My last post recieved a comment from someone who brought up Cuba and the state which it is in. I responded to his comment, and realized that I hadn't yet addressed the situation in Cuba in my blog yet. I used to think that Cuba was a horrible place as well. I thought it was an evil dictatorship where everyone was starving, afterall, that's what they tell you in school, in the newspapers, in books, on TV and every where you look for information on Cuba. Is all the hype real?
President Carter one said something along the lines of; the real threat that comes from Cuba is that it is a example for other oppressed peoples to follow. He was right. in the 47 years socialism has exsisted in Cuba, massive improvements have been made. A once impoverished country has become a huge constuction site, making massive improvements in almost every field.
The Improvements...
Cuba was devastatingly impoverished before the revolution. The vast majority of people in Cuba lived in houses made out of twigs and had no sanitation, most of the wealth and land was held by a few rich families, most cubans were not educated, and healthcare was non-exsistant. Today in Cuba, all of that has changed. Cuba has one of the lowest poverty indexes in the Carribean and Latin America surpassing Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. Cuba also has an astonishingly low ratio of people-to-doctors, almost 10 times lower than it's capitalist counterpart; Haiti! As well as at least twice as low as America's. Cuba's free education system has allowed average working class people to become doctors, an opportunity that few capitalist countries give its' peoples. Unemployment in Cuba is also incredibly low as it is less than 2%. Cuba's illiteracy problems have disappeared and literacy is the highest in the world!. People in Cuba also have widespread access to sanitation, a problem that people in Cuba's capitalist counterparts face.
Contrary to popular belief, Cuba is a well planned Republic. Just google "Cuban Democracy" or "Democracy in Cuba" and if you look closely, you'll find articles by both socialists and non-socialists who explain Cuba's grassroot democracy that has been in place since the begining of the revolution.
Of course Cuba is not without problems, and has a long way to go but considering the embargo and all the capitalist aggression it faces, Cuba has done very well. Now with Castro's health ailing, and the US claiming he won't live through 2007, Cuba's Republic is in danger. We must wait and see what will happen but I'm truly hope that Cuba will not take the path of other Latin America countries getting rid of their universal healthcare and education and renewing mass poverty. We shall see, but I think the Cuban people will stand strong even after the death of Fidel.
You make some good points but remember, Fidel Castro has greatly restricted the freedoms of his people. There hasn't been a free election in Cuba since the revolution (albeit Batista didn't offer truly free elections either). I look at Cuba as failing after Che left, primarily because Fidel was never dedicated to the socialist cause.
Admitted, Cuban Democracy is less credibly than American democracy, but its' still democracy. There are free elections, but keep in mind the system is very different. Take a look at that link I posted.
But yeah, one of Cuba's problems is probably its' beauracratic deformities.
I know there are workers unhappy with conditions in Cuba but I was struck by the fact that with all those Cuban doctors working in Venezuela and other Latin countries you don't hear of them defecting in droves. The ones I met were proud of their revolution and ready to help others.
At my blog, I reprinted for discussion an article by Samuel Farber, printed by Worker's Liberty, critical of Cuba from the left.
Samuel Farber On Cuba.
Henry,
I went to Cuba with Witness for Peace in 2003. I was forever changed through my experience there. Cuba, like all places, is full of contradictions and questions, but we met no homeless, no malnourished, no illiterate, no uneducated, no millionaires, no perfectly satisfied citizen, no "child left behind," no uninsured, no one without good health care, etc.
I also learned an important lesson, one finds what one seeks. If one is looking to find the positives of the Cuban Revolution, such things will be found. On the other hand, if one goes seeking dirt in the Cuban Revolution it will certainly be found. This is no perfect world, but for me when comparing Cuba to the rest of Latin America that has tried to go at it alone and faced the North America menace, the pros definitely outweighed the cons.
