Many people currently involved in the CPA industry feel that this industry is rock solid and not likely to change anytime soon. They may be in for a shock. There are developments coming from technological, business and legal areas which are going to have huge ramifications on the industry. One of those just happened.
Specifically I am referring the brokerage fees that CPA networks and brokers charge (around 20%) to push offers to fill the internet demand for remnant inventory, and the inefficiencies and expenses that are put in place by having so many humans involved in making web advertising work. Over time these people will be replaced by technology, just as many industries have been overturned in the past by modernization causing blue collar workers to lose their jobs.
The three biggest sources of traffic for a typical network are:
a. Email marketing
b. Pay per click traffic
c. Web inventory such as banners and text links
We’ll talk about these one by one.
CPA search marketing
Pay per click marketing is changing. Google has just announced it is going to offer a CPA model. At the moment it is possible to make a decent living by being good at PPC arbitrage of CPA offers. This works right now because Google and Yahoo have focused their business model around selling clicks, rather than selling actions. They do this because this is their version of branded CPM advertising – they can generally get more for it.
However, this causes huge inefficiencies in the system, because it is time consuming and complicated to figure out how to drive lots of PPC traffic, enabling therefore arbitrage opportunities.
Since Google has now started offering a CPA system, and Yahoo certainly will, this will change dramatically. Advertisers will be able to add a bunch of creatives into the system, along with a list of keywords and a CPA they are willing to pay. The system will then automatically test the base keywords you inserted, along with an extra list of keywords google generated itself. It will test them all against the various creatives you made; keeping pricing under a certain CPA you have set. The entire system will be fully automated, and the current arbitrage which is possible today will go away. Google and Yahoo can make quite a lot of money by making this change, given the average network commissions and the money made by PPC arbitrage players. Google has already switched and it is just a matter of time before Yahoo does as well.
Notice I don’t mention clickfraud – I don’t believe this impacts Google and Yahoo moving to a CPA model.
Email marketing
Email marketing is an area which is going to change on two fronts. CANSPAM is a law with many loopholes, one that allows people to send as much mail as they want under certain (not very restrictive) limitations. A lot of mail is being sent which does not provide true value to consumers, its simply mass market monetization that is driving volume, a process I really disagree with. At some point a new email law will be passed which requires something like “at the time of sign up, the sending FROM address must be displayed clearly so the consumer knows where they will receive mail from”. And brokering of email data will be exclusive only. You join one list, you unsubscribe from that list, period. It’s only a matter of time until something like this is legislated. Don’t think so? A few years ago the telemarketing industry was doing great – now its been decimated with the FTC’s do not call rules. This kind of thing can happen literally overnight – look at how the online gaming industry has been affected recently.
Secondly, deliverability is going to get much more difficult. Right now, most ESP’s can get mail delivered almost anywhere except major ISP’s such as Yahoo and Hotmail. Reputation management is a new trend in email which will change this dramatically. Reputation management means that every IP address which is sending email is certified by an independent third party as to how that IP address is being used to send mail. It provides a lot of data to email receivers on exactly how that IP address is being used. If you’re certified and your reputation is positive, a lot of your mail will automatically be delivered. If you’re not, you’ll get blocked as spam.
Right now reputation management is being used by the major ISPs to confirm mail delivery – but once this is rolled out more widely across internet mail servers, mail blocking will improve dramatically, and those who are sending bulk co-reg data will find their deliverability falling through the floor.
Behavioural targeting
Thirdly, behavioral targeting is going to get much better. This has been talked about in the past, and never seems to truly work properly but it is starting to get much better now. Networks like Blue Lithium and turn.com are making a lot of progress with targeting and collecting a lot of data on their userbase. Reports I hear about Blue Lithium in particular are that it performs extremely well.
Impressive things are being done on the advertiser side to take advantage of behavioural targeting. For example, Think Partnership has a new product called Second Bite which saves shopping cart abandoners. If you decided not to buy a product and half completed your shopping cart, Second Bite will work to get you to finish your purchase. Think Partnership is just starting to buy banner inventory to save the cart purchase. What this means is that you can be browsing the web and you’ll see a banner saying “hey – come back and finish your purchase on <onlinestore.com> and get a 10% discount”. Once this kind of inventory is brokered out to major behavioural networks, no general interest CPA offer will be able to compete with the CPM’s they will be able to pay to save a purchase. Sure, this is a narrow application, but many more clever targeting applications of behavioural targeting will appear, increasing CPM’s across the board.
