Woo hoo! Mika was just invited to go to Cuba with Thom Hartmann on air.

[Billy Burnett]

I listen to the show just about every day that I'm able to. It is one of the best shows in the US. Thom often mentions DU as a good source of info.

Mika calls in almost weekly, almost always about something Cuba related to Thom's topic. Today Thom was discussing the German reaction to the middle class meltdown in the US (there's a thread in LBN on this) and Thom was reviewing the horrific uninsured, unemployment, food stamp, etc, etc, stats, and comparing them to Germany. Thom took a caller, Mika, who discussed the Cuban monthly discount coupon booklet (aka in the MSM: Ration Card). Everyone gets one every month. A short discussion of rent control and Dr and teacher ratios in Cuba, then Mika asked Thom to go back to do some shows from there, and if Thom does this he'd love to go with them and show them around. Thom knows Mika is a Dr and has been there a lot.

This is wonderful news for our little forum here.

Good on you Mika! I really hope you get to do this, and that you get to do some wonderful debunking of some of the myths on Thoms show. Wow. :party:

[Judi Lynn]

1. It would be wise on Hartmann's part to take Mika. He needs help with grasping Cuba.

I used to listen to him regularly on Air America, but was wildly horrified to see he had actually bought the old cold war propaganda view pushed without question by our corporate media. It sickened me even further realizing he co-authored some book concerning Cuba, as well. Absolutely horrible.

Wondered how on earth you can do any decent research on the subject without bumping into the truth even once!

It would be a wise move on his part if he opted to take someone along who has had as much experience with the human beings living there, in many capacities, over years and years, while retaining a U.S. American perspective.

I was listening to Hartmann's show long ago, not really focused on it at the moment when I was startled to realize he was talking to Mika. Amazed! He seemed to be familiar with him even then.

Thanks for sharing this new developement with us, Billy Burnett. Sure hope he moves ahead and takes the idea to heart, and makes it happen. Keeping those fingers crossed. It's a great idea. :hi: :hi: :hi: :bounce:

[dipsydoodle]

2. Excellent news !

:thumbsup:

[EFerrari]

3. Dammit, I missed it and I tried to listen today, too!

I want to go with.

lol

[social_critic]

4. Raul Castro says he's getting rid of those subsidies

This is Raul's Speech given this month, remarks about the changes they'll be making

http://www.granma.cu/espanol/cuba/20diciem-discurso.html

Your friend Mika is a little behind the eight ball, seems he is touting the system they are about to take apart.

[Billy Burnett]

5. And Obama said that we'd get a public option.

Turns out that the US and Cuban presidents are up against similar obstacles (from polar opposite positions) ... and that is the people's representatives. The Congress and the National Assembly.

[social_critic]

8. Cuba's National Assembly is a Rubber Stamp Body

They'll vote whichever way they're told to vote.

[naaman fletcher]

6. congrats! nt

[Zorro]

7. Can Mika take Judi and Beth along

and leave them there?

I'm sure we'd all be interested in reading their field reports posted on DU from across the Cuban internet.

[Mika]

9. Your point being?

I've posted on DU from Cuba using a friend's home account. It is simply too slow, and therefore too expensive for most, to spend any time browsing for the hell of it. Try using DU with a phone modem and you'll get the idea.

As for taking Judi and Beth along, I can think of few more genuinely interested and inquisitive friends to take along. It would be fantastic for them to get to go.

Starting with the flight there from Miami all is normal, until the landing approach at Jose Marti airport. Everyone leans over to see out the windows, and when the plane touches down the entire cabin erupts with a loud cheer, some clapping and someone always yells out "Viva Cuba!" that starts more applause. Everyone is excited.

Before W Bush the trips used to have significant numbers of Cuban residents returning to Cuba, having just finished a visit to Miami.

The return to Miami used to be gutwrenching, because Cuban expats in the US (and their US residing family) were only allowed 1 trip every 3 years. Every time, almost everyone had tears streaming down their troubled faces. Troubled with the mountain of emotions - from joy of seeing long lost friends and family, to the awful pain of not knowing if one is going to see an ailing or old family member again in 3 more years, troubled with guilt over the condition of their separated family, which is antithetical to the very being of Cuban existence. The plane rolls out for take off from Jose Marti. Someone yells "Viva Cuba!" again, but in a quavering voice. The hankies come out en masse. Takeoff. Everyone leans over to see out the windows. Then, silence.

