With being stationed in Venezuela for nearly a year now I see so many similarities they point out here that Venezuelans are suffering from the same thing. If the average American knew how good we have it they would shut their mouths and be thankful!

This is what the US will look like once Obama is done with it.

This read significantly more as an opinion piece more worthy of a 24 hours news network than a respectable act of journalism. In my recent trip to Cuba as an American filmmaker, granted a cultural visa I got to eat and travel as the Cuban's do. The cultural visa allows the visitor to utilize the same money, in fact it is easily exchanged at any bank or exchange. The voice in this piece resounds as limited Miami based perspective. The very notion that a revolution in Cuba allowing a person from Miami to come and buy back "their" home is absurd. The damage that would cause to the people this piece so clearly sympathizes for would be enormous. Any revolution that exchanges the current system for one favorable to the right wing critics of Cuba would be simply a new nightmare for Cuba's poor. While there I heard many voices both incredibly happy and simultaneously concerned about day to day conditions. It is certainly true that there is abundant criticism of the government. However, there is equally abundant criticism of Miami and the people they perceive as terrorists therein whom have repeatedly tried to destabilize their country. A new Cuban revolution would have to be a truly Cuban one, with their interests at heart, not Miami, Washington or anyone else. On the subject of internet, it is important to note that they do have access, they can buy a card at a phone company office and access ir or access it at work. The issue is significantly more complex than this piece lets on. First and foremost it is important to note that without an infrastructure allowing for internet connectivity such as properly connected networks, fiber optics or satellite technology (as parts of Africa are doing to jump ahead of their infrastructure) there is limited ability to allow for the growth of the technology, espeically outside of areas not supported by tourist dollars. As far as becoming a waiter, I wish for them to be able to be what they want as well, it is important to note though that a waiter in a tourist hotel in Cuba makes significantly more than a doctor in Cuba on tips alone. There are some valid points in this, but even those seem prone to exaggeration, and there also seems to be no checking of sources or even an attempt at interviewing any other side of the issue. Seeking out people to speak against a government is not reporting it is telling a story you had already decided would exist.

Terrible, pro rightwing American propaganda come on.. not one word about why Cuba is falling apart.. e.g. the stupid embargo! More about how the people want to be free and how they don’t have x,y and z because of.. yes the embargo! I’m sure everyone in Cuba really needs a stupid ipod, 24 cans of coke in their over sized fridge, second mortgage, crippling healthcare bills, no home insurance and rip off cable tv like we have here in the states?! Castro is an animal and responsible for a lot but he’s not the one strangling the country and its people! Those in the US adopting the caveman approach are slowing suffocating it, the only people hurting because of it are the people on the street not those at the top of the food chain. Revolution will be fueled by only one thing those with money in the US and that type of revolution will be by money for money and the people won’t be any better for it they’ll just be slaves to the banks like many now are in the US?I noticed few words about how bad healthcare is and how school is free. Not one mention about how drugs are dirt cheap next to the US doctors visits are free! Well we have an actual healthcare system in Europe yes and cheap drugs too, third level education is paid by taxes in many European states and guess what we’re not communist nothing is falling apart and we’re not run and ruled and run by unelected large faceless companies that are out for profit, number one e.g. the health care industry. Freedom isn’t just about your right to speak your mind or cast your vote but your right to choose, how many of us in America can even choose who we can get cable from? Landline phones? Healthcare, how many can afford to not shop at wal-mart now?.. how many of those products on the shelf at the store are actually made by one of these big companies? Choice is all but slipped away from us without even knowing it. Capitalism is an animal that must be controlled by the people and those they elect, uncontrolled and unregulated it will eat itself to death driven only by greed and the need for more money. If this recession isn’t proof of that then next time we need to get ready to line up at the soup kitchen if there is one.

The other reviews are heavily flawed. They give very little substantive criticism. It looks like many of the other reviewers just do this: Disagree, rant about bias, and then rate it a one or a two. This will be an actual, objective review.There are two pieces to this review. The first journalism, is significantly more important than the other, production.As usual with Vanguard, the journalism is structurally sound. It is deeply informative.