Stories like this, we have read all of our lives. From earlier today:
Nine Cuban migrants died at sea and 18 others were rescued by a cruise ship after their 30-foot boat was found about 130 miles from the Florida coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The migrants were severely dehydrated when they were found Friday and said they had been at sea 22 days. The bodies of those who didn’t make it were placed overboard, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney. The survivors were in bad condition.
“They could barely walk off the vessel itself,” Barney said. “They were weak and they were shaking.”
I’m so confused. People such as Senator Bernie Sanders tell me what an excellent place Cuba is, with fabulous health care, and roaring literacy, and beautiful race relations. Why in the world do people keep leaving this paradise, on anything that will float, to risk their lives for something else? Are they stupid?
Or are they Batista stooges, fleeing a vengeful revolution? Does that include the teenagers, who were born 40 years after Batista fell? Are they all gusanos (worms, the word that the Communists and their supporters apply to opponents of the dictatorship)?
A few years ago, a miracle appeared, in the form of a movie called Una Noche. I wrote about it here. It depicts life in Cuba. Not the life that Robert Redford and others in Hollywood want you to imagine. Real life. And then you know, or at least have an inkling, why people risk everything to leave the Castros’ paradise.
Maybe they’re basically ungrateful?
Anyway, at least Starwood Hotels has notched a deal with the Cuban military. Hurray! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!