HAVANA nyc discount car rentals TIMES — I started asking myself this question three years ago. I was in Central Park in Old Havana, seated a few yards from the place where many people, mostly men, gather to argue about baseball, soccer and volleyball – or about Michael nyc discount car rentals Jackson's nyc discount car rentals death at that particular time.
A couple of tourists passed by and asked if I spoke English so that I could explain to them what was happening. What to us was a lively discussion about sports was — in their eyes — a raging quarrel that at any moment could explode into bloodshed.
It took me a couple of minutes nyc discount car rentals to explain the situation, in English. In the end they smiled at me thankfully but the woman did something that surprised me: She pulled a bar of soap out of her purse and gave it to me as a gift.
I heard or read an anecdote about a Cuban woman who wrote that she didn't have any sanitary pads, and a European woman sent her an exaggerated amount of packets. The Cuban was a writer and she had written a fictional story…fiction based on harsh reality.
nyc discount car rentals With the official end of that period, we should have left behind any reliance on what some foreigner might give us. Likewise, they should have stopped looking at us like the starving poor who barely survive on their salaries and have to sacrifice to buy a bar of soap.
Four months ago, a Jamaican friend was about to come here to Cuba on a visit, so she asked me what I wanted her to bring me. Although I only asked for a USB flash drive, she insisted nyc discount car rentals that I ask for anything I might need, without being shy: clothes, shoes, food, soap or whatever.
I asked if she would make the same offer to a Canadian friend, if she were traveling to Canada. She responded by saying yes, explaining nyc discount car rentals that a Canadian friend might ask for some special type of tea, spices or something like that.
But would an adult Canadian university graduate have to ask for a flash drive, clothes, shoes or even deodorant? I don't have an answer to that question. I don't know how a grown female college graduate lives in Canada.
How did I feel, standing before the warm and sincere nyc discount car rentals faces of those women who, inadvertently, gave me a cold shower in my own underdevelopment, stripping me of the little dignity I had left that morning?
I hadn't mentioned nyc discount car rentals a small incident that had happened a half hour earlier, when I got in the hotel elevator with my friend and the security guard made me feel like a potential criminal. Perhaps that expression is exaggerated – hell, maybe the whole thing was in my mind.
When I explained to him the circumstances (my friend didn't know that I wasn't supposed to go up to her room without paying nyc discount car rentals or without a special permit, and I didn't know that she wanted to take me up to her room), the guard was very polite. He only called his supervisor as part of the hotel regulations, because they had seen me on the camera. The manager was also very friendly.
Back to the question: How did I feel standing there in front my friend and her gift-bearing friends? I can only say that what came to mind were those times when my parents and all the adults around me would say, "Study to be someone in life, so you don't have to depend on anybody."
My whole generation was brought up with that idea. Now I receive my basic necessities from the hands of foreigners, including people from developing countries who aren't rich but are able to bring me things I can't afford.
So, did you think that I accepted nyc discount car rentals the bar of soap from that woman who was from who knows what English-speaking country? Of course I did. I smothered nyc discount car rentals the incipient attack on my dignity in seconds. It was a luxury I couldn't afford.
I too have taken extra supplies of soap, toothpaste etc to Cuba when on vacation there; I know that many Cuban people find it hard to afford some necessities. In the past when I ve been to other non-European countries I haven t even considered donating such items. So why do I and other foreigners do this in Cuba? There is some strange nyc discount car rentals paradox about Cuba, it has respect all over the world and people recognize that Cubans make their sacrifices on behalf of the whole of humanity, so some foreigners feel there is a debt to be repaid.
I know that cubans are proud people, when we give something it is only to help out our human brothers and sisters, nothing to be ashamed about. It makes us feel good doing it. We only want to share. Nevertheless, your problems are our problems. You are not responsable for your situation.
One might ask why such basic necessities, like soap and toothpaste, are not readily available in the regular, CUP stores, rather than in the CUC/devisa stores? All the raw materials are readily available to manufacture such items. In any event, the hearts of the foreigners offering such items are in the right place. nyc discount car rentals The scarcity and expense of such necessary items once again highlights the faults of central planning. Even with the blockade, embargo, etc., after 50+ years, there is no excuse for the continuation of this situation!