In addition, client side behavioral targeting will increase. By this I mean that users will allow more data to be mined from their computers locally, and some of it will be passed back to the network. In an extreme case, imagine if Microsoft made its Windows OS completely free – but in return for being able to mine behvioural data from your machine. This data would be fed back to online targeting networks such as Blue Lithium, to target web advertising more accurately. No popups or any other nasty applications would be included. That could be a huge value add for consumers – with free software AND better advertising. Yes, this has huge privacy implications, but over time these will be worked out – the ECPM increase from accurate targeting will be too valuable, and consumers will not mind their data being mined in aggregate.
That’s not to say that everything is bad. Some areas of the CPA and brokerage industry will continue to work well. These include:
1) Coupon and affiliate sites. Publishers that are actively going out and finding links to promote on their site for consumers will continue to make money and want to use CPA networks. The human interface in this instance provides tremendous value to consumers since the publishers truly understand what their market wants.
2) Newsletters. This will become the standard for email marketing as the more aggressive forms of email marketing will be made illegal. This is similar to coupon and affiliate sites where publishers will actively seek out links to target their audience due to their understanding of their market.
3) Web and chat spam is going to increase. Right now we’re seeing quite a bit of spam on myspace, and given the progress people are making on defeating CAPTCHA mechanisms, this will only increase. If the postings cannot be effectively blocked by computers, then more of it will be done. Unfortunately CPA networks will see more volume from various forms of aggressive webspam as time goes on.
The branding industry will have some impact on these, but it likely won’t change much from the way it is now – some inventory will be sold at higher ECPM’s for major brands, and the rest will be remnant inventory. Of course the big question is how high the ECPM’s can get for behavioural targeting and whether they can beat branded advertising.
Some people will read this article and be thinking to themselves “no, he’s wrong, this has always worked, and it will continue to work”. The reality is that the internet marketing industry has been around for a very short time, and we really don’t have any data points to compare against long term. The right way to think about it is “where is the true value for consumers and advertisers”. If your business model doesn’t provide true value to all stakeholders, then at some point what you are doing will stop working.
If your business model depends entirely on brokering, you may want to consider how you will operate in a few years time once the above become reality.
A good way to think about whether your business will be around in the future is simply by answering two questions:
1) By running my business, am I creating true value for all my stakeholders (customers, employees, consumers, partners)
And
2) Am I keeping up with the very latest trends that might affect my business, including industries that are not directly related to my daily focus?
For number 2, you can say you’re doing the right thing because you’re reading this. J
Does this mean that all CPA advertising and lead generation will go away? Of course not. These are very fundamental models and the backbone of internet commerce.
Just watch out if your business model is entirely focused around brokering remnant advertising. If this is your primary business, make sure you stay on top of your strategy. You don’t want your company to be made irrelevant like has happened with generations of blue collar workers in the past.
While my brother was here, he introduced me to this band from Australia called “Cat Empire”. Its an awesome combination of australian pub rock, latin (they actually recorded one of their albums in Cuba!) and a bunch of other genres. They’re just a bunch of 22 year old guys from Melbourne, but have been doing extremely well. The song below is one of my favourites “Hello”
Ever heard of the children’s author “Enid Blyton”? Most people in english commonwealth countries have, and growing up in Australia I read tons of her books. They were all very exciting, and some of you will probably laugh reading me talking about her here.
I recently found that there’s an updated biography published about her life. It talks about how Enid’s father was pushing her to become a musician. Everything in her life was being directed towards that goal – by her father. But over time, Enid was finding that she didn’t enjoy music as much.
Then one day she decided she wanted to teach writing. Once she started at it, everything changed. And she wrote about it later that it was like putting a “round peg in a round hole”.
Too many people in life do things they don’t enjoy. I think thats a great way to say it – we all need to spend more time ensuring that we’re round pegs in round holes. Just like my favourite childhood author did.
