Archive for January 1st, 2007

01 Jan 2007 World Health Organization Indicators Comparing Cuba, Canada, and USA
Author:  |  Category: Culture + Society, Politics + Economy, Unabashed Geekiness  | 4 Comments

World Health Indicators comparing Cuba, Canada, and USA

I travelled to Cuba on a week’s notice and went to the U.S. in the interim, so I didn’t have as much time to research as I would’ve liked. It’s my first time to the country, and while I find it is always better to research first there are times when I just “wing it”. But there are many aspects of the Cuban culture that are unique, and would confound the tourist without background information.

In the course of my (speed)reading, I was fascinated by the statistics on Cuba — health and economic indices, especially. I went to the World Health Organization’s website today and downloaded some indicators to compare them with Canada and the USA, and made a spreadsheet table.

I’ve read about the Cuban health care system, and when I was there I met a LOT of old people. They’re pretty hardy, healthy people. For one thing, they walk everywhere. According to the 2006 edition of Lonely Planet, there are 23 cars for 1,000 Cubans. By comparison, there are 815 cars for 1,000 Americans.

I find these numbers incredibly interesting, for all three countries. Click on the table and have a look at my (Flash) notes in Flickr.

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01 Jan 2007 Feliz Ano Nuevo! Viva Cuba!
Author:  |  Category: Cuba, Out + About, Photography, Travel  | 10 Comments

Feliz Año Nuevo! Viva Cuba!

December 25, 2006
Rosa R. Garcia Hernandez
Versalles, Matanzas

I flew overnight from Cuba and landed in Toronto around 1:30am, celebrating New Year’s Eve on the plane with a couple of hundred sleepy, sunburnt Canadians. That was the only time I saw tourists — at the airport and the plazas of Havana. An English fellow asked me to take his photo in front of the Capitolio, and the rest of the time I commingled with Cubans. I consider it one of the benefits of travelling solo: it forces you to speak to the locals instead of just your travelling partner.

I stayed in a casa particular with a family in Central Havana, and travelled with Cubans on buses that buckled under the strain of too many passengers and a train that was delayed by five hours on Christmas Day. I could tell by the way they stared at me that the locals all thought I was crazy for taking an ancient, rickety electric train that was forever blowing fuses when I could be in a comfortable air-conditioned bus that took less time. I had nothing close to the facility to explain in Spanish that I wanted to take the historic Hershey train (built by the Hershey family of PA) because I used to live in Pennsylvania and my late husband loved trains.

I spoke in terrible Spanish which made them laugh, like this woman here in Matanzas. I managed to convey to her that I would mail her the photos and I needed her address. I took photos of ordinary life: kids playing soccer, baseball, handball and basketball, old men sitting around the domino table, grandmas hanging up the washing on the clothesline. And when I was able to, I asked for their addresses so I could mail them their photos. I hope they like them.

Cuba was an incredible experience, and my photostream is going to be Cuba, Cuba, and more Cuba for a while. I shot 18 rolls of film and more than 2 GBs of photos and video!

But now that I’ve downloaded the digital files to my computer and burned them to disk, I’m going to get some sleep…

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