Cuba

[Paul Mackin]

Are there any p-listers in Cuba (folks with .cu country-codes)? When I was there 18 years ago there were a lot of English speakers. Good thing as my Spanish wasn't much. To some extent dictators are in the eye of the beholder. To the common people Fidel was not an oppressor. Intellectuals, rival politicians, and property owners might disagree. Certainly it never seemed like a police state. I remember during a newsreel in a movie theatre Castro's image came on the screen. There was some good natured jeering, the same sort any national leader might provoke. Nobody seemed to be afraid Fidel would GET them. Though there were a lot of army types around directing traffic and things the people did not pay a whole lot of attention to them. (Very similar to Communist Poland, which I had visited a decade earlier.) I did notice that people of the professional class were loathe to criticize. I was travelling with a group of leftists, mostly of the OLD variety but with a significant number of NEW tagging along. Most were true believers in socialism.  They (we) oohed and ahed over the remarkable advances over other countries of the region.  Personally I loved the place. Wish I could go back occasionally without so much hassle from my own country, which is SO intent on delivering the vote in Dade Country, Florida.

					P.
 

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From: 	Mike Weaver[SMTP:pic at gn.apc.org]
Sent: 	Friday, April 11, 1997 10:23 PM
To: 	pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: 	Cuba

Davemarc wrote
>Please.  Castro is a dictator. 

Tempting to start this  -"Is not" -but I think we can raise the level of
debate a little higher.  What criteria do you use to define dictator?  When
in one conversation, in Cuba, I described him as such someone said, "He's
not a dictator he's a Leo"  He's intelligent, eloquent and forceful,  and
until recently was consistently deferred to as the main speaker for the
Cuban revolution.  This does not make him a dictator.  They were right, he
has remained 'el jefe' not by force of arms but by power of personality and
ability to articulate  the pride the Cubans have in their independence.
	Before I discovered this list I spent most of my internet time reading the
Soc.culture.Cuba list,  the discussion place of a bunch of anti-Castroite
Cubans,  mostly right wingers but also a steady minority of leftists as
well.  Comparing the way they focussed on Castro to the way of the vast
majority of Cubans I met was instructive.  The views of the SCC crowd range
from yours to him being the devil incarnate.  On Cuba he just isn't that
important and even the most vehement critics of the government over a
certain age exempt him from their rage.  He personifies the ending of 500
years of colonial status.  (For some younger Cubans chafing at the
restrictions imposed by both traditional attitudes and the effects of
continuing US hostility he represents the limits on their freedom but this
is personification rather than his responsibility)


 >Since taking charge of Cuba he's been its
>#1 Murderer, Persecutor, Censor, etc., by virtue of the fact that he's at
>the top of the chain of command. 

You can hold that against any national leader.  The way both yours and my
countries are run means substantial percentages of the population live nasty
brutish and often short lives they have little chance of escaping,
murdered, persecuted and/or utterly abused because of where they came from
or where they want to go.   The U.S. has, since Castro and his fellow
revolutionaries took power,  been involved in how many invasions of other
nations?  Last year it was revealed that the reported massing of Iraqi
troops on the Kuwaiti border which was the trigger for the Gulf War was
total fabrication.  Six years too late for those poor sodding Iraqis
slaughtered by your country's forces and their allies.  Compare that to
Cuba's foreign policy,  supplying doctors, dentists, engineers, teachers
u.s.w. to other third world nations, no strings attached,   and most notably
a volunteer army to support the Angolans in repulsing the apartheid South
African invasion.  



> That's not to say there haven't been
>significant improvements in Cuba during his years in charge, and pressures
>and threats against him and Cuba from other Cold Warriors, too.  But why
>anyone who isn't under Castro's thumb would make excuses for
>him--particularly in this day and age, when Castro could realistically
>improve things for Cuba through reforms, possibly ensuring its stability
>after his physical death--is beyond me.  
>

	In 1985 the Cuban government  (not Castro alone) started a process called
the Era of Rectification,  in  which the power of the bureaucracy was
challenged,  new representative levels of government were created,  state
farms turned into worker's co-ops,  workplaces tightened up efficiency and
the surplus workers seconded to 'microbrigades'  to build schools,
hospitals and housing... 
This process of reform was cut short by the loss of trade when the Soviets
collapsed.  The response to the crisis that followed included legalising the
dollar,  opening up to tourism and allowing the creation of small scale
private enterprises, a level of industry which had been banned in 1968.
Food and craft stalls,  bike repair shops and parks,  one man I worked with
was reknowned for the wine he made and sold.  
What reforms would you like to see?  Presumably one's that would make Cuba
conform to your idea of what a democratic country should be.  Given the way
your government has tightened the screws since 1991 I think it is rubbish
talking about
  >particularly in this day and age
It is clear that the US govt will accept nothing but the complete
capitulation of Cuban communism to US capitalist power.  Hardly a healthy
climate for liberalisation in Cuba is that?

Have you spent any time in Cuba recently?  Do you know anyone who has?  Not
two or three weeks,   but long enough to lose your preconceptions and start
getting through to the way the place really works.  A friend of mine who
worked there for 18 months said anyone can have their prejudices confirmed
if they go there for a short visit but the longer you stay the more you
realise the wonderful complexity of the place both culturally and for its
place in world history.  My three months - which was not spent on the
tourist circuit, but among ordinary Cubans -  was barely adequate but I can
confidently say that it is the most peaceful and amiable place I have ever
been,  a view confirmed by friends much more travelled than myself,  and the
idea of the people being under a dictator's thumb is quite laughable.  There
is a standard joke which ends by saying of the Cuban people "...and they
moan incessently about the government,  yet when Fidel speaks publically,
they turn out in tens of thousands to listen and cheer Via Fidel,  Viva
Che..."  Tis true, they do, and NOT because they have to.
To repeat myself I am not claiming that Castro is a saint and Cuba a
paradise and I am not trying to make excuses for the many wrongs and errors
that have happened.  But compared to the track record of every capitalist
countrys' rulers the Cuban government comes up smelling of roses.  Lets
attend to the injustices of our own systems and not belittle the strengths
and resilience of others.  If Cuban life was as terrible as the likes of its
US critics made out the regime would have collapsed five years ago.  
        
Please excuse the length,  normal succinctness will be resumed ASAP
Mike


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"...if you do not love words,  how will you love the communication?
  How will you, forgive me my tropes, communicate the love?" 
R. A. Lafferty
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