By KEVIN J KELLEY
Posted Sunday, January 24 2010 at 11:39
Returning to Cuba for the first time in 30 years, I was shocked to see
how little it has changed. The crumbling buildings, the shabby public
places, the half-empty shop shelves ... they all remain the same — as
does the love of rhumba, rum and laughter that so many Cubans share.
There is one key difference, however, between the Cuba of 1980 and the
Cuba of 2010.
Then, working-class Havana residents were staging passionate and
seemingly spontaneous demonstrations in support of the revolution and
against the "gusanos" (worms) who were fleeing the island in a chaotic
flotilla known as the Mariel Boatlift.
Angered and embarrassed that 10,000 Cubans had stormed the Peruvian
embassy in a quest for sanctuary, Fidel Castro told opponents of his
regime that they were all free to leave as long as they could arrange
transport to Miami. And some 125,000 Cubans did set sail in 1980 from
the port of Mariel in yachts and motor boats piloted by emigres living
in Florida.
"Revolution is a voluntary act!" Castro declared that spring in a speech
I covered for a New York newspaper. Crowds of Cubans trucked into the
torrid Plaza de la Revolucion responded with whoops and pumped fists.
"Fidel seguro, dale los yanquis duro!" they chanted — "Fidel, for sure,
hit the Yankees hard!"
No one present in the Plaza that day could doubt that many poor Cubans
felt great pride in a revolution that had, if nothing else, restored
their self-respect. The Cuba of that era also remained a beacon of
inspiration for millions of Africans, Asians and Latin Americans who
shared the view that European colonialism and US imperialism had stolen
their dignity as well as their resources.
Enthusiasm for the revolution — both inside and outside Cuba —has all
but vanished in 2010.
Cuba does retain friendly ties with Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and almost
every other black African country. Presidents Jakaya Kikwete and Yoweri
Museveni both visited Cuba last month, while Kenyan Foreign Minister
Moses Wetangula held talks there a year ago. Each of the visitors
thanked their hosts for having admitted hundreds of East Africans to
Cuban universities and for having sent medical workers and teachers to
East Africa.
Today, however, no African government is striving to emulate what many
had once admired as "the Cuban model."
Its exhaustion is as obvious now as was the revolutionary energy of 30
years ago.
Propaganda posters extolling socialism and denouncing the US trade
embargo can still be seen on Havana's streets and along rural roads all
over the country. But hardly anyone with whom I spoke during a two-week
visit seemed content with the present state of affairs or hopeful about
the future. Hints are all that could be given in a society that punishes
independent expression.
Apathy and cynicism were especially palpable on New Year's Day, which in
earlier times was an occasion for mass celebrations of the January 1,
1959, "Triumph of the Revolution." On this 51st anniversary, only a
couple of thousand Cubans gathered in Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion —
once the site of spirited speeches by Castro, who officially stepped
down as president in 2006. Fidel's successor and brother, 78-year-old
Raul, gave no commemorative address at all on the first day of 2010.
In truth, Cuba today has little to boast about.
Officials continue to argue that the revolution makes health care and
education much more widely available than in neighbouring non-socialist
nations like Jamaica and Haiti. Claims of universal access to quality
medical care cannot be adequately assessed in just two weeks, but more
immediately visible services, such as maintenance of state-owned
housing, appear to be non-existent.
What will happen to Cuba when the Castro brothers pass from the scene?
No one knows. But it does seem unlikely that the Cuban people would ever
compromise the national dignity that the revolution has instilled. It's
that sense of hard-won self-esteem that leads many Cubans to say they
prefer to live under socialism "in spite of everything."
The East African - Modern Cuba has little to boast about save for its
glorious past (24 January 2010)
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/848388/-/pwbuw9z/-/
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