03-04 Cuba

It was 2002, and my wife and I spent a week in Cuba. The plane was loaded with people looking for a cheap holiday.
It was an educational experience. I did not expect to see any Americans because travel to Cuba was discouraged. if not illegal. But the largest tourist block were Americans reaching Cuba via Canada or Nassau.
How nostalgic. The first thing I saw on day one was a beautiful 1955 Chevrolet, the car my father bought me while at university. Refurbishing old American pre-revolution automobiles is a Cuban art form.
Then I saw a bus which was a big box on top of an old Russian flattop truck. Now modern Chinese buses are all about the island. And Chinese cars too. The taxis were all Mercedes-Benz beauties.
I developed a friendship with a young graduate in mining technology who was selling Cuban cigars to the tourists and making $20 US a day. His former government job paid him $160 US a month. Highly educated young people everywhere, but a system that is inefficient.
Loved the Cuban restaurants, but every restaurant served the same menus and the same food.
The markets are colourful and the island produces most of the food they need. But they are major importers of pork from Canada. Most of the Caribbean islands produce their own pork and use garbage from the cruise ships as feed. Well, there were no cruise ships back in 2002 and of course, with Covid-19, none today.
In terms of politics, Canadian Prime Minister Chretien visited Cuba in 1998, and Fidel Castro was a pall bearer at the funeral of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Ottawa.
Miami is the home of a large Cuban population that hates the Communist Regime. So it is no surprise that playing to this voting block helps the Republican Party control Florida when it comes to presidential politics.
Short-sited in my view. For the simple reason that Cuba is the 5th largest supplier of nickel in the world and with nickel comes cobalt, which is an element necessary in the production of motors for electric vehicles. And, Canada, as a major mining nation is heavily invested in Cuba.
As it was explained to me at the Canadian Embassy in Havana, Canada and Cuba have been doing business for over a hundred year. Trading cod and beer for rum and sugar.
Sugar is not as dominant as it used to be, but all the goodies left over after removing the sugar provides fuel for generating electricity. Biomass energy is big, but solar panels produced by China are replacing local diesel generated energy grids. And wind power too. Cuba wants to be free of imported fossil fuels by 2030.
And in terms of the pandemic, Cuba is developing its own vaccines which are going through various clinical trials. They plan to do what China is doing. Use vaccines to develop power and political influence. Cuba has a reputation as a supplier of medical vaccines to cover a range of diseases. And there are about eight left-leaning islands in the Caribbean that are part of the Cuban-Chinese orbit.