Two sides of the same coin: The war within Cuba.

[El Presidente]

 

Good read. 

Tragic. 

 

 

One Side 

There is a place in Cuba where you can buy almost everything essential to live: soaps, deodorant, shampoo, pork and beef. It is a virtual store called Gift Bazaar. Prices are in dollars.

The uniqueness of the site is that it functions as a kind of Amazon for Cuban state companies, which expose their products and services in a kind of sales portal. This includes not only national entities, but even many provincial or local entities and, exceptionally, private businesses such as the brand for children created in Matanzas Gabi and Sofi.

This product bazaar idea isn’t the only special quality of the site. There the term “gift” presupposes that someone abroad makes purchases in this way for a recipient on the Island. The means of payment are, therefore, Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard and Maestro cards.

The site administrators themselves even suggest using prepaid and reloadable Walmart MoneyCard Visa and 3V Visa cards. In other words, you can buy from almost any country. Less Cuba.

Many of the products are delivered to the address of the recipient of the purchase, but others must be picked up at the factory itself.

But what can be purchased at Gift Bazaar?

One of the star products these days is the electric cargo tricycle with a cabin, which many Cubans use as a means of transportation to rent. Its manufacturer is the company VEDCA (Electric Vehicles of the Caribbean), established in the Special Development Zone of Mariel with foreign capital. They cost $ 3,751 and you can buy replacement batteries for less than $ 100.

Then, among the products that the Cuban Amazon shows in the “Best Sellers” section are a bouquet with three roses ($ 10.27) and the recipe book Cuban Cuisine, Five Centuries of Tradition ($ 8.00).

The entire Suchel assortment that only appears in military dollar stores is also available: from the line of Natural shampoo and conditioner to the soaps of the same brand, Alicia creams, Camerata perfumes, Butterfly Wings, Romeo and Julieta, more colognes, deodorants, cleansing gel, bath salts and even shoe polish. And foreign brand perfumes are added, such as Jean Paul Gaultier.

 

The Other Side 

LINK

 

From our Socialist Social and Economic Justice Bureau with some assistance from our Bureau of Yo-Yo culture

No food? No problem. Just get your relatives in the U.S. or Europe or Latrine America to buy food for you online with their dollars. And they can buy just about anything you need. Anything.

Whatever you buy will be delivered to your loved ones in Cuba. [Well…. good luck with that part of the deal….]

Prices are high, but, hey, this is what the Revolution is all about, isn’t it. Parasitism. And, of course, making goods available to those who can pay the highest price.

This is the new world of the Cuban Yo-Yo’s. Castro, Inc. knows how to milk that cow, no matter what.

What about Cubans who don’t have Yo-Yo’s living abroad? Tough luck, Yulipipo. Mala suerte, Yayamami. Pa’l carajo!

This is socialism! What did you expect?

[Fuzz]

8 hours ago, El Presidente said:

No food? No problem. Just get your relatives in the U.S. or Europe or Latrine America to buy food for you online with their dollars. And they can buy just about anything you need. Anything.

Typo perhaps.... or not.

[MrBirdman]

17 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Latrine America

A tad below the belt, methinks...

[Habana Mike]

Have had good luck having our orders delivered. Shame without a sponsor outside the country citizens have access to almost nothing. Terrible shame and a total indictment of the system.