Its a self-help/development movie which talks about the “secret” to building wealth. Oprah is a huge fan, among many others, and its selling very well. In the end its an updated version of Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich”. The basic idea they express is that you should focus your mind on your goals and visualize achieving them. They presume that limiting beliefs are the core reason people fail in business.
Its junk.
Actually I’ve been a big fan (in the past) of Think and Grow Rich. But by the time “The Secret” came along, I knew better. Some of the biggest scammers I’ve ever met spend their time dreaming up big plans, which have no basis in reality, their skillsets or resources. And then to achieve their big goals they have to resort to a lot of dishonest marketing and ripping people off.
So what is better?
I’m in the fortunate position to talk with many successful entrepreneurs. And something I’ve noticed is that the really successful entrepreneurs are Ayn Rand fans. They’ve all read Atlas Shrugged and have spent a lot of time thinking about her philosophy. I’ve also noticed that most “The Secret” and “Think and Grow Rich” fans aren’t very successful.
So my advice to you is that if you’ve been spending a bunch of time on The Secret or Think and Grow Rich is to throw them away and read Atlas Shrugged. Its a little heavier reading, but you’ll notice a big difference afterwards.
Every year I find a couple of things that make a major breakthrough to how I work. One of those this year was discovering a type of application called an “outliner”.
An outliner is a very simple program for handling lists. Ever used Microsoft Word in outline mode? Thats where you can indent a bunch of ideas, below each other. For example
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Point 5
etc. The key thing in an outliner is that you can keep indenting this as deep as you want, and open and close them so you can gain different levels of visibility. The other key point is that beside each item you can add “notes”. So I might want to add a couple of pages of text to point 1, and its very easy to do it, similar to how you might add comments to a cell in excel.
Thats all an outliner does. And using is has become my most critical application, even more important than my email. Yes, I’d rather lose all my email data than my outliner data.
Here’s why: Because it allows indenting, you can file your ideas any way you want. I’ve got about 6 major categories, including topics like “Quarterly goals”, “personal goals”, “client goals”, “lists”, passwords” and “people followup”. These are the topics I access most frequently. Then inside these are a ton of lists all nicely filed away. I can easily manage projects inside it, capture new ideas, and everything is organized.
What has been really interesting was to learn that in fact a lot of things I work on are actually just lists. So as I started using this tool, all kinds of lists are now kept in my outliner.. Books to read.. TV shows to watch.. Restaurants to try locally.. Things to do on my next trip to New York/LA/Santo Domingo/Australia.. My packing checklist.. New words I have to look up in the dictionary.. Ideas I’ve had.. Articles to read.. All of it just goes into my outliner and is neatly filed away.. ALONG with my current goals, and an organized project plan of goals to achieve. So each day I simply pick out a couple of tasks that need to be done and work on them for that day.
Now the breakthrough part of this is when you can sync it with a handheld device. I have run into quite a few problems with this aspect, and finally found that Bonsai, for the Palm works great. So all my data is always with me wherever I go. For those that are experimenting with this, I used to use LifeBalance, but the notes are too short, only 2kb, so you lose a lot of data. I also tried MyLifeOrganized, and while their desktop version is awesome, I had problems switching to windows mobile. I actually switched back to Palm just to use Bonsai, and their software both on the desktop and handheld is great. If you’re not syncing your data, then MyLifeOrganized is the best outliner I have found.
Now, the next thing to know is that the most effective way to use these is to learn about Project Management.. But we’ll talk about that another day.
The second major breakthrough in productivity I learned is that if you’re stalling or not getting a task done, the reason is that its probably too complex. If you take a couple of steps back, and break it into a a checklist of pieces, it suddenly becomes easy to make progress. Again, the key outcome is to be always having some momentum, no matter how small.
This sometimes takes a little while to realise – you may be stuck on a task and its unclear why you’re not getting further along. You have to wake up at that point, and brainstorm how to break it into a smaller checklist. Once you do that, its amazing how the most complicated things to get done suddenly become trivially easy!
I had this explained to me many years ago by a friend on my AIESEC International team, Ante Glavas. But it didn’t really sink in back then. More recently, Alan Weiss, the expert consultant talks about this in some of his materials. Alan Weiss is also partially where my previous posting came from, about doing more by doing less. He turns out a lot of work, yet his goal is to finish each day by 2pm.
