Bring your sneakers and your wallets, Capitalist Dogs!!!
So when raul says jump, you jump. And when he says he'll do business with you, you can write the check right then and there. Morons.
The XXVII Havana International Trade Fair began yesterday on the outskirts of the Cuban capital.
Capital Hill Cubans puts it as succinctly as it's gonna get:
So let's put this into perspective.
In Cuba, only the Castro regime is allowed to engage in commercial activities. The Cuban people are strictly prohibited from engaging in private enterprise.
As such, the fair is only open to "business people" and by invitation.
Therefore, it essentially consists of Castro regime officials -- mostly military personnel, since Raul Castro has accelerated military control of Cuba's economy -- roaming the halls of the convention site, while foreign commercial representatives jump over each other, do tricks and grovel for their business.
The regime officials then choose their favorites.
All subject to the Emperor's final thumbs up or down.
From Day 1, all sorts of supposedly sharp people, including Cubans, have tried to "deal" with Castro or Castro, Inc., thinking they could somehow come out ahead. The obvious fallacy is that, like in any deal with the devil, only one side can come out ahead, and I don't have to tell you which side that is.
Is this not a replica of what's going on here? AARP takes its goodies and surrenders whatever independence it ever seemed to have. Drug companies make deals with the devil. And now the bill penalizes them anyway. But don't say it too loudly. There are too many others ready to make deals to protect their turf.
Some Rabbis and lots of Jews sell Israel down the river just to be in good with Obama.
I don't have to continue, do I?
At least in Cuba, around the time Castro took over (both before and after), a lot of political operators and big-money people thought they could "handle" him to their advantage. This included, among many, the pathetic ex-president Prio (the one who fled Cuba and let Batista take over in 1952 without putting up any resistance). Prio gave Castro what was then VERY serious financial backing before 1959, which naturally helped Castro's cause. Shortly after Castro's triumphal entry into Havana, Prio shows up in Cuba, apparently expecting to get his money's worth, only to be promplty put on a plane back to Miami by Mr. Wonderful. His return on investment was ZIP. A LOT of people got taken to the cleaners one way or another by you-know-who. The devil doesn't discriminate; he screws anybody stupid enough to deal with him.
I'm still amazed that people as sharp as American Jews have chosen to worship the Golden Calf of political fashion over plain common sense. Spielberg comes to mind, for obvious reasons, even though Castro, Inc. is very clearly pro-Arab and anti-Israel. That's just one example among MANY, but it illustrates the problem. Is being "in" really worth THAT much?