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Cuba
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CUBA

Capital: Havana (pop. 2,241,000)

Population: 11,224,321

Area: 110,860 sq. km.

Economy: In 2002, Cuba ranked 54th on the UN's Human Development Index survey, and 91st in total GDP, with a per capita GDP of $2,307. Poverty and debt service figures unavailable.

Main Language: Spanish

Monkey's Name: El Monito

Fun Fact: Cuba is a world leader in medical research. Its laboratories have created cures and medicines for illnesses that plague the developing world but which are considered "unprofitable product lines" by the First World's private pharmaceutical firms. Additionally, through its International Medical Aid Program, Cuba dispatches the highest per capita rate of medical professionals to developing countries on earth. Cuba also offers free medical scholarships to students from developing countries.

Just prior to the crisis that was Y2K, the Monkey travelled to Cuba. It was December of 1999 and at that point Cuba was facing its 38th straight year of economic warfare from its hostile northern neighbor. The Monkey was pleased to find the Cuban people in surprisingly good spirits, carrying on with their lives and waiting for the day Washington would move away from war and toward normalized relations with the island and its people.

Sadly it is now 2006 and still Washington clings to its last Cold War. An embittered exile community in Miami and a few investors who lost assets after the nationalizations in Cuba have managed to manhandle eight successive administrations in Washington into continuing the embargo and the isolation campaign against Cuba, all over their personal disputes with the revolutionary goverment's reforms and its overwhelmingly popular leader, Fidel Castro Rúz. The Monkey isn't the first observer to notice that Washington and the Miami exile community have lost this fight, and he probably won't be the last.

The Monkey went to Cuba to see things for himself. He recommends that everyone who is able do likewise. Oh, and while you're there you can check out the glorious Spanish colonial architecture, the sensual African rythyms of salsa and són, the world's finest rums, and the wonderful Cuban people, to name but a few of the treasures the island has to offer.
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A Habanera (Havana resident) welcomes El Monito to her home.

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