However, the Cuban government began to control most of life in Cuba under the communist system. Disagreeing with the Cuban government and Fidel Castro in public was not allowed. Some Cubans did not like this and tried to leave Cuba. Most Cubans who left went to the United States. Some Cubans who did not like the government and stayed were put in jail. Many groups from around the world protested against Cuba because of this, and demanded that Fidel Castro give up power.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. This meant that Cuba, which had sold most of its products to the Soviet Union, had no money coming into the country. The Americans made the restrictions against contact with Cuba tighter. America said the restrictions on contact would continue unless Fidel Castro gave up power. Cuba became very poor in the 1990s. This became known in Cuba as “The Special Period”. Because of the disaster, Cuba changed to allow less control by the government, more discussion amongst the people, and private shops and businesses. Cuba also tried to get tourists to visit the island.
In the 2000s, tourism to Cuba began to make money for the island again. Though Fidel Castro had remained in power, he had passed all duties to his brother Raul after an illness. Fidel Castro was one of the longest-serving heads of state. In 2018, Miguel Díaz-Canel became the official President of Cuba.
In April 2015, historic talks took place with US President Obama and Cuban General Secretary Raúl Castro in improving relations between the two nations.
The trade embargo issued by President Kennedy in the 1960s has been considerably loosened under Obama's administration. US citizens can now travel directly to Cuba at certain times of the year. Before, Americans had to go via Mexico if they wanted to go to Cuba. Americans are still not allowed to purchase or smoke Cuban cigars. The cigars are smuggled over the US-Canadian border since they are legal in Canada.
For military service, men from the age of 17 to 28 years old must go into the army for two years. It is optional for women.
The country is divided into 15 provinces and one special municipality (Isla de la Juventud). The provinces are divided into municipalities.
The population of Cuba is close to 13 million. The people of Cuba come from three different groups. The largest group is the descendants of the Spanish settlers who came to Cuba. The smallest group is the descendants of the black African slaves who were brought in to do the work and birth children (in the barracoon) as New World slaves who could be legally sold into life time bondage in the United States. The middle-sized group is a mix of African and Spanish. The government succeeded in seeing that the three different groups were treated the same. According to a DNA Caribbean Studies Institute, the racial-makeup of the population of Cuba is:
Cuba is a developing country, and is often depicted as a very poor country. In some aspects, however, like education, health care and life expectancy it ranks much better than most countries in Latin America. Its infant death rate is lower than some developed countries. The average life expectancy is 78 years.
All the children are required to go to school from six to twelve years old, and nearly everybody is able to read and write at least. There is free education at every level. Because of this, Cuba has a 99.8% literacy rate.
In 2006, the World Food Programme certified Cuba to be the only country in this region without undernourished children. In the same year, the United Nations said that Cuba was the only nation in the world that met the World Wide Fund for Nature's definition of sustainable development.
Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies. It has many resources. Only about one-fourth of the land is mountains or hills. Much of the land is gentle hills or plains which are good for farming or raising cattle. Cuba has fertile soil and a mostly warm and humidodity climate that makes it a great place for growing crops.
Sugar is the most important crop of Cuba, and they may get it from the sugar cane. Sugar cane is the largest cash crop grown in Cuba, and it brings in most of the money. After that, the second is tobacco. Tobacco is made into cigars by hand. A hand-made cigar is considered by many people to be the finest in the world. Other important crops are rice, coffee, and fruit. Cuba also has many minerals. Cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, and manganese are all on the island. Salt, petroleum, and natural gas are there too. The coast of Cuba has many bays and a few good harbors. Havana, which is the capital, is also a port. Other harbors have port cities. Nuevitas is a port city on the north coast. Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, and Santiago de Cubaare some of the port cities on the south coast.
Cuba has a semi-tropical climate. That means that the cool ocean winds keep it becoming hot, despite its being in the tropiocal zone. Cuba has a wet season and a dry season. The dry season is from November to April, and the wet season is from May to October. August to October is also the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this, most of Cuba's port cities can be flooded along the coast.
Cube
A cube is a block with all right angles and whose height, width and depth are all the same.
A cube is one of the simplest mathematical shapes in space. Something that is shaped like a cube is sometimes referred to as "cubic".
Surface area of cube=6l^2
Lateral Surface area of cube=4l^2
Volume of cube=l^3
The basic difference between a cube and a square is, a cube is a 3D figure (having 3 dimensions) i.e. length, breadth and height while a square has only 2 dimensions i.e. length and breadth.
The 2-dimensional (2D) shape (like a circle, square, triangle, etc.) that a cube is made of is squares. The sides (faces) of a cube are squares. The edges are straight lines. The corners (vertices) are at right angles. A cube has 8 corners, 12 edges and 6 faces, as in the most usual kind of dice. A tesseract carries this idea into the fourth dimension (4D) and is made of 8 cubes.
Cost of living
Cost of living is the amount of money it costs just to live in a certain place. It includes food, housing, etc.
December
December (Dec.) is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days, coming between November (of the same year) and January (of the following year). With the name of the month coming from the Latin "decem" for "ten", it was the tenth month of the year before January and February were added to the Roman calendar.
December always begins on the same day of the week as September, and ends on the same day of the week as April.
December's flower is the Narcissus. Its birthstone is the turquoise. The meaning of the turquoise is prosperity.
Some of the holidays celebrated in December are Christmas, New Year's Eve, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah.
December is the 12th and last month of every calendar year in the Gregorian calendar, and is one of seven months of the year to have 31 days. December 31 is followed by January 1 of the following year.
December begins on the same day of the week as September every year, as each other's first days are exactly 13 weeks (91 days) apart. December ends on the same day of the week as April every year, as each other's last days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart.
In common years, December starts on the same day of the week as April and July of the previous year, and in leap years, October of the previous year. In common years, December finishes on the same day of the week as July of the previous year, and in leap years, February and October of the previous year. In leap years and years immediately after that, December both starts and finishes on the same day of the week as January of the previous year.