Monday, March 21, 2016

Obama in Cuba and the Chevy.



This is not political at all so don't let me frighten you away but there is a map above and, as you can see, it's of Cuba. If you look down the south east corner you will see the dreaded and disgusting Guantanamo Bay. That was left to the USA under some kind of treaty around 1903. Cuba feels that the USA are there illegally – and why wouldn't they?
As you will know it has been used as a detention centre since the Iraq invasion and none of the people there have been tried or convicted of anything so I suppose it could be called a concentration camp.
Barack Obama has tried to close the camp since he became president but keeps running in to objections from Congress; they just won't let him close the place. The objections have to do with where they would put the current inhabitants: would they send them home to their own countries or put them into prisons in America.
Obama is now on the island of Cuba and you will know it is the first visit of a serving president for eighty odd years.
The thing is I've always wanted to go to Cuba – I mean look at it:

Now that the Americans have an embassy there and have lifted a lot of the restrictions I don't think Cuba will look like this for very long. I just love those cars and if you even try to compare them to the cars being built today there is no comparison.
I used to drive a Chevy Nova when I lived in Los Angeles; it was a 1973 and was a sedan (saloon) and was like a tank. I also drove a Dodge Dart, which belonged to someone I knew and my pal had a 1963. Here they are – or should I say here are the models (not mine or my pals who would call his 'Betsy').
Some of the other cars on the island can be seen in these pictures:



But look at the island in the other pictures; who wouldn't want to go there?
If you have ever seen The Godfather II – one of the best films ever made – you will, more or less, know the history of Cuba. The Mafia ran the place and the President, Batista, was in their pocket. The island was inundated with the mob with their casinos and Fidel Castro and the rebels were sick of it so they did something about it.

Castro was the hero of Cuba and America told the Americans that he was a heathen and a communist and a threat to America. He went to America after his revolution and they turned him (Cuba) away so he went to the Soviet Union. The people in Cuba worship him – he got rid of the crooks. What he did then is not good as he put opponents in prison and nobody can condone that but the refugees who went to America wanted and want the island to return to its former state. The Mafia??

I would still like to go there; we were forbidden when we lived there when it wasn't that far away; I think USA citizens are fined something like $800 if they visit there.
I hope Obama enjoys his time there but his time as president is running out and gawd knows what the future holds for the place.
There is a lot of Obama publicity at the moment; on Saturday he was heavily featured in The Guardian magazine on Saturday and there is a documentary series on BBC2 Inside Obama's White House.
It's a wonder he achieved what he did; when Nancy Pelosi (the speaker of the house when Obama was elected) asked the Republicans what they would help them with to get through she was told 'we ain't helping you at all.'


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