From our Bureau of Ridiculously Ineffective Blockades with some assistance from our Iowa Correspondents Dagwood and Mildred Hogwallop
Oh, man… that blockade should really be listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the most ineffective, ever, in the history of humankind.
Unfortunately, even if the exact figures were to show up in the Guiness Book of World Records, most of humanity would still believe the Big Lie broadcast by Castro, Inc., which blames that very same “blockade” for everything that has ever gone wrong in Cuba since 1960.
Let our two Midwestern correspondents, who are avid readers of the New York Times express their frustration as clearly as possible. Babalu has installed a hard-to-detect microphone in their breakfast nook, behind their souvenir Che’s-Daily-Wisdom calendar, which they brought home from their latest trip to Cuba with the Pastors for Peace Caravan.
“Aaah, Mildred…. The world can be a very confusing place sometimes, can’t it? Or is it a case of people being stupid rather than a case of the world being confusing? Now I’m really confused…. especially by the fact that those Cubans are buying cigarettes and sugar from the U.S….. aren’t they the sugar and tobacco kings of the world? …. help, Mildred… help!… I’m sinking in the quicksand of my conflicting thoughts! Didn’t those angelic Pastors for Peace folks tell us that all the suffering in Cuba is due to the blockade? Aaaahhrrrgggg….. blub….blub….blub… “
“Dagwood, Dagwood… what’s happening to you?…. Oh, Dagwood, my dear… please don’t fade out on me… Oh, my Lord, what’s that foam a-burblin’ an’ a-poppin’ from your sweet lips an’ dribblin’ down to your manly chin? Oh, dear, where did I stash away those smellin’ salts? Dagwood, Dagwood…. thump, thump, thump… come back to me darlin’… don’t let this embargo voodoo stuff from Kee-ooo-bah drag you down the vortex of no return…. ” Thump, thump, thump…. Oh, sweet Dagwood, come back to me… you have yet to help me prepare that hot dish for the kinship-with-the-victims-of-capitalism church supper this evening!
Loosely translated from CiberCuba
Cuba’s purchases of food and agricultural products from United States companies totaled $328.5 million dollars during 2022, which marked the largest increase in commercial operations between the two countries in the last decade, according to official figures.
The novelty of exports to Cuba last year was the increase in sanitary products, medical equipment and supplies for a value of $9.2 million dollars. Acquisitions in this category included mostly cleaning products such as detergents, deodorants, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, disinfectants, dermatological products, and beauty and skin care preparations, according to statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture supplemented by the US-Cuba Economic and Trade Council (USCTEC).
The tables indicate that the payments were distributed, mainly, in $2.4 million for bars of soap, $1.3 million for cleaning products, $803,000 for deodorants, $360,000 for shampoo and $330,000 in liquid soap and other detergents.
It is the highest value in purchases of sanitary products, equipment and medical supplies in the US market by the Cuban government since 2006, when operations for $6.1 million dollars were registered. In 2021, transactions in this sphere barely totaled $487,886 dollars.
Another significant piece of data from the tables computed by USCTEC is the purchase of $288,000 dollars worth of cigarettes from a Tampa company as part of the total of $39.4 million disbursed last December.
“Cuba’s purchase of cigarettes in the United States market is undoubtedly unique data, as was the purchase of sugar years ago,” businessman John Kavulich, president of USCTEC, based in New York, told CiberCuba.
Continue reading HERE in Spanish