Middle School Students in Havana, Cuba
Photo Feature by Ernesto Gonzalez Diaz
HAVANA TIMES – Every weekday, between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm, the park fills with middle school students (7th-9th grade) who, after finishing their first session of classes, head home. The teenagers, naturally sociable, take advantage of this time gap to stop by a café, chat among themselves, some engage in playful roughhousing – it looks like they’re fighting, but they’re not, they’re just playing – and to fall in love.
They are mostly cheerful, passionate, dynamic, often unaware of the economic crises and hardships, and the sacrifices their parents make to feed them, clothe them, and provide them with the basics for a decent life.
They simply, without knowing it, enjoy one of the most beautiful and complex stages in a person’s life.
I visited Cuba as a tourist more than 10 times, fell in love with their beaches and humble people, it very unfortunate their present economic situation right now, we Canadians try to help them bringing some necessities just to ease their needs but of course it is not enough, this fashist government has to go, Cubans have the right to leave a decent life like anybody in the world, I wish our government could do more , late Pierre Elliot Trudeau had good relations with Cuba, I wish his son Justin Trudeau does the same.
As one who has experienced Cuba 10 years ago and can compare it to is happening now, I am disappointed. A country which was thriving despite the US embargo, and had so much export back then, has come to its knees under the current regime. The cuban people have been brainwashed into thinking that their problems are a result of foreign oppression. How did they go from producing tobacco, coffee, sugar, rice, food to self sustain and now they can no longer depend on the food rations that was their right from their government?
Cuba needs very many things and Cuba needs help from countries with no vested interests. I’m Irish, another Atlantic islander with a desperate history of struggle. We did. Cuba will too if those in power allow themselves to be unshackled from delusions.
One thing Cuba doesn’t need is guns as one comment illuded too
Being a Cuban by Birth, who was a witness to the Revolution. I survived much hardships of hunger, and how Cuba has been Frozen in time . This all Makes a realization, that Teenagers have adapted and accepted the shortages as a normal happening. The present Revolutionary government, still holding on to outdated Soviet model of the 60s, have not reformed or change for the sake of its people. This Revolution was first started in the name of the people. What we have now, is Fascist Sham regime which oppresses it’s people. Controls its people . If there is no change towards betterment, there will be no future, and the system will die. All because of an ideology that lost by a government that refuses to accept Failure.
The tourist industry supports the tyrant regime, not the people trapped on this island. If only the Cuban people could overthrow this tyrannical Castro government that enslaves them and restore a constitution that guarantees individual rights like freedom of speech, right to bear arms, free media, property rights, etc.
It is not for the tourists to save the people of Cuba. It is their government’s duty to do so. Lately investing 36% in tourism and just 2.5% in agriculture, priorities are way off. It is time for free elections by and for the people, and establish a true democratic government etc… Brought to you by the Canadian Unity Party/Parti Uni du Canada. “the free world helping for a better humanity and world” ©™. [email protected] +1-514-919-8808 Miki Mihavolich Founder.
It is a discouraging situation when there is a lack of flour to bake bread. Cubans are hungry, for food, for opportunity, for a life without daily sacrifice for a failed government doctrine that keeps then hungry and poor.
I have been to Cuba many times and I know it’s hard for them right now, but with the help from tourists they will survive. A Cuban friend of mine told me that they don’t waste anything. I believe that the Canadian tourist is very generous to the Cubans they encounter and they are happy to give them help. I find that a lot of journalists are vert biased against them..especially the Americans.
As a Cuban everything you said on the report is the truth they don’t know or they do how bad the Cuban economy is and all the sacrifices that Cubans needed to do just to put some Rice on the table
Many children in other LA countries to say nothing of Gaza are not as fortunate as their Cuban counterparts featured here. Say what you will about what you purport to be the failures of the Cuban revolution. The facts tell a very different story, one that I hope you will cover more deeply and honestly in the future.