Havana cuba foodmarket

[alejandro59]

just a reminder that cuba trades with about 120 counties, wanna see progress and productivity improve people's lifes? bring back a free market economy. the russians and chinese got it after more than 60 years of a "progressive" socialist state jejejej !!!

[midniteKnite]

GO TO TROPICANA,DRINK YOUR HAVANA CLUB RUM AND SMOKE YOUR MONTE CRISTO CIGAR....WHAT A LIFE

[SiennaSister]

Exxactly where is this market in Havana, so that next time I go there I can at least find a fresh lemon.

[203207ab]

they don't appreciate food like this in california.

[manoverde84]

There are a lot of problems with Cuba but the the record should show that in comparison to its neighbors the average Cuban is better off than the average Haitian or Dominican. People aren't starving in Cuba but the daily struggle is still hard and many wish for more. Still though, the Cuban Revolution has shown was people CAN do with so little.

[farhatworld]

eat vagies,,,,good for health

[mayito714]

Several ignorant writers below, kids I assume, refer to the Miami Cubans as if they were some kind of fools. The Miami Cubans (now 50 years older) fled their homeland due to communism which does not allow freedoms of; Religion, Speech, peacefull assembly and peaceful debate of opposing political views. They came with the shirts on their backs alone and established an economic power house never duplicated by any other immigrant group in this country in such little time. They came for Freedom.

[MonyMG1959]

@mayito714 If they fled 50 years ago what do they knew about communism? If they left right away in 1959 and started their campaing against the new stablish cuban poltitical system...What do they Know? They didn't came with their shirts in their back alone. Haitian and other immigrants do.

[mayito714]

@MonyMG1959 You know plenty when your home & business is expropriated over night and you have read about Lenin & Stalin in history books. You witness hundreads of innocent men shot at the wall by "El Che" for being against the new revolution.Fact is, Over 98% of the millions of Cubans in the USA today where middle class citizens while they lived IN CUBA.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 -

Batista didn't exactly flee "with the shirt on his back alone", did he? Hundreds of millions of dollars ended up in his offshore bank account.

There is more to democracy than putting one's cross on a ballot paper, every five years, in a "choice" between two barely indistinguishable political parties. What about jobs, healthcare, education, housing, culture etc?

Miami has been turned into a ugly strip-mall since 1959. Cuba is better off without that sort of "Freedom" (sic).

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Batista was a thief. Thats part of the reason Cubans are in this god awfull position. Cubans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  There, we agree on something

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 What do you mean Cuba is better off without freedom? You are nothing more than a European communist who thinks he know whats best for us all. Go F yourself you moron.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714@mayito714@mayito714 Please try to understand - the definition of freedom is wider than the right to vote. What good is voting if there's hardly any choice between the main parties and they're bought-and-paid-for by the wealthy and big business?

Guys like you aren't interested in freedom of speech in Cuba. You don't even like it in your own country, if your petulant response to criticism is anything to go by. All you care about is destroying the Cuban Revolution, at any cost.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Its not about vote. Its about freedom of religion, peaceful assembly, rights to challenge the existing system and individual simple human rights.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 So, the terms of the debate are shifting, e.g. it's no longer about the right to vote! Re: freedom of religion - the RC church is no longer persecuted. It's been 12 years since Christmas was reestablished and the Pope visited (he too called for the USA to lift the blockade). Re: freedom of assembly and challenging the system. Cubans can and do challenge bureaucracy but the system itself isn't on the agenda - same as in the West. How many anti-capitalists in the White House?

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 You talk about human rights. What about the right to free education, free healthcare, access to culture, low rates of serious / violent crime, workers' rights etc? Aren't these human rights too?

