NOV

28

CUBA - Dr. Castro’s 40,000 sq. Mile Petri Dish

If all works out with the State Department, I’ll be in Cuba for the first two weeks of February 2012. Slipping back of the rusted iron curtain, before it crumbles entirely, will be a dream macabre realized.

“Freedom” is proudly advertised by governments the world over and none of them lives up to the term, though some come far closer than do others.  Recently I’ve been reading up on Cuba and watching documentaries  about and interviews with the father of Socialist Cuba, Fidel Castro. 

I find him easier to take as a tottering gray-hair with a thin, sometimes raspy voice than as the vigorous, lectern-pounding, Communist firebrand of decades passed. Still, in his pale, watery eyes and hollow admonitions, one can’t help but see the faces of those who have been silenced for actions contrary to “la Revolucion!”.

In so many ways Castro was the forerunner to the Occupy Wall Street crowd, the chief difference being that he possessed testicular fortitude, charisma, and an intelligent if misguided mind.  The enemy is the same - a deep, institutional corruption. We share this view.  Where we diverge is in the means to root out such and what system should supplant it.

Over years I have come to think that both pure Capitalism and pure Communism yield the same net result: a detached, minority with much power and wealth ruling over a majority with little of either.  There is a balance somewhere in that spectrum, but it exists today in neither the United States nor in Cuba. 

To wander Dr. Castro’s 40,000 sq. mile social and economic petri dish, will be a rare opportunity.  There is great pride among the Cuban people, and with good reason.  They are survivors squeezed in the jaws of a ridiculous vise - on one side Corporate Capitalism and on the other Corporate Communism, the leaders turning the screw. I hope both our countries move quickly toward true Freedom and Prosperity sooner than later.  Cuba’s certainly suffered enough.