Old Cars, Young Men

Plenty of both here! :)

Spent the morning exploring Trinidad with the town's architectural historian: enchanting town, a tourist attraction no doubt, judging by the number of buses filing in. Sadly, many of its beautiful buildings are in a state of disrepair…

We stopped in on an elementary school for a brief visit and overview. In 1959, Cuba started on a path of change, with, among others, free health care and education including through university. That's resulted in a 98% literacy rate -- quite impressive.

However, based on conversations with various folks we're meeting, it seems to me that the system does a bit of indoctrination. Economics PhD students met up with us over dinner tonite for a wide ranging discussion on all sorts of topics.

What struck me most is the firm belief in the need for equality, which doesn't seem to translate to what I'm seeing on the streets -- unless equality means a drive to the lowest common denominator, aka poverty. Here's an example: as we drove towards Havana, someone commented that there was a lot of land laying idle. We were told that holdings for farmers are kept at 24 acres and that they can only sell to the state. Otherwise, you might have farmers earning more income than doctors… All the while, Cuba has to import just about every produce it needs, at exorbitant costs.

Yet, our interlocutors believe in the system (and its leaders) lock, stock and barrel. I'm not convinced…

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I'll try to catch up, but at $10/hour of a sketchy internet connection, it may well have to wait until my return State-side! :)