EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life'
- How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
- Cornel West: Obama 'Is a War Criminal'
- In 'March Toward Disaster,' World Hits 400 PPM Milestone
- Revealed: How US State Department 'Twists Arms' on Monsanto's Behalf
Popular content
Today's Top News
Castro and the Colossus
The resignation of Fidel Castro is more promising for the burnishing of his legacy than the mostly septuagenarian Cuban hard-liners in Miami and their fawning allies in the Bush administration would like to believe. After all, Mao Tse-tung is still honored in communist China, the fastest-growing capitalist power in the world, and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin is, at least for now, a very popular elected Russian leader.
Those hoping for a "freedom flotilla" of Cuban exiles returning to remake Havana in the image of 1959, threatening the very future of Las Vegas with legalized prostitution as well as gambling, are likely to be disappointed. Odds are that Castro's successors, beginning with his rhetoric-weary brother, are likely to finally get serious, after decades of fitful starts and reversals, about ending the grip of a moribund statist economy. Reform leading significantly down the path of the Chinese model, or more appropriately that of Venezuela, which has thrown a lifeline to the ailing Cuban economy, is more likely than sudden upheaval.
But those changes will come too late to justify the suffering of the Cuban people for half a century at the hands of a revolutionary, as arrogant as he is idealistic, who witnessed his vision flounder on the rocks of an incredibly cynical U.S. policy. Prime responsibility for that suffering does go to the Colossus of the North, which in the pursuit of economic exploitation and Cold War paranoia consistently preferred Latin American dictatorships to serious experiments in popular rule and strangled the Cuban economy with an embargo in place for the almost five decades since Castro dared move against the U.S. corporations that claimed to own much of the island.
If Castro had attempted to listen to the better angels of his fervid imagination and pursued the path of democratic socialism rather than communist dictatorship, his effort most likely would have been subverted by the CIA, as was the case throughout the world, but it would have been an effort worth making. That was the promise of Castro's famous Moncada speech, offered when he was a jailed young revolutionary dreaming of genuine populist power, and even he must have doubts as to whether, as he predicted back then, "history will absolve me" for the price paid in individual freedom for the revolution's survival in power.
Not that the United States was likely to easily accommodate any populist challenge, as has been shown by the hysterical reaction to Venezuela's finally sharing some of the oil loot with the poor. The failure of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution to provide a democratic socialist alternative was sealed by the decision of John F. Kennedy, that inexplicable hero of American liberalism, to invade an island that posed no threat to the United States. The U.S. had backed the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and the Kennedy administration even enlisted U.S. Mafia thugs, who had the run of Havana under Batista, in a failed attempt to assassinate Castro.
Only months into his presidency, Kennedy ramped up the Cold War-which Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower had done his best to tamp down-by committing the United States to military confrontation on opposite ends of the world. In a subversion of Eisenhower's decision not to send U.S. troops to Vietnam, Kennedy lied to the American public about the purpose of his decision to send "flood control" advisers to Saigon as well as the U.S. complicity in the death of Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. puppet once proclaimed the George Washington of Vietnam and then summarily murdered in a hit job overseen by Kennedy's CIA operatives. And after Eisenhower resisted calls to overthrow Castro in reprisal for his nationalizing American-owned power grids, nickel mines and sugar plantations in Cuba, Kennedy, in the first months of his administration, ordered the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Yes, the dumbest moves of the Cold War were authorized by a lionized Democratic president and accelerated by his successor, another grand Democrat, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Both, as the record of memoirs, academic research and, in Johnson's case, White House tapes has proved, were motivated by a fear of appearing weaker on national security than their Republican rivals. It provides a cautionary tale in considering the current presidential sweepstakes.