The great Cuban quandary: equality vs. freedom. What they sacrifice in political freedom, they may gain in social justice. Perhaps what makes an American's perspective so tenuous is their sensitivity towards freedom uber alles. What we often gain in political freedom we sacrifice in equal access to basic human needs. Where Cuban crime is nearly non-existent, American crime rates are astronomical (an effect of social injustice in the U.S.). Where Americans are generally free to express outright opposition to their leaders, this voice is repressed in Cuba (though we definitely witnessed clear dissent without any repercussions).
In Cuba one does not have the right to be a millionaire, but one also does not have the right to starve on the streets of their capital. In Cuba one does not have endless choices of consumer products, but one also does not have the right to die of preventable illnesses.
In the U.S. one does not have access to free education, health care, food, etc., but an American also doesn't have to fear incarceration for writing poetry that denounces "the supreme leader."
It doesn't seem right for Americans to play the hypothetical game and say that they would choose the American way of life over the Cuban way. Instead, the choice should have to be between Nicaragua and Cuba, or Dominican Republic and Cuba. I feel confident that the answer to almost any Latin American choice one could hold up next to Cuba, that Cuba would win over and over again. Bearing in mind, one doesn't assume they will have all the education, privilege and power they currently have. That is to say, one would have to imagine being born to a random Latin American family. Rolling the dice: I'd pick Cuba over and over again.
"Erwin M. Fletcher, you choose."
considering the embargo and all the capitalist aggression it faces, Cuba has done very well
Of course it has done very well. It's a workers' paradise. CANADIAN workers paradise. Even a waitress working for minimum wage in Canada can afford an all-inclusive vacation ($400 a week - or less - in Varadero, Cayo Coco or Holguin - including flight, room, food and alcohol). Why ? Because Cuban workers cleaning the rooms in those resorts are paid one tenth of the wages of the same workers in Cancun or Acapulco. By exploiting its own workers, Castro makes it possible for Canadian workers to live like billionaires for a week...
How very socialist of him....
Nice blog, btw (if a bit naive)... I am linking...
Well actually Sonia,
a vaction in Cuba is more expensive than in other places in Latin America like Costa Rica. Perhaps wages are low if you compare them to American wages, but if you compare them to the wages of other countries, they're quite different.
I'll return the favor and link you back.
if you compare them to the wages of other countries, they're quite different.
Not true. Cubans are paid in non-convertible pesos, which is a wortless currency only good to buy rice and beans. To buy anything else, Cubans need CONVERTIBLE pesos (or dollars, or euros). But nobody pays them in convertible pesos (or dollars or euros)...
Cuba is like a slave plantation. Slaves are well-fed, well-educated and well-vaccinated. But they are still slaves, working hard, but paid in monopoly money...
I've been to Cuba four times. It's poorer than any other country in Americas except Haiti. Cleaner (you see almost no garbage, even in the poorest neighborhoods), safer (totalitarian regimes usually are), but without a functioning economy (except for tourism which works thanks to private investments from Spain, Mexico etc...)
Not true. Cubans are paid in non-convertible pesos, which is a wortless currency only good to buy rice and beans. To buy anything else, Cubans need CONVERTIBLE pesos (or dollars, or euros). But nobody pays them in convertible pesos (or dollars or euros)...
There are two currencies but that's not the way it works. The non-convertable is used for more than rice and beans. Things in stores, street shops, etc... can be bought in the non-converitbles. The convertibles are really only for tourists and are mainly used for overpriced tourist goods.
The idea that they can only buy rice and beans is a bit upsurd.
Cuba is like a slave plantation. Slaves are well-fed, well-educated and well-vaccinated. But they are still slaves, working hard, but paid in monopoly money...
Not really. Slaves have historically been treated like shit.
Cuba isn't a slave plantation. It's a Worker's state. Workers have access to things in Cuba that people in other third world countries do not.
If anything capitalism is slavery, wage-slavery, because it is in capitalism that workers are generally treated like dirt for as little as possible.
I've been to Cuba four times. It's poorer than any other country in Americas except Haiti. Cleaner (you see almost no garbage, even in the poorest neighborhoods), safer (totalitarian regimes usually are), but without a functioning economy (except for tourism which works thanks to private investments from Spain, Mexico etc...)
