In addition to being an intellectual and a visionary, Fidel Castro and his brother, Raoul, to whom he has passed the presidency, are recognized by Cuban citizens as a men of scrupulous integrity, a stark departure from the leaders of most third world countries.
I hope Cuba can find a way to keep the accomplishments of Fidel without Fidel. There is already talk of eliminating the ration system and raising salaries. No one seems to be asking if salaries can be raised enough to compensate for the price of food.
The Dominican Republic is the next island south of Cuba and there is no comparison whatever between the two. The Dominican's roads, except in tourist areas like Puerto Plata and the capitol, Santo Domingo, are usually next to impassable due to potholes. The joke is that you can drive into one side of a Dominican pothole and out the other. Parents pay a fee to send their kids to school, and in an impoverished country you can guess how well educated the population is. Neither health care nor food are ever taken for granted and police protection seemed nonexistent.
You can drive for hours in the DR without seeing a gas station. Roadside mom-and-pop stands sell gas by the liter or part of a liter, literally in soda bottles. We saw one boy on a moped drive into the only gas station we ever saw and fill an empty Coke bottle with gas. He then roared off into the potholes with the gas wedged next to the steering column. He was a rolling Molotov cocktail. We saw nothing similar in Cuba.
Government graft has been a major problem in the Dominican as in Haiti. Many accounts blame invasions by the U.S. and U.S. support for corrupt dictators as a major influence on the dismal economies of both countries.
U.S. influence has, of course, been mostly absent from Cuba, except for the embargo and numerous CIA assassination attempts. Fidel jokes that when he dies no one will believe it. After a body guard estimated 638 CIA assassination attempts in the years since 1959, Castro said "If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal."
The last assassination attempt is believed to have been in 2006, but to this day the U.S. remains a neighbor from hell.
There is no American embassy in Cuba but there is an "American interests' facility that functions like an embassy. Cubans still talk about the ticker tape scroll denouncing their country that was posted at this embassy-that-isn't by their American guests.
The embargo and American insistence that other countries fall into line with it has left Havana's harbor still and virtually unused. By depriving Cuba of needed supplies, the U.S. and complicit Cuban ex-pats in Miami hoped to dislodge the uppity government that stands in the way of profiteering.
After 50-odd years, maybe its time to give it up.
I hope Cuba can find a way to keep the accomplishments of Fidel without Fidel. There is already talk of eliminating the ration system and raising salaries. No one seems to be asking if salaries can be raised enough to compensate for the price of food.
The Dominican Republic is the next island south of Cuba and there is no comparison whatever between the two. The Dominican's roads, except in tourist areas like Puerto Plata and the capitol, Santo Domingo, are usually next to impassable due to potholes. The joke is that you can drive into one side of a Dominican pothole and out the other. Parents pay a fee to send their kids to school, and in an impoverished country you can guess how well educated the population is. Neither health care nor food are ever taken for granted and police protection seemed nonexistent.
You can drive for hours in the DR without seeing a gas station. Roadside mom-and-pop stands sell gas by the liter or part of a liter, literally in soda bottles. We saw one boy on a moped drive into the only gas station we ever saw and fill an empty Coke bottle with gas. He then roared off into the potholes with the gas wedged next to the steering column. He was a rolling Molotov cocktail. We saw nothing similar in Cuba.
U.S. influence has, of course, been mostly absent from Cuba, except for the embargo and numerous CIA assassination attempts. Fidel jokes that when he dies no one will believe it. After a body guard estimated 638 CIA assassination attempts in the years since 1959, Castro said "If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal."
The last assassination attempt is believed to have been in 2006, but to this day the U.S. remains a neighbor from hell.
There is no American embassy in Cuba but there is an "American interests' facility that functions like an embassy. Cubans still talk about the ticker tape scroll denouncing their country that was posted at this embassy-that-isn't by their American guests.
The embargo and American insistence that other countries fall into line with it has left Havana's harbor still and virtually unused. By depriving Cuba of needed supplies, the U.S. and complicit Cuban ex-pats in Miami hoped to dislodge the uppity government that stands in the way of profiteering.
After 50-odd years, maybe its time to give it up.
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