When I start to iron out the details of Thom's trip I'll keep everyone up to date (including expanding the roster).


Big hugs to all. :grouphug:

---

[Judi Lynn]

15. Your account of trips to and departing Cuba tells us you carry these people in your heart,

people from both places. Very moving, Mika. Unexpectedly discovered tears in my own eyes reading it.

If you make that trip it will be a tremendous idea on Hartmann's part. He couldn't do any better.

Do keep us informed. We are with you completely. This is super-interesting, exciting, and so appropriate. He can use your thoughtful company, as someone in close touch with both countries.

[truckin]

10. An American journalist recently tried to live for one month eating

only what a typical Cuban would eat based on their food rationing program. I would not want to live that way.

http://www.indyposted.com/120105/food-rationing-in-cuba-seen-through-american-eyes/

Excerpt from the article:

Patrick Symmes is a journalist who went to Cuba and “went native”, living on a monthly ration book and about $15.00 for a month of food. In addition to writing in the October issue of Harpers about his experience, Symmes spoke with CBC’s Rick Macinnes-Rae about his experiences living for a month about living on Cuban rations for a full month. In living for a month on Cuban rations, Symmes lost 11 and 1/2 pounds and gained a gut level empathy for the feelings of ordinary Cubans.

Cubans are not starving, according to Symmes, but the daily reality of their lives is not a pretty picture. For 1 month, the official ration of rice is about 5 pounds of rice. The first pound costs a penny, and each additional pound costs 4 cents. Beans, which are a traditional staple in a Cuban diet are limited to a half a pound a month, which is used up in a few days. Symmes also noticed “a protein” in his ration book which he described a mixture of soy protein, flour and chicken flavoring.

Getting more rice than that is a big problem, and involves farmers markets that operate at higher prices, hard currency stores and an underground barter system that is dependent upon items that “disappear” from state stores. Symmes described a system in which items not available in state stores are quietly sold at the back of the state stores. He witnessed and participated in bartering stolen gasoline for stolen chicken and stealing cement so it could be bartered later on.

Milk and yogurt are available to children under age 7 and adults over 65. The years in between, according to Symmes, dairy products disappear from the ordinary Cuban diet. Despite all of the recent reforms, a multitude of government regulations prohibit Cubans from growing or producing their own food. If people were allowed to manage plots of land for commercial food production, a big dent could be made in Cuba’s food shortages.

[Billy Burnett]

11. The "ration" (discount coupons) is only at the government discount stores.

What a totally bogus "experiment" to "go native" in Cuba by surviving on discount coupons. Typical(?), my fat ass.

Virtually no one lives solely on the discount store foodstuffs. There's no need to because everyone gets a salary and buys food at the numerous co-ops and farmers markets, and directly from farms.

[social_critic]

13. But the salaries aren't enough to buy food in the coops and other markets

I send money to my relatives in Cuba so they can survive buying stuff beyond the ration card. Their salaries aren't enough. And this is one reason why there's so much theft from state enterprises, and so much corruption - people make do whichever way they can. This also explains the large number of prostitutes marketing themselves to foreign tourists for a few dollars. The picture isn't as pretty as you guys like to make it look.

When I lived in Cuba, we had to buy it black market because they were too imbued implementing their communist paradise to understand what they were doing didn't make any sense. They copied the system we had at the time from the Soviets, who were well known for being the densest most stupid people on earth when it came to growing food. At least now they allow the farmer to work the land on his own, and there's something beyond the ration card.

Thank God Raul Castro is a good man who is dismantling all that garbage. He has signaled he intends to get rid of the ration card altogether, and end all the general subsidies for everything. People will have to figure out how to make a living, and aid will only be given to the truly needy. The salary structure will also be changed - they will be paying more to those who do more. And Raul says anybody who thinks they will be living in a society where handouts, welfare, and lazy behavior are condoned is in for a surprise. They are entering a brave new world, and they need to do it fast.

[Downwinder]

12. Now he should try to live on food stamps, or

the Sr. Nutritional Assistance Program

[Judi Lynn]

14. He could even save himself the trouble of going to Cuba, live homeless,

like one of the MILLIONS of US citizens, including so many former soldiers, used up and thrown aside.

Maybe he'd like to see how well he makes it if he lived without health insurance for years, or for the rest of his life, like over 50 MILLION US citizens.

What colossal absurdity!