There are times we despair over human intelligence

So our intrepid traveler goes off to Cuba, just to see what it's like. And he notes that no one has any money, everyone's dirt poor. And there's not really much of anything to buy with the money that people don't have. Also, the food is, to be polite, not great, tasting old and stale and frankly, there's better Cuban food at Miami airport. And there's a shortage of toilet paper and you'll really never find soap. And the best part of the trip was:

Is it true there’s no advertisements anywhere?

Yup! This was the coolest part. An entire week and a half of not being sold to by huge corporations. The only ads we saw were the aforementioned Socialist propaganda billboards on the side of the road.

The absence of those huge corporations being why you can't wipe your bottom, nor wash your hands afterwards, nor even get fresh and decent food to put in the other end. Nor, of course, the jobs, production or money to purchase that cornucopia of things that huge corporations produce.

Billboards reading "everything is for more socialism" are much cooler than anyone actually having anything.

We console ourselves with the idea that intelligent life might one day arise on this planet. Perhaps.