BF Skinner, the person who came up with the (controversial) topic of classical operant conditioning was also extremely productive. He used to write for just 25 minutes or so at a time, and always take forced breaks where he’d reward himself. He wrote an insane number of books. I mention BF Skinner, because his methods of classical operant conditioning and providing rewards made him very productive and they can for you too. Getting good rewards is critical to maintaining motivation. Don’t shoot the dog is the classic book on this topic, and you can read my review of it here: http://www.adrianbye.com/favourite-books/#dontshootdoog
Yesterday I was talking with one of my developers, who has been a bit erratic in his work lately. He’s been vanishing for days at a time, not getting things done. After talking with him, it became clear the issue was one of motivation.. And how he sometimes completely loses motivation to work.
This has happened to me too, and I suspect it happens to everyone who works independently from home. Here’s what I learned through experience (and what I suggested to my developer):
One of the biggest causes of demotivation is TOO MUCH work, and not getting things done. You make a big checklist of things to do for the day, and by the time you’re 2/3 of the way through the day you’ve only done 2 items, with 12 more remaining. You don’t feel like doing the other items because its too much work and you’re already behind anyways.
This pattern can set in place for days at a time, very easily. For some people I suspect it can last even longer.
The trick is to do less work each day, especially if you’re really demotivated. All you need to do is make a list of 2-3 things you can get done that day. And do them. And finish the day early.
Then, come back the next day and do 4 things. Slowly increase the load. But always make sure you’re scheduling far less things than you think you can actually do. The important thing is to gain positive momentum, and get things moving forward day by day, and finishing the day on a very positive note, since you accomplished your goals for the day.
I compared the search results to the normal google and they’re the same. Pretty interesting, I haven’t seen google that way for a long time. I bet this doesn’t last for long.
From visiting Cuba recently, I realized when I returned that I was so in disagreement with their system and policies that I would likely be a guerilla, fighting for a new political system, much the same as Fidel Castro did 50 years ago. Except I would be fighting for democratic freedom AGAINST Castro. It would either be that, or leaving on a small raft for Miami. I’ve written this to try to explain why I feel so strongly about the situation in Cuba.
My perspective on Cuba may be a little unique because:
When I visited, I was staying with normal Cuban families, spending 100% of my time with real Cubans and zero government intervention
I have lived in the Dominican Republic for 5 years and understand Caribbean culture
I am a huge fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism
I truly wanted to learn about the Cuban system and what makes it work.
I speak very fluent Spanish • I’ve traveled to over 50 countries and lived in 6.
I’m an Australian citizen with no family ties to latin america
Dominicans and Cubans have a similar background and people, but the two countries took sharply different political directions in the 1960’s. Today the DR is a totally free country, almost to the point of being a libertarian’s paradise. You can do anything you want here. And Cuba is a socialist police state run by Fidel Castro. Since Cuba is a police state, by publishing this piece means it will not be a good idea for me to return to Cuba until the socialist regime is gone.
Initial impressions
When I first arrived in Cuba I was pretty impressed. The streets are cleaner than the DR and people are very well educated. I also felt Cubans have a higher level of integrity than Dominicans.
Economically speaking compared to the DR, it felt like the top half and bottom quarter of income earners were removed, and all that were remaining was from 1/2 to 3/4, ie the lower third quadrant. This meant that everyone was lower middle class while not working very hard. I found this idea intriguing because in the DR there is true poverty, and if that could be eliminated completely, it seemed like it might be a reasonable tradeoff.
At this point I was rather unconvinced by Ayn Rand and really felt like I had some investigations to do.
The Cuban mindset
Cubans don’t like the US. A large part of that is due to the propaganda they are constantly shown (see further below). Their view of the USA is like an episode of the TV show COPS – very violent with lots of crime, drugs and gangs. Cubans have a much softer view of the world and value empathy over almost anything else. Even though they don’t like their current economic situation, most of them still like Fidel and would like to see him succeed. Quite a few Cubans told me they want “the best of both systems”, i.e. they want the economic power of the USA, combined with the humanist policies of Cuba. While the two systems seem fairly contrary to me, it was pointed out to me that Canada and Australia might be good examples.
