More Cuban Flight

A handful of writers I respect--and many that I don't--say Cuba is a fine place. Poor, but happy. And then I remember the waves of refugees that have repeatedly peaked during the past thirty years, and I just don't get it. The place must be as horrible as every other Communist stronghold. From the NYT:

The number of Cubans intercepted at sea while trying to reach the United States is at its highest level since tens of thousands took to the Florida Straits on makeshift rafts and in small boats in the 1994 exodus sanctioned by President Fidel Castro. . . .

The State Department says the new wave of migrants is a result of increasingly repressive policies in Cuba, the island's crumbling economy and Mr. Castro's refusal to let more Cubans sign up for a lottery under which the United States is supposed to grant 20,000 visas a year.

But some Cuban-Americans in South Florida say that new limits on their visits and on the money they can send to relatives on the island, imposed by the Bush administration last year, have led to greater desperation among many Cubans.