How easy it is to claim to champion universal human rights when you exempt your own country from judgment. When did the U.S. ever care about human rights in Cuba, or anywhere else in Latin America before Castro, if those rights conflicted with the rape of the region's resources? And what a mockery we have made of the cause of democratic rule when our president, twice elected by the people, has created one of the world's most fearsome symbols of torture on the U.S. "liberated" territory of Guantanamo, Cuba.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2008 TruthDig.com
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
119 Comments so far
Show AllThe ranting delusions and misguided hopes of the bourgeoisie continue here. No, Cuba is not going go the way of Eurosocialism. Cuba has far more structural democracy than Sheer would like to admit and Fidel will remain a beloved hero for what he has done and what he stands for. That the Cubans suffer is purely the responsibility of US aggression and support for terrorism against it. Still, they suffer far less than the citizens of most of the countries south of our border where neoliberalism and US backed tyranny have resulted in extreme poverty, violence and military dictatorships.
US relations with Cuba are bound up in the same anti-communism that distorts the views of many so-called liberal intellectuals. Rather than improving, in Cuba's case, they are likely to remain the same and worsen towards Venezueala, Bolivia and other nations that seek to be free of us and take the path blazed by Castro.
"communist dictatorship" ya da ya da. the author is either very ignorant of how communist government works, or he is deliberately trying to deceive the reader. the party elects the leadership. it is within the party that you have democracy. within that framework there is far more democracy than in the clown show called capitalist democracy. it is facts like this which the Tory press suppresses, perhaps with the help the author of this piece.
As the colossus of the North goes down ...
(Why? you ask, Poor leaders plus the rich refuse to pay tax and they don't join the military--hence we become like Rome, even the Ottoman's.)
...Cuba, et. al., will rise--hopefully a Scandinavian type of mixed economy will develop and indeed the place to go for prostitution and gambling will be Las Vegas and not Havana.
Fidel has watched American presidents come and go, come and go, one after another and still he and the Cuban people have done it their way. What more can humans wish but health and happiness. Excess wealth is a curse.
I second Jaded Prole's remarks 100%!
When Scheer makes remarks about "angels in" ... some "fervid imagination" or "suffering" masses in "the hands of a revolutionary" I think, "These epithets do not apply to Castro. These notions of insanity and irresponsible use of the public purse are much more aptly applied to the administrations of Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Thatcher et al and their right wing, God smeared, neo-liberal revolution and all the terrible misery that IT has stood for over the last 25 years."
Viva Castro!!! Long live the intelligent and loving people of Cuba.
drwu,
Las Vegas is already the place to go for prostitution and gambling.
I agree with everybody's comments. It will be very interesting to see how events develop in post-Castro Cuba. For one thing, the entire population is highly educated, which is more than we can say about the population of the US.
His insistence on free universal education and healthcare was enough to make him a constant enemy of the US.
Just check the literacy rate and length of life stats.
No political/economic system, whether capitalist or socialist, can do well when cut off from trade with the outside world. The oligarchy does all it can to prevent nations from successfully setting up socialist models, so that the World Bank-WTO-IMF corporate oligarchy can impose its self-serving models with minimum resistance. So the US applied all the pressure it could to ensure the Cuban model would underperform, including the restrictions on trade.
This is not rocket science, but with minds and impressions formed under a mountain of propaganda, it is not surprising that so few Americans can figure it out.
Bush elected twice my ass!
He was installed by the Supreme Court in 2000 and, with his buddy in Ohio, rigged the 2004 election. Come on Bob, you're getting a bit too long in the tooth to utter these platitudes. Read Harvey Wasserman, Bob Fitrakis, Greg Palst, Robert F. Kennedy, Jur., and more
Vay condeos, fidel Ruiz!
He stuck his finger in the eye of the great Satan for almost 50 years!
And Bush turned down Cuba's expert help in the wake of Katrina.
What hubris, what stupidity, what neglect!
I saw a news clip of Castro walking the streets of Cuba. No armored car, no SWAT teams. There were other people on the street. They weren't swept off to clear it, or into free speech zones.
If the Cubans hate Castro as much as the american propagandists proclaim, why can Castro walk the streets with the people, which George W. Bush wouldn't dare.
Bob did you really write this yourself? I am reminded of the cartoon Mr. Fish did last week with Hillary getting her mind adjusted. Have you been visited by the same psychologists?
The Rev. Sloan Coffin often said, "There are two ways to be wealthy in this world. One is have a lot of money, the other is to have few needs." I would prefer to live in a spartan society of educated people than a culture of greed and stupidity.
