BBC: Following Cuba's example
Marxist_Mike | 17.08.2002 11:10
The Marxist views of the farm manager are precisely those which have made Cuba an enemy of the United States for more than forty years.
"The government is aware of the problems of the people and it supports us in everything, as for the girls working on the farm, they're training to be scientists or senior government officials."
And at least while the boss is around, the students sent to work on the Antero Regalado cooperative farm, approximately an hours drive from the capital, Havana, seem to agree.
"I would like to visit but not stay [in the west], says one girl, "I enjoy the peacefulness of my country and over there I believe they're very unrealistic."
A young mind in a bit of a dilemma - the bright and precarious lights of the west against the [so-called] stultifying straightjacket of socialism.
Not forgetting of course the health care perks they would lose.
"We've been vaccinated against typhoid, meningitis, hepatitis - 13 vaccinations in all," she continues.
Far from the upheavals of the post Cold War world, Cuba lives in a bygone age.
It is still ruled by Fidel Castro. Market and democratic reform are off the agenda. It's banned from getting international loans and aid, yet it has been praised by none other than the World Bank.
Praised, in fact, for bringing healthcare and education up to first world levels.
This way of life has now even been praised by the World Bank for delivering basic needs, where other systems have failed.
The debate focusing minds is this. Under an authoritarian system, if you speak out against it, you get punished. But your children will be taught how to read and write. They will be vaccinated against diseases. They will be given basic care.
Of course everybody would like there to be a better balance, but the cold truth is that throughout the developing world this is the awkward choice being faced.
One hundred and five families live off the Antero Regalado cooperative farm, bringing in about $2,000 each a year.
Juan Miguel Garcia is the co-operative director. "For us this system is the best one because they provide us with free education and free health," he enthuses.
"The son in my family, who is a farmer, can study and become a doctor or an agronomist and for this we have all the support of the government and all the institutions."
Given the stories of war, famine and riots elsewhere in the world, this cooperative wants Cuba to stay the way it is.
Ten years ago this system was being ridiculed everywhere.
Now, the world is not so sure.
"The government is aware of the problems of the people and it supports us in everything, as for the girls working on the farm, they're training to be scientists or senior government officials."
And at least while the boss is around, the students sent to work on the Antero Regalado cooperative farm, approximately an hours drive from the capital, Havana, seem to agree.
"I would like to visit but not stay [in the west], says one girl, "I enjoy the peacefulness of my country and over there I believe they're very unrealistic."
A young mind in a bit of a dilemma - the bright and precarious lights of the west against the [so-called] stultifying straightjacket of socialism.
Not forgetting of course the health care perks they would lose.
"We've been vaccinated against typhoid, meningitis, hepatitis - 13 vaccinations in all," she continues.
Far from the upheavals of the post Cold War world, Cuba lives in a bygone age.
It is still ruled by Fidel Castro. Market and democratic reform are off the agenda. It's banned from getting international loans and aid, yet it has been praised by none other than the World Bank.
Praised, in fact, for bringing healthcare and education up to first world levels.
This way of life has now even been praised by the World Bank for delivering basic needs, where other systems have failed.
The debate focusing minds is this. Under an authoritarian system, if you speak out against it, you get punished. But your children will be taught how to read and write. They will be vaccinated against diseases. They will be given basic care.
Of course everybody would like there to be a better balance, but the cold truth is that throughout the developing world this is the awkward choice being faced.
One hundred and five families live off the Antero Regalado cooperative farm, bringing in about $2,000 each a year.
Juan Miguel Garcia is the co-operative director. "For us this system is the best one because they provide us with free education and free health," he enthuses.
"The son in my family, who is a farmer, can study and become a doctor or an agronomist and for this we have all the support of the government and all the institutions."
Given the stories of war, famine and riots elsewhere in the world, this cooperative wants Cuba to stay the way it is.
Ten years ago this system was being ridiculed everywhere.
Now, the world is not so sure.
Marxist_Mike
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Cuba is not Socialist!
17.08.2002 16:52
How can the ideas of workers power, the idea of a society ruled from below, be reconciled with a country where one man has been in power as leader for more than 40 years.
I fight for socialism! And that means socialism for the beggars who line the streets of your stalinist paradise.
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE - EVEN IN CUBA!
ANTONIUS CLIFFUS JNR.
Ideas and Ideals Lead the Cubans not Fidel
17.08.2002 18:53
Cuba leads the world in organic farming, healthcare and a high quality of life with low consumption and low destruction. Few cars, few jets and a culture of sharing and racial and gender harmony - or better than most places.
With people like Antonius GW Bush doesn't need to attack the alternative.
Fidel doesn't run Cuba - thousands of advisers, specialist, department heads and community organizers manage Cuba on its road to greater and greater public participation.
Thanks Mike for standing up for CUuba and its amazing experiment.
Nadya VArgas
Homepage:
www.viacampesina.org
Cuban democracy
17.08.2002 21:54
The Cuban revolution began with the struggle for democracy against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. It was also a struggle for democracy in the broadest sense of winning the right of the Cuban nation to act as a sovereign power and shape its own future.
Out of the revolution there arose a number of mass popular organisations which to this day continue to wield considerable influence over Cuban society. These include the trade unions, the Federation of Cuban Women, the National Association of Small Farmers and, very importantly, the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. All these have extraordinarily high levels of membership numbering in most cases around 95% of their potential constituency.
These popular organisations are the backbone of the Cuban people's high level of participation in decisions which affect their everyday lives. But they are also complemented by a unique electoral system of direct democracy which the government proudly boasts, with justifiable reason, makes it the most democratic state in the world.
This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .
There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.
Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates. Instead the candidates are nominated by grass roots assemblies and by electoral commissions comprising representatives of all the mass organisations.
The municipal elections are the cornerstone of Cuba's political structure. They comprise delegates who have great authority amongst the local population and who are elected for reasons of known integrity, intelligence, hard work and honesty.
The elections to the provincial and national assemblies (Cuba's regional and national parliaments) follow a different procedure. For deputies to the national assembly the nominating process involves proposals from the municipal councils.
In addition to receiving nominations from different organisations and institutions, the candidacy commissions carry out an exhaustive process of consultation before drawing up a final slate. In the February 1993 elections they consulted more than 1.5 million people and established a pool of between 60 and 70 thousand potential candidates before narrowing it down to 589.
The nominating process and the huge participation in the last election clearly show that the deputies to Cuba's parliament enjoy massive public support.
Marxist_Mike
Cuban Democracy
20.08.2002 20:32
I hate to put a dampner on things but this shows Cuba isn't that great. It is however, because of just these two things, so if they sorted out their human rights record the world would have a socialist system we could all aspire to.
Dave