I would never want to be governed by Fidel Castro. But he should get credit where credit is due.  

Measure                       Cuba today     U.S.                 Latin America countries

with a better reading

Life Expectancy          77.7                 78.4                 Costa Rica                  

Infant Mortality          4.6                   5.8                   None

Adult Literacy            96.6%             92.6%              Costa Rica; Mexico

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Sources:  UNESCO for Literacy; World Fact Book for the others. These results can differ by the organization compiling the data. But the differences are small. In general, by these measures, Cuba compares favorably with the U.S. and much better than the bulk of Latin America.

Feel free to comment. Just click the comment box and type your entry. Then click publish.

Did my Great Decisions Cuba-U.S. Presentation at St. Paul's Central H.S. this week. Had a small, but enthusiastic audience.

Coppelia is Havana’s popular ice cream parlor. It was started by in 1966, and served 26 flavors of ice cream in honor of Fidel’s 26^th of July Revolutionary Movement.

Today, there are fewer flavors, and Coppelia illustrates two dilemmas facing Cuba. The first is what to do with its confusing dual currency system. Most shops in Cuba accept only the national currency, but so-called “dollar stores” accept the convertible peso that was created in the 1990s and pegged to the dollar. This was done in part to stimulate a tourist industry that would make up for the economic chaos that struck after the USSR collapsed and could no longer subsidize Cuba. The exchange ratio is about 25 national pesos for one convertible peso.

Coppelia accepts both the national peso and the convertible peso. But paying in convertible pesos gets you more flavors and shorter lines than paying in the national peso.

The currency discrepancies at Coppelia could be eliminated by scrapping the dual currency system and moving to a single currency. But the Economist magazine pointed out a dilemma in doing that. If the national peso were replaced by the convertible peso, the likely result would be rampant inflation. On the other hand, if the convertible peso were replaced by the national peso, it would devalue the savings of people who had built up a nest egg in convertible pesos. Either way, Cubans suffer.

I wanted to set a scene for my CROSSHAIRS ON CASTRO at Coppelia. But, alas, my novel is set in 1962 and Coppelia wasn’t built until four years later.

Feel free to leave a comment. 

On Tuesday, I do my Great Decisions Cuba-U.S. presentation at Central H.S. in St. Paul. I haven't talked to a high school audience in years.  Decades, in fact.
Wish me luck!
Here's a link to the Great Decisions program, if you're curious.
http://www.fpa.org/news/index.cfm?act=show_announcement&announcement_id=393

A New Wave of Migrants from Cuba?
Since 1966, any Cuban landing on U.S. shores gets immediate entry. There is a fear that this arrangement may soon disappear as a result of President Obama's opening relations with Cuba. As a consequence thousands of Cubans have fled to Ecuador and Central America in hopes of gaining transit from there to the U.S. In December, none other than Pope Francis called for an alleviation of the stranding of thousands in Central America.

Travelling to Cuba?
It's been made a lot easier in the past few months, but it's still not like driving across the border at Niagara Falls to drive around Canada at your leisure.
Here's a couple of sites to help you sort it out.

NYT  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/travel/cuba-vacations.html?_r=0

CNN  http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/18/travel/cuba-travel-rules-explained/

Meyer Lansky's grandson, Gary Rapaport, may seek compensation for property that Lansky lost when he was forced out of Cuba by Fidel Castro in 1959. Gary should read CROSSHAIRS ON CASTRO to find out where Lansky stashed his jewels before he fled. https://www.casino.org/news/meyer-lansky-heirs-seek-compensation-claim-for-cuban-casino

I'm just getting started on this blog. It is a companion to my soon to be launched novel CROSSHAIRS ON CASTRO. There's been an explosion of interest in and hopes for Cuba in the past few years. We'll try to track some of these. But this blog is a work in progress, so stay tuned.