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Originally Posted by pallo
1. The reasons why Cubans are driving cars that are 50 years old and live amongst dilapidated buildings is due to the despicable and illegal embargo imposed on them by the USA, so if you want to blame someone you should blame your own country.
2. To Compare North Korea to Cuba is insulting to say the least. Cuba might be dictatorial in some aspects, but I can assure you that Cubans enjoy a lot of freedoms that North Koreans can only dream about.
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Be careful of the propaganda you hear and read.
I have stayed at length with Cubans in Cuba and had the 'pleasure' of living like a Cuban. I was privy to gain first hand knowledge of the following:
1) the communist block captain has the right to inspect any home at any time. Homes actually have an inspected card on the door very similar to what you see in gas station washrooms.
2) cubans have a ration card for virtually all the food they eat. If they have children, they are blessed to get a small ration of milk. All Cubans eat the same diet all the time. At first, this seemed kinda fun and was quite delicious, but believe me, it gets old really fast. My translater didn't even have a concept for the term 'dough'. He had no idea what unbaked bread would be.
3) cars are old not because of the embargo but because the regime deems that
ALL Cubans may not live with any improvements from beyond the revolution. Of course, all does not include government officials and the like which is why you see some newer vehicles (even Toyotas, Hondas, Mercedes) in Cuba.
4) Until very recently, Cubans were not allowed phones, computers; in restaurants, hotels, airports or other places where there are tourists; they cannot make improvements to their homes (which they do not own)
5) Cubans aren't even allowed to have freaken beards!! Why you ask, because only Fidel is allowed to have a beard. How's that for ya?
I could go on and on.
so, instead of reposting a Wikipedia article on the US embargo of Cuba, perhaps venture into the real Cuba.
Beyond that, your photos are truly spectacular and give me a great desire to return and visit my friends in Cotorro (a suburb of Havana) and in Mantua (a very poor community in the very west point of Cuba.)
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I know things are not great in Cuba, but if the only alternative is the country being run by those rabid right wing republicans emigrees who live in Florida then I definitely prefer the current status quo
Just messing with you mate. I am very liberal as well, if I could snap my fingers and make the US have a system like Denmark I would in a heart beat. I have been talking with Freki and he is a really cool guy, I love the way that Danes care about each other and really focus on making society as a whole better. 
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