Just twenty four hours ago, I left the crowded, unruly Terminal 2 of the Jose Marti International Airport in La Habana to arrive in the crowded, unruly but more diverse but still Spanish speaking terminal at Miami airport.. the flight lasted just 39 minutes.
I was wearing the same shirt as you see me in this photo with my good friend AA who is a specialist Psychologist. (taken at Restaurant near Cine Riviera at La Rampa and H in Vedado)
Leaving Havana is never easy for me. it is just another world and the technically superior, less humanistic world I would enter in just a few minutes (but thank you for wifi) fills me with an anxiety, transmitted by the people around me, including the Cuban immigrants who seem to be carrying some trauma in their faces.
So I am usually silent when I check in, was given a good seat and then paid the 25 dollars tax and on to the Immigration. Usually a pleasant chat and I request that my passport be stamped so that I have a souvenir of my travels.
When I put my carry on luggage and passed through the security, the alarm went off and the security officer with his electronic wand came towards me.
Is this shirt from Arabia? or India? he asked. Big difference, I joked with him.
and then he surprised me with a statement which I would never expect from a TSA agent in USA: Of course you are familiar with Krishnamurty?
I was taken back. Cuba is the most educated country in this hemisphere (including the USA) but a philosophical discussion is not what you expect when you go through the security at an airport, especially at a terminal where the flights are leaving for a country with which until recently you had no relationship, and had always had a tense atmosphere.
Believe or not, for the next 15 minutes he and I talked about the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurty, the Indian Philosopher who is very popular with intellectuals in the west. I told him I would send him some articles I had written which have Krishnamurty's philosophies about the necessity for lack of attachment. Then I said Good Bye to him, leaving him to check other passengers.
This confirmed something I have always believed in. If you are in Cuba to pursue intellectual subjects or enjoy the human warmth special to the Cubans or enjoy the humanitarian nature of Cuban Socialism or the unselfishness brought on by years of thoughtful leadership, you will never be disappointed. But if you are here with any hidden agenda, or part of a scheme to make money or enjoy the benefits of individuality that is contrary to this society, you are better off in a country like the USA, you would not enjoy Cuba.
My life in Cuba is full of human warmth, great long conversations on Philosophy, Psychology and Anthropology, along with sharing of simple pleasures of lives of ordinary Cubans.
I miss it. I always miss Cuba when I am away from there.
Leaving Havana is never easy for me. it is just another world and the technically superior, less humanistic world I would enter in just a few minutes (but thank you for wifi) fills me with an anxiety, transmitted by the people around me, including the Cuban immigrants who seem to be carrying some trauma in their faces.
So I am usually silent when I check in, was given a good seat and then paid the 25 dollars tax and on to the Immigration. Usually a pleasant chat and I request that my passport be stamped so that I have a souvenir of my travels.
When I put my carry on luggage and passed through the security, the alarm went off and the security officer with his electronic wand came towards me.
Is this shirt from Arabia? or India? he asked. Big difference, I joked with him.
and then he surprised me with a statement which I would never expect from a TSA agent in USA: Of course you are familiar with Krishnamurty?
I was taken back. Cuba is the most educated country in this hemisphere (including the USA) but a philosophical discussion is not what you expect when you go through the security at an airport, especially at a terminal where the flights are leaving for a country with which until recently you had no relationship, and had always had a tense atmosphere.
Believe or not, for the next 15 minutes he and I talked about the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurty, the Indian Philosopher who is very popular with intellectuals in the west. I told him I would send him some articles I had written which have Krishnamurty's philosophies about the necessity for lack of attachment. Then I said Good Bye to him, leaving him to check other passengers.
This confirmed something I have always believed in. If you are in Cuba to pursue intellectual subjects or enjoy the human warmth special to the Cubans or enjoy the humanitarian nature of Cuban Socialism or the unselfishness brought on by years of thoughtful leadership, you will never be disappointed. But if you are here with any hidden agenda, or part of a scheme to make money or enjoy the benefits of individuality that is contrary to this society, you are better off in a country like the USA, you would not enjoy Cuba.
My life in Cuba is full of human warmth, great long conversations on Philosophy, Psychology and Anthropology, along with sharing of simple pleasures of lives of ordinary Cubans.
I miss it. I always miss Cuba when I am away from there.
