Castro’s False Claims of Success

Blowing off what Castro did for education in Cuba is very childish. No one else on Earth has ever had such an enormous effect on a literacy rate: and the intelligence of the Cuban people has taken advantage of that education for the benefit of the entire Caribbean basin. When the "containment" of Cuba ends, I suspect that the entire world will benefit.

Castro is probably the greatest leader on earth! Name an American President that has been great. Bush? Clinton? Reagan? Nixon? All useless !!!
The ONLY one able to keep American Pigs away for so long.
Now he's old look at how the American Gangsters want to carve up Cuba for their own gain like the crooked Yanks did in the 20s and 30s
Viva la Revolution!!!!

Castro freed his country from HUGE American Mafia influence, and a capital "C" Capitalist, "take no prisoners", exploiting ethic [albeit "exploiting ethic" is an oxymoron: exploitation itself contrary to anything ethical]. And everybody has enough to eat, and the option of leisure. Everyone has fair, humane access to rather high quality medical care, and education for themselves and their children if they want it. Don't let your personal ideology cloud your vision... AND MORE SO... don't let your personal ideology cloud OURS... thank you very much. Cuba is lacking in so many material aspects only because foreign ideology has impoverished it by preventing it from participating in its neighborhood economy: this done to Cub by ideologues in the United States whose ancestors wanted everything for nothing and got kicked out of Cuba justifiably as a result.... the American ego somehow perversely unable to come to terms with the truth. The whole situation is an excellent case study in the psychoanalysis of a nation (United States) suffering a narcissistic mental disability.... one that causes others to suffer. The specific mental disability is one that induces the unchallengeable belief that "I'm right... and everybody else is wrong... and if they disagree, we'll kill them, or try to make it impossible for them to survive." I believe it just might be symptomatic of that which we call evil. It's a fundamental world problem afflicting all of us, and not just the United States. [So don't be too smug you sick terrorists: you're the worst of us.]

This article by Castaneda is really bizarre in its combination of stunning superficiality and utter baloney. To compare the drug country Mexico whose economy is fully supported by cocaine and heroin trafficking by PRI politicians of the Jorge Castaneda ilk combined with the exporting of its poor to the United States to take care of is enough to get Mr. Castaneda booted from NYU. There should be a cure for folks like Jorge and that is to be deported back to Mexico on the next plane. If Mexico was to institute a one child only law it's problems would begin to be lessened and people would once again feel that it was safe to travel there. Cuba on the other hand has had nothing to work with and has been enormously successful by all rational measures. The problems with bad Mexican meat and sewage irrigated export vegetables which are now an everyday fear here in the United States, combined with the extreme violence of an outlaw, unelected criminal government which is nothing more than a US proxy does not make for a positive prognosis. Once their birth rate is under control and the honest elections return Mexico will begin to move forward. Study Cuba Mr. Castaneda on the plane back to Mexico City.

I don???t idealize Cuba or Castro, but neither do I idealize shallow, biased journalism such as that contained in this article. You would expect a piece about Castro???s ???false claims of success??? to contain actual facts. Not this article! Instead, the author recites possibilities, shaded by his transparent bias. After the author states that the touted successes of the regime ???tend to deteriorate under inspection, he then ignores any kind of actual inspection and resorts to guesswork: //

???Take education . . . . Cuba *would probably* turn out to suffer the same ills as the rest of the region: formal universal education up to junior high or high school, but terribly mediocre quality and a total disconnect from the country's needs.??? //

???Much the same is true of the country's famed health system . . . . it is *very unlikely* that the Cuban health system today is much better than the rest of the region's. Cuba's system may still be more egalitarian (no mean feat in Latin America), but it is hardly more competent, cost-effective or sustainable.??? //

The author even predicts the future, saying Cuba has ???an education and health system that will end up disappointing many of Cuba's fans.??? Is this fact? Of course not. It is pure speculation ??? and speculation regarding what Cuba???s ???fans??? will *feel*, not regarding verifiable facts about the country. //

