From top: A roadside billboard in Havana, Cuba; Dan Boyle
Cuba was not, nor is it, a socialist Nirvana. Nor is it a Hades. The Cubans like people anywhere, aspire to better things from life and the society they wished to live in.
Dan Boyle writes:
I had a long held desire to visit the place while Fidel was still in control. As a TD I got to know the Cuban Chargé d’affaires in Dublin. A very impressive woman who was far from being an ideologue. That summer I arranged to take a family holiday there, informing her of our intentions.
We flew through Paris. The 90 minutes at passport control was not the most auspicious of starts.
The trip from the airport to our hotel was through streets with many crumbling buildings. The upper stories in some of these buildings were left unoccupied through being unmaintained.
There was the kitsch charm of the 1950s Cadillacs and motorcycles. I suppose we wanted more to absorb what was different and unique about the place.
Much of that there was. I will always enjoy the memories of travelling along the Malecón towards Habana Vieja. The main thoroughfare of O’Reilly Street offered proof that the Irish had already been there. There at a bar, while sipping pina coladas, there was a sublime sense of enjoying a three piece of guitar, upright bass and big, brassy singer.
At a art market I bought a local artist’s take on Warhol – A Campbell’s soup can in Revolution flavour. My daughter, then a young teenager, was invited to visit the Socialist Youth Movement. She found it a bit intense but was given some nice posters.
I found myself being summoned to a meeting with the member of the Politburo who had responsibility for Europe. The Politburo building, a bleak functional 1960s building, was located by the Plaza de la Revolución.
For two hours I was harangued there. The obsequiousness of the European Union towards the US embargo on Cuba was resting heavily, and fully, on my shoulders. I nodded sympathetically. The US embargo towards Cuba was and remains immoral.
I did point out that Cuba didn’t encourage appropriate support by holding some poor human rights positions, particularly in relation to gay rights. It didn’t help his mood.
We were there during the celebration of the Revolution. The three available TV channels all carried Fidel’s four hour speech live.
What capped the holiday for us was something of a mugging. While walking near our hotel we met two men, very much an odd couple. They claimed to be former Olympians. One short and squat claimed he had been a wrestler. The other long and lanky claimed to be a member of the national basketball team. We were wary but they convinced us to let them give us a tour of the backstreets of Havana.
It was fascinating. We were shown the animist shrines, some voodoo related, that were put up in many streets, in this officially atheist state. There were small signs of some private enterprise taking place, cafés and the like.
We ended up at Basketball player’s family home. We had to wait for the daily two hour power outage to end before we were offered some cool drinks.
Then came the scam. We were ‘encouraged’ to buy a lot of cigars from a family member who obtained them as a fringe benefit of working with the cigar company. I didn’t really mind as it was well worth the cost for that kind of access.
We spent the second week of our holiday at the could have been anywhere location of Varadero. This was my compact with the women in my life, who wanted to soak up the Sun’s rays than have to endure any more political tourism.
The journey to there from Havana through rural Cuba showed a national wealth spread even less thinly. Hoardings along the roadside advertised, not McDonalds or Coca Cola, but Castro and The Revolution.
At the resort, other than the people working there, the only Cubans we met were doctors. A paid holiday there for them and their families, was seen as part of their remuneration.
Cuba was not, nor is it, a socialist Nirvana. Nor is it a Hades. The Cubans we met, like people anywhere, aspired to better things from life and the society they wished to live in.
They gave no impression of being oppressed. They spoke with an openness, an articulacy and an intelligence I wish I heard more often in Irish politics. They were, and are, impressive in their resilience. Viva Cuba!
Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle
Rollingnews
A well written piece. Thanks.
Yeah, Havana and Varadero isn’t Cuba. It’s like going to Dublin and then on to Ashford Castle.
Unless you’ve travelled around Cuba solo, you haven’t experienced Cuba. What a lot of the “I’ve been to Cuba” politico-media club forget is that 1000s of other Irish have also been and have seen a lot more of the place and the people.
It was my experience. I apologise for not having experienced total absorption.
Never mind him Dan, sounds like the type that scoffs at a traveler for using a Lonely Planet.
Enjoyed the piece myself, always wanted a look at the place as a few friends have and had a wonderful time.
It’s not like you went to Mexico and spent your time in Cancún …or went to Santa Ponza and came back singing the praises of your experience with Spanish culture after all :)
Such a teacher’s pet.