I know as well as you do that Cuba is far from perfect. I really don't condone everything that the Revolution has done. However, fair's fair - they have made some impressive gains over the last 50 years, and no-one can deny that Cuba is now, for the very first time, fully independent.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 If you do not belong to "The communist Party" you get "NO" education in Cuba. Health care is free but no technology available or medicine unless you are a high ranking comminist. You let political rhetoric make you believe they have made great gains because it make "You" feel good. Cubans will tell you no gains have been made forward, just backwards.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Another question I would like you to think about and, if possible, respond to. By what right does the US government - via the US taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy - continue to interfere in the domestic / internal politics of Cuba, Venezuela, the Ukraine and other countries?

I ask this because I am concerned that you think that the US government is interested in fair play and a "level playing field".

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Cuba is better off without that sort of "Freedom" (sic).

You better explain that statement you European Communist who knows whats best for the world..

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 I'm not a communist, just someone who believes that small nations have a right to self-determination. You know..... like the USA used to, in its formative years!

So less of the baseless insults and a bit more analysis, please.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 At the expense of us regular middle class Cubans who had to leave our motherland for simple freedoms?? They are exiting today more than ever. Check your history about that my friend

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Let's see the stats that Cubans are exiting "more than ever". More than in 1960? In 1980? The Special Period?

Why are Cuban-Americans so prone to exaggeration? "Fidel is dead". "Raul is gay". "Cuba is like Stalin's Russia". " Elian will be brainwashed and abused".

If you really want to help your fellow Cubans (sic), not just middle-class exiles, you should support the lifting of the US trade embargo and the establishment of normal diplomatic relations.

[clayton084]

I think everybody on Earth should grow their own vegetables and be happy.

[clayton084]

I think everybody in the world should grow their own fruits and vegetables and be happy.

[havanaguide]

Correct observations Paradollada, they have happy faces, but underneat there's still the daily struggle,"la lucha".Btw I think 200 pesos is less than 20US$(= 10$).Nobody is starving,there's enough fruit and vegtables, but a lot of Cubans can not afford to eat meat or chicken. Each day, rice and beans and sometimes chicken or pork. There are obese people too in Cuba due to the fastfood,hamburgers,pizza's with very low quality food. They are a strong people that can do a lot with little.

[clayton084]

It's okay if Cubans can not afford to eat meat everyday, as I understand it, the Earth can not afford to feed everybody meat everyday. If everyone ate like Americans, there would have to be 3 additional fully cultivated planets to grow all the animal feed on.

[londonscot1]

@havanaguide Your comment is accurate and fair, based on what I have seen first-hand. The Cubans are a very resilient and proudly independent people who have made a little go a long way. They aren't over-fed, but they aren't starving either.

My personal view - shared by most observers, including 185 UN member states - is that the cruel, vindictive and anachronistic US trade blockade only hurts the Cuban people and should be lifted as soon as possible. Followed by further agricultural reforms.

[clayton084]

The basic problem that I have, Pardollada is that money is a figament of the imagination, food "grows on trees" and fusion power already exists and is transmitted wirelessly to every place on earth every day.

If the Cubans have a problem with their economy, importing wealth and resources is not going to be a sustainable model for the culture or life in general.

[clayton084]

I guess that's why it's such a prosperous market, lol (maybe that explains the community gardens) Obviously, the majority of people in Havana are not obese, but I don't see any distended bellies on vids of Cuba, either. I have been trying to reduce my diet to oatmeal, eggs, pasta, beans, rice, vegetables and fruit anyway. Maybe They don't have the infrastructure for brawndo yet, but don't Cubans somewhat live in relation to the carrying capacity of their habitat?

[clayton084]

This is what a prosperous grocery store looks like in the real world. Notice how they aren't paying $10,000/month for electric freezers and lighting?

[londonscot1]

A very sound observation, clayton084. The Miami exile propaganda would have us believe that Cubans are starving! Another YouTube clip by a respected BBC gardener highlights Cuba's organic agriculture: search under "Cuba urban food growing"!