Perhaps the author???s most serious shortfall is his failure to incorporate, or even acknowledge, the effect of the United States??? embargo against Cuba. The powerful United States has done what it could to keep Cuba isolated, impoverished, and out of the global economy. At the same time, the author criticizes Cuba for not being part of ???today's globalized world.??? //

However, with respect to Cuba???s international alliances, for far longer than the last 100 years, underdeveloped or weak countries have teetered between poverty and suffering when left alone, and somewhat less poverty and suffering when bolstered by a developed or powerful nation. Cuba???s dependency on the former Soviet Union was politically and economically parallel to the many countries receiving substantial aid from the United States, including (dare I say it?) Israel. //

Also, the author talks about the thousands of lives lost ??? in foolhardy guerrilla wars??? without blinking a journalistic eye. No mention is made of the much more massive loss of lives in the United States??? foolhardy wars of aggression in Iraq or Vietnam. //

Yes, this article was no more than shallow, biased journalism, not worthy of publication in a journal of integrity. //

Jorge Castaneda really has some cohones to excoriate the Cuban Revolution when the Mexican Revolution has been a complete and utter failure. Mexico is so backwards that it continues to send millions of illegals into the US every year because it is incapable of taking care of its own people. Mexican politicians are the last people in this world to lecture any other Latin American about politics, Mexico needs to clean up its act first before the sanctimony begins.

oh por favor sr. castaneda, the claims that cuba makes about the health system and the progress in education are real. i invite you to see the rest of the latin america including mexico and see if there is a single coutry that compares to. oh and this achivements under the cruel, barbaric hostiles from the US. 50 yrs of freedom my friends not 233 yrs of tyrany

Actually Pala98, it's about the old Cuban oligarchy that came to America in the 50's. It???s their political influence that we need to neuter.

oh please. por favor sr. castaneda. how can you deny the success of the education, health and innovations on the culture of the cuban goverment even under historical oppression from the US. i invite you to see other countries uncludding mexico which is about 100 times bigger in population and no country even comes closer in health care nor education progress.

50 years. Big deal. The Soviet revolution lasted about 74 years. The US system, as imperfect as it is, will be 233 this year with 44 changes of leaders ??? that is strength and power.

Cuba has a GDP of less than $50 billion. Even if it quadrupled following a lifting of the US ban, again, big deal. Cuba is of little importance to the US, strategically or otherwise.

It???s not about economics. It???s not about national security. It???s about the Bay of Pigs. It???s about national ego.

"Unfortunately, the cost of Castro's innovations were immense. ... repression was unleashed even in Latin America's most democratic countries (such as Uruguay and, for additional reasons, Chile)"

And you blame Castro for this wave of Latin American fascism? Although I must say I admire the blend of obliviousness and sublime presumption implicit in the delicious phrase "for additional reasons." How delicate of you to let Nixon and Kissinger off the hook.

"The only victory was in Sandinista Nicaragua in 1979, and everyone knows that was ephemeral and pyrrhic."

And everyone who lived through the Reagan nightmare knows how viciously and illegally it was made "ephemeral" by the Iran-Contra crew.

If this is what passes for political analysis at NYU these days, count me out. Of course, one can't really expect better from the man who was Vicente Fox's foreign minister.

I don't understand the embargo the US has against Cuba. It seems childish and medieval to say the least. Not to mention the lack of freedom the American government imposes on its citizens in terms of travel to Cuba. There are definitely problems in Cuba, just like in every other country around the world, but they amaze me in the way that they evaded an American style take over. I think they will have to be careful in the way that they change and progress over the next 5o years as not to lose what they gained from the revolution. I believe they will be hungry for money and an economic boost, but I hope that it's not at the cost of selling themselves back to the spot they fought against being in 50 years ago.

Jorge and Judas, both names start with a J.,that is not small coincidence. Jorgito should come to the U.S and teach at any public high school and compare Mexican students with Cuban students or better yet ask U.S teachers across the nation which students are better prepared? Cubans or Mexicans. By the way, Mexican students will tell horror stories of how someone they know die crossing the desert. Mr. J. open your eyes.. Luchador

It???s time for America to open up relations with Cuba. We???ve supported Latin American tyrants who make Fidel Castro look like Mother Teresa and rewarded them.

