Cuba is one of our favorite topics here at Red Corner. There is no where else on earth as anachronistic and old fashioned as this Caribbean nation. And, there is nowhere else on earth as likely to change so rapidly the moment the local government topples.
In the meantime, Cuba is falling apart.
Veteran reporter Carol J. Williams visited this communist backwater to discover a shaky infrastructure seemingly held together with nothing more than string and prayers. Of course, this is hardly a surprise. Cuba has been falling apart for decades. Things have gotten exponentially worse, however, since the fall of the USSR and the subsequent loss of Soviet subsidies.
Williams’ journey through Castro’s homeland reveals a nightmare of urban Jenga where 500 buildings collapse every year in Havana simply from old age and neglect. Everything, buildings and otherwise, is state owned and therefore poorly treated, horribly abused, and quite often, ripped off.
Williams paints a rather bleak picture of Cuba and an even bleaker one of its immediate future. One day, however, Cuba will outlast Fidel and when it does, whatever remains standing will hopefully be refurbished with foreign investments before the whole country simply crumbles into a heap.