Rambling on about Cuba....

["BIRKEY, DUANE" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

Patrick wrote:

>One part of your story that surprised me was where you said that you 
were
>lucky that the Cuban military people didn't just kill you for your 
camera,
>because you said that a lot of that happens.  I had heard that petty 
theft
>was a problem in Cuba, but I hadn't heard that the military had turned
>bandits or that foreigners were being killed for their possessions 
there.
>Could you give more details?  

I wouldn't worry too much about it if you stay with your hosts which I 
expect you will.   Many times a foreigner will be hosted by party 
members or "informants" and the police know that they will get tattled 
on if they try anything.   We were not guests of the government but of 
a large church denomination.  

I prefer to get out on my own as much as possible.  I find it's easier 
for me to work, it usually draws less attention and I can wait in a 
spot for shot far longer than my companions who get bored after 5 
minutes.  I usually do not draw much attention to myself, at least 
adults don't come up to me often, I tend to be a kid magnet though and 
you need to watch your bag when they swarm.  

In Cuba however, any foreigner draws attention as all sorts of people 
come up to you trying to sell you rum, cigars, shoes, themselves or in 
some cases their 14 yr old daughter.  So I had people coming up to me 
all the time.  It gets a bit unnerving because you're not sure of their 
motives, besides that I don't drink, smoke or cheat on my wife.   It 
also is harder to shoot when people come up to you and worse yet, it 
took away from my precious free moments.

In my case, the danger really was that I was in the middle of nowhere 
to begin with.  There was hardly anybody around, (no witnesses per say) 
and anybody could have clubbed me over the head, buried me under a tree 
in their backyard and who's going to know.  I really doubt the military 
would have killed me on their base solely for my camera.  But, if they 
had truly thought I was working for the CIA (and believe me, I don't)  
who knows what might have happened.

The police and government are quite corrupt and I heard many stories 
later from people of things that have happened in and around that 
general area by police and local thugs.  Petty theft is a serious 
problem.  When you realize that the average monthly wage is about $10 
and I was carrying a camera and lens conservatively worth $1200.  It's 
awfully tempting to someone who has no food. Did you know the penalty 
for killing a cow is more severe than for killing a person in Cuba?   
Just up the road from where I was a  little girl went up to a neighbors 
house and asked for some milk.  The lady said how dare you hold out 
your hands and beg for milk.  She wrapped the childs hands with cloth, 
put oil on it and set it on fire burning her in several places.  How's 
that for compassion?

The other truly no-no is to go off without a copy of your passport.   
In Ecuador at least you will end up in jail till they can figure what 
to do with you if you get caught with papers as only criminals who 
don't want to be identified walk around without ID, they say.  

Cuba is a interesting country with many photographic possibilities.   
If you like peeling-paint photos you will find much of that.   If they 
could repaint every building in the entire country I would shoot a lot 
more film.  There are lots of pre-revolution American cars but they are 
pretty beat up and look a lot better from a distance in my opinion.  
The people are pretty friendly and some will ask you to take their 
pictures.   I wish I would have had more free time to take photographs 
but I ended up having very little shooting time outside of the 
workshops.  I made some great friends and would go back without even 
thinking about it.  The tourism spots and hotels are really pretty nice 
by Latin American standards and pretty reasonably priced with all the 
beef you can eat.  My Cuban hosts hadn't seen beef in years!  

This week in our Quito newspaper, Cuba had an advertizement for some of 
it's many medical services.  Including Liposuction and cosmetic surgery 
of all things, kind of humorous to me after talking with people who 
have great doctors and good  diagnosis but can't get the medicines or 
can't get glass to make eyeglasses.  All going to the tourists, I 
guess.

I've rambled too much....

Better get back to the darkroom,

Duane Birkey
HCJB World Radio
Quito Ecuador