The WELL: inkwell.vue.345: Reese Erlich, Dateline Havana: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Future of Cuba

#55: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 5 Feb 09 10:00

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:00:00 PST

This was timely and interesting. Thanks, and come back again Reese. [Read entire topic]

#54: Miguel Marcos (miguel) Wed 4 Feb 09 23:29

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:29:00 PST

Many thanks, Reese. You've written an excellent book. I hope it gets wide exposure around the country and raises public knowledge further of the reality behind the history of US-Cuba relations. [Read entire topic]

#53: Steven McGarity (sundog) Wed 4 Feb 09 17:38

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:38:00 PST

Great book, Reese. Good luck with it. [Read entire topic]

#52: Lisa Harris (lrph) Wed 4 Feb 09 17:32

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:32:00 PST

Thanks, Reese. [Read entire topic]

#51: (nanlev) Wed 4 Feb 09 16:16

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:16:00 PST

Thanks Reese. [Read entire topic]

#50: Dana Reeves (dana) Wed 4 Feb 09 14:56

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:56:00 PST

Thank you for joining us, Reese. Feel free to stop back by if you've got time. [Read entire topic]

#49: Reese Erlich (reeseerlich) Wed 4 Feb 09 14:50

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:50:00 PST

I appreciate the lively discussion from all participants. A number of the points raised here (economy, human rights, who supports the revolution/who doesn't, and future US policy) are all discussed in Dateline Havana. I hope people have a chance to buy it.

This ends the formal 2 weeks of WELL discussion. I am doing a national speaking tour. Midwest during the last two weeks of Feb; March on the West Coast. See www.reeseerlich.com for more details. [Read entire topic]

#48: Miguel Marcos (miguel) Wed 4 Feb 09 09:41

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:41:00 PST

The nostalgia thing with exiled Cubans is something I'm very familiar with. My father suffers from that disease, my mother to a lesser extent, she's been able to forget a lot (I think in no small part because her childhood was tough and poor).

If you heard my father talk about Cuba you'd swear that, while it was an unjust society economically and racially, everything else was outstanding. The social life, food, human relations. Many exiles that are angrier about what happened insist Cuba was fabulous in all respects. I'm confident my father is right though those were other times, in Cuba, the US and everywhere else. He complains mostly about the lack of comparable social life in the US. They live in Miami now.

I've tried to get my father to snap out of the nostalgia mode but to no avail. The older Cuban generation has proved that it will never get out of that mindset until they're dead and buried. [Read entire topic]

#47: Authentic Frontier Gibberish (gerry) Wed 4 Feb 09 09:16

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:16:00 PST

You make an important point, Miguel. I don't have numbers available, but if "SOME" should instead be "MOST," then I stand corrected and am not surprised. After all, that was/is the norm for underdeveloped nations living under US-friendly dictatorships.

Back in the '70s, I read an article in a Mexican magazine titled, "Vida Sin Medias, Pero Zapatos Para Todos," ('Life without socks/stockings, but shoes for everyone'), in which the author presented a sober before-and-after portrait of life in Cuba, from the point of view of someone who was very poor before the revolution. It was an eye-opener for me because, as I said, I had a biased view from the Cubans I'd known. (I'm sorry I can't recall the name of the author, nor the name of the magazine.) [Read entire topic]

#46: Miguel Marcos (miguel) Wed 4 Feb 09 00:06

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:06:00 PST

> I realize that SOME Cubans became better off > after the revolution than they were before

I am surmising here but, within Cuba, I would say it's much more than SOME. Before we left (Dec 1960) my Dad told me stories about what it was like out in the countryside. Think Haiti, child prostitution, high infant mortality...

The exiled community suffered as well, though, given the level of education and, in some cases, the money they were able to take out, it wasn't all bad.

I'm not here to justify everything that happened after 1959. I just want to remind everyone that those who suffered from poverty, extreme poverty, lack of education, lack of access to medical resources, in cities and the countryside gained a hell of a lot after 1959. [Read entire topic]