What I learned in Havana talking to ordinary Cubans

Some observations about Fidel's island paradise:

One day, we met a young Cuban man in his late 20s, Felix, who took us on a tour of Havana's medical facilities -- nice spotless ones for tourists, shabby crowded ones for ordinary Cubans. We gave him a few dollars. Although trained as a veterinarian, he said he earned more guiding tourist than he could working for the state.
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Another day, an amicable taxi driver gave us a tour of some nearby resorts outside Havana. Pointing out a group of young men picking up debris in a park, he said in an utterly neutral tone, without hinting at his personal feelings, "Those guys are from a mental hospital, but they aren't crazy." We knew what he was getting at.


At the time of our visit, a crack-down was being undertaken on prostitution, which had become so rampant that it was embarrassing the government: Cuba was earning a reputation a a hot sex tourism spot. Yet here and there, you still saw young prostitutes out at night.


"That poor thing is shivering," Fiffy said, as we walked past a leggy shapely woman in her early 30s in tight-fitting white shorts and a white blouse -- hardly enough clothing for the chill in the air. She was quite attractive, except for the goose bumps.


Later we passed two couples strolling arm-in-arm. The men were middle-aged -- Canadians I guessed. Their dates were absolutely stunning dark-haired woman in their late teens or early 20s. Fiffy immediately picked up on the incongruous pairings.


"They were beautiful!" she said, a bit shocked.


The irony of Cuba's prostitution problem is that Fidel Castro upon coming to power blamed America for turning his country into the Caribbean's whore house. However, no such outrage has ever been expressed when socialists were running things.


What's to account for the failure of Cuba's noble experiment? In America and abroad, leftist elites invariably blame Cuba's poverty on Washington's 46-year-economic embargo. But ordinary Cubans don't buy it. Not a single person with whom we spoke ever mentioned the embargo as being a source of their troubles; they blamed their government.