Cold Water on the Still Hot Cubans
In a Newsweek article titled "Castro's False Claims to Success," (the blogger link didn't work) a man named Jorge Castenada who used to be the foreign minister of Mexico attempted to throw the typical cold water on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. This will undoubtedly gladden the hearts of many of the Cuban exiles in Miami. The author pooh-poohs the revolution's achievements in eudcation, health care, influence on other Latin-American countries, and just generally keeping their heads above water for so long a period against all odds without succumbing.
Yet not once does the author so much as mention the embargo that has been so tightly in place through nearly all that long period, and, along with other measures exacted by the U.S. at the urging of those exiles, has been much more responsible for the island's shortcomings than has the doings of the regime.
If I knew where I have it, I could show you a little essay that I wrote three or four decades ago, saying that if the Americans had played it cool and had let tourists go there freely, Cuba would have long since been securely back into capitalism's grip. I see no reason why that still doesn't hold true today. But we've seen, haven't we, how stupid policies can have a life of their own, if they're to the benefit of even a small group of rabid enough people.
Without that embargo there's no telling where Cuba would be today. Not long ago Michael Moore showed how, even in the face of that towering obstacle, the medical care system there has merits not commonly shared by the far better endowed U.S. system.
China was luckier. It wasn't an island but a huge landmass instead, plus the Chinese exciles didn't take over San Francisco, say, and from there conduct an unremittngly hateful campaign of siccing the dogs on the homeland while itself prospering and also forming a highly poisonouse lump in the body politic of the host country, as the Cubans in Miami have done.
Yet not once does the author so much as mention the embargo that has been so tightly in place through nearly all that long period, and, along with other measures exacted by the U.S. at the urging of those exiles, has been much more responsible for the island's shortcomings than has the doings of the regime.
If I knew where I have it, I could show you a little essay that I wrote three or four decades ago, saying that if the Americans had played it cool and had let tourists go there freely, Cuba would have long since been securely back into capitalism's grip. I see no reason why that still doesn't hold true today. But we've seen, haven't we, how stupid policies can have a life of their own, if they're to the benefit of even a small group of rabid enough people.
Without that embargo there's no telling where Cuba would be today. Not long ago Michael Moore showed how, even in the face of that towering obstacle, the medical care system there has merits not commonly shared by the far better endowed U.S. system.
China was luckier. It wasn't an island but a huge landmass instead, plus the Chinese exciles didn't take over San Francisco, say, and from there conduct an unremittngly hateful campaign of siccing the dogs on the homeland while itself prospering and also forming a highly poisonouse lump in the body politic of the host country, as the Cubans in Miami have done.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 9:37 PM
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