The turning point
After my second day in Cuba, I had spoken to a lot of people and seen a lot of impressive things. I was starting to be really convinced that the Cuban system is better than the capitalist system in the DR which leaves so many people in poverty. Then came the turning point.
I was chatting with a taxi driver and he told me that NOBODY likes the Cuban system and anyone that says they do is lying. He said this is especially true for someone owning a casa particular, because they are working as an entrepreneur to earn tourist dollars. He said that if they were truly happy with the socialist system they would be quietly earning their $20/month working as a good socialist.
This statement really shocked me, and caused me to go back and talk to some more people. Thus you have the conversations that follow..
Conversations with Socialists
When I arrived, I was surprised to meet some people who told me they are socialists. I’ve never really sat down and talked with someone with those kinds of views before and I was expecting people to be telling me how bad the Cuban system is. But it turned out they still think their socialist system is the best.
With each one as I was talking with them, I got the feeling that they were being intellectually dishonest. They were tying themselves up in so many knots trying to defend a system that just doesn’t work. I was also impressed how each of them were incredibly nice people and truly wanted to share their views with me.
In the early days of the founding fathers in the US, Ben Franklin talked about how he wanted an educated US population so they would make good decisions for democracy. I found it surprising how such educated people as these would still support an obvious failure such as Cuban socialism.
1. The Marxist philosophy teacher One of the most interesting was a former philosophy professor. She had been teaching Marxism at the university for 37 years but was now running a casa particular (having tourists stay at her house, a common business in Cuba). When I mentioned I would like to record her talking with me, I was surprised to find out that she was uncomfortable with being recorded. I found later this was fairly typical with Cubans as they don’t want to get in trouble with the government.
She explained to me that socialism is currently not working well in Cuba because of the US global trade embargo. Not only is the US blocking all business with Cuba, but they are also blacklisting businesses in other countries that try to do business with Cuba. According to her, North Korea is actually doing really well and we are being fed misinformation by our government. And Venezuela is also another country that is doing well.
She told me that Cuba worked well until 1990. Once the USSR collapsed, things started to get quite difficult. She said that things have started to get better again recently, possibly due to the help of Venezuela.
She was firmly convinced that once the US lifts its global embargo against Cuba that socialism will work perfectly.
I asked her about the contradiction of her running a private accommodation business while having spent 37 years teaching Marxism philosophy. She told me that she is forced to do it in order to survive. She said that the government has legalized businesses such as these in order to generate more revenue for the country, that she doesn’t like to do it, and hopes to stop in 7 months time.
The Marxist philosophy professor
What struck me from this conversation was that what defines failure of the Cuban system? So if the US drops its embargo and socialism STILL doesn’t work properly, what does that mean? From my conversations with her, I felt like there would be yet another round of convoluted explanations of why Cuban socialism was still the best.
2. The two 80 year old socialists in their mansion
I was pretty amazed by the massive houses in the Vedado area of Havana. They are huge and have been totally neglected for the past 50 years. I was really interested to see how they looked inside. The taxi driver who was showing me around managed to talk his way into one of them. So we got to spend an hour with two 80 year old brother and sister that have been living together in the same house since the early 1950’s.
They and several other siblings rented the house in the 50’s for 79 pesos/month, before the Cuban revolution. The taxi driver was shocked at that amount of money; apparently it would be $2000 – $3000/month today.
From asking about Cuba before Castro’s revolution there were clearly many problems and change was needed. The elderly brother and sister told me they were both happily socialist and that things were much better now than they were before. I found this interesting since they had clearly been part of the upper class before, and were now living in a house which had not been improved since they moved in 50 years ago, including having the original refrigerator.
They told me that while they first rented the house, that once Castro took over he made a law that everyone could only own one house. So if you owned 6 houses and were renting them out, you had to pick one for yourself and the rest would be seized by the state. And, as residents of the house in 1959 paying 79 pesos/month, they became the owners. It’s unclear what happened to the original owner, but it’s assumed they moved to Miami.
