JFKev and the Cuban Motor-Missile Crisis

This piece is not about joining the queue to have a pop at Cuba. On the contrary, I found Cubans to be hospitable, natural and trustworthy. ?On the journey from the airport to the hotel the taxi driver even waited in the vehicle until I got into the hotel safely. ?And on the return, when I stayed the last night with an ordinary Cuban family, the head of the household got up at 4.30 a.m. to make sure I got my taxi to the airport on time.

What’s more, I felt safe in the knowledge that if I had a mishap, the Cuban health service would look after me without me having to take out a second mortgage or engage in protracted bureaucratic wranglings with insurance companies.

There is a price to pay for daring to visit Cuba though. If one wishes to visit the US thereafter (2024) one has to apply for a special visa which is more expensive.

I also found the classic cars in abundance to be an unusual and fascinating novelty to the city status, taking into consideration that I have never been interested in motor vehicles before.? Cubans seem to project a defiance by rambling around in old 50s convertibles, a disobedience that appears to manifest deep in the Cuban psyche. It’s a spectacular human/motor cavalcade to observe - I felt like JFKev during a trip to the site of the Cuban Missile Crisis in my personalised red Cadillac (see main image).

The interesting site of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) sits alongside the Siege of Havana harbour location (1762).? This bloody siege (which resulted in Britain holding Cuba for eleven months) occurred during the Seven Years' War between Britain and Spain (for the lucrative tobacco and sugar cane plantations).? In addition, pure sugar cane juice (which can be bought in this vicinity) are just a few tasters of the delights of Cuba.? Notwithstanding, to imagine the cultivation of the sugar cane by resident and imported slaves in the blistering Cuban heat, is well worth recollecting as you savour the sugary taste.

Conversely, Cuba should not be deemed a leper colony because of its politics. The leper metaphor is not just a term ascribed to Cuba by the West; it can also emanate from within. ?In 2022, the Cuban peso seemed to be frowned upon by locals because it had been devalued (by the Cuban government) in relation to the Euro and the Dollar.? Currencies, however, are linked to the patriotic self – if you devalue your coinage, you are devaluing your sense of national pride. ?

The payment methods for visitors to Cuba is a minefield. In stores you can only pay by card, anything to do with the tourist industry (like trips or taxis from the old town) is paid by Euro or Dollar, and local taxis/eateries you pay by Cuban peso.

Nevertheless, turning back to those brightly coloured sought-after vehicles that gave my ongoing nightly dreams a special vibrancy and clarity, it should also be documented that those same unique vehicles conceal a dark underbelly.

At times in Havana, one could barely breathe.

It must be said that Havana’s pollution is naked and out in the open. On the other hand, our air pollution (in the West) is much more subtle and not as visible, but nonetheless still as deadly.

Together with motor vehicles, in Havana, the public transport machines expel thick, black noxious gases akin to dangerous projectiles, the worst of which can be seen on Calle 23. On this thoroughfare my chest began to hurt such was the level of poisons – exemplified by locals wearing masks. ?This is in light of the fact that the Atlantic Ocean was very near to dilute the worst of it.

I don’t think the reason for Havana’s high air pollution is because of Cuba’s political ideology.? Cities in India and elsewhere fare much worse even though they are capitalist by nature. Staying my last night on the street just inside of the Malecon (as already detailed in opening this article) which is the main throughfare that runs parallel to the ocean road, I tried to imagine what the conditions were like in this vicinity (San Lazaro) in August - when the dust mixed with the humidity.

Would hell on earth be the appropriate descriptor?

To propose a solution to air contamination in Havana and other poisoned cities of the world, the fact that people are etching out a living from the polluting vehicles has to be considered.

One thing we can be certain of is that those that have/are controlling our world have failed catastrophically.? In the quest to ruthlessly exploit all the world's natural resources and to consciously normalise the destruction so the masses follow suit is corporate malfeasance and has resulted in the existential threat we now face today.

The earth was bestowed to us as a natural gift. It has now become a disgusting polluting mess; not just in Havana, but all over the world.

Air pollution is one way the world can unite no matter what political structure is in place.

Whether one believes in climate change or not is not up for discussion in this article.

We have a right to clean air.?

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