Bacu Notes
I thought I would follow up the best of Bacu with the worst of Bacu, but that would be depressing. Here is some random notes that I made while visiting…
How to Control the Masses With Freedoms
First, you pay everyone a meager amount of money. Just enough to keep their heads above water as long as they don do anything too extravagant like eat an acceptable amount of decent food. Second, you set the prices for everything you don want them to access at exhorbitant prices. Take for instance internet service. As far as I can tell there is no real way for Bacuans to access the world-wide-web because to do so they would have to pay the highest fees possible such as 5 CUC ($6+ US) per hour. They have a second tier service which is cheaper, requires a login (i.e. they can track you) and only provides access to the national intranet and email. My guess is most visitors think this is a country that allows access to the internet. As with everything in this country, that is absolutely true and truly false.
Cha Cha Cha and Che Che Che
I love the Buena Vista Social Club music and I will not listen to it for a long time now that I have heard every song slaughtered twenty different ways while here. Bacuan music scene is very suspect in my mind although I hope there is something new coming out of Santiago area. And talking about overkill, I am so sick of everything Che. It’s all about Che here and as far as I can tell there really is nothing other than a photogenic face and a CIA-created martyr behind all the hoopla. I do wonder why a doctor was so excited about communist revolutions in three other countries while his own country, Argentina, was probably in need of a different voice and his skills. Someday I might try to find an unbiased biography about this guy and I am sure it won’t be TBO’s memoirs on Che. In the meantime, it really blows my mind when I see tourists buying all the Che memorabilia and you see very little on the Bacuans. I was told it is a fashion statement. I don’t get it.
Why Visit Bacu?
I’ll be wondering this one for a long time. I was certainly warned about how bad this situation is by Bacuans living off the island. Most of them despise the place and will never move back. Now I get why. I came only because my government forbids me and I have a big problem with the constitutionality of that. But why do people come here for vacation? Do they enjoy seeing the misery? Do they enjoy seeing what was once a great country turned into a freak show? I believe most of them stick their heads in the sand regarding the overall situation that Bacuans find themselves in. Why do they stay at the government-owned resorts which are off-limits to the locals and send money directly to the dictatorship? I’d like to think it is riding heavily on all of their consciences, but I have not witnessed that. Vadero which is supposedly the nicest beach in the Caribbean (once again overhype because that is an amazingly stupid claim to make especially for any beach with hotels) is completely off-limits to Bacuans and is where one-third of the visitors stay. I guess it is the perfect place to get away from the reality of this horrible regime.
Let’s Go Shopping
The shops contain empty shelves. There are shortages here that do not exist in nine of the eleven African countries that I visited (the other two have civil war which Bacu does not have). I went into markets looking for good food. It does not exist. Powdered milk is normal. No beef because Bacuans are not allowed to have it. Same with lobster and other shellfish. Understand that the government claims everything that they can use or export. They export what they can to try and pay their bills for foreign products like oil. They also use the products to support their businesses – i.e. all the tourists eating beef and lobster and then telling you how good it is in Bacu. I’m sure TBO and Gang also get their share. They usually look pretty plump in the photos I have seen. If there is anything left it goes to the private businesses. Finally, the people except that “finally” ran out before the people. So eat all those goodies while you are there, but don’t kid yourself that Bacuans can also share in the good products of their homeland. Most sad of all is vegetables and fruits. Every Latin American country I have visited is swimming in amazingly good produce. Except Bacu. Most of it sucks and what is left over for the people at the vegetable markets would be what they throw out at the end of the day in Mexico, for instance. They grow tons of sugar and tobacco, but it appears to me that they are unable to grow produce for their country. What a mess they are in.
Dog Day
The day I learned I could not leave this place early even though online booking showed seats to be available (isn’t there a line in Hotel California about this!), I saw five dead dogs. I had seen a couple of others during my stay, but this was bonanza day. El Capitolio has an amazing amount of stray dogs which are the mangiest looking things I have ever seen. There isn’t enough money or food to properly feed the people so you can imagine what is left over for the dogs. I did see a lot of nice looking dogs with owners so there is a tradition of dog ownership here. Brits are very particular about dog and other animal welfare. I can only imagine their horror with the street dogs of Bacu. Not to gross you out, but I will… I was walking down a street and a smell hit me – the smell of old death. A woman coming towards me winced. I looked down and the outline of a dog was on a large piece of cardboard. The outline was moving. A second look and I realized that it was a dead dog except that most of the dog had been replaced (not covered) by maggots. It was such a horrible sight, I thought about taking a picture. I’m glad I did not. I don’t think El Capitolio has any employees that pick up the carcasses.
Cindy Stay Home
I was sitting in a business center at a hotel using the internet and I noticed a woman sitting at another computer three meters away. Something about her face… I also noticed a couple of men sitting on the couch in the middle of the room that looked official. Then it dawned on me. Two nights earlier I was horrified to see Cindy Sheehan on Bacuan television “news”. She was there to protest the US base’s terrorist prison. They used her for their own propaganda quite well. I can sympathize with her to a point, but she has been a tool of the ultra-left for too long. Her fifteen minutes was up a couple of years ago as far as I am concerned and I never liked her or her friends’ anti-war techniques. Since I have been vocally against the war from the start and disgusted by the terrorist prison, I can say that she offers nothing positive to the anti-war, pro-civil liberties side. And I found it outrageous that she was letting herself be used by TBO’s propaganda machine. And then I was sitting next to her and wanted to share a piece of my mind with her, but I was concerned about making a scene and if the fellows belonged to the government I wanted to bash her about. I will say that her permanent scowl is UGLY and that I hope she can find some peace and tranquility with life after her main target is out of office and the Iraq war is behind us.