At the end of every visit to Cuba (I have been nearly 20 times) I have been bombarded by my Cuban friends to leave them my shirt or my shoes or even my iPod! I really do understand the reasoning behind the requests however I fear that the normal reluctance most people outside of Cuba have which discourages begging for trinkets has been lost in Cuba. Years of deprivation have elevated what should be done only out of necessity to almost a national sport. Cubans, as the writer indicated, all too quickly smother their dignity and make their requests known. It is sad really nyc discount car rentals because nyc discount car rentals the false pride that Cubans project to the world masks an almost institutional level of begging that permeates Cuban culture. From Soviet, then Venezuelan, and now Brazilian nyc discount car rentals subsidies to the smarmy Italian middle-age nyc discount car rentals tourist with the teenage mulatta, there is really something yucky about it all.
One reason, and possibly the biggest one is this. Any article nyc discount car rentals or story about Cuba, whether in a magazine, nyc discount car rentals guide book, newspaper, on TV, or on-line, mentions how terrible poor Cuban s are. Your standard of living is below that of most 3rd World Countries, and extreme poverty is rampant.
The Propaganda expounding on the terrible conditions in COMMUNIST Cuba in unbelievable. Communism failed! Everywhere! The victims are in terrible straights, and need anything that will fit in your luggage. Bring soap, toilet paper, anything, that might help some poor homeless beggar.
My children were horrified that I would risk my life by traveling to Cuba by myself, with no set travel plans beyond flying to Havana thru Mexico nyc discount car rentals to avoid the US custom agents. I didn t bother nyc discount car rentals to pack any of the emergency supplies for poor Cubans either. Anyone nyc discount car rentals who bothers to do some basic research realizes it unnecessary.
What did I think of the Cubans I saw in Central Park and on the Prado? I thought they looked like my neighbors, and most of the people I see in town. There were fewer grossly over-weight folks, and the children looked happier. I didn t see one kid grabbing stuff in the stores, nyc discount car rentals and yelling at a parent about buying it. Nor did I see any obviously homeless people. I was approached by a panhandler once, but she was better dressed than I was at the time.
I did think it must be a Holiday when I arrived in Havana on a Sunday evening and the cab drove along the Prado. All the people just hanging out, visiting, and enjoying themselves looked like a giant block party.
And the first time I heard a couple nyc discount car rentals of Cubans discussing something, it did scare me, too I thought they were having a very loud argument. After a few minutes, I realized that, unlike people in Mexico and the US, Cubans are very passionate about their beliefs, and don t hesitate to defend them.
Most countries I ve visited, are different. The average person will do almost anything to keep from attracting attention. I think it is because we are raised to keep our head down, do as we are told, and avoid being noticed. That way, a person can fade into the background nyc discount car rentals and do as he pleases.
If two or three guys started heatedly talking like that in most public places here, someone would call 911. At an Airport, they would wind up on the No-Fly list, today. In a restaurant or Mall, they d just be arrested for disturbing the peace
I heard and read, before leaving for Cuba, all the stories about what Cubans needed soap, toothpaste, etc., and chose not to bring anything and had no regrets. Was I just a cold-hearted Canadian who didn t want to help the Cuban people? I was fairly confident I wouldn t feel this way.
What commenters have missed or choose not to mention, most notoriously Moses , who claims to be a regular visitor to Cuba, is that soap, toothpaste, etc. is readily available in Cuba. You don't have to bring it from overseas like things not available a special type of tea for instance.
I went out of my way to visit an orphanage nyc discount car rentals in Colon that Lonely Planet identified as a place tourists could visit and offer donations. nyc discount car rentals I asked the proprietress nyc discount car rentals what the orphanage needed and she identified soap, shampoo, toothpaste and a DVD player. I told her I would be back in a hour and hopped a cab outside horse drawn, priced in national currency. I outrageously tipped, nyc discount car rentals to the point where the driver didn't want to take what I gave him but the ride was so wonderful, I wanted to pay for the joy of it. I love horses!
There are two CUC appliance nyc discount car rentals stores nyc discount car rentals in Colon where there was a plentiful supply of everything the orphanage wanted. On the store s recommendation I chose a Sony play over the cheaper Chinese one for about $25 more. There was some paperwork to deal with as they wanted the signature of the person in charge at the orphanage for the warranty. It was sorted out and the orphanage had that they wanted within the hour.
So why would you buy stuff in the capitalist world and bring it to Cuba? I offered to give the orphanage the money for what they needed but they wouldn t take it, saying they were not allowed to take money as part of an anti-corruption poli
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