Cuba & Fidel Castro
Resources: Cuba before and After BBC Interview on Castro Operation Mongouse Cuba ranked 3th in the world for literacy Free quality healthcare: The facts of a relatively poor economy and a long-term continuous sanctions on trade makes the Cubans' achievements more impressive. For the past forty years, education has been a top priority for the Cuban government.[17] Cuba maintains twice the amount of public spending on education as its more wealthy neighbors, at 10% of GNP Racism: Article detailing the history of racism, and how Castro combat it through anti-discriminatory laws with overwhelming support, that is conveyed today Also Pre-revolutionary Cuba was, in effect, an apartheid society. There was widespread segregation and discrimination. Afro-Cubans were restricted to the worst jobs, the worst housing, the worst education… The commitment to defeating racism has brought about tremendous gains in equality and racial integration. Isaac Saney writes: “It can be argued that Cuba has done more than any other country to dismantle institutionalised racism and generate racial harmony.” Cuban woman rights record (ranked 6th in the world for women political participation):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Cuba [From Leo Humberman and Paul Sweezy's "Cuba anatomy of a revolution: "Note that in all of Cuba (from the 1953 census), in both urban and rural areas, only 35.2% of the dwelling units have running water, and only 28% have inside flush toilets. In 2015, about 95% of Cubans had access to an improved water source (96% of the urban population, but only 92% of the rural population). Cuba's access to adequate sanitation is the second-highest in Latin America and the Caribbean after Uruguay](
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Cuba#Access In 1959, only about 50% of households in the island nation had access to electricity. By 1989, the electric grid provided service to 95% of household. Ironically, the electricity before the revolution was ran by an American-owned electric power company, and was riddled with corruption (from the same book from above) Over the last 50 years, comprehensive social protection programmes have largely eradicated poverty and hunger. Food-based social safety nets include a monthly food basket for the entire population, school feeding programmes, and mother-and-child health care programmes. First country to develop Lung cancer, meningitus vaccines and HIV mother-to-child prevention Free training for international students Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season. According to United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared. According to Oxfam, from 1996 to 2002, only 16 people were killed by the six hurricanes that struck Cuba. Cuba's meteorological institute has 15 provincial offices. They share data with US scientists and project storm tracks. Around 72 hours before a storm's predicted landfall, national media issue alerts while civil protection committees check evacuation plans and shelters. Hurricane awareness is taught in schools and there are practice drills for the public before each hurricane season.
(the above information was completely compiled by bayarea415, thank you comrade).
The blockade explained
https://www.reddit.com/LateStageImperialism/comments/crc8j4/cuba_50_years_of_economic_blocade_explained/ Democracy in Cuba: 20 Reasons to Support Cuba Cuba: A Revolution in Motion by Isaac Saney
https://www.democracyintheus.com/ Cuban Democracy Fact Sheet All in This Together: Cuba's Participatory Democra The Elected Delegate and the Dissident in Cuba's Municipal Elections by Arnold August
2002 Cuban Constitution Work and Democracy in Socialist Cuba by Linda Fuller
Article by Hellen Yaffe: Alongside his depiction as a “brutal dictator”, negative reflections on Fidel Castro since his death in November 2016 have focused on his “
mismanagement” of the Cuban economy and the consequent “
extremes of poverty” suffered by ordinary Cubans.
This caricature is problematic – not only because it ignores the devastating economic impact of the United States embargo over 55 years, but also because it is premised on
neoclassical economic assumptions. This means that by stressing economic policy over economic restraints, critics can shift responsibility for Cuba’s alleged poverty on to Castro without implicating successive US administrations that have imposed the suffocating embargo.
This approach also ignores key questions about Cuba after the revolution. Where can medium and low-income countries get the capital to invest in infrastructure and welfare provision? How can foreign capital be obtained under conditions which do not obstruct such development, and how can a late-developing country such as Cuba use international trade to produce a surplus in a global economy which – many claim – tends to “
unequal terms of trade”?
