Cuba Straits, Cuba Gooding and Cuba Libre

The only thing the three things have in common is Cuba! History happened this year when the US eased travel restrictions between the US and the island country ninety miles off the coast of Florida. 

A trip to Cuba instantly shot to the top of my list.  While still expensive, the Cuba agenda will involve some time travel.  Turns out much of the country is stuck back in the 1950's.

I would imagine progressive Cuban's hopped on a boat and tried to make it to Florida and the promise of a better life in Miami.  Those who remained have this sense of fatalism about what life is like on the island.  Things won't get better until the economy improves, and the economy is controlled by a Communist dictator.

Which sounds a lot like an oxymoron, right?  Yes, we get most of ideas of Communism mixed up with Socialism, which is the worst case scenario of the have's having a lot and the have not's making due with what they got.  But hasn't this been the case pretty much since we started recording history?

And if Cuba is stuck in a time warp, don't you think America's view on Communism is stuck too?  I don't think the "red threat" exists anymore.  In fact, we should probably be more concerned with multinational corporations and global expansion by gangs than Communism.  

Maybe America likes to keep up the Commie smokescreen as a sort of shorthand for nostalgia.  Remember when the bad guys wore black and the good guys were just normal everyday John Doe's fighting to save the world?  Cuban dictator's were bad, poor Cuban peasants were opressed.  A simple time.  

We'll find out in February when I hop a short flight to Cuba.  Let's hope the plane doesn't end up in the Bermuda Triangle.

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