Cuban Marshall Plan

Cuban Marshall Plan

The infrastructure in Cuba is moving rapidly towards total collapse. The Castro boys and their gang have exploited everything to enrich themselves at the expense of the Cuban people. They have done this using a protective political shield called "the embargo." These tyrants have pulled off this epic swindle so easily because of the westerner's feeble comprehension of economics. The Castro's have for 49 years dumped toxic chemicals into Cuba's rivers. Their ineptitude and mismanagement has led to tons of raw human sewage being flushed into the waterways. Garbage lines the streets collecting little pockets of water with which the dengue fever spreading mosquito can easily reproduce. They pay their people 50 cents a day, collect a thousand times more than that salary in profits from this Cuban labor then blame the embargo for Cubans being so poor. But today all Cubans know why islanders are so poor. It is just a few remaining Canadians, Europeans, Leftist Latin Americans as well as the domestic variety that are still too blinded by political rhetoric to see this obvious fact.

But I have to move beyond this ignorance to do something positive to make things better for the Cuban people. Merely being outraged at the barbaric treatment of the Cuban people at the hands of their own "government" and the assistance the oppressors receive from the above mentioned useful idiots will not feed even one Cuban. What is needed is a Cuban Marshall plan. First go to a computer with Google earth and imagine a tropical island lush with green vegetation and white sandy beaches. Go directly to Cuba and you'll find something shocking far removed from your imagination. Except for the toxic pools of water, some strip mine pictures I've placed on this very blog look almost lunar. In virtually every instance where the Cuban government is doing anything it is polluting. Additionally, large swaths of Cuba obviously are farms with the square patterns, but they are all dirt brown. These once productive valleys are producing nothing but soil erosion. From space it is easy to see the clouds of sewage being released by the Cuban government directly into the rivers. To sum up, these decades of environment suicide have turned Cuba into a very dangerous nation for humans to lead a normal life. Though the Castro government will not admit the figures the Cuban people are suffering the effects of this environmental abuse and they will for some time to come. Tourists are now suffering this same fate by going into a country without fresh clean water. Cuban exiles and relief workers will suffer the same fate if proper precaution and a coordinated plan are not followed.

The first helpers who go into Cuba after the collapse of the current government must bring their own water and other sanitizing supplies as well as mosquito defenses. Relief money must be used to bring in bottled water by the ship load. The cisterns that many Cubans use now for fresh water need screen meshing to protect against mosquitoes. Cuba needs a thousand sewage pumper trucks to return septic systems to a functioning level. All industry must be immediately shut down until they can be evaluated by environmental experts and certified to operate safely before returning to production. Heavy equipment must be brought in to move the earth to stop the mine run-off and make possible the replanting of native plant life to re-stabilize the landscape. Cuba will also need thousands of tractors and other pieces of heavy farming equipment to turn those brown fields green again. All of the urban sewer and water systems must be completely replaced and done so while the people continue to use the old system. Probably parallel systems will need to be constructed while the old water and sewer lines are used. However, Cubans should not drink tap water until a modern system is in place. Once the new sewer and water system is in place the old one can be dismantled and replaced with a retrofitted system giving Cubans plenty of capacity for future population growth and the option of shutting down one system for maintenance while running off the other. This should be done in conjunction with the streets being replaced which means lots of road construction equipment will be required. At the same time it makes sense while the big hole is in the road to install the latest fiber optics, natural gas lines, electric service lines, etc. Tankers of fuel will be required to power these modern machines but perhaps we can work a deal with the oil companies for future drilling rights in Cuban waters. Tons of food will need to be brought in to sustain this revitalization of Cuba hopefully no longer than one year. Thereafter, private family farms will feed Cubans and in several years people of other nations. Finally, medical teams of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals will be required to help the Cuban doctors give Cuba one big check up. Mostly what is needed is the medicine and medical supplies that are in critical shortage in Cuba today except if you are a tourist or high Cuban official like Fidel.

These funds necessary to rescue the Cuban people will have to come from somewhere. Naturally, the exiles in total will inject millions of dollars into Cuba. In addition, I believe we need to get the American people on board with this effort and ask them to open their pocketbooks to lend a big hand. Most of these initial funding needs to go to firing up family farms and fixing private septic systems as well as the food needs of Cubans for the short run. The urban public services will be paid for by corporate money because they will be able to earn revenue from fees for water and sewer service from their initial investment. The labor pool of Cubans are present and accounted for right now. With this seed money from private donation, corporate investment and perhaps loans on favorable terms, the economy will be jump started. From there the remaining reconstruction will blossom transforming Cuba into a modern country.