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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 OPINION 
5

Lessons From a Cuban Roadtrip

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(Newser) – NPR reporter Jason Beaubien didn’t plan to drive across Cuba, but it did provide an apt look at the many problems the island faces. The “Spanish phrase ‘No hay,’ meaning ‘there's no fill-in-the-blank,’ was a constant refrain on this trip,” he reports. The country’s transportation crisis means that cars are rarely available, and the only rental car he could find was a $100-a-day Samsung heap.

Beaubien picked up many desperate hitchhikers waving from the curb. One young girl was fleeing her revolutionary father; one man hoped to move to the Dominican Republic, where he’d heard he could earn 70 cents an hour. In “Cuba sometimes what you want, what you counted on, what you demand, isn't available,” Beaubien writes. The highway itself spoke to Cuba’s challenges; it’s so empty that farmers often dry rice on its vast, unfilled lanes.

A car passes next to a billboard that reads
A car passes next to a billboard that reads "70 percent of Cuban people have been born under the Embargo," referring to US sanctions, on a highway in Havana, Cuba.   (AP Photo/ Javier Galeano, FILE)
A man walks along a highway after Hurricane Paloma passed through Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008.
A man walks along a highway after Hurricane Paloma passed through Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008.   (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
A classic car drives by a billboard depicting Cuba's former President Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008.
A classic car drives by a billboard depicting Cuba's former President Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008.   (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)
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While gasoline is available, it's expensive—more than $4 a gallon. This is a staggering sum for people who officially earn only $20 a month. - NPR reporter Jason Beaubien

In one state-run restaurant that had run out of cheese, the waitress snapped at us, 'No, you can't have the Sandwich Cubano without cheese; that's not authorized.' But away from their official jobs, Cubans tend to be warm, generous, and chatty. - NPR reporter Jason Beaubien

One moment we were being interrogated by a pair of stern police officers. Ten minutes later, we were laughing with a woman who sells mango milkshakes. In the heavy, hot tropical air, (they) slide down your throat. And then we get back on the Cuban highway. -

The Spanish phrase no hay, meaning 'there's no fill-in-the-blank,' was a constant refrain on this trip. No hay flights. No hay rental cars. No hay vegetables. No hay fruit. - NPR reporter Jason Beaubien

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5 comments
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offspringdude235
Aug 2, 09 5:13 PM CDT
I don't understand why we still have an embargo. The Cold War is over. We won. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
Jes
Aug 2, 09 5:29 PM CDT
I've never understood it either. Or why it was there in the first place, to be honest. I'm not sure if it's a failure of my history classes or just a generational thing.
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0
IN RESPONSE:
flame821
Aug 2, 09 7:41 PM CDT
I'm with you on that. I thought it was over the whole "Bay of Pigs' Communism thing, but aside from China, communism is pretty much dead. We have such a huge population of Cubans in Florida that it seems silly to pretend Cuba doesn't exist anymore. It almost seems like a bunch of old dudes with grudges more than anything else.
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Shannonals
Aug 2, 09 10:28 PM CDT
We need the old Cold War with the Soviet Union back, tensions were tight, but the economy on both sides were good until the Soviet Union couldn't play anymore Reply
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-2
schmidtkoff
Aug 4, 09 10:13 AM CDT
forcast: i think the deep freeze will be over during the current presidency. at least i hope so. Reply
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