The comments about Kennedy and Eisenhower are somewhat distorted........ An examination of the origin and execution of the Bay of Pigs invasion will show that it was planned under the Eisenhower administration and carried out against Kennedy's better judgment in the early year of his presidency when he succumbed to pressure to allow an operation that has already been planned and prepared for to continue. His week kneed failure to exert his authority was a grave error on his part. In the context of today's world it is easy to judge men like Kennedy, and Johnson harshly for actions that in retrospect were ill conceived, but in the context of that era when the domino theory was the dominant view, the Truman Doctrine, and the writings of George F Kennan dominated US foreign policy and having recently enjoyed the triumph of "winning" WWII, the Marshall Plan that elevated the United States in world opinion to the great and good, and endowed our nation with a "Godlike" image in our own mind, it is not difficult for intelligent people to see how these historical mistakes were made. But the author of this article obviously lacks the ability and the background or the intelligence to place these events in their proper historical perspective.
The intelligent way to have dealt with "Communism" and Socialism would have been to recognize the need for social and economic and land reform in those nations that resorted to this political experiment, and to stand back and allow these events to take place unimpeded..... and then open up an environment of peaceful trade and exchange of ideas and goods. Few of any people in those times..... or these recognize this. All people seem to be able to see is the threat of another way of life.... another social and economic system that might upset our own way of life ultimately. It would be a far different world today if the western powers had vision enough to allow these nations their rightful sovereignty, and had an open enough collective mind to learn from them.
It is important that we prevent our leadership from imposing our way of life on Cuba, and allow the economy and society of Cuba to develop in it's own way unhindered by our desire to remake the world in our own image.
Howard Wilkinson
I would suggest reading these books:
Fidel _ Peter G. Bourne
Bay of Pigs The Untold Story _ Peter Wyden
I was pretty upset when I heard that Castro resigned. I was hoping he died. I hope that thug is suffering. Suffering like so many Cubans have since he took over.
Robert Scheer wants Cuba to become a "good capitalist" state that first brainwashes and then "takes good care" of its wage slaves and prostitues. He and Hellary may have the same idea.
Instead of that, we progressives want Cuba to remain the beacon of hope for the world, to continue pioneering the way for top value in healthcare, education, agriculture, and public services, the most outputs for the least inputs, the best performance with the lightest footprint, the least garbage, the least mindless consumption, the least deliberate deception, aggression, violence and destruction.
Even here, it never ends.
Something to be said for the 'dumbing down', huh rcarrace?
Suffering like the people of Palestine? Suffering like the Iraqis? Suffering like the poor and homeless in New Orleans where the US turned down the assistance of the Cubans who have high marks for their hurricane response? Suffering like those in the US where the prisons are brimming over? Suffering like those in America with no healthcare, no educational opportunity, where the wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top, where our elections are stolen, where war criminals aren't held accountable, where are leaders can not even walk the streets--they are so despised. Tell me about the suffering of the vast majority of Cubans before Castro. Yeah, it is useful to keep people stupid and blind and violently reactionary towards anything that actually might be in their best interest.
Despite the embargo, the poorest cubans enjoy a better quality of life than the poorest americans. Quality of life is judged by housing, education, and healthcare. People are not left to fall by the wayside and become psycologically damage. Of course people are lured by the things that one can buy in an american society most of which are unnecessary.
Take a look at the neighboring countries where they stand in the quality of life and cuba is ahead of them: Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican republic, Nicarauga, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize...Guyana...even countries like Brazil & Venezuela, the majority population are poor, uneducated, and have almost no access to healthcare.
Would communism work if fascists allowed it to?
Some very well thought out and intelligent posts on this subject. I must be honest, I was expecting more rcarrace type comments.
The Cuban working class will determine their own destiny as we will determine ours. If only we had a representative that would fight for our interests as Fidel has done for the Cuban working class.
I posted this link on the other Castro thread, http://www.counterpunch.org/eckardt02202008.html It's far away better than either of the two pieces of trash CD posted.