It was the search for solutions to the challenge of development that led Cuba’s revolutionary government to adopt a socialist system. They
adopted a centrally planned economy in which state ownership predominated because they perceived this system as offering the best answer to those historical challenges.
But the commitment to operate within a socialist framework implied additional restraints and complications, particularly in the context of a bipolar world. My book,
Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution, examines the contradictions and challenges faced by the nascent revolutionary government from the perspective of Guevara’s role as president of the National Bank and minister of industries.
Literature on Cuba is dominated by “
Cubanology”, an academic school central to the political and ideological opposition to Cuban socialism. Its emergence and links to the US government are well documented. Its arguments are that the revolution changed everything in Cuba – and Fidel (and then Raul) Castro have personally dominated domestic and foreign policy since, denying Cuban democracy and repressing civil society. Thanks to their mismanagement of the economy, growth since 1959 has been negligible. They simply replaced dependency on the US with dependency on the USSR until its collapse in 1990.
These ideas have also shaped political and media discourse on Cuba. But the problem with this analysis is that it obstructs our ability to see clearly what goes on in Cuba or explain the revolution’s endurance and Cuban society’s vitality.
What did Castro inherit? Arguments about the success or failure of the post-1959 economy often hang on the state of the Cuban economy in the 1950s. The post-1959 government inherited a sugar-dominated economy with the deep socio-economic and racial scars of slavery. Cubanologist
Jaime Suchlicki argues that Batista’s Cuba was “well into what Walter Rostow has characterised as the take-off stage”, while
Fred Judson points to structural weaknesses in the Cuban economy: “Long-term crises characterised the economy, which had a surface and transient prosperity.” So while one side insists that the revolution interrupted healthy capitalist growth, the other believes it was a precondition to resolving the contradictions obstructing development by ending Cuba’s subjugation to the needs of US capitalism.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/files/2017/02/cuba_graph_b.gif GDP of Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica 1960-2015 (Source: World Bank) Following the revolution, Castro set out to bring social welfare and land reform to the Cuban people and to confiscate the ill-gotten gains of the Cuban elite. But when the defeated Fulgencio Batista and his associates fled Cuba, they stole millions of pesos from the National Bank and the Treasury. The country was decapitalised, severely limiting the capacity for public spending and private investments. Wealthy Cubans were leaving the island, taking their deposits and taxes with them. How was the new government going to carry out the ambitious socio-economic reforms without financial resources?
We have to consider these real circumstances at every juncture. For example, when the US embargo was first implemented, 95% of Cuba’s capital goods and 100% of its spare parts were imported from the US – and the US was overwhelmingly the main recipient of Cuban exports. When the Soviet bloc disintegrated,
Cuba lost 85% of its trade and investment, leading GDP to plummet 35%. These events produced serious economic constraints on Cuba’s room for manoeuvre.
Putting a price on poverty Moving on, we should also ask: how are we to measure Cuba’s poverty? Is it GDP per capita? Is it money-income per day? Should we apply the yardsticks of capitalist economics, focusing on growth and productivity statistics to measure “success” or “failure”, while paying little attention to social and political priorities?
Even factoring in its low GDP per capita, the
Human Development Index (HDI) lists Cuba in the “high human development” category; it excels not just in
health and education, but also in women’s participation and political inclusion. Cuba has eliminated child malnutrition. No children sleep on the streets. In fact, there is no homelessness. Even during the hungry years of economic crisis of the 1990s, Cubans did not starve. Cuba stuck with the planned economy, and it enabled them to ration their scarce resources.
Yes, salaries are extremely low (as both
Fidel and
Raul have lamented) – but Cubans’ salaries do not determine their standard of living. About
85% of Cubans own their own homes and rent cannot exceed 4% of a tenant’s income. The state provides a
(very) basic food basket while utility bills, transport and medicine costs
are kept low. The opera, cinema, ballet and so on are cheap for all. High-quality education and healthcare
are free. They are part of the material wealth of Cuba and should not be dismissed – as if individual consumption of consumer goods were the only measure of economic success.