Viva la revolucion!

londonscot1

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Cubans are starving, Have you Noticed them arriving on Floridas beaches in inner tubes or anything else that floats? We in Florida call them "Balsero's"; Inner Tubers!! There is a Bone Yard between Cuba and Florida full of Cubans who never made it to the USA as the family of little Elian. Remember him?

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 -

Cubans starving? Have you visited recently? They don't have Mickey D's or KFC, if that's what you mean.

I know about the "balseros". what I can't understand, and what I'd like you to explain, is why Cuban immigrants get a warm welcome from the US government whereas Mexicans, Dominicans, Haitians and others moving to the USA for economic reasons are turned back at the border?

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 You dont know your history do you? Cubans originally arrived in this country for "Political Freedom Reasons" NOT FOR "Economic Reasons". The early majority of arrivals form Cuba to the USA were educated and skilled middle class people who did not want a communist government dictating to them what their choices should be in life. They built a poerhouse that Miami is today. Understand the difference in immigration status??

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 The original refugees were political dissidents, wealthy and well-connected. Well, duh...... of course I know that.

Don't YOU know that the vast majority since have been economic refugees, pretty much like Mexicans etc trying to get to the nearest rich country to find work?!

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 The original refugees were not wealthy or well connected. Come to Miami and meet us, We do not bite. We are Plain and have always been plain "Middle Class People" who dislike communism/socialism. But, you insist in believing the rhetoric they feed you in books without listening to us real people. You swallow the propaganda, hook, line and sinker. You repeat their rhetoric in most of your comments here.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 The very original refugees were Batista's henchmen and ex-CIA hangers-on. THEN came your parents and other middle-class professionals worried about socialism, then came the children evacuated under the RC church's "Operation Peter Pan" (scaremongering). Etc.

The Cuban-Americans who distort the US people's view of what goes in Cuba are a fact of life, not mere "rhetoric". Didn't they swear, for example, that Fidel was dead (July-August 2006)? Don't they ignore world opinion?

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Batista henchmen? ex-CIA? You have "Swallowed" the goods they want you to believe. WE ARE PLAIN PEOPLE. You continue to repeat their rhetoric. You have become blinded by their propaganda. Throw the books away and visit and talk "TO PEOPLE" you fool.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 What makes you think I haven't talked to "the people", in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and elsewhere?

When did you last visit Cuba to see for yourself? The place clearly ISN'T the total disaster area that some would claim. You might even like it ;-)

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 -

Also, why is Cuba singled out for a US trade embargo, on so-called "human rights" grounds, but the USA happily trades with China, Saudi Arabia and a dozen other countries with truly awful regimes?

Explain, please.

Regarding Elian - of course I remember him. He was the poor kid who lost his mother and became a political plaything of the anti-Castro lobby in Miami.

Fortunately the USA did the right thing in the end.

Whereas the "Miami Five" are still in US prisons.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Cuba is the only country of the ones you mention that "Seized American Properties and Assetrs". Yes, they stole a phone company from ATT. They stole a bottling company from Coca-Cola.... You get the picture? So, the USA imposed an embargo due to the Cubans stealing USA assets... Why dont you move there? Like your freedoms to Religion, Speech, peacefull assembly and peaceful debate of opposing political views to much???

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Re; "seized assets". Cuba offered to repay for nationalised ("seized") assets right at the offset. Bonds paying a reasonable coupon over 20 years. The US government, encouraged by rightwing zealots like you, rejected the offer out of hand. It's all in Richard Gott's "Cuba: A New History". i suggest YOU catch up on YOUR history!

The main reason cited for the Cuban blockade isn't nationalisation though. It's human rights - ignoring China, Saudi Arabia etc. Hypocrisy!

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 merican and Cuban properties? Come on get your head straight dude.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 You would accept a deal with a communist who just stole your property? I suppose you would also let him use your wife eh or lover??

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 There's a very simple answer to that one. The USA has forgiven every other country it ever went to war with. Check YOUR history. Germany, Japan, Italy, China, all killed more Americans, individually and collectively, than Fidel Castro ever did.

