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Comment by daed | Hacker News Reader

Your complaints sound like they're coming from someone who went on a cruise to almost any third world island - though maybe other destinations are better controlled by the cruise companies to take you to specific (clean) tourist ports.

Cuba is not without its problems, but much of what you describe is not unique to a third world country.

The one area you're just completely wrong about is the flavors. I was only able to stay for 10 days, but on my short trip there I stayed in locals' houses (which is quite common there - google "casas particulares") and the vast majority of the meals we had - especially the ones cooked by the people we stayed with - were extremely flavorful.

I'm not claiming socialism is great or anything - there was a potato shortage while I was there - but I'd just hope no one reads your post and thinks Cubans are eating terrible bland food...

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>Cuba is not without its problems, but much of what you describe is not unique to a third world country.

>I'm not claiming socialism is great or anything - there was a potato shortage while I was there

But the point is that the countries that were third world a half century ago but have since raised themselves up to developed status did so through free market economics, while the socialist dictatorship countries like Cuba failed.

Apparently, the methods used for planning economies known until ~1990, executed with the computers and communication systems of the time, in countries that were relatively poor to begin with, ruled as dictatorships, did not work well enough while the USA and its allies actively fought "communism". That tells us nothing.

Guess which country is the richest in the Caribbean? Okay, it's the USA. It may hardly be a democracy anymore, it doesn't particularly respect human rights, but it hasn't regressed to developing status yet and it has free market economics up the wazoo. The richest independent country (as in, its mainland is in the Caribbean) is of course Cuba.

Cuba's richer than, say, St. Kitts & Nevis? I'd like to see your source for that...

Or are you listing St. Kitts as not independent, because it's part of the Commonwealth?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis

Trinidad and Tobago is richer though (at $32,520 GDP/capita vs Cuba's $22,237).

I stand corrected.

And I respect your honesty for checking other countries after proving me wrong...

Only if you believe in the Cuban government’s numbers. Do you really believe that a country whose population lives on rations and $30/month salaries is a rich one?

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas...

I never said Cuba was rich. It's merely less poor than many free market countries.

What are those “free market countries”? Or do you use this term to refer to countries which are not dictatorships?

It depended on the restaurant. I got the feeling that some restaurants somehow had access to special flavorful ingredients, and some did not. I would not be surprised if this was simply the corrupt side of life in a communist-run institution.

We have a favorite Cuban place in the States (shout-out to Corazón de Cuba in Long Beach, Long Island) and the owner said that he is able to make much more flavorful food in the states than he was in Cuba proper

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