MI POBRE CUBA.. A VISIT BY HURRICANE IAN .. NO ERES BIENVENIDO, SR. IAN

 In CUBA we try to be hospitable to visitors but this one, from the Sahara, Cabo Verde Islands and the Atlantic, a certain Sr. IAN was not welcome.

The entire night the entire island slept in the darkness.. Electricity was lost in the entire island ..

You can make out the outlines of the islands of Jamaica and Grand Cayman and then there is total black, absence of light until you reach Florida .. 

and in Miami, people were waiting for Sr Ian, now happy with his passionate dance over Cuba..

WAITING FOR IAN. HURRICANE IAN ON THIS SECOND DAY OF TISHREI 5783 IN MIAMI . A CONGLOMERATION OF EMOTIONS

 I left Havana a couple of days ago, now i am told that many parts of that city are flooded, adding to the misery of survival in these times of Covid and economic paralysis. La Lisa a distant suburb of Havana is very badly affected I am told .

As can be imagined there would be no electricity for a day or two. Cuba is pretty good about cleaning and rehabilitating but you don't need an extra hit on an old lady already down on the floor after a fall 

I had just celebrated the Jewish New Year and coincidentally the unrest in Iran had kept a lot of my friends off line. 

Who cannot shed a tear for our sisters in Iran?

Then I was listening to a lecture on Mashhadi Jews many of whom now live in Great Neck New York and tragic history when they were converted forcibly to Islam in the 1830s and then removed to Herat in Afghanistan from where they left for Turkmenistan only to return to Mashhad and then leave for USA after the Ayatollahs took power.

The two countries that I love are under the flood of tears and in the USA, i have never seen so many unhappy people and a general sense of desperation that the country is slipping slowly in its world standing 

Such a confusion of feelings and now it is midnight and in a couple of hours the hurricane winds will be here ..

Hope it brings calm with it 

I listened to some Mizrachi Israeli music

watched a documentary on the beauty of the nature of Iran 

had a nice cup of tea 

such is the state of affairs of the world today. Was able to ship some vital medications to Mexico and Surinam.

AS AMERICAN INDIANS SAY WE ARE NOT CLEVER ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND WHEN THINGS HAPPEN. SHANAH TOVA 5783

 An alarm was raised about a possible Hurricane approaching Cuba, so I decided to leave for Miami.

There I was sitting at the noisy International Departure terminal of Jose Marti airport for the short flight but an immense gulf of memories and experiences of these two countries which have maintained an animated distance from each other for 62 years.

I always feel sad leaving Cuba

But the flight was so rapid, before I knew what was happening we were over the Everglades and soon down at the Miami International Airport.

Jewish New Year 5783 begins at sunset on 25 September this year . I was having a very quiet and enjoyable day at home, all alone as the owners of the house where I stay had gone to their beach house for the day.

I was psychologically preparing myself for the new year and also for the ten days following of reflection and repentance, when the owner of the house called and said : don't go out to dinner, but someone has prepared dinner for us !

I was happy about this but was not prepared for the coincidental nature of this meal.

I prepared to light the candle as the sun was going down and was going to listen to some of the services live on the net, I like the synagogues in New York City today also checked out a synagogue in Washington and another one in Ohio. I settled on the Conservative congregation in New York with a lovely voiced Chazan.

This is modern day Judaism, I have just arrived from Havana, sitting here in the comfort of home, sipping wine listening to Avenu Malkenu..

Let us go back to 2008 when I met my best friend in Asia at the airport in Siem Reap. she was curious when the driver taking us both to the same hotel was holding a sign Welcome Dr Aung Khant (that is my Burmese name). She was curious about my Burmese connection etc and we soon became very good friends and I became friends with her Portuguese husband as well.

KL became our eating playground and oh my god with our good friend Ho and Kit as well as Abid, we ate very well across Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Those were delightful days before the Pandemic changed our world of travel .My last visit to KL was in 2019

My best friend in Asia, MYC is from a suburb of KL called Seri Kembangan and I met another Chinese Malaysian  lady married to a Jamaica on one of my visits. Her name is Lisa who happened to be from that Chinese suburb of Kuala Lumpur .

Who was the lady who prepared the food for us tonight? (it had not connection with Jewish New Year, I am the only one who is Jewish in this group). None other than Lisa, the Chinese Malaysian lady from Seri Kembangan where my best friend in Asia lives, who was visiting Miami and thought of preparing a good meal.

She had gone to the supermarket and gotten fresh ingredients and had procured Shrimp as well as what is called Blue Crabs. She wanted fresh ginger, garlic, onions, chili paste as well as sweet and sour sauce. ( I can imagine she spent a good many hours in the kitchen!)

I said Bore pri hagefen.. the words of gratefulness for the fruits of the earth while drinking wine

and the food had been spread out on the table.

It was one of the nicest and tastiest meals in Miami that I remember (I have had multiple excellent tasty meals with my close friends Dr M and Mrs G, they live 100 miles away)

I FELT SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY IN MY HEART.. 

At each Rosh Hashanah, of course we think of our people scattered all around the world, the State of Israel and its people and not to mention our families : Mordecai e Gretel, Eliyahu, Yitzhak and Shmuel, Shimon e Avital, Hadar, Roni, Shir, la petite poete de cote sauvage, Sam e Nava and many jewish friends across the world. 

At each of the New Year's day in the past ten years or so, I have thought about Iran.

This year more so than ever 

I wish the people of Iran better days ahead, especially for our sisters. This is my New Year Wish.

Thank you Mrs Lisa for the food and thank you J and J for inviting me to partake it .

