Cuban protests

[Discordant Resonance]

A number of spontaneous protests about shortages have developed across Cuba tonight, including on the famous Malecón in Havana, with the President going on national TV to condemn the "counter-revolutionaries" :

https://twitter.com/electo_mania/status/1414322256013144072

[DCI Harry Batt]

I had a quick look around, but couldn't find a good source to read on current events in Cuba.

[Discordant Resonance]

France 24 tend to be neutral on international news.

[Nefertiti2]

This thread is very interesting and appears well informed

https://twitter.com/red_dilettante/status/1414628363667480580?s=21

[Nefertiti2]

It’s a very long thread so I’ll highlight this from further down

https://twitter.com/red_dilettante/status/1414839326035353604?s=21

[DCI Harry Batt]

Thanks, that's an interesting thread, with lots of links. Will have a read.

[ursus arctos]

Yes there is a lot there to process

Thanks, Nef

[Discordant Resonance]

Yes, that's an excellent analysis, Nef.

[Tactical Genius]

France 24 tend to be neutral on international news.

Hahahahahaha

[Lang Spoon]

Yeah, wouldn't trust a word they say on West Africa/Haiti/Libya.....

[E10 Rifle]

Thanks Nef, interesting stuff. It's more than two decades since I was last in Cuba, but having had two lengthy trips there in the late 90s/early 2000s, I'd anecdotally say that being skint and bored were easily the top of locals' general complaints about life there. So stands to reason that the economic woes brought on by Covid, the currency reform and the ongoing blockade will be the main drivers of this.

[Hot Pepsi]

Nobody complains about the heat and humidity?

[Discordant Resonance]

If you grow up in a place where such a climate is second nature, you don't notice such things.

[Lang Spoon]

But loads of Irish people complain about the rain.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It doesn't rain all the time the equivalent for us would be to complain about it being overcast

[Lang Spoon]

True dat. But people do.

[E10 Rifle]

Nobody complains about the heat and humidity?

Tourists do, yeah

[Heliotrope]

I've been looking at the maps of where demonstrations are taking place. It looks like most are in or near Havana, but there are dots in the eastern part of the country. When I was last there, in 2017, it seemed like the farther east you went, the more devoted the people were to the revolution, and often you'd see July 26 flags in place of Cuban flags.

[Hot Pepsi]

This may be a good place to confess that for many years, my mental map of the Caribbean was all wrong. I just noticed this recently while looking at a map.

I had Cuba where the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos are. I had Haiti/DR more or less where the Yucatan Peninsula is - on the wrong side of Cuba. I had Jamaica where Puerto Rico is and PR where western Cuba is. I would not have been able to tell you were Belize is.

[WOM]

It's bizarre that, 60 years on, the current state is 'the revolution' as if it isn't the new normal...and has been for quite a while.

Oh, and very nice to see you Helio.

[WOM]

Same, Reed. I have Trinidad & Tobago smack dab in the middle of the action, while cartographers seem to have placed it quite close to South America.

[ursus arctos]

Cricket is very useful in this respect, though I still struggle with correctly sorting the Leewards and Windwards

[San Bernardhinault]

Same as Ursus. I can locate most of the islands (I might get St Barts and Sint Eustatius mixed up, for example, or which ABC is which). But I can never remember - or even work out - which islands are windward and which are leeward.

[Hot Pepsi]

Same as Ursus. I can locate most of the islands (I might get St Barts and Sint Eustatius mixed up, for example, or which ABC is which). But I can never remember - or even work out - which islands are windward and which are leeward.

The prevailing trade winds in the Caribbean come out of the east/northeast, so the windward islands are the most easterly ones and the others are the leeward ones. I think.
It's a bit counter to what we're used to because everywhere I've ever lived, the weather almost always goes west to east.

[Hot Pepsi]

Same, Reed. I have Trinidad & Tobago smack dab in the middle of the action, while cartographers seem to have placed it quite close to South America.

I would have had T&T closer to the middle. Not next to Venezuela since T&T are cricket and Venezuela is baseball.