Operation miracle The specific and real challenges Cuban development has faced has generated unique contradictions. In a planned economy, with an extremely tight budget, they have had to prioritise: the infrastructure is crumbling and yet they have first-world human development indicators. Infant mortality rates reveal a lot about the standard of living, being influenced by multiple socioeconomic and medical factors. Cuba’s infant mortality rate is 4.5 per 1,000 live births, which sits it among first-world countries – and above the US on
the CIA’s own ranking.
It is not just Cubans who have benefited from these investments. Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors, educators and other development aid workers have served around the world. At present some
37,000 Cuban doctors and nurses work in 77 countries. They generate foreign exchange of some US$8 billion a year –
Cuba’s biggest export.
In addition, Cuba provides both free medical treatment and free medical training to thousands of foreigners every year. As a direct initiative of Fidel, in 1999, the
Latin American School of Medicine was inaugurated in Havana to provide foreign students from poor countries with six years of training and accommodation completely free. In 2004, Cuba teamed up with Venezuela to provide
free eye surgery to people in three dozen countries under
Operation Miracle. In the first ten years more than 3m people had their sight restored.
Prohibiting even
trade in medicines, the US embargo led Castro to prioritise investments in medical sciences. Cuba now owns around 900 patents and markets pharmaceutical products and vaccines
in 40 countries, generating yearly revenues of US$300m, with the potential for massive expansion. The sector produces more than 70% of the medicines consumed by its 11m people. The entire industry is state owned, research programmes respond to the needs of the population, and all surpluses are reinvested into the sector. Without state planning and investment it is unlikely that this could have been achieved in a poor country.
In the mid-1980s Cuba developed the
world’s first Meningitis B vaccine. Today, it
leads in oncology drugs. In
2012 Cuba patented the first therapeutic cancer vaccine. The US embargo forces Cuba to source medicines, medical devices and radiology products outside the United States, incurring additional transportation costs.
Sharing economy Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa,
told me in 2009:
A great example provided by Cuba is that in its poverty it has known how to share, with all its international programmes. Cuba is the country with the greatest cooperation in relation to its gross domestic product and it is an example for all of us. This doesn’t mean that Cuba doesn’t have big problems, but it is also certain that it is impossible to judge the success or failure of the Cuban model without considering the US blockade, a blockade that has lasted for 50 years. Ecuador wouldn’t survive for five months with that blockade.
Let’s consider the embargo: the Cuban government estimates that it has cost the island
US$753.69 billion. Their annual report to the United Nations provides a detailed account of that calculation. That’s a lot for a country whose average GDP between 1970 and 2014 has been calculated at US$31.7 billion.
Yes, Castro presided over mistakes and errors in Cuba’s planned economy. Yes, there is bureaucracy, low productivity, liquidity crisis, debt and numerous other problems – but where aren’t there? Castro pointed to these weaknesses in
his own speeches to the Cuban people. But President Correa is right – to objectively judge Castro’s legacy, Cuban development and contemporary reforms today, we cannot pretend that the US blockade – which remains today despite rapprochement – has not shaped the Cuban economy.
Castro almost saw out 11 US presidents since 1959, but he never lived to see the end of the US embargo. New challenges face Cuba, with economic reforms underway and the restoration of relations with the United States. The next step, including
for me personally, is to assess the Cuban revolution’s resilience in this post-Castro, Donald Trump era. End of article.
