Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 276 posts

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#41

Post by iandanforth »

quonn wrote: post #23
iandanforth wrote: post #7

I've visited Cuba on a Canadian passport. Aside from the beautiful beaches the thing that struck me most was the desperate poverty of people living in shacks outside the 5 star resorts. While I hesitate to predict that this change will be all for the good, I do believe that the poorest in Cuba will benefit significantly from increased trade.

This might have been your impression, coming straight from Canada. I visited Cuba a decade ago, having traveled in Latin America for > 1 year. I can't say that Cuba seemed to be worse off than many of these other countries.

Ahh I see how my comment could have been interpreted as meaning "everyone in Cuba lives like that." That's not what I meant. Outside of the few resorts I had access to there were always people begging and the beaches were spotted with shacks in severe disrepair. The stark contrast is what stuck with me.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#42

Post by debacle »

tootie wrote: post #13
valarauca1 wrote: post #5

This is actually (amusingly) incredibly unpopular in cigar circles who are calling this the "end of an era". Most discussions seems to center around the doom and gloom of quality dropping and prices increasing as the US/Cuban cigar market opens and the demand for CC increases. No discussion on the legality of owning CC changing amusingly. As apparently everyone forgets that smoking a Cuban Cigar can be considered an…

Or that cigar imports is probably the most utterly trivial and selfish thing to consider in this move.

I find that anyone against this reunion is doing it because of something utterly trivial and selfish.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#43

Post by tormeh »

ceejayoz wrote: post #38
tormeh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putin seems to like turning back the clock on that kind of thing. Just because it's irresponsible doesn't mean he won't do it. He's a rational actor in terms of his own grip on power and nothing else.

Again, Cuba's no longer a vassal state. I suspect they have little interest in hosting Russian nuclear missiles, and I suspect the US would be more than happy to help them resist a Russian effort to restore the Cold War situation.

Imagine that the US didn't lift the embargo but Russia offered access to Russian cars (yes, they exist), cheap oil and whatever else Russia can provide. That would be very tempting for Cuba, I think.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#44

Post by johnward »

valarauca1 wrote: post #5

This is actually (amusingly) incredibly unpopular in cigar circles who are calling this the "end of an era". Most discussions seems to center around the doom and gloom of quality dropping and prices increasing as the US/Cuban cigar market opens and the demand for CC increases. No discussion on the legality of owning CC changing amusingly. As apparently everyone forgets that smoking a Cuban Cigar can be considered an…

My understanding, as a non cigar smoker, is that the quality of Cubans has decreased and they are only popular because of illegality of them.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#45

Post by johnward »

iandanforth wrote: post #7

I've visited Cuba on a Canadian passport. Aside from the beautiful beaches the thing that struck me most was the desperate poverty of people living in shacks outside the 5 star resorts. While I hesitate to predict that this change will be all for the good, I do believe that the poorest in Cuba will benefit significantly from increased trade.

Other Caribbean countries are like that without embargoes though. The first time I went to the dominican I saw all kinds of shacks made out of whatever they could fine/steal. The second time they built a new highway that avoided this and basically you ran through fields. I was disappointed because I wanted to show my family the real DR.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#46

Post by brianbreslin »

lumberjack wrote: post #37

Since this is HN, does anyone know what the IT sector is like in Cuba? Apparently they have a university dedicated to IT stuff[1] but I don't read Spanish and I couldn't really find any projects/research page on there. The only thing that seems to be portrayed is a Linux distro called Nova.[2] [1] http://www.uci.cu/ [2] http://www.nova.cu/

Here in Miami there are a number of Cuba initiatives for IT/tech education and entrepreneurship/startups. Happy to put you in touch with people if you're interested.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#47

Post by mathattack »

iandanforth wrote: post #7

I've visited Cuba on a Canadian passport. Aside from the beautiful beaches the thing that struck me most was the desperate poverty of people living in shacks outside the 5 star resorts. While I hesitate to predict that this change will be all for the good, I do believe that the poorest in Cuba will benefit significantly from increased trade.

When you start from such a low base, there is enormous room for growth. The question is what can they export? Cigars? Medical personnel?

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#48

Post by serve_yay »

philwelch wrote: post #26
serve_yay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure why this would affect that, as far as I know that part of Cuba is considered to be US soil.

Guantanamo Bay isn't US soil, it's Cuban soil indefinitely leased to the US for the purpose of maintaining a naval base. (The concentration camp is a side benefit, constructed to evade laws against building concentration camps on American soil.)

OK, I guess that is a distinction.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#49

Post by dmckeon »

mathattack wrote: post #47
iandanforth wrote: post #7

I've visited Cuba on a Canadian passport. Aside from the beautiful beaches the thing that struck me most was the desperate poverty of people living in shacks outside the 5 star resorts. While I hesitate to predict that this change will be all for the good, I do believe that the poorest in Cuba will benefit significantly from increased trade.

When you start from such a low base, there is enormous room for growth. The question is what can they export? Cigars? Medical personnel?

Baseball players.

Re: Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

#50

Post by ceejayoz »

tormeh wrote: post #43
ceejayoz wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, Cuba's no longer a vassal state. I suspect they have little interest in hosting Russian nuclear missiles, and I suspect the US would be more than happy to help them resist a Russian effort to restore the Cold War situation.

Imagine that the US didn't lift the embargo but Russia offered access to Russian cars (yes, they exist), cheap oil and whatever else Russia can provide. That would be very tempting for Cuba, I think.

That was already the case, except it was with Venezuela. http://www.businessinsider.com/cuba-didnt-have-a-choice-anym...
Post reply on HN