So, try to stay rational, instead of making over-emotional statements about wives and lovers. The Cuban compensation offer is not something that is widely known or publicised within the USA. It is good that it should be talked about.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 Cuba has not offered to repay me any properties that they stole from my parents. No reasonable "coupon" paid here. But. I dont count do I? What if it was "Your" property we were talking about???

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Your parents did not get the choice whether or not to accept the Cuban government's compensation offer because, as I explained earlier, the US State Department took that decision on your parents' behalf.

[Qbano21]

@mayito714 i am Cuban as well, you have to forget about the properties that your family had. those properties belong now to the Cuban people that are there inside Cuba you have no right to claim anything since your family left Cuba. that land now belongs to the Cuban people who live or work those properties.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 ey are singled out because they stole US properties and assets like all good communists. They come in over night and steal what others have spent generations of blood, sweat & tears to built and they steal it bu pointing guns and tanks at you. True dude, read your history will you.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Another point about "theft of assets". You talk about history. So what do you think about US carpetbaggers buying up Cuban assets at dirt cheap prices when the country was on its knees in 1898?

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 HEY IN 1898 atleast so called by you, US carpetbaggers paid for the assets. There is a huge difference in buying it and paying for assets as opposed to stealing them at gun point in the name of a communist revolution. Who gives a damn about a failed communist revolution. Communists are dinosaurs my friend. Dead dinosaurs...

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 - "Socalled by you"? What do you mean? Are you denying that the USA "stole" your independence victory and your assets? I think you should look up the dictionary definition of "carpetbagger". Your countrymen were robbed by the bandidos from the north when Cuba was on its knees, then turned into a quasi-colony (1902 Platt Amendment). You may think that that was OK, which is your right. But to everyone else it looks and smells fishy.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 The Platt Amendment was removed in the 1930's. Cubans do not exaggerate. We just dont "SWALLOW" the communist European propaganda you do. We have lived through this nightmare and we share what we have witnessed with you. But, you insist in letting them pull the wool over your eyes with socialist propaganda. We bandidos to the north removed the Germans from your motherland "Twice".

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 You are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land if you think that the removal of the Platt Amendment made Cuba free and independent of US control. What you are saying is that Cuba was a quasi-colony whose economy was controlled by US investors, which happened to suit a certain segment of the population, i.e. the prosperous middle class and governing elite.

Re: World Wars. The first US troops arrived on French battlefields in Sept 1918. In WWII, Germany and Japan had to declare war on USA!

[mayito714]

@londonscot1Did the US State Depart. also take a decision on my Grand parents properties, who are Spaniards and not Cubans like my parents? Its the year 2010. Stop blaming the USA for everything you communist in sheeps cloths.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 Yes, they did take that decision on your grandparents' behalf. Big of them, eh?

[midniteKnite]

@mayito714 AFTER 60 YEARS YOU TALKABOUT YOUR PROPERTIES???? US IS A DIRTY PLAYER IN THIS WORLD.THEY WANT EVERYTHING,NOW THEIS POWER IS OVER...FORGET YOUR PROPERTIES AND SMOKE A MONTE CRISTO ....IF YOU CAN IN USA.

[mayito714]

@londonscot1 An artists wants you to see things. A Musician wants you to hear things. A writer, wants you to believe things. Throw those books of yours away that express nothing but propaganda. When you steal everything from people, They side with whomever is their enemies enemy. So, plain people become compelled to be Ex-CIA, Batista henchmen but only in figurative speech from their enemies.

[londonscot1]

@mayito714 What is foolish is to see only one side of the argument. You look at the Cuban government and see nothing but cynical politicking and conspiracies. You look at the US government and see the Lone Ranger on a white horse, always doing the right thing for the most altruistic reasons.

The bottom-line is that, if you really want to help the Cuban people, a good first step would be to lift the US government's nearly 50-year trade embargo. Enough already!  What's past is passed.