More Resources
- Draft constitution of Cuba
https://mronline.org/2018/09/28/introduction-to-the-analysis-of-the-draft-constitution-of-the-republic-during-the-popular-consultation/ - How Cubans live as long as Americans at a tenth of the cost
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/11/cuba-health/508859/ - Cuba hailed as world champion on protecting Children’s rights
https://www.facebook.com/telesurenglish/videos/1313058045504261/ - As the world burns, Cuba is number 1 for sustainable development - WWF
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-For-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html - 20 reasons to support Cuba
http://www.invent-the-future.org/2013/07/20-reasons-to-support-cuba/ - Obama’s Cuba visit illustrates US arrogance
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/24/obamas-cuba-visit-illustrates-us-arrogance/ - Cuba’s low level of internet use:; not a policy of restricting the flow of information
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/cubas-low-level-of-internet-use-not-a-policy-of-restricting-the-flow-of-information/ - Cuba expands internet service
http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2017-09-28/etecsa-expande-servicio-nauta-hogar-a-otras-provincias-de-cuba-28-09-2017-00-09-26 - Cuba gets fibre-optic link to Venezuela
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-cable/cuba-gets-fiber-optic-cable-link-to-venezuela-idUSTRE7193DP20110210 - Cuba will expand internet to all households in the country by end of year
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/3147347/0/cuba-internet-todos-hogares-diciembre/ - A failed system’s failed promises
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/a-failed-systems-failed-promises/ - Cuba and the real battle for democracy
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/cuba-and-the-real-battle-for-democracy/ - Over 300,000 Cubans pay tribute to Fidel
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Over-250000-Cubans-Join-Procession-to-Pay-Tribute-to-Fidel-20171204-0019.html - Before the Hurricane - Cuba’s response to hurricanes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npkeecCErQc - Lessons from Cuba’s incarceration model
https://www.guernicamag.com/hyatt-bass-lessons-from-cubas-incarceration-model/ - The truth about unions in Cuba
https://www.workers.org/2015/01/22/truth-unions-cuba/#.WFk3ufArJdh - Cuba before the Revolution
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/cuban-revolution-fidel-castro-casinos-batista/ - Cuba begins clinical trials to delay progress of Alzheimers
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuba-Begins-Clinical-Trials-to-Delay-Progress-of-Alzheimers-20170515-0013.html - Cuba develops new skin cancer medicine
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuba-Develops-New-Skin-Cancer-Medicine-20160909-0007.html - Cuba's internationalist solidarity recognized once again - doctors awarded the Dr. Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health from WHO
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-Internationalist-Solidarity-Recognized-Once-Again-Doctors-Awarded-by-WHO-20170524-0024.html - Cuba's agricultural revolution: Vanguard for global food system
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-Agricultural-Revolution-Vanguard-for-Global-Food-System-20161129-0010.html - Cuba’s sustainable agro-ecological model could save the world
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Cubas-Sustainable-Agro-Ecological-Model-Could-Save-the-World-20161013-0023.html - Cuba’s Socialist biotechnology sector a global leader
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-Socialist-Biotechnology-Sector-a-Global-Leader-20160517-0041.html - CIA motto: proudly overthrowing the Cuban government since 1959
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/15/cia-motto-proudly-overthrowing-the-cuban-government-since-1959/ - The Claim Game: Cuba and the United States
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/21/cuba-and-the-united-states-the-claims-game/ - Cuba: reflections on life and death
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/25/cuba-reflections-on-life-and-death/ - Cuba one year later: what has changed?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/cuba-one-year-later-what-has-changed/ - Cuba: 55 years of ideas and truth
https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/10/cuba-55-years-of-ideas-and-truth/ - Human rights hypocrisy: US criticizes Cuba
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/18/human-rights-hypocrisy-us-criticizes-cuba/ - Cuba - showing how to defeat racism
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cuba-showing-how-defeat-racism https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cubas-green-revolution-%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%94-achieving-sustainability - The Latin American school of Medicine today: ELAM
