All the World’s a Zoo

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, himself the son of Cuba immigrants, criticized people who visit Cuba as propping up the dictatorship of the Castro boys.

The quote I focused on, courtesy of The Hill, is: “Cuba is not a zoo where you pay an admission ticket and you go in and you get to watch people living in cages to see how they are suffering.” Rubio said that you could spend five minutes with him and you’d be up to date on Cuba.
 Can’t I find out for myself?

Having recently visited Cuba, I take his point. But I’ve also visited (and lived in) China, with whom we do have diplomatic relations and have watched that country as it has opened up over the past two decades.

And that got me to wondering about other “zoos.” If you think about it, a lot of the Third World has no middle class to speak up and lives in a top-down society. What a zoo! But why stop there? Aren’t all countries open to tourists something of a “zoo”? How many foreigners come to the United States to gawk at us?

With apologies to Shakespeare, I would suggest that all the world’s a zoo and we’re all in it in some capacity.