Jake Gordon

Cuban Cigars and Beached Turtles

3 July 2003

So, I was talking to Sara, a Swiss girl, in the bar last night and she was telling me about her recent trip to Cuba. It sounds amazing, and also interesting for my planned dissetation for next year, on something I’ve called ‘technological socialism’. Any, Cuba is socialist and its interesting to hear how it all works there. Fidel Castro is the 1984-style dictator, and totally oppresses any alternative ideas to his style of socialism. For example, whilst tourists there can go on the Internet, residents can only visit an intranet - that is, sites located within Cuba. There’s no Coke, no McDonalds, little choice, no capitalism. People are limited to how much they can earn, and there’s a thriving black market based on the tourist dollar. But there is no extreme poverty, no homeless, everyone has a certain basic amount of money. And people don’t waste their lives working a 9-5 or longer every day for the majority of their lives. They’re laid back, and time means nothing.

Well anyway, I’m gonna look into possibly going there for a week or two when I’m over here, if only to help me prepare for my dissetation. The idea being that capitalism is crumbling at its knees, the economy’s about to collapse and we need some alternative to take its place. Cuban socialism isn’t the answer - but there’s a lot to be learnt from it.

Oh yeah, and I’m in Puerto Escondido at the moment. Pretty cool. Went on a boat trip yesterday and saw a turtle which we put on the boat and treated like a cuddly toy. Must have been fun for the turtle (yes i’m being sarcastic). But I also saw a beached whale the other day. Well, it looked like one anyway. Some rather obese Mexican was on a boat opposite me with his head hung back over the side, mouth wide open sleeping. Quite a site! Oh, might do some surfing today. Awesome!!!


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