3. The socialist taxi driver
Later on in the week I caught a taxi, and was surprised to learn that the driver was a proud socialist. Since I still had some questions I wanted to ask, I paid him (!) to sit down with me to talk things through. He was very proud of the system in Cuba and wanted to explain things clearly to me. By this point in the week I was getting a bit tired. I’d also had a mojito or two so I started asking some very direct and probing questions to him.
We went to an outdoor café. About 5 minutes after we arrived at had sat at our table; the police came and spent 15 minutes questioning him. It turns out they were concerned he was drinking alcohol during his taxi shift (he wasn’t). He was surprised when I told him that random police questioning wouldn’t happen in the US or Australia.
One of the things he told me was that socialism is great because there is no poverty. So I showed him this photo:
He was shocked when he saw it, and explained that there was a deposit paid by the government on bottles and cans and most likely the guy was collecting them to make money. He was a bit embarrassed by this. I also mentioned that I had seen an aggressive car window washer (as is common in Latin America). Now, I have to admit that while in Cuba I only saw one person doing this, while in the DR you will see about 5 at every traffic light. Nonetheless, in the land of supposed eliminated poverty, these things do exist.
At the end of our conversation it was time to take me to my destination. I was surprised to find out that he wanted to keep talking! I was losing interest in spending time with socialists by this point, as I found them quite wishy washy. So I told him we could possibly schedule it another day. I got the feeling that I had made some points that may have started him to change his views of the world. I hope so.
Jorge my host, the [non] socialist
The last person that really influenced my views in Cuba was Jorge, the late 50’s psychiatrist, former director of a Havana hospital and the owner of the casa particular where I stayed. His parents were strong supporters of the revolution, and he told me that as he was growing up he was a big supporter of Fidel. He told me the story of how Fidel visited the US in the early days of the revolution and slept on the street in some political protest. Jorge as a 10 year old boy also slept outside on the street so he could be in solidarity with Fidel at the time.
Today things are a little different. Jorge told me he doesn’t like the socialist system at all, and that it has been a huge failure for Cubans. But he also told me how most Cubans still really like Fidel and want to see him succeed. I found this very surprising. He told me that he really isn’t interested in politics or anything else; he just wants to live a quiet life with his wife and children. And in order to get by he runs a Casa particular, hosting tourists. This is in addition to his job as a psychiatrist at the local hospital where he earns a top salary by Cuban standards of $30/month. This was the highest Cuban salary I heard of during my time in Havana, others made $15 – $20/month.
In my 5 days staying with Jorge and his family I paid them about $180. And they had other tourists staying with them during this time as well. Jorge told me he continues to be a psychiatrist because that is what he loves and was born to do – but that he runs the casa particular in order to pay the bills. He is effectively working his day job for free because the money he earns from it doesn’t bring any real economic benefit to the family compared to the income he makes from hosting tourism.
And this is what bothered me a lot. This guy is almost the same age as my father, also a highly trained medical professional, yet he’s running around fixing problems with my TV, emptying my trash and arranging my mealtimes. I asked him to borrow a marker pen, and he was looking through his work bag for a pen – I was disgusted to see that he had just a couple of old ballpoint pens, hardly any paper and everything was old and in bad condition. This is how Cuba treats its highly trained professionals? A 12 year old kid in the US would have 100X better writing resources for going to school.
After all his years working for the Cuban system, Jorge has almost nothing, no savings or possessions. He doesn’t need a lot since nobody pays for rent or healthcare in Cuba, but it became clear to me that once socialism is gone and capitalism comes in, that people like Jorge are going to have trouble adjusting – if you have zero savings or possessions, and you’re getting older and now have to pay for your healthcare, how will you do it?
Catching a ride on the bike-taxi
One afternoon I decided to get a ride on a bicycle taxi. These are generally used by Cubans for getting around. I thought it might be a fun way to see some different parts of Havana. But then something happened..
The bike-taxi I caught
After about 10 minutes he saw the police a block away
So, I had to get off and walk until we get around the corner, otherwise he could be put in jail. Actually this kind of fear of the police happened 8-10 times during my week in Havana.
