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From our Bureau of Incurable Spanish Hubris and Socialist Condescension with some assistance from our Bureau of Invincible Castronoid Stupidity
El Pais, Spain’s leading leftist newspaper is sounding the alarm: Cuba is coming to a standstill due to a crippling fuel shortage. Worst of all, there is no relief in sight, principally because Castro, Inc.’s oligarchs are too stupid.
As gasoline becomes scarcer, “ghost queues” are forming at gas stations that are closed, where drivers gamble on the arrival of fuel deliveries. The clock ticks and ticks as gas fails to appear and thousands of Cubans are idled. This includes the ever-essential taxi drivers that serve a crucial function in Castro, Inc.’s apartheid tourist industry.
An article in El Pais suggests that the only way to end this crisis is for Castro, Inc. to break with its past and introduce radical reforms. Not surprisingly, the article condescendingly suggests that the reforms needed are those proposed over thirty years ago by socialist economist Carlos Solchaga, Spain’s minister of the economy in the Felipe González administration, which Castro, Inc. ignored and refused to implement.
So, yes, Mildred, even an ultra-leftist newspaper is admitting that the military junta that runs Castro, Inc. is too stupid to run the country. Of course, the article hints that it’s not just the junta, but all Cubans who are invincibly ignorant and stupid. Hence the need to follow the blueprint for reform drawn up by a Spanish socialist.
Should one laugh or cry? Or should one simply begin to clamor for the reconquest of Cuba by Spain? Ay, Dios mio.
There’s no relief in sight for Cuba, no light at the end of the tunnel. After months of blackouts triggered by the sorry state of the state-owned electric utility (SEN), a fresh crisis has beset the island nation. A severe fuel shortage has virtually paralyzed all public and private transportation, causing mile-long lines at gas stations. Hundreds of drivers sleep in their vehicles for days on end waiting for a fuel tanker that nobody is sure will ever arrive. These are the infamous “ghost lines” in which people queue at dilapidated gas stations with no assurance that the miraculous fuel will ever turn up. To kill time and stave off boredom, people play dominoes under the shade of trees as they wait and wait.
“We are worse off than ever before. No one knows what to do anymore,” says Manuel, who owns a Russian-made Lada sedan that has been rolling around the streets of Havana for over 40 years. It’s the day before Easter Sunday and Manuel is chatting with other drivers waiting for fuel. Some say this has happened before and everything gets sorted out in the end. “This can’t go on for long because without fuel everything collapses,” says one optimistic man. He thinks that the government will “bring in an oil tanker from somewhere” and this latest crisis will pass.
His companions jump all over him. “No, compadre. This is different — it never ends. If it isn’t gasoline shortages, it’s a blackout. Then there’s no chicken and we have to bring in a chicken ship, and then there’s no diesel…” The young man speaking says he has applied for Spanish citizenship so he can leave the country. In the last 12 months, about 320,000 Cubans (3% of the population) crossed illegally from Mexico into the United States, according to US immigration officials.
The current fuel shortage aside, several economists say Cuba’s problems are generalized and structural — the economic model is broken. The government must introduce real reforms and liberalize the economy, instead of patchwork remedies that no longer work. “It’s a life and death, top-priority situation,” says Cuban economist Omar Everleny, recalling the 1993 Solchaga report. Carlos Solchaga, Spain’s minister of the economy in the Felipe González administration, wrote a detailed set of recommendations for the Cuban economy 30 years ago. “It’s striking how relevant the report remains today — some of its recommendations are still valid. I question whether a new assessment is needed. Maybe they should just implement some of those measures [in the Solchaga report],” said Everleny.
continue reading HERE in Spanish
But of course. Anything to keep the “revolution” from going under. And yes, lowly Cubans need guidance from superior Spanish socialists, so Spain can profit even more from its former property (not its “daughter,” which is a pathetic Cuban fantasy). As for those running Cuba, they’re not simply stupid; they’re also indolent, meaning they don’t give a shit about ordinary Cubans and only care about staying in power–which they’re afraid of losing if they make significant reforms.
As for laughing versus crying, neither one. Try spitting in utter contempt.
Basically, Spain has no shame regarding Cuba because it feels entitled to being shameless, as it has always been. Part of it is a superiority complex, but part is simply miseria humana, as in hijeputez. It doesn’t help, of course, that many if not most Cubans continue accepting that attitude, thus enabling it.
Asombra,
You are constantly attacking Spain whilst you don’t realize we are suffering those socialists as well. You should think of it… or maybe you should look for professional help. If you just measured your words… please stop generalizing.
It is not just a socialist problem. It was even a problem under Franco, not to mention a royal problem (the now-exiled King Juan Carlos was beyond disgraceful). You are free to disagree with me, but do not presume to tell me what to think or how to express it.
Do not get surprised if you do not get support for your crusade.
With this approach, finding enemies is easy and… you are doing it pretty well !
🙂
Regards!
I’m not on any crusade. I certainly don’t expect to cure Spain of its Cuba problem, which goes back to at least 1898 and is based on a much older colonial history. But, even though my blood is more Spanish than that of King Felipe, I can at least call out Spain for its perfidy, which can be summed up in a phrase I have seen more than once in the Spanish press: “Spain must not lose Cuba a second time.” That says it all, and my response is a profound contempt, which I will continue to express.
Where are the modern-day bird killing windmills, “solar farms” and CHICOM EV cars in Cuba? Oh, yeah, they don’t work either. The Spanish socialists are also a bunch of corrupt wannabe tyrants. Felipe Gonzalez was a clown, as was his successor Jose Luis Rodriguez, that for some reason went by Zapatero. I guess Rodriguez was way too peasant sounding. When will Cuba exploit it’s hydrocarbon deposits located in Cuban waters? I believe that it is a policy of the Castronoid government to limit the mobility and creature comforts of the Cuban people. Cuban communists are ultra-Sadists and view the Cuban people merely as modern day slaves.