By Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green, October 12, 2020.

Following the path created by Hugo Chavez, which caused the destruction of that once beautiful country called Venezuela.  

Several countries in the Caribbean have a socialist background, but most of those today has been hijacked by politicians who are so far left of the Labour movements that they are little more than communists. People are pretending to be Labour who are Marxist monsters trying to take their countries along the Chavez path to become part of the Cuban model.

The Cuban model follows the old USSR path to a communist regime that is intolerant and so nasty that it has to keep their peoples under a strict form of perpetual slavery. 

Cuban citizens have spent years trying to escape Cuba, in, or on whatever floats. It should be noted not a single political refugee, or financial migrant, from any other country in the hemisphere flees to Cuba. It's strictly one-way traffic, so what does that tell us? 

Many Americans travel to Canada to take holidays in Cuba, to circumvent the US rules on going to Cuba. The Cubans do not even stamp the passports of US citizens. Cuba is also great for the Canadians to go on holiday; it's cheap for them, prostitution is rife, and is also very a nasty attraction to paedophiles. Some of the sex trade in Cuba is also an attraction to leaders of some of the small Caribbean countries while praising the Cuban model they are frolicking with the Cuban chicas.

There are many shortages in foodstuffs and toiletries, in fact, in everything. Many of the shops are bare and shelves empty. The Cuban housewives buy most of the crap food. While the prime, if you can even call the prime, prime, goes to the tourist industry. Half decent cuts of meat and lovely fillets of fish are unavailable to those who cannot pay top peso. There are even two kinds of those, one for the tourist and one for the local. Two tiers of monitory value; there are two different kinds of Cuban pesos. The currency that you as a foreigner will use everywhere in Cuba is the CUC, also known as the Convertible Peso. What can you buy with the Convertible Peso? Anything that is for sale in your hotel is in CUCs. Everything that you see in the Dollar stores is in CUCs. All tourist souvenirs sell for CUCs. Most restaurants and cafes charge in CUCs. Taxis accept payment in CUCs.  All CUC bills have the words "pesos convertibles" on them so that you won't mistake them for National pesos. CUCs are worth 25 TIMES, the National pesos. 

Suppose you want to buy something in a local Cuban store, a National Peso store, or purchase street foods or take a local bus across town. In that case, it's a good idea to exchange a handful of your CUCs for National pesos at a Casa de Cambio, or Cadeca. Not all of those will do that exchange, so watch out.

Despite ripping off the foreign tourist and visitor, commerce is still pretty stagnant and heading down the drain. The supposed first-class health care provided in Cuba is a myth. Hospitals in the island's capital are falling apart. There are specialized hospitals for visiting diplomats, which are said to be superb. There are also individual hospitals catering to health tourism. I am also told and verily believe to be right there are exceptional hospitals for leading members of the Cuban communist party. But the regular Cubans, the slaves, have to put up with what can only be described as the worst of the worst, broken down or no equipment, shortages of drugs, dressings, and medicines: dirty, dilapidated hospitals, incompetent staff, missing bed-sheets and bedding in general.  Socialists and progressives outside of Cuba have been known to gush praise over the island's state-run health-care system, while it is in a state of total disarray. The regime has neither provided Cubans with equality nor fairness in health care. The ruling elite, their relatives and friends, get better service than the rest.

So this is what the leaders of our Caribbean islands want for their slaves, not for themselves, of course. Have you noticed that communism is only expected of the people, the slaves? While the leaders live high on the hog, best of everything. Most of the rules do not apply to them. They like to travel first class, ride in limousines, walk on the red carpet, and look to be described as honourable.

I sometimes wonder if the Caribbean leaders who become affiliated to Cuba do so out of personal political values or if the Cuban state pays them. Because I find it hard to believe any sane person would want to devote their lives to trying to introduce to their islands such a failed system. A system the maddest of them think is fair and equitable but is a million miles from that. There has to be some attraction to our want to be revolutionary rulers; what in hell's name could it be?

In Barbados, it's not just the leadership collaborating with the Cubans. Some Barbadians are Cuban collaborators, of the 'Solidarity Movement with Cuba' and the 'Association of Cubans in Barbados.'  

Saint Vincent has its 'Cuban Friendship Society' and a leader who is well known in the communist world, PM' Ralph E Gonsalves. He openly courts Cuba, goes there and makes disrespectful referenced in speeches about the USA to wild hand clapping. He is a hero in Cuba and loves them so much that he allowed them to build the new airport at Argyle in Saint Vincent. He told the Vincentian people that the Cubans would be doing the jobs of Vincentians because Venezuela was paying their wages and insisted on them being employed. So hoards of Cubans arrived, driving trucks and machines, doing all the jobs Vincentians could do. It was a three-year project but took the Cubans nine years to complete. But guess what, the Venezuelans never paid a red cent towards the Cubans wages, SVG paid it all, up to $300,000 a month in Cuban salaries. The promise by Chavez, if he ever made such a promise, was never fulfilled. The airport costs more than a billion dollars, and the figures have been hidden by using private companies instead of state organizations. The people were told that when the airport was finished, it would have cost the state nothing because there was a coalition of the willing, a lot of friendly countries who would be paying for the whole thing. Guess what; there was no coalition, the state of SVG is in debt for massive borrowings. The government is currently admitting to 1.5 billion dollars in debt; it could be double that figure, no tourists coming to the main island, and no way of ever being able to pay it off. But that is how state communism works, lies and deception, smoke and mirrors, and gross enslavement. 

Barbados, through its prime minister's friendship with the PM of SVG, is in danger from the ‘laying down with dogs’ syndrome.’ The people of Barbados like SVG may have got someone who wants to stay in power forever, who will create a family dynasty, and all the leaders' family and friends get prime government jobs, copycat behaviour.  

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