|
Jamie
Weinstein
Read Jamie's bio and previous columns
January 6, 2009
History Has Not
Absolved Castro, Nor Will It
January 1 marked the 50th
anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
In
November 2004, I traveled to Havana, Cuba as part of a humanitarian
mission to bring much needed medical supplies to the country. Havana was
beautiful, its architecture dazzling, but its infrastructure was in a
dire state of disrepair.
The trip provided a rare glimpse behind communist lines. Cuba remains
one of the last relics of a failed ideology. My trip was in many ways a
trip back in time. Seeing 1950s era cars buzz through the streets made
me feel like I was on the set of a movie.
Life in Cuba is difficult. Despite being promised a certain amount of
meat per month, Cubans rarely receive it. Political freedoms are absent.
Cubans must watch what they say for fear that a government spy may
report them. After all, if you criticize the government in any way, you
are likely to find yourself behind bars. Cubans not in the tourist
industry or in high government office live on far less than a dollar a
day.
Beneath the grime and crumbling infrastructure of Havana, however, one
could piece together the Cuba that could be. Having island hopped
throughout much of the Caribbean, there is little question that when
Cuba's totalitarian shackles are lifted, it will be the jewel of the
Caribbean. Its rich cultural history, dynamic population and close
proximity to the United States assure that Cuba's potential for
prosperity is limitless.
But this vision of Cuba cannot be realized so long as Cuba remains a
fear society. Fifty years after the revolution, Cuba still remains
imprisoned by a Castro – for most of its history it was Fidel, but now
the warden is Fidel's brother Raul.
Earlier this year, I was dumfounded reading a Reuters report about new
products the Cuban government was now permitting to be sold in Cuba. The
article indicated that Cuba was lifting restrictions on computers and
DVD players. In 2009, the article read, air conditioners would be
permitted to be sold in Cuba and, if the electricity grid could handle
it, toasters and electric ovens would be available in 2010.
In
a sentence the Reuters article unintentionally but vividly condemned
Castro's revolution. Air conditioners are just reaching Cuban markets.
Of
course, when and if these "luxury" goods come to market, few Cubans will
be able to afford them anyway.
Castro apologists point to Cuba's health care and educational systems as
areas of the revolution's outstanding success. Yet Cuba's health care
and educational systems were excellent relative to other Latin American
countries before the Cuban Revolution. Moreover, what kind of education
are Cubans getting when they are subject to communist indoctrination?
And if the lack of medicine on the shelves of the pharmacy I entered
during my visit to Cuba suggests anything, it suggests that Cuba's much
vaunted health care system isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially
for ordinary Cubans.
In
a 1998 paper prepared for the annual conference of the Association for
the Study of the Cuban Economy, Kirby Smith and Hugo Llorens utilized UN
statistics to compare Cuba to other Latin American countries both before
the Revolution and at the present time of the article's publication.
They concluded that "Cuba has at best maintained what were already high
levels of development in health and education, but that in other areas,
Cubans have borne extraordinary costs as a result of Castro-style
totalitarianism and misguided economic policies." They went on to write
that "with the possible exception of health and education, Cuba's
relative position among Latin American countries is lower today than it
was in 1958 for virtually every socioeconomic measure for which reliable
data are available."
The most striking statistic was that, out of 11 Latin American countries
analyzed by Smith and Llorens, Cuba ranked third in caloric consumption
before the revolution, and at the time of the paper's publication ranked
last in caloric consumption among those same countries. Similar declines
could be seen across the board, from food production to the availability
of modern technology.
Understanding Cuba's pitiful state and complete lack of political
freedom, it is no wonder nearly two million Cubans have been willing to
risk their very lives by boarding rickety rafts in the hopes of
traversing ocean waters on their way to the United States. Thousands
have died in the process, but still they come with the hope of reaching
freedom and a better life.
Do
me a favor. Next time you hear a leftist politician or academic sing
Castro's praises, tell them to zip it. After 50 years, the record could
not be clearer. Castro's Revolution has been a total failure, which has
subjected an entire island population to five decades of despotism and
misery. For this, history most surely will not absolve him.
© 2009
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
Click here to talk to our writers and
editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.
To e-mail feedback
about this column,
click here. If you enjoy this writer's
work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry
it.
This is column #
JW051.
Request permission to publish here. |