The Havana Capitol building
As part of my sightseeing, I decided to visit the Havana Capitol building. I didn’t really have any idea what it would be like and assumed it wouldn’t be anything special. I was shocked when I saw it:
This short video gives a better feel for how impressive it looks:
Inside it is absolutely magnificent:
This building was built in the early 20th century when Cuba was a democratic country. They built it in just 3 years. It’s a similar design to the US Capitol building and is actually a bit taller! But the terrible, terrible thing about it is that the building has been totally unmaintaned. Here’s an example of water seepage into the walls:
I walked away really sad to see such a strong symbol of our democracy being totally wasted. And I am certain that it will be used for democracy again before too long.
The Museum of the [Cuban] Revolution:
The museum of the revolution would be better renamed as the museum of Castro propaganda. I found that I really reacted strongly to it, more than anything else I saw during my time in Havana. All the things being showcased as successes for the revolution was just total failures and they had achieved virtually nothing – yet people were still visiting the museum and being impressed by what they saw.
One that really bothered me was this sign, talking about how the Spanish colonials “tricked” the local indigenous people, implying that today’s Cuba held no responsibility for what happened in the past.
This one was also of the same theme:
I was really startled to see that Castro didn’t take any responsibility for settlement actions that happened before his time and just labeled it all as “before”, and therefore not his problem. I haven’t heard about any Cuban land grants to indigenous people, so this felt rather disingenuous to me.
Another quote that really struck me was this one:
“No cause will be lost while there is one revolutionary and there is one gun” – Fidel Castro.
This would be true – except that as a guerrilla himself, Castro has made it virtually impossible for revolutionaries to stand up against him in Cuba. It’s well known that anyone that stands up to the current regime gets in a lot of trouble and eventually vanishes. He was treated far better by the government while HE was a revolutionary.
This display was just a typical piece of Cuban propaganda that you see everywhere, and is typically stupid:
“To Ronald Reagan: Thank you cretin for helping us to STRENGTHEN THE REVOLUTION”
Examples of how Cuba doesn’t respect its people:
A popular activity in Cuba is deep sea fishing. Cubans cannot go, in case they try to leave.
I have to blank out faces of people or they may get into trouble by the government
Monthly official Gov income in Cuba is $15-$35, monthly cost of living is $200 – $400.
Public water turns on once per day and filling tanks in houses, providing water for the rest of the day. I found it ironic that a centralized socialist system can’t even maintain a entralized water service and requires houses to maintain their own tanks for proper service.
Since every business in Cuba is government run, Cuba is a bit like an 11,000,000 company run by CEO Fidel Castro. This means that to succeed in business in Cuba, you have to succeed in politics. • The only people with nice houses are those in politics.
The Cuban airline has a first class section in front of economy class in supposedly egalitarian Cuba
Cuban citizens are second class citizens in their own country. Because they depend so heavily on tourism, they take extra special measures to protect tourists. If I walk up, hit a Cuban guy and then call the police, the CUBAN guy will go to jail with no questions asked.
Dominicans travel freely across their island. Cubans need a permit to spend time in Havana
Things that really stood out to me while I was in Cuba:
There was lots of foreign technology (TV, computers, etc), but none of it was made in Cuba. If there was no innovation outside of Cuba none of this would have reached the country, effectively meaning Cubans are parasites off the world economy.
Why are there still so many 1950’s cars and unrepaired houses in the country if the socialist system did so well from 1959-1990?
Cubans cannot easily access the internet. Here’s a screenshot of the tourist internet
This is the “ministry of finance and pricing” building. The concept of a central pricing center just seems insane.
This bathroom has no running water so the bathroom attendant in the photo pours his bottle full of water on to your hands so you can wash them clean. Yes, I’m serious.
Cuban propaganda
Walking around Havana you see lots of propaganda. It falls into two groups – supporting the revolution and against the USA. Here’s some examples:
”Bush’s Plan: He’ll take away the morning kiss, he’ll hurry up leaving for school and he’ll put an angry look on your face. Thanks, now we live in Free Cuba”
“We can make the most just society in the world” (taken in a shopping mall)
“Working for the social revolution in America isn’t a utopia for crazies or fanatics. It’s working for the next stage of advancing history”
Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged was the book that inspired me to visit Cuba and to see the results of socialism in action. I found that about 90% of what she wrote about was correct. Here’s some examples:
This philosophy foundation is typical for the terminology used in Atlas Shrugged:
Surely if a philosophy is so good it doesn’t require tons of patience?
