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In reply to the discussion: Half of Cuba's field hockey team defects during Pan Am games [View all]mahatmakanejeeves
(57,283 posts)75. The Cuban town Mr. Hershey built
The Cuban town Mr. Hershey built
The Americas
By Nick Miroff May 5
HERSHEY, Cuba Along the coastal highway 30?miles east of Havana, the road signs point to a turnoff for Camilo Cienfuegos City. It doesnt exist. At least not by that name. ... AIR-shee is what everyone still calls it. Hershey. That much remains.
Most of the rest of the model town founded by U.S. chocolate tycoon Milton S. Hershey in 1916 is in a state of heartbreaking ruin. The looming sugar mill, once among the worlds most advanced, is a gutted, ghostly hulk. Its rusting machinery spills from the wreckage as if blasted by a bomb or kicked apart by a giant.
Up and down Hersheys grid of neatly laid residential streets, many of the original company-built houses remain, with clapboard siding and some of the only screened-in front porches anywhere in Cuba. The old company hotel and several of the bigger, stately flagstone homes, where the American supervisors lived, have caved in.
Gone, too, is the Hershey Social Club, the golf course and other traces of the American experiment that flourished here until it was obliterated by a revolution that did not share the northern ideals of private industry and social progress held dear by Mister Hershey.
Everything has been destroyed, said Amparo DeJongh, 92, the first person born in the town and one of the few who stayed to see it fall apart. ... Its horrible what they have done, she said.
By Nick Miroff May 5
HERSHEY, Cuba Along the coastal highway 30?miles east of Havana, the road signs point to a turnoff for Camilo Cienfuegos City. It doesnt exist. At least not by that name. ... AIR-shee is what everyone still calls it. Hershey. That much remains.
Most of the rest of the model town founded by U.S. chocolate tycoon Milton S. Hershey in 1916 is in a state of heartbreaking ruin. The looming sugar mill, once among the worlds most advanced, is a gutted, ghostly hulk. Its rusting machinery spills from the wreckage as if blasted by a bomb or kicked apart by a giant.
Up and down Hersheys grid of neatly laid residential streets, many of the original company-built houses remain, with clapboard siding and some of the only screened-in front porches anywhere in Cuba. The old company hotel and several of the bigger, stately flagstone homes, where the American supervisors lived, have caved in.
Gone, too, is the Hershey Social Club, the golf course and other traces of the American experiment that flourished here until it was obliterated by a revolution that did not share the northern ideals of private industry and social progress held dear by Mister Hershey.
Everything has been destroyed, said Amparo DeJongh, 92, the first person born in the town and one of the few who stayed to see it fall apart. ... Its horrible what they have done, she said.
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No doubt, you'll link to the post describing in en toto as a socialist paradise, yes?
LanternWaste
Jul 2015
#79
Someone bitter over Cuba/America relationships improving? Capitalist paradise or socialist
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#4
Cubans have been defecting for 50 years, as economic interests can overwhelm all else.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#10
Funny how leftist governments tend to blame every single one of their problems on US imperialism
Marksman_91
Jul 2015
#45
Fact denial is a terrible thing....Canada does 70% of its trade with this country...a nearby one.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#20
the US is Venezuela's largest trading partner and look at the mess they are in
Bacchus4.0
Jul 2015
#22
Sugar is King in Cuba! Maybe we can end the substitute High Fructose Corn Syrup?
Zen Democrat
Jul 2015
#28
I was checking that out earlier when I was reading up on Cuba it looks like they are having trouble
cstanleytech
Jul 2015
#37
There is water between Cuba and America and none with Canada? Good point! Now if we could just
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#24
Of course, we should both ask China and Japan about the water transport trade problem before drawing any rash conclusions?
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#27
Those that dwell in American houses of "true democracy" should not..... something, something.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#38
Wow. US 'friendliness and influence will gradually promote true democracy?'
PatrickforO
Jul 2015
#30
Equating defection with "relocating for better opportunities" is a little bizarre.
oberliner
Jul 2015
#13
Equating "defection", definition pending, with abandoning forever allegiance to your nation, is a bit bizarre as well.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#17
Cuba has a 400 person delegation in Toronto. Why are 400 not "defecting" to capitalist paradise?
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#40
It was great seeing your reference to "balseros" who return to their homeland.
Judi Lynn
Jul 2015
#56
That "gusanos" term has sure been a favorite of many fervent castristas in this site
Marksman_91
Jul 2015
#64
Conspicuous whopper. I have NEVER seen any DU'er use "gusano" to refer to non-Cuban exiles, not once
Judi Lynn
Jul 2015
#73
Good point. Folks are folks and make individual folks choices. Reading more into it is silly.
Fred Sanders
Jul 2015
#12
He's been looking to break in to the lucrative field hockey market for a while, though.
KamaAina
Jul 2015
#57
with Cuba open now, both Govs will probaby change the 'cubans get guaranteed resident cards' laws...
Sunlei
Jul 2015
#48