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The Cuban Parrot Theory
Freedom is always caged
I was sitting in a Casa Particular (a Spanish name for a type of guest house) in Cuba one afternoon when I was startled by someone trying to say hello to me in Spanish. I was sitting alone and yet someone was trying to communicate with me from beyond the pale. The voice was croaky and seemed on the first impression to have belonged to an older woman. After the owner of the guest house appeared and asked me how I was, she kneeled to a small table and produced a bronze birdcage, home to a beautiful multicoloured parrot.
Unfortunately, I can’t claim to have had any deep and meaningful conversations with this bird over the days, yet it didn’t stop me from trying. I felt sorry for the parrot as it failed in its attempts to peck its way out of the bars of its metal home. Watching on, I realised how this Cuban parrot was the perfect analogy to explain my impression of Cuba.
For those of you that don’t know, Cuba is a communist country that believes in equality for all. In theory, everyone no matter who is treated the same in every way shape and form. In reality, the situation is somewhat different. So, with this in the forefront of my mind, I was delighted to land at Havana airport to find out that there were two different currencies in Cuba — one for locals and one for tourists.
I found this odd, given that every other country I had been…
