Considering the massive theft and supression of even the most basic freedoms
begun not too long after Castro's revolution, I find it perfectly
understandable.
Some folks like to talk about large sugar companies. Nice image. But the
larger truth is that many smaller companies were outright stolen as well. And
then later, in 1968:
"1968: Castro nationalizes 55,000 small Cuban businesses. The state now
controls nearly all trades and services."
http://www.ianchadwick.com/essays/cubahistory.html
(It's a quote from someone who's pro-Cuba and very anti-US, so the number
while already huge is probably even larger)
The Cuban middle-class was replaced with government employees. Individual hope
died. The great 'hero' of the revolution, Che Guevara was Castro's henchman,
who had scores of hastily-imprisoned citizens summarily executed. A
self-indulgent butcher obsessed with image. But image is important to Castro's
Cuba.
Often mentioned are literacy and medical care. Less often mentioned is that
both could have been just as easily achieved - no, more easily achieved -
using non-totalitarian means. But even then, why did Castro continue along the
totalitarian road once they *were* achieved so many years ago?
Castro ruined Cuba's economy and it's still in ruin. Cuba's the perennial
Victim, and that serves Castro well. There's still no democracy. There's still
no free speech. Castro conveniently uses the US as scapegoat for his problems;
the US is his "outward enmity = inward amity" crutch.
Instead of being the vibrant democratic economy with a strong middle class
that Cuba could be, it's still the victim of its own dictator.
So the liberalization of trade and travel would loosen Castro's totalitarian
hold? Nice theory, but not as long as Castro's alive. His entire ideological
structure, his 'face' is built upon victim status. That house of cards falls
flat once his boogey-man - the US - is seen as it really is. Liberalization
would be an iffy road beset with pitfalls. Castro controls the speech and the
life of every citizen on the island.
Besides, once he dies the prospect of a totalitarian Cuba diminishes anyway.
Yeah, I understand why some folks don't like Castro's Cuba. I'd find it hard
to Not understand, quite frankly. Nex
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