I've been to Cuba, Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico and I think that Che Bob put it best,
If one is looking to find the positives of the Cuban Revolution, such things will be found. On the other hand, if one goes seeking dirt in the Cuban Revolution it will certainly be found.
That is true with any country but especially with Cuba. I know people, like myself, who've gone to Cuba and come back thinking that it is great. I also know people who've gone there and come back saying it's some slave planation. The pattern I've noticed is that those who have actually seen the way the Cuban system works (ie attended CDR meetings), think about it in a more favorable way, while those who stay in the hotels and/or conduct business think it is a genuinely bad place...
Great post!
Alot of people from the first world go to Cuba and are put off. But if they'd come from any other third world country, they'd be incredibly impressed.
You can't compare imperialist US and third world, blockaded Cuba. People want to talk about Cuban workers making $15 a month; but they don't mention that the average electic bill is 6 pesos.
Cuba is much better in every category than any third world country in the world, despite the embargo. That alone is reason to support it.
And someone mentioned a lack of democracy. They obviously haven't investigated at all. They're relying on bourgeois lies. It's not bourgeois democracy, it's proletarian democracy: REAL DEMOCRACY.
Check out www.ry-jr.info and read about the nomination and election processes. But that's only one aspect. Elections are the least important part.
It's a grass roots democracy, through which working people rule. They set their own wages and run their own workplaces. Women make laws affecting women, youths make laws affecting them, etc. There are mass organizations, everyone's in a union, and there are monthly meetings with representatives (who are paid an average workers' wage, and who are subject to recall at all times).
Another person talked about a "criticism from the left". It's funny that these criticisms all come from first world comrades. In Cuba there's absolutely no social base for a "criticism from the left". These sort of ultra left criticisms are part of a bigger mystical movement that waits for world communism to emerge perfectly some time in the distant future, like the return of Christ.
Meanwhile, Cubans have made a revolution in the real world, with all the mistakes and imperfections that come along with it.
Oh, and I linked to your blog.
There are millions of children going to bed hungry every night... and not one of them is Cuban.
Sure says something about which one is the failed system...
I have been to Cuba now 20 times as i love the country.It does have good and bad points but to call it a democracy is sheer fantasy.
A man i meet once told me he got 2 years in jail for selling cigars to a tourist this is a illegal business.Free speech is not allowed if it involves bashing the government something most people take for granted.There ration cards are good for only about 15 days out of a month.There medical system is free but don't expect them to have many of the antibiotics we have.
A good fridge in the store is about 400 CUC's there pay averages 15 CUC's a month plus they must eat pay bills etc.
You need permission from the government to even buy a car or a computer.Foreign newspapers and magazines basically are unavailable due to the information blockade that exists.Satellite dishes are illegal for Cubans.They love there soap operas.Stealing from the state is very common last year half the gasoline was stolen from the state.CDR's commitees for the defence of the revolution are basically spies and they are on every block in every city.Food well i hope you like chicken pork rice and beans little variety in a Cuban's diet.
Prisons well Cuba has not allowed full access by the Red Cross for 15 + years numbers are not given.
Staying at the Cuban's homes you will see much more of real Cuba than a resort.However i was awoken by the inspector one morning at 9:00 am to look in my room.
The good fairly safe cheap and good weather great place for tourists.
Take it for what it's worth.
Anonymous,
You're 100% correct. That's how Cuba really is, not the Potemkin's village propaganda version that bears no connection with reality...
Here are some very brave Cuban people.
The Cuban constitution in article 88(h)adopted in 1976 provides for citizens proposals of law. Prerequisite 10,000 signatures from citizens who are eligible to vote.
This is the Varela Project 25,000 people have signed already.
The proposal Free speech,freedom of association,freedom of press,free elections,freedom to start private business,amnesty for political prisoners,national social security system and independant judiciary.
In March 2003 25 members and 75 persons in total were given from 6 to 28 years sentences in prison.
They report cement beds rats and insect infested cells and that state officials deny medical treatment to these prisoners.
Cuban government statement "these men are counterrevolutionary".
Socialism si totalitarianism no.