If you collect a paycheck you are on the same side as the people this shipment is meant to feed.
States spend a lot of energy to keep people from realising this.
To help quantify, that's a little under 3 pounds (1.3kg) per person, assuming perfectly equal distribution.
That's surprisingly decent. Fair play to them.
Decency - the polar opposite of Trumps behaviour
It's also politically advantageous for China
In all fairness, helping Cubans against the Trump administration would be politically advantageous for everybody in the World but those Far-Right politicians getting money from American billionaires.
Honestly, it's in their favor too. Cuba is incredibly close to the US. They'd be a valuable trade partner, if nothing else. This shit is in no one's favor.
What and let an alternative to capitalism exist right off America's coast? One that managed to achieve a longer life expectancy and all sorts of medical breakthroughs despite the blockade?
Considering their rival is the USA, literally doing nothing is also politically advantageous for China.
This is genius.
Cuba's population is about 10.9 million. That means, if my math is right, this shipment has about 2.75 lbs of rice per Cuban citizen. That's a LOT of rice- about 10-12 servings per person. And there's another 3 similar shipments coming.
This is not some useless token, this is a 'feed the country for a week or two' type gift.
You can bet your sweet ass that neither the people nor the government of Cuba are likely to forget this anytime soon. The 'gentle giant' USA is choking them, China feeds them. It's a powerful message.
Of course it's China so there's always a price eventually. I suspect Beijing's goal here is additional influence within Cuba, and I don't see any reason why Cuba would have any objection. A few boatloads of rice gets you a LOT of good will in a starving country.
China’s price for foreign aid is almost always lower than Western capitalists’. It’s why their belts and roads initiative and BRICS have been so insanely successful.
More usefully- their price will likely be something Cuba is happy to do. IE, access to sell Chinese goods in Cuba? Hell yes bring them in bring our people up to modern standards. Set up a base somewhere? Of course Cuba is neutral between US and China, we lease space to US we can lease space to China too. China becomes Cuba's primary trade partner? Hell yes sign us up US sure isn't trading with us...
And let's not forget China is already selling Cuba a ton of solar power tech. For a nation like Cuba that's a godsend, because it reduces their reliance on foreign oil.
Indeed and right in the backyard of the USA. The Batista supporters in the US can go f-themselves for screwing over their own people.
There’s always a price, but that’s true whether the donation comes from China, the US, or most other world powers.
My family is from the Caribbean. They seem to feel that it’s better to work with China or India on infrastructure, as they help with building and get paid back via ownership or land leases. Working with the US is difficult, as it’s hard for a nation with little access to USD to be able pay back a loan - they basically get blamed for being poor despite the US having performed the ultimate grift in making their dollar the global currency.
Gentle giant? The United States is a capitalist enemy.
That's sarcasm.
Send Cuba more solar panels and electric vehicles!
We let it through? I'm shocked.
Yes, rice is not oil.
Also it isn't preventing Israel from starving children, so A-OK
I'm so distracted by the 50kg sacks of rice. That seems like such a pain in the ass size to deal with compared to 20-30 kg for seemingly no reason. I think that's too large to even fit neatly on standard sized pallets so I don't think you're even saving volume.
And then it seems like way too much for end distribution unless it's going to a community kitchen.
If my wife could order those 50kg bags, she would. But I made her carry the last 25kg she ordered so I think she got the message. 50kg is indeed pushing it.
Besides all the political and moral issues and all that, I'm super curious to see how a massive influx of rice into Cuba in a time of starvation will affect their cuisine. Lots of interesting cultural foods come from periods of adapting new sources of nutrition into an existing cuisine. Obviously they already have access to rice, but I wonder how they will adapt to doing their best with eating mainly rice for some time.
Rice and beans are a staple in LATAM. Also a perfect protein.
BuT at WhAt CoSt?
Cuba really needs to speed run a nuclear weapons program.
Unsurprisingly making Central and South America slowly pivot to the Middle Kingdom is an ongoing project, as Agent Krasnov in the Oval Office destroyed USAID and screws the UN, turns El "Salvador" into a supersized concentration camp.
On the way to checkmate in 2049.
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