América Latina Latinos
en América
Cuba
© 2001 Geoffrey
Fox
Why is there no news from
Cuba?
The news from Cuba is that there is no news from Cuba -- at
least, not the kind of dramatic, catastrophic news that journalists
and politicians have been expecting ever since the collapse of
the Socialist Bloc in 1989. Somehow, Cuba has held on and held
out, maintaining some version of its socialist system even in
the face of terrible shortages, and still under the leadership
of the same man who has guided the revolution from the beginning.
WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn
Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro
for doing "a great job" in providing for the social
welfare of the Cuban people. His remarks followed Sunday's publication
of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World Development Indicators'
(WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor
countries in health and education statistics. It also showed
that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas
despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it and
the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island
more than ten years ago.
I have written much about Cuba, beginning with an essay on
machismo in a 1973 book on Female and Male in Latin
America. But this is a different world now, since 1989, and
Cuba has changed and I too have changed, so it's time to take
another look. Because Cuba is more than Cuba. Under the leadership
of Fidel Castro, its revolutionary model and its active interventions
far from home have had and continue to have a powerful impact
on the Caribbean and on all of Latin America, and even on the
entire world -- far more than any other country of comparable
demographic or economic size.
Meanwhile, Colombia is in flames, Peru stupefied by by mammoth
corruption, Mexico is not doing much better, Chile is still semi-paralyzed
by its past terror, and the rest of the continent isn't doing
so brilliantly, either. Therefore this is a burning question:
Why is there no "news" from Cuba? Are they doing something
right? If so, we need to know about it.
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