HOW TO FIND HAPPINESS IN HAVANA
AVOID FOREIGNERS AND TOURISTS
Unless you are a tourist or an expatriate, one does not
ordinarily encounter them, if you are resident in Miami or Paris or London, You
see them but they are not part of your life.
So why should they be in Havana?
In Cuba, there is not a large resident foreign population
and all non-Cubans come under the one umbrella of foreigners and they are meted
out the same treatment, it does not matter someone had lived here for a while.
With the influx of new tourists, mainly from non-Spanish
speaking countries, various types of entrepreneurs have floated up to the top
of this society, which puts to use, for personal gain, much of the
fundamentally good aspects of the society Fidel Castro had imagined.
I had witnessed it in Baracoa, a lovely city on the other
end of Cuba to Havana, where the local cultural representatives, and euphemism
for milking the best of what is available, would alter history or events to
suit the audience of tourists and visitors. Of course, Havana is the capital of
Cuba in more than one sense, and this cultural prostitution has flourished here
as well.
I encourage my family to visit me here in Cuba but I have no
desire to play host to people I hardly know. First of all, they have slew of
questions, often slanted against the Cuban system and I as a foreigner who has
lived in USA Australia France UK and Belgium have little interest in the
engaging qualities of life in their countries when compared to Cuba (such as
for the same money we could get a better place in my country)
I enjoy being with Cubans, these Cubans have nothing to do
with tourists on a daily basis and are not part of the mesh of milking the
tourists in every way possible. As the writer of the Rough Guide to Cuba said
to me once, at the end of the day we are but Dollar Signs in their eyes.
Many interesting visitors arrive here but be aware of the
company they keep, if they are with people who exploit the innocence and
ignorance of the visitors, give them a big berth and you carry on with your everyday
endeavours.
It is a nice day here in Havana, I shall go for a walk along
the Malecon, and it is good for the body and the Spirit.
