I have never been in Cuba. But I suppose that even the richest western country, say Switzerland, or take Austria if you like, independently from its political organization would become as miserable as Cuba is now, after an embargo by half of all other countries in the world that lasted 50 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba We can make no comparison. A question: why the United Nations embargoed Cuba, but never embargoed South Africa during the apartheid years or Chile during the years of Pinochet's dictatorship? Another question: every film shows Manhattan's skyscrapers. Every tourist sees them, the Central Park, the Greenwich Village. Have you ever seen New York's outskirts in New Jersey? 15 years ago, just some 5 years after Reagan's roaring Eighties, I visited New York arriving there by train and passed through those outskirts. I remember thinking to myself: "Is this one of the largest and most famous cities in the world or the poorest town of third-world countries?" Before that enlightening visit I had always wondered why the rich western countries so harshly fight against Cuba, the former S.U., China. Why should they care about the political choices of other countries? Liberalism should not respect their free will of living the way they want? Visit the USA and you will understand immediately. But not Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon by plane and Santa Barbara Beach. Just go a small bit further, only 10 kilometers from what your Lonely Planet guide says. You will say to yourself: "I've already seen all this. It was... It was... Yes, got it. It was in Havana, Cuba, those miserable buildings and shops..."