Some things right about the article, but many things wrong about Cuba. Elections do matter in Cuba, despite the U.S. calims, and politicians act in much the same way as they do in other countries in terms of elections. Just before elections, local politicians, who do run for office and are often defeated, begin to offer services that the ignored before the prospect of losing the next election presents itself. While the biggest threat to bankruptacy in this country are medical bills, Cuba has universal health care that is excellent and plentiful. The U.S. has 2.4 doctors per 1000 people; Cuba has 6.2 per 1000. Had Castro tried to accomodate the U.S., he would have met the same fate as Allende. If you really want to see the difference between Castro and the other politicians of the past 50 years, visit other Latin American nations where people are begging and living on the streets--and being killed and beaten--and eating out of garbage cans. There are very few homelessl people in Cuba, and the state subsistence is adequate enough to keep the people from hunger. There is a danger from this war mongering McCain, alias, McBush, will be even more cruel and inhuman than Bush in his desire to have all of Cuba as a colony, Not just the American Gulag at "Guantanimo.
rcarrace,
you are the thug, and an uneducated one!
Greenerthanthou said: "If the Cubans hate Castro as much as the american propagandists proclaim, why can Castro walk the streets with the people, which George W. Bush wouldn't dare."
That's it EXACTLY. Bush wouldn't dare walk down the street unprotected. I doubt that Bush would last 10 minutes on his own like that before he got beat to a pulp... yet Fidel can walk around like that. I bet if the US didn't isolate Cuba for the past 50 years, we'd see a very different country... One with a high quality of life. You have to admire the Cubans for doing the best they could under the embargo. Also, Castro has NO CHOICE but to suppress "political opposition" because that opposition originated in the US with predatory capitalist goals.
Castro deserves credit, and is amazing for his accomplishments for Cuba's people. AMAZING: he has stood his ground for 50 years at the doorstep of the behemoth USA, as numerous presidents came and went, all of them demonizing him, and doing their best-FAILINGLY-to strangle Cuba. Cuba under Casro has been the proverbial "David vs. Goliath". Viva Castro! Vivas! Vivas! Batista (who America supported) was a corporate gangster who didn't give a damn about Cuba's people; Castro vastly improved the quality of life for Cubans. This man should be honored by all for his great accomplishments.
medic6869, Vern, ladybug ... All idiots, morons you name it. I bet none of you are Cubans, right? You don't know crap about Cuba. Fidel Castro is a crook, theif and a murderer. If Cuba is so good, why do thousand of Cubans risk their lives everyday to come to this country. Batista was a thug also and Cuba needed a change but NOT Castro ... Castro was a change for the worse. You are all a bunch of idiots that do not know how good you have it. Live in a communist country first and then come back and tal your crap. My parents lived it ... I have family who live it everyday and trust me ... All this education, health care BS is just that .... propaganda BS ... If Cubans had a choice the would vacate Cuba in the blink of an eye.
We have our problems here in the US ... but this is paradise compared to the hell hole that Cuba is.
all of you ... go ... go to Cuba and see how long you last. I've never seen so many uneducated, clueless posts in my life. Get the hell out if you think Cuba is so good. And when you are there ... try practicing your "Freedom of Speech" ... See if it doesn't land you in jail.
all of you ... go ... go to Cuba and see how long you last. I've never seen so many uneducated, clueless posts in my life. Get the hell out if you think Cuba is so good. And when you are there ... try practicing your "Freedom of Speech" ... See if it doesn't land you in jail.
rcarrace--You are correct, there is ONE place in Cuba that is a "hell hole"--Gitmo, that shining beacon of American justice and freedom.
Been to Cuba; talked to lots of people; never landed in jail; really enjoyed the music. It really is pathetic you're so brainwashed and parade it so proudly.
Scheer says if Cuba had "pursued the path of democratic socialism. . . his effort would likely have been subverted by the CIA. . . but it would have been an effort worth making."
Tell that to the people of Nicaragua, whose revolution was subverted by the CIA/Contras and whose standard of living went down ever since. Castro has had to protect his revolution because he knows the ruthlessness of the United States.
I have traveled to Cuba. Went there with an open mind. Wasn't looking for a utopia and didn't find one.
