Odds and ends
- Last January the University of Miami issued a report, based on nothing, that Miami-Dade’s Medicare fraud problem may really be a tentacle of Cuban “economic warfare” against the United States. Last Saturday’s Herald has a story on the same topic, noting the difficulty of confronting the fraud epidemic, referring to the “rumors” of a Cuban connection and reporting that “federal agents and prosecutors…say they’ve never uncovered evidence linking Fidel and Raul Castro’s regime to the rampant healthcare fraud on this side of the Florida Straits.”
- Juventud Rebelde: A 72-year-old man in Camaguey decided to dig a well and as he got started, discovered a century-old well under his house.
- Looking for a calendar of live music in Havana? Look here.
- Speaking of Bourdain, I thought his Cuba show was interesting, a pretty good use of only 45 minutes of air time, on par for this acerbic former chef on the Travel Channel. Most interesting reaction was Val Prieto’s at Babalu: “It’s not Bourdain’s job to be the arbiter of their [Cubans’] freedom. I saw plenty of laughing, smiling Cubans all around him, apparently content with their lot in life and content in waiting for ‘change.’ Without doing a damned thing to hasten its coming. Without doing a damned thing to change their own lot in life and without doing a damned thing for their country.”
The only connection to Medicare Fraud that Cuba may have is the sad fact that it is culturally acceptable in Cuba to rob from the State and that this attitude is probably still prevalent with the younger generations of Cuban migrants.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is highly unlikely that the Cuban government is engaged in a systematic fleecing of US taxpayers. I also think it unlikely that there is an official Cuban policy of "shaking down" fugitives from US law.
ReplyDeleteIf there is any shakedown or demands of protection money, it is being done by individual unscrupulous Cuban government officials.