My son has been to Cuba - no not a paradise, but it's all relative. He was very kindly received and generally had a good impression. Let's not forget that, yes, there are and were shortages, and at times over Cuba's history there have been very severe shortages of necessities, resulting in rationing. But we must take into account the context - Cuba was gravely affected by the US embargo and the world isolation it suffered for decades as a result of US influence. For many years their economy was propped up by the Soviet Union, but of course that ended, which meant a huge adjustment. Cuba is a small country with limited resources - it isn't a paradise, but I would wager that the average Cuban citizen has a better standard of living in terms of receiving basic necessities, health care, education etc. that your average citizen of many of the other Caribbean islands - Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc. where there is a vast disparity between the rich and the poor - the poor living at subsistence level with inadequate food, lack of potable water, scrounging building materials in order to construct a hut in a shantytown, and no health care.