Reply #28: Very interesting observations here! [View All]

The nightlife in Havana was exciting: jazz clubs, salsa palaces, transvestites parading on the seawall affectionately called the Malecon. People set up their domino games on the pavement where they gossiped and drank their rum. Each time we asked: "How is life in Cuba?" the response was "No es facil" (it's not easy), but then the verb would come: "resolver." Cubans have ingenuity, whether it's making a transmission from scraps to keep a 1959 Buick going, or coming together to reconstruct a tornado-ravaged city.

"Cuba is the oldest European civilization in the Americas," one woman told me. "We have a problem with our superiority complex." Havana has the most impressive collection of Napoleon artifacts outside Paris, housed in the Museo Napoleonico, an Italian mansion built in the 1920s by a sugar baron. And Havana is the most beautiful colonial city in the New World.

No one outside Cuba can understand the baroque complexity of Cuban politics, where politicians span the spectrum from enlightened liberal socialists to dogged militants. It's as hard as trying to understand what goes on inside the halls of power in the Bush administration.

One thing is certain — things are not as simple as the black and white portrait painted from abroad. On this small island, politics often has the feel of a bitter family quarrel. Still, the majority of Cubans are young and have their own ideas about what they want to make of their country.
(snip)