OT I'm Curious - Any Cuban PMers? (2024)

cg285 said:

....... alcohol is bought only from the govt and the govt dictates how much it is sold for.

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Wait.. outside of beer and wine that is how it works in Michigan.
Commies running the place, I knew it, where is my MI militia application?
Bob

Modelman said:

We did... we acquired Cuba, along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines in 1898 or so as spoils of the Spanish American war. We gave Cuba its independence in 1904, IIRC, and that may have been too early for the roots of self government to take hold. The Hispanic world seems to have a problem with self government; perhaps because they don't have a thousand years experience with common law that the English speaking world has.

We kept hold of the Philippines until after WWII, and they seem to be doing a bit better. Puerto Rico we just kept.

Judge for yourself which was the best course of action.

Dennis

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How about not invading and occupying a country for decades in the first place?
How about the USA not forever interfering with the Hispanic world? Salvador Allende, Oliver Norh ring a bell?
Ever heard of Northern Ireland? English is spoken there and it has a lot of experience though with common law.
You probably think abolishing slavery was a bad thing as the negro would not be able to survive without the white mans guidance.

janvanruth said:

You probably think abolishing slavery was a bad thing as the negro would not be able to survive without the white mans guidance.

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Based on Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, and what used to be the Congo, that could be a logical conclusion.

Dennis

powerglider said:

I'm looking forward to visiting Cuba. I'm attracted to the music, talk to local people willing to share their stories and put up with mine over drinks and seafood. So long as it is safe to travel there it is among my top places to go visit and make up my own mind of what I experience there. It would be a great challenge I'm sure to try and start a machine shop there and make it work. I'm sure it could be started if somebody had a way to get 2 shipping containers there through customs, the rest would be trade/barter/make it work.

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Sounds like you better be quick about it.

Regards Tyrone.

not me. I don't have the qualifications or experience to operate a profitable machine shop. I was lucky to make my own product for a while and then stopped when my partner that took care of the other side of things (foam soap manufacturing) wanted to go his own way in another business. Bummer because even though it wasn't exciting and wasn't the "fast" way to make money, foam soap sure was a nice sweet thing to be making installing and selling at the time.

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Sounds like you better be quick about it.

Regards Tyrone.

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Oldwrench said:

It's doubtful whether that would have bothered him, since he (Kennedy) started the US involvement in Vietnam a . . .

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A buddy has been watching Oliver Stone's "Untold History of the United States" and discussed precisely this topic this morning. Another (a history buff) says he already knew all that. In any case, turns out, it was Eisenhower who coined the "Domino Theory" of dealing with Communism and got us into Vietnam.

Apparently the series gives a history of our "foreign entanglements" since WWII and (according to both friends) is worth watching.

Oh Sami, look what you started!

Must we re-name you "Gordon Sami?"

Sea Farmer said:

Oh Sami, look what you started!

Must we re-name you "Gordon Sami?"

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Please don't, though with hindsight I should have known better.

It was a genuine question, Castros death was in the news etc etc, and I'd read about how Cubans keep old cars running etc etc etc, but not seeing any one mention Cuba as their home genuinely wondered if they kept their heads down r there just weren't any.

Silly Sami should have known it would turn in to a political spat, with 99% of both sides, never having set foot on the island spouting forth on every aspect of the island since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Or put another way, a possibly interesting machining thread, ruined by political bigotry and bullsh*t!

This is the only somewhat related article that sort of has to do with machining in Cuba, that I'm aware of. It focuses on one older fellow who had, over the years, developed his own method of making cast-iron piston rings. The article goes into no specifics, but both hints he might turn some from old water pipe, and suggests he casts his own- it notes he had to scrounge for some raw nickel to presumably add to the melt.

I originally read it in Automobile magazine, and it had a few pictures along with it, although as I recall none that showed any tools or machinery. Just the cars he was working on.

Doc.

For the gearheads, there's also the story of the discovery of two extremely rare Mercedes by a photographer taking pictures for a "cars of Cuba" calendar.

Again, no real machining content, but interesting nonetheless. Where else in the world could some old man have two extremely rare cars, that if restored are worth roughly a million apiece, just sitting in his backyard under a banana tree?

'Course, they're both in pretty sad shape, but don't tell me there's not a dozen collectors that would snatch those up and pay big bucks to have them restored- especially given the provenance.

Doc.

Modelman said:

Based on Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, and what used to be the Congo, that could be a logical conclusion.

Dennis

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Well King Leopold killed over 10 million in the Congo, so I don't see how that is a positive for the Congolese. Lots of countries go through turmoil. Some countries in Africa are somewhat stable and some not. Some in the MidEast are and some are not.

janvanruth said:

You probably think abolishing slavery was a bad thing as the negro would not be able to survive without the white mans guidance.

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by the way slavery, in the united states, was started by a negro

Limy Sami said:

I'd read about how Cubans keep old cars running

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my emp had an old buick that blew a piston. unable to get replacement parts he was forced to use a soviet piston and rod that was a close fit, cut the buick and soviet rods and welded them together to keep the car running. he's not a good welder either :-) he says everything is junk (except govt and doctors vehicles)
you also have to be real careful where you park your car or you will wake up without tires.

cg285 said:

you also have to be real careful where you park your car or you will wake up without tires.

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Bit like that around certain parts of Norfolk.

Limy Sami said:

Bit like that around certain parts of Norfolk.

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Really, when did they phase the stagecoaches out down there Sami ?

Regards Tyrone.

Limy Sami said:

Bit like that around certain parts of Norfolk.

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what i'm told is tires are "special money" so rarely is one bought. they all just keep stealing them. sort of a rotational system i guess.

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Really, when did they phase the stagecoaches out down there Sami ?

Regards Tyrone.

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They haven't .