https://monthlyreview.org/2011/03/01/the-latin-american-school-of-medicine-today/ - Cuba pushes its “Medical Diplomacy”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8059287.stm - Community Drills Part of Cuba’s Top-Notch Disaster Response System
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/05/community-drills-part-of-cubas-top-notch-disaster-response-system/ - Cuba’s cancer vaccine CIMAvax is finally coming to US
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/11/cubas-lung-cancer-vaccine/505778/ - The Cuban Revolution: defying Imperialism from its backyard
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/09/the-cuban-revolution-defying-imperialism-from-its-backyard/ - Castro speech at May Day rally in Revolution Square, Havana, May 1 2003
https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/2003/05/01.htm The Cuban Blockade
- Twitter storm launched against US blockade of Cuba
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Twitter-Storm-Launched-Against-US-Blockade-of-Cuba-20171031-0015.html - US, Israel, only states to vote against lifting blockade on Cuba (excellent infographic included)
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Israel-Only-States-to-Vote-Against-Lifting-Blockade-on-Cuba-20171101-0005.html - The necessity of ending the economic blockade against Cuba - speech
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/08/the-necessity-of-ending-the-economic-commercial-and-financial-blockade-against-cuba/ - Using fear to strike at Cuban tourism
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/06/using-fear-to-strike-at-cuban-tourism/ - US political class looks away as Cuba details impact of U.S. blockade
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/27/u-s-political-class-looks-away-as-cuba-details-impact-of-u-s-blockade/ - The unrelenting economic war on Cuba (Excellent article)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/28/the-unrelenting-economic-war-on-cuba/ - US-Cuba relations: what would constitute normal?
submitted by che casino definition in the English Cobuild dictionary for learners, che casino meaning explained, see also 'casing',cash in',casting',cashpoint', English vocabulary Che Casino! Posted by Serena on Dec 5, 2011 in Culture, Italian Language. 1. casino (con l’accento sulla ‘o’), luogo dove si gioca d’azzardo. 1. casino (with the accent on the ‘o’), a place where one gambles. 2. casino (con l’accento sulla ‘i’), bordello. 2. casino (with the accent on the ‘i’ ), brothel. What does che casino mean in Italian? English Translation. what a mess. Find more words! Use * for blank tiles (max 2) Advanced Search Advanced Search: Use * for blank spaces Advanced Search: Advanced Word Finder: See Also in Italian. che adjective, pronoun, conjunction: that, which, who, than, what: casino noun: casino, mess, brothel, shooting casino definition: 1. a building where games, especially roulette and card games are played for money 2. a building…. Learn more. Translations in context of "che casino" in Italian-English from Reverso Context: Non potevo lasciare che venisse qui e vedesse che casino era la mia vita. Originally the word for brothel, casino is now used to describe any situation that’s a bit out of control, confusing, or crowded, meaning “what a madhouse!”I heard che casino even before I got to Italy on my last trip: Italians waiting on the security line at the airport were using it to express their frustration. Since many events in Italy are not overly organized, this phrase gets a
Welcome to the official Telemundo English YouTube channel! Here you can find all of your favorite TV shows – just in English!If you haven’t already, hit the ... Couldn't find the full version on YouTube so I decided to upload it myself. The footage was taken from The Coppola Restoration. top 10 most dangerous airports in the world 2019 including their dangerous runwaysMany pilots believe that the most dangerous stages during the flight - are... Dame Tu Cosita, Dame Tu Cosita, Dame Tu Cosita. Not Minecraft, this Green Alien Challenges you Baldi's Basics in a Nutshellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h... GTA 5 Megalodon Shark Attack on this Secret Location! Leave a like and subscribe my channel if you enjoyed. Thank you! Subscribe! https://goo.gl/M5jFTuMY SEC... 20 BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS OF RESPECT IN SPORTSMusic: Mount Olympus - Approaching Nirvanahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe2s-7IYg-0Spotify: http://bit.ly/AN_Spoti... Since 2018 the Moody Blues are in the Rock´n´Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio - USA.This is the first version of "Nights in White Satin" in colour!!. Filme... There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the mysterious life of boxer Tommy Morrison, however recent evidence has shed light on possibly the darkest se... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Living in Japan and working in a Tokyo office - This is a Tokyo day in the life of a Japanese Office Worker, 24 year old, Emi. This is also a tour of her J...