Found a society well educated, fed, housed, doctored, and most of their basic needs met. Thanks for asking.
medic6869,
fed? Yeah right. Please send me some info ... so I could contact my family there and let them know where the food is.
rcarrace,
do you have any idea how to make your case without calling others names? I guess not, because since you didn't grow up in Cuba, your education level is very poor.
karlof1,
I'm not brained washed asshole. I am Cuban ... and my family and friends have lived and live it. I don't know ... maybe it seems so good becuase you're there as a tourist. Ever think of that Einstein?
Sorry to spoil your fantasy ... Try working ... Most people that like Castro are LAZY.
Although Mr. Scheer makes valid points, it is wrong to place all the blame on Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The plan for it was hatched before he took office. And I also dispute that Bush was twice elected. He wasn't legally elected by the voters either time.
I hear that Fidel is singing: "I did it my way..."
Sadly, the war between the extreme ideologies of socialism and capitalism still rages. The ultra-rich want capitalism to prevail so they can enjoy the best that materialism has to offer (shame about the majority of us who struggle).
Hugo is showing us a better way, a middle path which combines the best each ideology has to offer. It's no wonder he's hated by capitalists and the right-wing governments they control.
www.dangerouscreation.com
This is good until it gets to the part about John F Kennedy as the "terrible" Cold War hard liner invading Cuba and Dwight D Eisenhower as Mr Man of International Peace. Get Real. Jack Kennedy was so eager to invade Cuba he couldn't wait to pull the plug on that Bay of Pigs punk invasion by the fanatical anti Castro Cuban exiles and not even allow any air support, let alone any other direct military support. For that Cuban exile far right nut cases still hate JFK. Ike also was pretty good at trying to have it both ways. He got into the White House as the man who would be tougher on "communism" and Moscow. Even Winston Churchill, a tough guy and hard liner on Moscow, considered Ike's election a victory for the US war party. Ike several times got strong criticism from I F Stone, and Stone from what I've seen was never any more critical of JFK than of Ike, and actually may have been more critical of Ike, knowing that Ike as a Republican could easily have done more to end the Cold War, but refused to do so, and Stone said as much. That's the real deal on Ike and JFK.
It's also "lovely" looking at all the Monday morning quarterbacking done by some of today's progressives, who conveniently ignore Nation among others was at the time JFK was in the White House more favorably disposed toward Kennedy than Ike and even Harry Truman, whom the magazine regarded as more of a hard liner. Hell he must have been, as he started the Cold War against Henry Wallace's sage advice.,
rcarrace, you are brain dead.
Have you ever taken the time to read any Cuban history or attempted to understand why American policies have been obsessed with destroying this small socialist state. Your trash talk has no basis in reality. Suggest you take your next vacation in Cuba although you might have to travel via Canada which is another country you will probably detest because they have universal medical care.
Castro threw out the American Mafia, exploiting oligarchs and well to do camp followers and in their dream to return and regain it all they have messed up US politics ever since. Every politician on the right or the left has to pander to them to swing the Florida vote. Without them Bush would never have been elected and we wouldn't be suffering from this disastrous war in Iraq.
rcarrace, suggest you take up reading as a hobby
Sortingitout,
I know Cuban History and my whole family is Cuban. They lived it, the whole thing pre and post revolution. I suggest you stop reading all the BS that you're reading, get up off your ass and get a job because most people that support Castro want things handed to them. You are not going to teach me anything about Cuba. Castro is as much of a thug as Batista and the American Mafia. Probably even worse.
The troll has outed himself. First he says his family left right after the Revolution, then he says they are still there. Enough! He's been here before on a thread about Che last year and spouted the same ignorant GOP/DLC talking points.
karlof1 = dirty lazy communist pig. expects to lay on his ass and have things handed to him. you are out of luck pal ... castro would have cutting sugar canes if you're no good for anything else.
