Chinese bikes converted into unsafe contraptions for mass transportation. On the background the remains of a glorious past....	Ah! Here's some food... but this Cuban mother doesn't have the necessary foreign currency to purchase it....
This ridiculous taxi for tourists in old Havana is powered by human sweat.	Usual sight: people standing in line for hours to buy their quota of bread.
Lines and more lines... everywhere. The humiliation goes on daily... as if Cubans were asking for hand outs!	This mechanical hunchback has been nicknamed by Cubans "el camello" (the camel) The atrocity is used for mass transport.
Paper or plastic? The answer is NONE in Cuba, where the revolution has not been able to resolve such a basic need!	But there's plenty of paper to print pictures of the tyrant and the other assasins that rule the island.
Cuban rocker Gorki is one of a few artists in the island that refuses to be silenced or intimidated.	Of course Gorki is willing to pay the price for his personal freedom and has been arrested several times.
These are the people that refuse to pay the price.  They go through life doing what they are told...playing it safe...ambivalent in slavery	...and milking their relatives in exile in order to survive! For these people a double morality is second nature. But...who can blame them?
Another side of the coin are "the Ladies in White", a group formed by wives and relatives of political prisioners in Cuba.	Hand in hand, these valiant  ladies walk the streets of Havana, a symbol of  defiance and freedom.
The Ladies in White  are harrassed by government agents disguised as regular citizens.	Yes! Waiting in line to use a public telephone. Here there's only one phone working. The others are clearly out of order.
This was taken BEFORE the 2008 hurricanes... don't blame it on Mother Nature!	Hey! Stale Cuban sandwiches! Behind the delicacies looms the image of  Ché Guevara; as if Cubans owe their food to a dead Marxist son of a bitch, adventurer and murderer.
Talk about humiliation! Here's another improvised transport, this time for the revolution's glorious militia...	Of course, the long-suffering guajiro must also toil under these difficult conditions.

The real Cuba not shown to tourists	Solitary streets, a dirty beat-up "meat market" with no meat and a lonely citizen going nowhere...
They call them "buzos" (divers) because they "dive" into garbage and live off the trash.  The government denies their existence...!	The sights of boredom and despair are everywhere.  These citizens seem to be awaiting something. Transportation? The arrival of something to buy at the store? Or maybe just killing time?

HURRiCANE SEASON 2008 A nasty situation turns worse!

From Oriente to Pinar del Rio the island is severely damaged.  Citizens must make the rescue and salvage efforts without much government support.	The erderly and children are the most affected by the catasthrofic effects of the storms.
	Utter destruction upon neglected structures...
Rosa Cuadrado sits outside of what was left of her home in Holguin.	All by himself, this citizen carries bricks that can be used to rebuild his home.  At 3 bricks at a time it will take him forever!
Meanwhile.... fun and frolics for the "socialist" regime and their satellites... Here's Monster #2 (the hermanísimo) with Cobra #1 ballerina Alicia Alonso... Is that blood on her disgusting mouth?	By the way, Miss Alonso earned her nickname "The Cuban Cobra" a long time ago when she was under contract with the American Ballet Theatre.  It was bestowed on her by her fellow dancers there.  No need to wonder why....
(L-R) Walter Van Assche, Mirta Castro Smirnova, Beatriz Polo García and Lance Littlejohn. The Castros and capitalistic friends are often seen in world airports while Cuban citizens are forbidden to travel freely even within their socialist island-prison.	Fidel Castro the II, poses with the director of the University of Munich and his son Fidel Antonio (Fidel the III) who attends the prestigious (and expensive) center.  No Cuban education for these leeches.