Here is a timely quote from Maureen Gill: The other day I had a long conversation with a friend who visited Cuba in September. Shes been a licensed clinical social worker her entire life and was married (shes widowed now) to a clerygman (and he had been a social worker too). She said the most striking thing about Cuba was the general appearance of health (physical and mental) throughout the population. She said they have an equality of quality and it was amazing to see what fifty years of universal healthcare and universal education can produce in a population that prior to the Revolution was one of the poorest countries in the world. She said there is no appearance of either vast wealth or crippling poverty. She said the older people look healthy, the children look healthy and everyone seems pretty content. This is the 4th time Ive had a lengthy discussion with a person who has visited Cuba. Every person Ive talked to has said essentially the same positive things. I have another friend who has been going to Cuba for 7 yrs. She is an architect and has been advising the Cubans about the restoration of Old Havanna and teaching as a guest faculty member for a few mos every yr. She was born and raised in New England and is a very successful WASPy lady of great education and culture and has traveled the world. She is retiring and plans to live 6 mos of the yr in Cuba. One of the biggest mistakes (IMO) our country ever made was cutting ourselves off from Cuba. This set the stage (and pushed Fidel into) the Russian sphere. Ironically, this may have been a far better thing for Cuba. Cuba may be considered an observable (in our time) political experiment. We first need to be brutally honest about how the vast majority of the Cubans lived under the tight grip of the militarists and oligarchs under Batistas corrupt and despotic regime. Prior to the overthrow of Bautista, Cuba was an idyllic place for the privileged and land owning upper class and upper middle class professionals and businessmen (no doubt about that) but for the greater percentage of the population it was a grim day to day reality of ignorance and poverty. Most people lived in poor ghettos with crap housing, bad water, and crime, or lived in the streets. Prostitution was rampant, as was child labor. There was no middle class as we understand the term in America. Education was for the elite few, as were healthcare and decent housing. There was no major slaughter of civilians after the Revolution; that is a myth (I know because I just researched it). However, there were trials and executions of people who ran the secret police and were known for their rampant corruption and this was met with relief and approval by the Cubans themselves. Unfortunately, the Cubans who fled Cuba have another narrative and as a historian I understand it but the truth is this: if they fled Cuba they probably had good reason to do so or were led to believe they did... as the history of modern post-Revolutionary Cuba is written I think a better light is shed on the truth. In history we compare and contrast and Cuba is a perfect compare and contrast scenario: look at the quality of life for the majority of people in the past and then the present and then make some judgments. Cuba is still far from perfect (but this begs the question: what is perfect? is it the ability of a few to amass great wealth or a condition where all people have a certain basic quality of life?); Cuba has had many post-Revolutionary problems but heres the deal: America is FAR from perfect too -- here we are 237 years after OUR revolution -- and were unable to provide the majority of OUR people with many of the basic social services Cuba now provides for its own people: universal healthcare, education, minimum housing etc. (homelessness doesnt exist in Cuba). Maureen Gill 11/20/2013
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 21:30:40 +0000
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