"Arrogance of Cuban exile fascism," where do you get such absolutely nutty ideas about anything, most especially the USA? Oh, and which black op payroll are you on? Are you upset that Fidel Castro's intelligence community was successful in infiltrating your gangster exile crowd and proving that your criminal types along with the US mafia, and some in the CIA had John F Kennedy, whom you and your types hate so much bumped off in Dallas, and that's what you and your mouth pieces want to keep from the American people, but the truth damn well gonna come out eventually. Hey, a short while a back a documentary by the BBC no less revealed evidence of some in the CIA having a hand in Jack Kennedy's death. One of these bastards in on it even bragged about it in the documentary and this jack ass used a dead serious tone.
Now why should we be so damned surprised about a conspiracy that assassinated John F Kennedy if not for our fairy tale belief in American exceptionalism so easily discredited by even the first documented assassination of a US president, that of Abraham Lincoln, as all the publications of the time revealed it to be conspiracy by Confederate sympathizers, with the federal authorities rounding them up, trying them, and hanging most of them including one woman, who sought clemency from Andrew Johnson, but Johnson refused knowing full well all of Lincoln's administration were potential targets.
This happened without the existence of a super secret agency such as the CIA and with the super secrecy that even the military uses today in a way it didn't come close to doing in Lincoln's day. But some elements of the CIA, and clearly not just some, along with the US mafia and these fanatical gangster anti Castro Cuban exiles "couldn't plot successfully"{ to get Kennedy. Dream the hell on!
As far back as 1947, with the national security state coming into being, Albert Einstein told an East bloc diplomat that the USA was no longer a free country. Scary isn't it. Hey, ever wonder why we can't see the documentary "War on Democracy" by John Pilger, probably the best journalist writing for the British media? How about the truth scares the hell out of the right wing scum bags? We don't have a war on terrorism, nor have we ever had one or a war on communism, but we have had a war on democracy to make sure US big buiness crooked damn interests prevail over every damn thing else.
The claim that Cubans have been suffering 50 years under Castro is a disgrace. Cuba has no resources to speak of,faces animosity by the us which prevents other countries from doing buisiness with Cuba. The US destroyed the Cuban pig population with a viral attack. Cuba has a GNP per capita of 3500, compared to 7000 for the Dominican republic, an American vassal. Yet, Cubans have medical care, dominicans do not. Cuba has no street children, Dominicans do. In the RepDom. there are 5 unmarried women with children to each married one. Not so in Cuba. In Cuba everyone shares in poverty, not at all in DomRep. The dominican Rep. is extremely racist and judges people by the "quality" OF THEIR HAIR. Good hair gets you a good job, bad hair (black African, nappy) gets you a bad job, not so in Cuba. All Cubans receive education free. Not so in Dom.Rep. Castro arrogant? How can you say that about a guy who gives 5 hour interviews? Castro knew he had no choice but to clamp down to prevent the US from subverting it. 50 years later Cuba is free and ,therefore, Castro has done his job. Arrogant? Yeah, this attack on Castro is just that.
Having said that, the article is nonetheless reasonably framed.
OK let's keep this simple for those of you who are Logic challenged:
Countries that have to shoot and imprison their own citizens for trying to leave are BAD PLACES. PERIOD!! Left, Right, Middle, Communist, Socialist, Anarchist....whatever! That country is a failure. This is a self-evident truth.
Right, now try and think hard- if Cuba is so wonderful why aren't people flocking there? What truly progressive country of the Left has to pass the most severe laws just to keep its own people from running away?
People who blindly defend Tyrants such as Fidel Castro just because he is a Communist are as bad as those who continue to support our little Tyrant just because he's our President. No critical thought, just blind allegiance to some perceived ideology.
Since I am of Cuban heritage I thought I should chime in, since as rcarrace would have you believe only a Cuban knows the truth, and I should therefore enlighten you all (read sarcasm). I realize that Cuban politics and Cuba in general is a very contentious subject, because of this, objectivity is scarce.
I would first like to say that no one in Cuba is starving or is lacking food or basic necessities. People were hungry before Castro, but not anymore. I can state this as fact because I have been there and have family currently living in Cuba. As most of us know, the social safety net/ welfare state in Cuba is very strong and serves its people well in terms of healthcare and education etc. etc. This is more than we can say for the millions who live in squalor within the United States' poorest communities.
