Cubanology, A Message to Teenagers

As you take out your Che t-shirt to wear, let's think about Che and Cuba for a moment.

Che signed the orders for the execution of more than 2,500 men, by his own admission.

They were often executed without a trial, men who might have been much like your father or brother. Some worked for the previous dictator, most did not. Some were ranchers (cowboys) who objected to Castro taking their land and cattle away from them, or business owners who resisted the government taking away their property. Castro took everything away from them.

The trials often lasted only minutes, or up to an hour. There was no appeal. Execution might be the next day or a few weeks later. Che once executed a 14 year old boy who was protesting the execution of his father by shooting him in the back of the neck.

Is this the man you worship? He was simply a pathetic liar, and a murderous killer while in power.

In Cuba you cannot get a job at the Super-market and save up to buy a car. You don't take driver training, because you won't need it. In fact, you cannot go to a Used Car lot and buy a car.

Nor a motorcycle. Nor a motor-scooter. Not even a skateboard. You cannot buy a surfboard and go down to the beach with your friends to spend an afternoon.

The United States did not cause this. Castro and Communism did. Before Castro you could save up and buy a car, even import one from the U.S. or Italy or Japan. That was B-4 Castro.

You cannot go to a hamburger stand in Cuba and buy a coke and burger. They don't have them. You might get meat two or three or four times a month at home, but you can't eat out. They don't have much meat in Cuba, but they had plenty of meat before Castro took over.

Why did they have plenty of meat? Because Cuba had large ranches and the men who owned those ranches grew lots of grass and fed cattle. Cuba exported lots of beef besides feeding the Cuban people, and they ate lots of good meat. They did not need the United States for meat; if you have grass and as long as cows continue to eat grass, you have milk and you have meat. It is simple to understand.

Castro took over the ranches by either killing or imprisoning the owners, or they fled to other countries. He put people who did not know ranching in charge, and beef production fell by more than 75%. So, the children, the teen-agers, and the older people in Cuba have a shortage of meat.

And milk is strictly rationed. This is not the fault of the United States, but of the government in Havana.

No, you cannot go to the beach, or take a date to the movies every Saturday night. When you are old enough to work, the government will tell you where to work and pay you ten dollars a month, that's all.

That's right. Did your silly teacher tell you Cuba was a paradise? It is in the Tourist Zone, but if you are a Cuban teen-ager you cannot go there. Capitalism built the Tourist Zone hotels, like Canadian and English money, and only foreign tourists are allowed there.

When you get old enough to drink beer, you wouldn't. The water in your school urinal would taste better than Cuban beer available to the Cuban people.

If you get tired of reading this, look at the Power Point slide show that is attached. Fidel Castro is personally worth almost one billion dollars, and he pays each working citizen of Cuba about ten dollars a month. Oh yes, special people and the military officers might get more, but that is not for ordinary people like you and me.

You cannot travel all over Cuba or go to a foreign country for a vacation, if you're a Cuban teen-ager. You won't have water-skis and a fast boat, nor can you buy a pair of skis, nor is there a sporting good store where you can buy things you like. Nope, all you have is an old wind-bag making promises for the future, a future that never comes.

But that's Communism for you. Promises, promises.

Almost two million Cubans have left there, and where do they want to go? The United States, of course. If Castro and Cuba were so wonderful, why would they want to come here? Ask yourself that?

Don't ask Hollywood. They live in the same fantasy-land as Fidel, and Che.