right wingers here on conditions in Cuba. But.... after 50 years I think our embargo has run it's course. I know it's self serving, but I think they should lift it so I can sail there!!

I think that technically we can sail there and I believe we don't break the law until we spend $1.00 in the Cuban economy. Of course coming home involves a manditory Coast Guard Boarding, impounding of the boat and being charged with something or other.

Much easier if they just lift the embargo

[ebs001]

Rick, according to a Sail article a couple of years ago, if you even plan to go to Cuba your boat can be boarded and impounded.
There is little doubt that the standard of living and quality of life in Cuba for the average Cuban is amoung the lowest in the west. Isn't it great to know that after nearly 50 years the embargo is finally working? Another US foreign policy victory.

[Sailormann]

People are doing all sorts of things to get into the USA... from Mexico and Canada

From Cuba maybe - from Canada ???? Get a grip !

Even some Canadians are entering to get better health care.

Faster occasionally - but definitely not better. And I am pretty sure it is nowhere near the number of Americans coming here to buy their prescriptions....

[camaraderie]

Well after being propped up by Russia for so many years...the full weight of Castro's economic policy (aside from political policy) has come to bear on the Cuban people. Of course many Canadians and Euros seem to be able to look the other way for their own benefit and continue to give him access to hard currency. Do some good for the world and visit Haiti, Jamaica or the DR instead where your $$ might do some instead of prolonging the agony of the Cuban people.