In Guatemala for instance during the 1980???s, the dictatorship of born again evangelical General Rios Montt massacred thousands of its citizens. He forcefully relocated over 900,000 people, mostly Mayan Indians. At the time this was all happening President Ronald Reagan praised the General for his dedication to Democracy. He claimed that Liberals in congress were giving the former dictator a bum rap. Today the former strong man can???t leave his country because he will be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000327/alterman


We???ve rewarded nations like Guatemala with hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. With Cuba we???ve done everything we could do to make their lives as horrible as possible. We???ve embargoed them and sabotage some of their economic projects. In spite of that, Cuba is the most highly educated society in Latin America with large numbers of engineers, technicians, teachers and physicians.

If we want to change Cuba, the best way possible is to send aid and a million US tourists.





I

I am an American. I am a Republican. But, the USA does business with Russia, China and several Arab nations, all of whom have directly or indirectly caused the USA to spend trillions of dollars to defend against them, and tens of thousands of American lives. Now, Cuba is a thorn in the USA's butt, nothing more. Kennedy betrayed pro-American Cubans in the Bay of Pigs. We have spent billions in trying to overthrow the Castro regime. We are probably fully responsible for the Castros retaining power for 50 years. I don't even want to think how many Cuban people we had suffer and die because of our childish policies. And yet, we still support the American Mafia, ex-Cuban military and Hacienda owners (all of whom caused the Cuban Revolution). It is time for the US Government to acknowledge defeat and tell their boys in Miami that the American taxpayer will no longer bankroll their grandiose dreams in Cuba. Cubans do not want a return to the Batista days where landowners, the military and the mob were the dictators. Castro was, is and will be, far beyond the lesser of the two evils.

I am an American. I am a Republican. But, the USA does business with Russia, China and several Arab nations, all of whom have directly or indirectly caused the USA to spend trillions of dollars to defend against them, and tens of thousands of American lives. Now, Cuba is a thorn in the USA's butt, nothing more. Kennedy betrayed pro-American Cubans in the Bay of Pigs. We have spent billions in trying to overthrow the Castro regime. We are probably fully responsible for the Castros retaining power for 50 years. I don't even want to think how many Cuban people we had suffer and die because of our childish policies. And yet, we still support the American Mafia, ex-Cuban military and Hacienda owners (all of whom caused the Cuban Revolution). It is time for the US Government to acknowledge defeat and tell their boys in Miami that the American taxpayer will no longer bankroll their grandiose dreams in Cuba. Cubans do not want a return to the Batista days where landowners, the military and the mob were the dictators. Castro was, is and will be, the far beyond the lesser of the two evils.

The real question is what should happen now? The embargo is clearly a failure. Imposed during the Cold War to contain Cuba as a puppet communist state from doing mischief in the Americas, subsequent administrations have kept it for 15 years after the end of the Cold War hoping to eliminate Castro and placate the older Cuban community who hates him for understandable reasons that cloud rational judgment in current circumstances. Castro is not going away until he dies, and neither will his brother. We have no opportunity to allow the Cuban people to start forming capital with small businesses (which will make the Revolution look less attractive) if we are not trading with and traveling to that island. Moreover, the embargo provides a ready-made excuse for the Cuban leadership to blame any failures in their society on the United States. And it glorifies Castro in the eyes of others in the region as the great David standing up to the US Goliath.

Step by step, we should normalize relations with Cuba, get rid of the embargo and trade with these people. Time after time when this has been proposed in the post-Cold War period, hard-core Castro haters unwilling to ever change the policy till these guys are gone have asured us that if the US stays the course, change is at hand. And ever time, they've been wrong. American foreign policy should serve the needs of all of the American People, not just a group of people who lost the Cuban revolution 50 years ago and understandably mourn their lost way of life, their lost homeland, their lost family members and their lost property. But there comes a point where other factors come into play. I don't want to see us do nothing, have the Castros die and then have an uncontrolled and unpredictable change in power in Cuba which could give us another equally troublesme dictatorship run by a 40 year old general or a military junta. These help no one, including the Cuban people.

Time to try another strategy because this one is losing.