Ebb and Flow

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Cuba... Everyday I feel differently about her. She is a land of such extremities and contrast, of that I am sure, but at the same time I do not feel I can say with any conviction or authority that she is one way or the other, or even say simply from my heart what my feelings are towards her, as they come and go like ebb and flow.

Unfortunately, the travelblog website is blocked in Cuba and I have been dependent on getting an email off to Australia for someone to post my blogs there. I have wanted to document my thoughts more, but it has been difficult to note down what I have felt and seen in the short time slots I have had when I did finally find a tediously slow internet connection in one city or the other. Nevertheless, I will try to recap some of my - our - experiences over the following week so that I can, perhaps, give you a taste of what I have tasted.

Firstly, let me say that Cuba is crazy. She is crazy, her people are crazy. I mean this in the sense of eccentric, wild, outrageous, entirely extreme. They are often totally irrational in their thinkings yet very rational in the way they execute their irrationality. An example: a police-escorted bus drove in front of us along the bumpy country road on Thursday, on the wrong side of the road. It wasn't that he needed the space to fit onto the road like the oversized vehicles in Australia, but he hogged all the same. For some reason or another, the bus held so far to the extreme LEFT side of the road that all the oncoming traffic was pushed onto the dirt so that he could pass. Plenty of room on the right side - his side - but the bus was not interested in driving normally. He would stick more to the centre when there was no oncoming traffic, but the minute another car started heading our way, both the cops and the bus would move to the extreme left and push them off the road. Why? I do not know. But very nicely performed, with loads of Cuban arrogance and the colours of Carribean socialism painted high and low, on the bus as well as on the drivers' ego.

At other times, the things the Cubans do as a matter of fact make much sense in theory, but none whatsoever practically. All over the country, there are “casas particulares”, family-occupied residences that rent out rooms to foreigners for around AUD30 per night. Each casa operator must pay the government a daily fee of around AUD7, regardless of whether they have guests or not. Further, they have to have a license to operate their rentals and each casa is allowed to rent out a maximum of two rooms with two guests per room. It makes sense from the socialistic point of view: the government of Fidel and Raul Castro, which has held power since the highly-celebrated and arduously fought for revolution of 1959, wants to make sure every Cuban has the same amount of everything. No one person is to be better off than another. Everyone should have equal opportunity, the same amount of money, and a base level of living standards. The people pay taxes and the government provides an exemplary standard of health care and rationing so that even the poorest of Cubans has food, shelter and medical attention - at zero to minimal cost. Socialism, or fidelism, as the Cuban version was fondly dubbed by its founders, sounds honourable and decent when described in its base form. The problems arise, as they did in the former Soviet Union and in Cuba today, when you try to implement them in a society where individuals want to improve their lot through initiative and hard work.

The casa owner we stayed with in Cienfuegos, Renee, spoke about the practical frustrations of being restricted in so many shapes and forms. He used to rent out three rooms in his house, the house which was passed down to him from his parents and where he now lives with various aunts and uncles, grandparents and parents, as well as with his girlfriend. But the government placed new restrictions on its people. There were too many people making good money off the tourists and becoming little capitalists. Renee had plans of building a pool and gardens out the back, but now he says, “what for? I am not allowed to make more money. If they find out I am making too much, they will shut me down.” There is a distinct note of frustration as he explains. He has to be so careful because if they want to, they can take everything and leave him with little of the wealth he has built up over the years through hard work and initiative.

In his garage, Renee showed us the pre-revolutionary Old Timer which he bought for around AUD18,000 and fixed up. He now has it on the market for AUD33,000 and hopes to sell it to a wealthy Cuban exile in-country or a foreigner who frequents the island. Is he allowed to do this? Yes. The government allows the sale and purchase of cars only that are pre-revolution built. Therefore, he cannot sell his well-maintained Russian Lada, as the transfer documents would not be legal. Same with his house. He cannot sell it, nor could he buy another house with the money he has saved for him and his girlfriend to live in.

Why do I say all these things? I believe that to understand a people and a culture one must first understand the circumstances in which they live, to which they have been conditioned to live with.

As outsiders, we found the bureacracy and the restrictions deeply frustrating and annoying at times. But now imagine living with it. Imagine not being able to speak your mind for fear of being locked up and tortuned in a prison run by the very people who gave you your freedom some 50 years ago. Imagine not being able to visit some of your own country's beaches because they are reserved for tourists, and you are a Cuban. Imagine living day to day and not knowing what tomorrow will bring, whether those stolen cigars you had to sell last week in order to send money to your daughter in the city may land you in big trouble with the all-present and ever-watching police. Art is suppressed. Literature is suppressed. The USA is bad and you better believe it because to say otherwise and perhap offer a “counterrevolutionary” criticism of your own government may again, land you in jail for years before you may be granted a trial.

Even now, though, as I write this, I realise that there is so much more. Its not this simple either. It goes back to colonial times, to slave trade, to still-present divisions between Blacks and Whites, even in Cuba. They are all equals under their revolution. But some are more equal than others and that is where it all gets sticky.

Cuba used to be quite a divided society with extremes of rich and poor, and this continues underneath all of the equality of socialism. Most Cubans, especially those from the cities, have quite obvious complexes towards tourists: they are Cuban and socialist and proud of it, and you, you stupid tourist, can wait in line for as long as I have to wait in line because this is a country of equality. Its mindblowing and fascinating but oh so frustrating and ostracising when you are the object of a Cuban's manners and gestures.

There were so many times in this crazy country when I just wanted to get out, go home, get back to a normal, civilised and polite society. There were times when you just wanted to turn around and mouth off to the upteenth chauvanist who has harassed you with his eyes and whistles and sex-obsessed comments today, and ask him what he plans on getting out of being so rude to you. Why does he do it?

But then mostly you don't. Because for some reason they are still different to you and I. They have to contend with a revolution gone sour and they are stuck on this island in the Carribean which should be a holiday; but isn't. They are proud and patriarchal and will stick together like glue if you question Cuba and her ways.

My honest opinion (though I didn't think I was capable of giving one): the Cubans are reigned by a mixture of pride, ego, wants and also jealously of the money we have and the opportunities they lack. There are longstanding internal struggles and divisions in all areas from politics to dance. There are the African slave roots and the Spanish colonial roots, and all are jumbled together to produce a society stuck technologically in the 1960's but dealing with much more contemporary and important issues. In one word? Disillusioned. In two words? Forward and backward. In three words? I'm entirely confused : )

X

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Comments

[Craig]

Interesting.
Illuminating. Cuba is a place I want to visit very much and the contradictions make me ever more curious. Beautiful yet harsh. A country that is free whose people who are restrained. It's an odd concept, bordering on doublethink. Your words about Renee are the best, I think. Touching stuff. Thanks for letting us see into your life.