Tonight I will book my ticket to return to KL .. thanks for reminding me that I should return to that land 

and I will never forget what Thiago de Mello wrote :

Decreta-se que nada será obrigado nem proibido.
tudo será permitido,
inclusive brincar com os rinocerontes
e caminhar pelas tardes
com uma imensa begônia na lapela.

Parágrafo único:
Só uma coisa fica proibida:
amar sem amor.

OH HOW WONDERFUL IT IS TO BE IN HAVANA CUBA OCTOBER 2022

 

For Hemingway the Moveable Feast was Paris and for me it is Havana.

What makes Havana and for that matter all of Cuba make so special?

Its people

not only people already dear to you as you see my sister here in this video and also new people that you meet.

I live very close to the seawall and each evening I walk there to watch the sunset.

hope you enjoy these photographs of my dear Havana and you are welcome to use them ..

IN CUBA, PEOPLE STILL HOLD HANDS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR AGES .. IT IS NOT JUST FOR ADOLESCENTS

 Yesterday I was enjoying my sunset walk along the Malecon, the seawall which is just few metres away from the flat where I stay in Havana. 

There were many people enjoying the scenery and the sunset and i noticed that most couples were holding hands. Dont blame the sunset for it, but it is in the nature of the Cubans to hold hands and be affectionate ..

young and old ..

European and western countries have become less and less demonstrative of affections (there may be an actual decrease in affection) and it is nice to see Cubans being so affectionate..

WHY ARE THE AMERICANS SO FAT ? NO ONE CARES AND ALSO BAD BAD FOOD BUT NO ONE CARES

Nearly half the physicians practising in the USA did not think that their patients would benefit from Nutritional Counseling ! These are patients who had consulted these doctors because they had some chronic metabolic disorder, such as Diabetes, hypertension, kidney problems or gastrointestinal problems .

It is incredible. Americans are fatter by the year , each year fatter than the last but neither the doctors nor the patients engage in a Nutritional conversation. so many charlatan nutrition gurus on the net ..

and to make things worse, the QUALITY of food is never discussed and USA has one of the WORST quality food that is freely available and easily available and cheaply available for its burgeoning (bodily and in numbers) FAT population.

My own assessment is that under a fee for service system such as USA, time to explain does not lead to personal income which overrules the welfare of the patient. Most doctors are not capable of giving advice on Nutrition . as you can see Gastroenterologists score very low on their desire to educate or refer patient for Nutritional education. Once I wanted to discuss Microbiome with a gastroenterologist, his answer was I have no interest and i have no time, I have rather do Endoscopy and Colonoscopy, that is where the money is . 

When a country is so INDIVIDUALISTIC, the welfare of the OTHER is not a priority.

In all other civilized countries of the world, health care is not just disease care but in the USA it is . and as the country is slipping in its international hegemony, the quality of medical care is slipping too with too many people who are not qualified to provide medical care appropriately dominating the scene .

US Politicians end their speeches with the phrase God Bless America but in this case  even God if she or he exists cannot help America or its Obesity or its Chronic disease sufferers ..

WE NEED TO THINK OF QUALITY OF LIFE WHEN YOU THINK OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE OUR COMFORT ZONE LIVES IN THE WEST

 I have had a wonderful trip to France, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia; two developed and two developing areas of the world.

I have been lucky enough to visit Marrakech often but this was my first visit to Tunis. 

Being with extremely bright Israeli and French children and seeing the chaos in both Marrakech and Tunis, one is tempted to think in QUANTITATIVE terms rather than the QUALITATIVE terms which are not quite obvious to a visitor, even a repeat one.

Travel broadens ones mind but also remember, it exposes to ideas and the current ideas prevalent are about the rapid changes in the world (not the age old well tested cultural values), the lack of privacy (not the pleasure of company of family and friends) and the overpowering, omnipresent Artificial Intelligence 

An average person in Marrakech has no control over the price of food nor does an average person in Tunis has any control (without adding to it himself) over the accumulated garbage in the streets. That does not mean the Moroccans and Tunisians do not enjoy a healthy dose of family life and that they cling on to their traditions and the inner joy being in those countries. It is the Quantitative measures that drive the migration while Qualitative measures drive home the nostalgia and homesickness.

I have a good friend, who now lives in Saint Martin, a French island in the Caribbean. I mentioned to her in a message that French overseas territories seem to be much better off than the independent countries of the region (think of the first ever black republic, Haiti). 

She had this to say:

I agrée and I understand and feel for those islands with not so many resources specially for health and education. Those two are the most important ones. The rest, I have understood how little of the rest of what we might call « part of life » people from the islands need. People from islands cherish and are closer to their culture, their roots, habits, and above all - they know how to appreciate and enjoy their land, nature, their little tiny piece in these world, a lot much better than someone from the first world. The wish will be fairness, and peaceful coexistence. One day, … who knows….

I truly appreciated this note from my friend, one of my earliest Cuban friends from Havana who is now lives in Saint Martin. It made me realize that our thinking can be easily influenced by fear of the future, fear of the unknown of the artificial intelligence, just in general FEAR . But being aware of what we have, to enjoy every day, around us, regardless of whether we are in Miami or Marrakech or Tel Aviv or Tunis, and placing importance on quality of life , rather than worry about the price of Capuccino along Habib Bourguiba boulevard in Tunis.

Thank you, my friend AH in SXM and also my new friend G in Tunis 

10 pm along Ave Habib Bourguiba in Tunis, Tunisia 

The Medina at Tunis.

a simple Berber restaurant with very friendly waiters in Marrakech

Djemma al Fina close to midnight in Marrakech.

Nice to be reminded of the Quality of Life of this traveller..!