Yus,

With respect to your proposition that African countries to adopt Cuba as a
model for development, I think this would turn out to be a huge disaster for
any African country. Just as it would be disastrous for any African country
to adopt any foreign country - socialist or capitalist - as their model for
development. To be sure, there are lessons to be taught. And lessons are what
we ought to learn from Cuba; not embarking on another disastrous parodying of
another country with circumstances and histories dissimilar to ours. In
essence, Cuba has only lessons to teach the African peoples. Lessons we ought
to take on board when they make sense about our peculiar circumstances.
Similarly, the USA and any other successful capitalist society has only
lessons to teach. Making the USA and any other Western capitalist country our
model of development is ultimately bound to fail. What we can do is learn
from experiences and tailor such experiences to our peculiar circumstances.
This is the only way out for Africa and the African peoples. The aforesaid
doesn't corrode my fundamental and core convictions that ultimately
capitalism and the liberal order are the only conceivable and credible ways
to lift Africa out of her current cycle of wars, poverty and anarchy.

In my opinion, and in the very end, Cuba after Castro will go through a
similar fate as the Soviet Union. Cuba is Cuba because Castro's
well-meaning, benign, populist and dynamic dictatorship keeps together the
incoherences of the scelerotic socialist bureaucracy that is the Cuban state.
It remains to be seen how another Castro-like individual can come out of the
woodwork after Castro and successfully piece the incoherences together. I'm
of the view that even if this were to happen, it could never last as long as
Castro's dictatorship lasted. We'll see what happens on that Island
nation-state. My sense of history tells me that Cuba after Castro will give
in to the inevitable: popular capitalism and liberal democracy.

Like you, i was struck by the simplicity of Cuban life when i watched that
impressive feature on Cuba's public services by Sky News. Most importantly, i
was struck by what seems me an air of stoical emollience that seems plastered
on the face of ordinary Cubans. Overall, the impression i drew from that
feature was not an ecstatic populace. Granted, they were grateful for their
public services. Yet, one could almost see beneath the veneer of the gloss
Cuban propaganda parades around, a restive forlorn-ness that bespoke people
wanting more and feeling rather disconsolate about it. As i said in my first
piece, we will have to wait for an exhaustive post mortem of the Castro era
to seperate myth and propaganda from reality and truth about the Odyssey of
socialism in Cuba.

All the best,

Hamjatta Kanteh

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