* polishes apple with spittle *
But Dan didn’t just say “I’ve been to Cuba”, he mentions where he went and some of his experiences. This allows the reader to gauge the relevance of said experiences. In his conclusion – he explicitly states is only based on “the Cubans we met, […] gave no impression of being oppressed. They spoke with an openness, an articulacy and an intelligence I wish I heard more often in Irish politics. They were, and are, impressive in their resilience. Viva Cuba!”.
You’re all way to easy to wind up.
*too
How dare you say that..
..take it back or I will demand satisfaction!
:-J
say*
Dublin is Ireland too, in case you missed the memo.
It’s the capital city and most populous region. It’s not just the miserable inbred cabbage-reeking dumps in the midlands that count.
Dublin needs more silage!!
…and cabbage!
Nice place for a cycle tour? http://travellingtwo.com/resources/10questions/cuba
An interesting visit, clearly. A friend who traveled there recently said that the internet availability is so bad that people sit in the square at cafes and actually talk to one another. Viva la conversation!
when i was there last year they had just set up free wifi in the public squares of every city (or at least the ones we were in). you’d see people in the plazas any time of day or night, chatting with family on skype or sharing headphones and watching youtube. it was pretty charming, the community feel of it all.
“… internet availability is so bad that people sit in the square at cafes and actually talk to one another”
This could equally be said of far too many places in Ireland.
…ah here Mickey…you cant blame the greens on that…sure that’s the responsibility of the Min of Communications…and it’s not as if the country is awash with money like it used to be…
What a great holiday – a trip to the Politburo and an outing with the Socialist Youth Movement.
One suspects that Dan’s family no longer allow him to plan their itineraries.
…poor Dan’s brown nosing the Cuban Ambassador doesn’t seem to have resulted in the privilage and patronage that a visiting parliamentarian would expect…he should have taken advice from comrades in the labour party and joined the ‘friends of israel’ group…
Dervla Murphy wrote a capivating account of her time in Cuba. Highly recommended, as if her books needed recommending!
Never heard of her.
A propos of nothing in particular, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably a bit easier to live under the tyranny of a ruthless socialist dictator if the weather’s nice.
I think that much is a given, can you imagine it here… yikes!
I’ve had several – and the begrudgers can just do the other thing. Cuba was “a small open economy” – same as us, as our elected Leeches remind us constantly. Imagine our own “small open economy” if we were restricted to trade with a single partner, due to fear of the USA. Us trading solely with the UK was just soooo good for us, wasn’t it??
a friend went their & Air France lost his luggage for a few days.
Said it was the only place he’s ever been where there was no equivalent of pennys/dunnes. He couldn’t figure out where they go clothes from.
They make their own clothes, like people all over the world used to. They have skills most people lost two generations ago in richer countries.
They spoke with an openness, an articulacy and an intelligence I wish I heard more often in Irish politics.
unlike those in the green party it has to be said
Who cares?
It’s a particular madness that has some people feel the need to state their indifference….
A friend and I went to Cuba in 2011 for the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory. We actually hitched down the island to Trinidad and visited a lot of small villages on the way. Yes, people were poor but they were not hungry and loved to engage with us. There was a lot of segregation – in Havana hotels our new friends needed permission to join us at the bar. I believe some ‘resorts’ didn’t allow natives in at all in case they saw the western greed first hand. The highlight of our trip was a Celtic music festival in Havana – the European connection in Cuba is mostly through ancestors from Galicia and Asturies and the Gaita is their national instrument – not a lot of people know that.
A few more do now :)
We flew through Dublin. The 90 minutes at passport control was not the most auspicious of starts.
The trip from the airport to our hotel was through streets with many crumbling buildings. The upper stories in some of these buildings were left unoccupied through being unmaintained.
Translation : Cuba was cool and the people were relatively ok and living well but I can only infer this becasue y’know, the average 60% of the irish public who vote for idiots will cry “communist burn in hell !!! US Uberalles or death to all !!!
It’s still a pity nobody in the political class is willing to back up Prez. Squee on the reality of all the good things Castro did for the world and that he was in fact a GIANT in the struggle against many foreign opressive regimes such as US imperialism.
Almost no mention of any of the good stuff he actually did by Dan or anyone else even here on broadsheet.ie
Sad really… a reflection of the propaganda endured and passed on over many decades.
:-J