While Tourists in Havana Live Large, Rural Cubans Cannot Afford Food [VIDEO]

While Tourists in Havana Live Large, Rural Cubans Cannot Afford Food [VIDEO]

While Tourists in Havana Live Large, Rural Cubans Cannot Afford Food [VIDEO]

Obama opened Cuba and tourism is flourishing. Now Fidel is dead, it’s a new day in Cuba, so it’s all good, right?

Not so fast.

Those 3.5 million tourists flooding Cuba need to eat while visiting. As a result, the goods that average Cubans need to sustain their lives are fulfilling the needs of wealthy tourists and private restaurants. Whatever goods remain for poor Cubans are becoming unaffordable.

Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and mojitos in Havana. Credit: nbcmiami.com

President Raul Castro has gone into a knee-jerk Communist response by capping agricultural prices and blaming vendors for “price gouging.” So what have these sellers done? Naturally, they have moved to the commercial market, where they can get better prices.

So while tourists to Havana and other Cuban playgrounds enjoy the variety of goods the island nation has to offer, poor Cubans find simple foods like onions and tomatoes prohibitive. A pound of each could cost a Cuban 10% of the government-allotted salary of $25 per month.

Twenty-five dollars per month. Let that sink in.

Scene from a rural Cuban village. Credit: dailymail.uk.

When a growing economy that benefits only a few collides with poor people who cannot survive on a pittance, what happens?

An economist at the University of Havana warns, “We don’t just have to feed 11 million people anymore. We have to feed more than 14 million. In the next five years, if we don’t do something about it, food will become a national security issue here.”

Can you say Revolution? Isn’t this what Castro railed against in the 1950’s — the rich were enjoying life and the poor were suffering? Ironic, isn’t it?

I know it sounds harsh, but once Raul joins his big brother in Hell, Cuba and her people can finally blossom.

Written by

Kim is a pint-sized patriot who packs some big contradictions. She is a Baby Boomer who never became a hippie, an active Republican who first registered as a Democrat (okay, it was to help a sorority sister's father in his run for sheriff), and a devout Lutheran who practices yoga. Growing up in small-town Indiana, now living in the Kansas City metro, Kim is a conservative Midwestern gal whose heart is also in the Seattle area, where her eldest daughter, son-in-law, and grandson live. Kim is a working speech pathologist who left school system employment behind to subcontract to an agency, and has never looked back. She describes her conservatism as falling in the mold of Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles. Don't know what they are? Google them!

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe
Become a Victory Girl!

Are you interested in writing for Victory Girls? If you’d like to blog about politics and current events from a conservative POV, send us a writing sample here.
Ava Gardner
gisonboat
rovin_readhead