To: Gottfried who wrote (37830 ) 10/4/2000 3:45:05 PM From: William Griffin Read Replies (3) | Respond to OT RE: CUBA Two years ago I spent a month in Cuba. It is amazing that Castro is still in power. He does so only by running a repressive regime where there are no newspapers, TV or radio with meaningful news. I lived with a poor black family about 80 klics from Havanna, near the beach. The house had no indoor plumbing, a gas stove which the family normally had no gas to operate, no medicine, not even toilet paper. When the head of the family, a 30 year old woman works, she is paid in cuban pesos, which buy only the bare essentials. The dollar rules. Gasoline can only be purchased in dollars, as well as any other thing worth having. The family had an old soviet made TV which they said never really did work. There is virtually no transportation system,ie buses for god's sake. Cars are 1950's models or Eastern European junk that breaks down. If one has a car, one has it made, as they are used as taxis.