Rcarrace makes one plausible argument about Cuba when he states "If Cuba is so good, why do thousand of Cubans risk their lives everyday to come to this country."
There are many reasons why Cubans may risk their lives in order to come to the United States. It might be due to the fact that Cubans in the U.S., for one reason or another, tell their friends and family how great it is to live in the U.S. Another reason is the power of corporate media which disseminates information on the "good life" and the benefits of profligate and conspicuous consumption.
I once knew a recent Cuban immigrant who was very disillusioned with his move to the U.S. He said to me once, "I work like an animal, 60 to 70 hours a week and still I have nothing to my name. Everything costs so much, I am not able to save any money. I think I might return." He, like so many others had been led to believe that the U.S. is the land of milk and honey, that money grows on trees and that If you just work hard enough you can have anything you want.
I am suspicious of all political leaders, including Castro, but lets not spread falsehoods. I wonder how much more successful the revolution would have been without having to contend with the effects of U.S. sponsored terrorism or the embargo.
RCarrace:
You are not Cuban, you are American. I can tell. Cubans are not what they used to be, you are. Cuba has changed, you have not. Cubans are proud of what they have achieved, you are not. Cubans love the revolution, you do not. Cubans are poor thanks to the US, you are not. Cubans have access to free education and health services, you do not and want to end it. You are not Cuban, you are an enemy of Cuba, and an American through and through. Stay with your people in Florida, you would never be happy in Cuba, they are not your people anymore.
rcarrace and clarity. That has to be some of the funny shit I have read in a while. Being Canadian I've had the opportunity with my company to do business in and travel to Cuba. It's very obvious that neither of you have had the pleasure. Until then I suggests you don't comment, as you only demonstrate your blind ignorance. As well, I'm going to continue to benefit greatly in business and won't have to put up with the American tourists while there. Yee haw!
The interesting thing to do is compare Cuba to what happened elsewhere in Latin America where the oligarchy retained control against the impoverished masses.
Death squads, torture states, military dictatorships, and genocide -- all bankrolled and supplied by the US. Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, etc... Repression in Cuba done under the threat of American subversion and invasion is nothing compared to these states that spent much of the 1970s and 1980s murdering their own citizens by the thousands.
Would the Cuba oligarchy have done the same thing if they retained control? Why did so many Cubans turn against Batista? Why did so many of the elite flee?
Cubans want to come to the US because they are educated and think they can use that education to live better. All educated people have the option to try to move where their education gives them money. Since Cubans are all educated, staying there does not give you an advantage as it would in the US. It is called a brain drain. Cuba has too many doctors, engineers, chemists, etc. Of course they would like to use that to make money, who wouldn't? Cuba has 30,000 doctors working outside Cuba, half of them courtesy of the Cuban government and the other half in Venezuela in exchange for oil for Cuba. In the US 40 million have no medical coverage at all, and those who do have incomplete coverage most of the time. Cuba is admirable, the US is anything but.....
Don't ask me to go live in Cuba, I am a professional, they don't need me there and I wouldn't be able to make a decent living compared to here. This is not due to Castro, but rather to the fact that I was lucky to be born as part of the priviliged class. If I were poor, and Cuba accepted me, I would definitely go.
I've never been to Cuba and admit freely that I really don't know much about what happened in the Bay of Pigs era, but I remember reading some time ago an article in a magazine --- Travel and Leisure, I think it was, although I'm not certain --- that was about the favorite place in the Caribbean for American tourists to visit. The magazine I read, whatever it was, caters to Americans with a good amount of money who like to travel, of which I am not one, and had polled its readers about their favorite Caribbean island to go on vacation.
The winner was Cuba. Even though Cuba is supposedly off-limits to American tourists it still beat out Bermuda and the Bahamas and Martinique and Puerto Rico and St. Lucia and all the other Caribbean islands as the best place to go on a vacation if you had enough money to do that kind of thing.
I find this interesting, especially in the light of rcarrace's comments. It seems to me it's quite a paradox that so many wealthy Americans should find Cuba such a good vacation spot if it's as much of a hellhole as rcarrace claims it is.