City Report Shows More Were Near Poverty in 2011

For U.S. urban youth who are fans of Beyonce and Jay-Z, the experience of a visit to Cuba would stand in stark contrast to the conditions that are commonplace across urban cities in the U.S.—namely unemployment and lack of adequate health care, housing, and educational opportunities. In Cuba, a job, quality health care, housing and education are all rights that every Cuban enjoys. Universal health care means that Cuban women have full access to contraception and abortions, while in the United States 87 percent of counties nationwide have not one identifiable abortion provider.

While Latin American crime rates continue to soar, Cuban society is known for its safe streets and social peace. In a recent international study Cuba was ranked first among Latin American and Caribbean nations in student performance in math and science. In New York City, only 30 percent of eighth-grade students read at their grade level, while across the U.S over 1 million school-age children are homeless or live in a homeless shelter.

In Beyonce’s home city of Houston, the percentage of Black children in foster homes exceeds the proportion of Black children in the city as a whole, while homelessness in Cuba remains unheard of (especially in the case of children). On average, Black Cubans are expected to live five years longer than a Black American, and top positions in government and industry are held by Blacks in Cuba just as often as they are held by light-skinned Cubans.

According to the U.N., Cuba is the only country in the world to have sustained economic growth while at the same time maintaining environmentally sustainable food and industrial production. A trip to Cuba would allow ordinary Americans to pierce through the U.S propaganda machine and find out just how Cuban democracy works and why so many people in Cuba support their government.

Long before Jay-Z and Beyonce, U.S. citizens have been defying the unjust travel ban and traveling to Cuba anyway. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens visit Cuba every year, and U.S. Cuban solidarity organizations like the Venceremos Brigade and Pastors for Peace have been taking U.S. citizens to Cuba in defiance of the Treasury Department for almost as long as the U.S. blockade has been in place against the island nation’s socialist government.

Hopefully the new media attention on the Cuban tourist industry and the pictures of Jay-Z puffing a Cuban cigar on the balcony of a Cuban hotel, or the YouTube video of Beyonce dancing salsa at a Cuban nightclub, will spur more people to want to travel to Cuba with or without permission from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Since the Obama administration made it possible to travel to Cuba for cultural, religious or academic reasons in 2011, there is a misconception by many in the United States that the half-century-long blockade has been eased and that the travel ban will soon be lifted altogether. In reality, the blockade has been intensified through increased enforcement of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 and continued attempts by the United States to undermine the Cuban government.

Washington continues to carry out and intensify its efforts to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. We urge everyone to make it their duty to resist this effort. It can be as easy as taking a vacation just 90 miles from the USA.

Lift the blockade!