Yus,
Brother, many thanks for this forward. I think many of our friends on this
List underestimated the significance of the message hence it didn't generate
a healthy exchange on this List. In this post, I would like to take a
hard-nosed look at Cuba's so-called successful experimentation with socialism
and propose that the strides she has made recently in education and health
are not in any way a vindication of any tenet of socialist orthodoxy. Nor
should the success be interpreted as a renewal of socialism as a form of
economic management after its decisive repudiation. Needless to say, my
assessment, i would like to point out, would be from an astringently liberal
perspective.
I don't think any sincere person - certainly not a liberal worth his salt -
would deny Castro his moment of glory. Cuba's health care and education
system is indeed an achievement worthy not only of adulation, but wherever it
can conceivably teach a few lessons, there is no reason why a genuine
Capitalist and liberal order can't take them on board. Indeed, some 6 months
or so ago, Sky News did a very impressive feature of Cuba's health care
system and i tell you it was very revealing to see a team of British GPs,
consultants, surgeons, and other NHS health care workers being shown around
the maze of Cuba's health care system. Most revealing was the very impressive
and efficient nature of the system and how glowingly Cubans spoke of their
doctors, nurses, surgeons, etc and how dedicated the health care workers
seemed to their patients, and above all, to the cause of public service.
The success of Cuba's health care and education system, however, doesn't
vindicate any tenet of socialism/Marxism/communism. Rather, it merely
confirms an age old truism: the public sphere, i.e., health service, social
security, education, etc, etc is better served not by marginalising public
sector workers and making a mockery of the lack of profit motive in these
public services; but by the dedicated professionalism of individuals who
selflessly work under extraordinary circumstances to serve their fellow
citizens. In essence, the success associated with Cuba's health care and
education system lies mainly with a dedicated professional public sector
buoyed and inspired by a political leader who - albeit his zany and bankrupt
worldview - invests heavily in his country's public sector. Suffice for me to
say that Cuba was just lucky to have a tyrant dictator like Castro who is a
genuine individual driven not by mere power or the desire to acquire
ill-gotten wealth; but by a vision to genuinely change the lives of his
countrymen. One can respectfully take issues with his tyrannical rule and his
bankrupt world-view but i have no doubt in my mind that his is a well-meaning
dictatorship that is really concerned about the welfare of his peoples.
Having said all that, Cuba under Castro cannot be assessed solely on the
basis of the strides she has made in the public sphere. If anything, i
believe it is rather premature to call Cuba - under Castro - a success
socialist story. As things stand, Cuba under Castro remains a ragbag: a
hotch-potch of miscellaneous stuff that do not add up to one linear narrative
of success. Doubtless, the achievements in the public sphere has been
besmirched by the political tyranny Castro presides over and none - except
the socialist bureaucrats responsible for State planning, of course - know
the extent to which life for ordinary Cubans in their private sphere has been
enhanced. All the UN World Development Indicators i've consulted - from
1998-2000 - merely produced blank spaces for such important indicators like
wages, productivity, employment, unemployment, inflationary trends, etc, etc.
Suffice for me to say that the only indicators we have on the advances Cuba
had made or continues to register are mainly in the public sphere like their
much vaunted education and health care system. Without all the major
economic, political and social indicators, how can we correctly assess Cuba's
overall performance? Let's not even talk here about political, economic and
social liberties for ordinary Cubans to live their lives as they wish. In
other words, choice for individual Cubans to pursue their own political,
economic and social goals, is somthing little heard of in Cuba. Unless, of
course, you are an influential bureaucrat in the socialist hierarchy that
represents the Cuban State/gov't. The Cuban State, at any rate, determines
everything for everyone. Anyone well tutored in development studies will
never fail to emphasize to the importance of choice in the political,
economic and social endeavours of individuals. The realisation of this has
the negative effects of wiping that smug off Castro and his socialist cronies
faces.
When all is said and done, especially in post-Castro Cuba, an exhaustive post
mortem of the socialist Odyssey in Cuba would merely reveal a political
tyranny sustained by a charismatic and well-meaning leader who had inspired,
and manipulated in some cases, his peoples to reach heights in collectivist
endeavours. I have no doubt that socialism in the very end will fail - if it
has not already! - the Cuban people. Castro is merely delaying the inevitable
in Cuba. Some of our socialist friends, has of recent, been persuading
themselves that Castro and Cuba's recent successes in the spheres of
education and health care delivery are a sign that socialism has been given a
new lease on life in a world very hostile towards socialism as a system of
economic management. Cuba and Castro a sign of socialism's renaissance? Fat
chance, Comrades!
All the best,
Hamjatta Kanteh
PS: Halifa, my final two slots are ready for presentation. Trouble is i
cannot send them in right now because they are saved on a diskette which,
unfortunately, i forgot at a friends during the weekend. I should be able to
send it in by late tomorrow evening.
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