Hemingway
I was sitting at the Floridita bar which was where he supposedly liked to have a daiquiri. OK, it’s Hemingway – probably many daiquiris. There is a couple of pictures of him with TBO looking like chums. The other time I came in this puzzled me. Free-spirit Ernest author of my favorite book, The Sun Also Rises which is so far from pro-totalitarianism, was buddies with TBO? During my second visit on my last night I found out that Hemingway was a regular visitor between the 1930s and 1960 – El Capitolio’s heydays. The two of them met only once. Now it adds up… he meets the jerk once and never returns again. He probably wanted to shove La Revolucion up TBO’s…
The Embargo
Before I came to this place I was definitely against the embargo because it was so unlike how we treated every other communist nation. Our foreign policy since Nixon and maybe earlier was open dialogue and trade (except technical stuff) and win them over with our capitalist-produced products and ideas. Not so with Bacu and I figure the reason is sour grapes over looking like idiots with our CIA (what’s so intelligent about the CIA?) forays that still continue today (look up Jose Posada Carriles an international terrorist which our government is protecting because he was a CIA operative – a story that the Bacuans exploit to mean that our government is actively terrorizing their country with hotel bombings and other attacks on civilians – oy vey!). So after getting the scoop on Hemingway I start talking to a couple from USA who are in Bacu legally for an education exchange. The embargo comes up and the guy tells me that the embargo costs US businesses $17 billion per year and 34,000 jobs. I nearly fall of my chair laughing at this crap. One thing I saw over the eleven days is that no one is investing anything in Bacu including Europe, China and Japan. The reason is that Bacu is bankrupt of any collateral, they are $32 billion in debt (twenty to Russia) as it is and no one is stupid enough to invest money in a country with its dictatorship. That would be the riskiest investment in the world. His comeback was that no one could invest because the embargo excludes World Bank participation. I told him that countries and companies are free to loan without the World Bank and even if possible the World Bank would tie so many requirements (rightfully so) to any of its loans that it would either mean ending the regime or no loan. The only thing that would secure loans is putting up collateral and that would require the regime to de-nationalize property. That would cause back-pedaling on 49 years of BS. While this will happen one of these days, it is not happening soon. $17 billion and 34,000 jobs – the propaganda machine is working overtime to come up with that one. I’m still against the embargo because I don’t think we need a separate policy for this tiny neighbor and I am certainly against the travel restrictions on constitutional grounds, but there is nothing I have seen that would lead me to believe lifting these would result in anything better for Bacu. I am 100% against anything that would help this regime and I carry some guilt with me now that I provided some support to the regime even though I tried to give them as little as possible. Now, I am very anti-Bush, but I am sick of hearing that the embargo is Bush. The embargo has existed through two democratic presidencies over the past thirty years and will continue to exist because the Bacuan vote in Florida is so important to becoming president. Bush is a great target for many reasons, but let’s keep things in perspective, please.
If You Must Go
At heart, I am still a teenager in some ways. Tell me I can’t do something and I am likely to do it. Going to Bacu, for example. If you feel so compelled to go, you might want to understand that you can avoid to some extent handing large quantities of money directly to the regime. You can stay at casa particulares (private homes) and you can eat at paladores (private restaurants). I’m telling you, though, that Bacu is the biggest rip-off going travel-wise and you’ll probably have a better time on some of the nearby island nations and with a much better return on your dollar, euro or peso. Keep in mind that just exchanging money requires you to pay a 10% tax on all currencies and an additional 10% on the US dollar. You’re already handing 20% over to TBO. Anyone know a bigger scam? I say all tourists should stop going immediately and sink that floundering ship as soon as possible. The cruelty of that economic system to its people is already out of control and the sooner it collapses and something new gets started the less cruel it will be in the long run. My guilt for my participation in extending their reign runs deep. Go with little conscience or pretend it isn’t so bad or don’t go. Enough said!
Ciao
I had to get some more pesos to get to the airport and pay the airport tax (you pay coming and going in Bacu!) so I went to the Hotel Libre again with my bag. After exchanging (oh by the way, I took a lot more money that I imagined I needed and I left with very little so if you are an American visitor, you better bring a lot of cash), I went out to get the taxi and had my last non-niceties-only conversation in Bacu which went something like this:
Doorman: “Where are you flying?”
Me: “Panama City.”
Doorman: “From Panama?”
Me: “No, United States.” Followed by “shhh” and smile.
Doorman: Smiling. “Ah, you have a very bad government.”
Me: “Yes, I try not to judge anyone (read: YOU) based on their government. No one loves their government.”
Doorman: “My government is VERY bad. Worse than yours. Everything is a mess.”
Me: “Yes this is true. Best of luck. Ciao.”
Doorman: “Ciao.”
Tags: bacu, Travel
vagabondrick
Thanks Rick for the wonderful expose of Bace and debunking so many propagandas. And especially thanks for letting me figure out where Bacu is. Love Kathy
Well, Rick, that is quite an adventure down south of the border. Not exactly what DiAnn and I are planning for our 40th coming up soon but what the hey….. It’s all fun, right?? Well, enjoy the baseball games there–they do know how to play that game.
Terry