What an interesting video. I've always been impressed by how the Cubans have managed to keep fifty year old cars on the road. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention.
They not only keep cars on the road, but on the water! Have you heard of this story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pq89KLHscMThe guy had to try twice to get his car-boat from Cuba to Florida. Amazing story.
I once had some furniture to donate and someone told me of a Cuban family that had recently arrived and needed furniture. So they came over to my house and after picking up the furniture, saw a pile of things on the side I was going to donate to charity. They asked about it...especially an old radio that didn't work. I told them it didn't work and they started to laugh. They said "we can fix anything". So they took it all and were very grateful.
The Cubans have a saying "hay que resolver" which translates to doing whatever you need to do to survive. It's a positive attitude they've developed after having to deal with so much hardship. I think it bodes well for the future of Cubans.
I guess their engineering skills were born out of need rather than frugality by choice, but the lessons learned can be applied to all of us.