Rand writes about men with convictions and values. This is exactly what I saw in Havana, that the socialists are very wishy washy always making excuses for the failure of their system.
I found that Cubans get emotional about negotiating and money. I was impressed that Ayn Rand made the dollar sign her personal symbol and my feeling is that she wanted to focus on disconnecting money from emotion and creating true value for value deals.
One thing that really impressed me was how most of the “builders” left Cuba in 1959 after Castro gained power, with the remaining leaving in the following 2 years. This was the exact theme of Atlas Shrugged and was very powerful to see that it actually happened. The difference was that John Galt wasn’t required – people just left on their own.
The only major difference I saw from Atlas Shrugged to the reality in Cuba was the lack of confidence that was demonstrated at the end of the book. Everywhere in Cuba you are shown strong political presentations and a lot of confidence that the system works even though it clearly does not.
Anyone visiting Cuba should read Atlas Shrugged before they go.
Returning home to the DR
One of the things I noticed about passing through Cuban immigration was that as you present your passport and visa to the immigration officer, there is a closed door that you cannot pass through. Only once they have reviewed all your papers do they open the door with a buzzer allowing you to pass. I haven’t seen this anywhere else, certainly Australia and the US have open booths which psychologically feels very different.
I had a scary moment as the computers were blocked and the immigration officer had to get her supervisor.. But finally things were working, the buzzer sounded and I was allowed to pass.
I’ve always found it a bit cheesy that some people clap as the plane lands. This was the first time I really felt like I wanted to do that.. I was VERY happy to be back in the Dominican Republic, a capitalist country with true freedom.
Why the US Embargo is a good idea
Before I went to Cuba, I felt that maybe the US should lift the embargo. After I visited Cuba I became quite convinced it’s a good thing and that it should continue. Maybe I’ve become a hardened Miami Cuban without even knowing Miami Cubans personally?
The more pressure the embargo puts on Cuba, the higher the local cost of living becomes. And this forces more people towards entrepreneurship. As more people are forced into finding alternative ways to earn an income, the entire country will be gradually moved into a capitalist economy. In turn, this will cause the socialist system to become irrelevant. As the US Embargo helps this process along, I think its a good thing.
Why do people say Cuba is a great place for a holiday?
I found this article by an orthopedic surgeon that visited Cuba and actually met Castro:
This seems typical of the experience some people have with Cuba. They take a superficial vacation and come back saying “its a nice place, just rather poor”.
I am now strongly against this kind of assistance for Cuba. If their socialist system is so good they shouldn’t need any outside help. I am aware this is rather non-humanitarian, but I just found so much of the Cuban system repelling that I feel it needs to be blocked completely until it breaks down.
People taking a casual vacation to Cuba are helping the repressive socialist system to survive. IMHO you should only visit Cuba if you are seriously interested in socialism and want to understand how it works. Otherwise there are plenty of other Caribbean countries you can visit instead that would love your tourist dollars and aren’t police states that repress its citizens.
Summary
In the end I am quite convinced that socialism would be a great solution if it actually worked. I think Castro has good intentions, but this doesn’t matter since what he has done is a total failure and has ruined the lives of 2 generations of Cuban people. His famous quote of “history will absolve me” is garbage. The Cuban system totally destroys technological advances, an area I spend my life in.
While what I have written may come across as rather emotional, I really feel strongly that this isn’t an over-reaction. What is happening in Cuba is real and is ruining people’s lives right now. This is something serious.
I also gained a huge amount of respect and gratitude for those who held off Communism during the cold war, and also our veterans from WWII. People with “angst” just don’t realize how good things are today. We have generations of soldiers to thank for the liberties we enjoy today.
From spending time with people that still believe a failed system is working, please make sure you ALWAYS think for yourself about what you are being told by your government. A capitalist democracy isn’t perfect and needs a smart population that thinks for itself to run effectively.
And this is why, if I had grown up in Cuba I would either become a guerilla fighting Castro or trying to escape to Miami on a small raft.
So, as Forrest Gump said, that’s all I have to say about that.
