Does Castro Condone Sex Tourism ?
by Donna
(Toronto)
It Would Seem So As It's On The Increase
It seems that Sex Tourism in Cuba is on the increase, and the government is turning a blind eye to it. But it's everywhere, all over the island.
Anyone who travelled to Cuba 15 years or even 10 years ago and who returned today would tell you how much the island has changed, and not for the better.
Go to any resort and you will find them, the obese Canadian women waddling along the beach with their Jiniteros, young enough to be their son, their grandson even.
You will also see the ever growing invasion of geriatric Italian men with very young black Cuban girls on their arm, checking them into hotels and casas and treating them with contempt, ignoring and actually abusing them.
Then you have the 'Snow Angels' who travel down on a bargain fare from Toronto for a pick n' mix Mulatto lad whom they will check into a hotel at Varadero or Guardalavaca.
Then they will brazenly brag about their exploit on here and whinge and whine when the boy sees sense and dumps them.
You will find sad middle aged women like 'No Fool' desperately trying to convince others, and more importantly herself, that what he has with her Jinitero is a 'real relationship', while she shells out a small fortune to fly to Cuba four times a year and kits him out in the latest gear and feeds him.
I begin to wonder if the Cuban Government is in on this form of sex tourism, because after all it is raising revenue for the island currently so cash strapped with no likliehood of the embargo being lifted anytime soon.
You also have a whole generation of lazy young Cubans who would rather prey on the tourist and earn their living on their back than get out of bed in the morning and go to do an honest day's work.
Sure Cuba is a model of humanity in an ever increasing world of poverty, greed and corruption.
The system when it works well is second to none.
Free education, health care and housing.
Cuba is a shining light of humanity in an otherwise rotten Caribbean steeped in drug running culture and corrupt governments.
Cuban Doctors and nurses are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate.
Except these heroes are from America's arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission which has won the socialist state many friends, but little international recognition.
However all of this humanitarian work costs a lot. And I wonder if the Cuban govt. is turning a blind eye to the ever growing sex tourism market. The likes of Snow Angel 'No Fool' and the sleazy old Italian grandads can check their young Jiniteros into a hotel or casa with no questions asked. Palms are being oiled, corruption is rife.
But it having an effect on the beautiful island. Sex tourism leaves a grubby stain.
Those fat old women and dirty old Italian grandads rob young Cubans of their dignity by creating /converting a young generation into prostitution.
And they have no shame about that. The fat old ladies are brazen, tough skinned, they have no shame whatsoever.
They defile young Cubans and think they can buy sex, mistakenly think they can buy love even, which is laughable.
The Cuba of today is nothing like the Cuba I first experienced 15 years ago, and that is very sad.