Utopias
It’s good to see that while Fidel Castro has been forced to spend the rest of his days wearing an Adidas jogging suit and writing whatever nonsense comes into his mind, his band of happy apologists in the West continue to fly the flag on his behalf.
Take Dr Helen Yaffe, who is described as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, in the United Kingdom, and author of a forthcoming tome titled, “Ernesto Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution”.
In this letter to the London daily The Guardian, she takes the Left-leaning newspaper to task for assuming that Cuba’s economy is “moribund” and that the island is “impoverished”.
Not so, says Dr Yaffe: the Cuban economy is positively thriving, with annual growth of up to 12 per cent, wages rising rapidly for all and pensioners getting more in their pockets every month. Oh yes, and all those old-fashioned electric washing machines are being replaced with energy-efficient machinery!
As for impoverished, she asks: “How can you dismiss Cuba's first-world standard, free, universal education and healthcare services - luxuries gradually being withdrawn in our own country?” Ah, yes, health and education ...
But the most bizarre claim is that “Cuba has never claimed to be communist”, which I suspect will come as something of a surprise to most Cubans, including Fidel Castro.
Go figure.
Take Dr Helen Yaffe, who is described as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, in the United Kingdom, and author of a forthcoming tome titled, “Ernesto Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution”.
In this letter to the London daily The Guardian, she takes the Left-leaning newspaper to task for assuming that Cuba’s economy is “moribund” and that the island is “impoverished”.
Not so, says Dr Yaffe: the Cuban economy is positively thriving, with annual growth of up to 12 per cent, wages rising rapidly for all and pensioners getting more in their pockets every month. Oh yes, and all those old-fashioned electric washing machines are being replaced with energy-efficient machinery!
As for impoverished, she asks: “How can you dismiss Cuba's first-world standard, free, universal education and healthcare services - luxuries gradually being withdrawn in our own country?” Ah, yes, health and education ...
But the most bizarre claim is that “Cuba has never claimed to be communist”, which I suspect will come as something of a surprise to most Cubans, including Fidel Castro.
Go figure.
posted by Luis M Garcia at 9:46 am
4 Comments:
Bizarre only if you are politically illiterate. No one with any understanding of communism has ever claimed that it has been established anywhere on earth, ever. Communism -- a system without classes in which each person does what they can and takes what they need -- can only exist on a world scale. Cuba is socialist, meaning capitalism has been overthrown and the working class has taken power. Only once the large majority of earth has become socialist can the transition to communism begin. These are basic facts. It appears to me that if you are going to dedicate a blog to trashing a social system, you should at the very least understand what it is you are criticizing.
PS. Isolated, blockaded, impoverished Cuba surpasses ALL of the third world and even some of the first world in every social measure imaginable. Don't take my word for it, though. See: www.cubatruth.org
Luis, here's my favorite line from the movie "I Robot" - Detective Del Spooner: [getting angry, but trying to remain calm] "You are the "dumbest" smart person, I have ever met in my life!..."
There are quite a number of "smart persons" in this world that meet Detective Spooner's classification, they drink the Kool Aid on a daily basis and spew idiocy left and right, all of this of course, from the comfort of their homes and jobs which just happen to be laden with the fruits of the free enterprise system that they claim to dislike so much and while enjoying the rights and benefits that democratic societies bestow upon them, even though most of them have never done anything to earn them, as in shedding blood for those rights and benefits, and let us not forget to mention how ironic it is that none of them would consider moving to any of the countries where the totalitarian systems that they purportedly support are in place. Utopias indeed, or as we would say in Cuba - ¡Come Miérdas!
Yes Tommy is right - Cuba having a Communist Party does not suggest the society is communist (i.e. no social classes). Socialist societies are said to be moving towards classlessness/communism. That is basic stuff. Dr Helen Yaffe is actually a very sharp analyst, I have also studied the Cuban economy and her recent letter to the Guardian is factually correct - best wishes - Tim
"Cuba is socialist, meaning capitalism has been overthrown and the working class has taken power."
I had such a good laugh over that statement I am still hurting.
Tommy dear,
You call a totalitarian unipersonal dictatorship for over 49 years, the working class in power?
Man please, send me some of that stuff you are smoking, it must be very good!
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