I have been on holidays for the last few weeks, and I had minimal access to the internet. That's why I haven`t posted anything recently but during my free time I wrote this:
From Michael Moore to Ted Turner, many on the left have expressed admiration of “Che” Guevara and Fidel Castro; the two leaders of “La Revolución”. But is this Marxist movement really as they say?
Liberals always claim to favor free speech, liberty and democracy yet the Cuban government respects these as much as terrorists defend innocent women and children. There is no such thing as individual or corporate profit, the whole economy is managed by the government. Education, health care, the media, everything. Your only source of money, is your income which is provided to you by the government. No matter how hard you work or how good you are, you earn as much as every single person who has the same job as you around the whole country. And we aren’t talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. Doctors are paid less than $100 a month.
Fidel Castro has always hated losing even when he played baseball as a kid, so it is not hard to understand why Che’s following phrase became famous: “Hasta la victoria, siempre” (“Until victory, always”). Another thing liberals oppose is the death penalty. Thousands of criminals and others who, for example, oppose the government have been executed on the small island. Che, killed many hostages he had kidnapped even if they were children. He trusted “hate as a factor in the battle; uncompromised hate toward the enemy, that takes you further than the natural limitations of human beings, that converts you in to an effective, violent, selective and cold killing machine. He once wrote to his mother saying: “Dear mother, here in Cuba, alive and bloodthirsty, I write these part felt lines.”
Trials against those accused of helping Batista (the previous dictator the rebels overthrew) lasted less than 10 minutes. The verdict was decided by Che and the punishment was death by shooting. Many of the executed were probably innocent.
Books like Orwell’s 1984, which warn about the social danger of totalitarianism, are banned, and reading it is enough to be sent to prison. Members of the opposition are executed, disappear and are imprisoned, under excuses such as treason, agitator, among others. Cuba is the only country in America that holds prisoners for their beliefs.
Democrats like to say they can be bipartisan and reach across the aisle, but in Cuba, that is impossible; the only political party is the Communist Party and if you’re not a member, you can kiss your aspirations goodbye. Dems accuse people who are anti-gay marriage as intolerant and xenophobic, yet in Cuba, the government treats them as mentally ill and marginalizes them. The inhabitants can’t even choose their president; he is elected by a committee, formed by important members of “The Party”.
The only news they get is the one the government provides them. They can’t leave their own country, and even in the island, there are some places only foreign can go to. Hotels and some stores are an example. Now, that Raul Castro is in power he has given them allowed them to go to some of these places, but they can’t pay a room or a cell phone, so, not much of a change…
In Cuba, freedom is but a dream… the Revolutionists want the people to think that government knows what is best for you and for society. All they want is power, and this obsessive search for equality has destroyed any possible prosperity, making the upper and middle class poor, instead of making the middle and lower class rich.
More proof, that socialism is ineffective, is that Cuba has always been dependant of other countries, such as, the USSR and Venezuela. Hundreds of thousands have fled the country and tens of thousands have suicide over the last 50 years.
Socialist Cuba cannot survive without economic help, and lifting the embargo will make any change in the economic system, forced by the need of capital, impossible.
In the 60’s Fidel nationalized foreign countries, took control of schools, hospitals and the media and even confiscated lands that belonged to the Catholic Church.
WAS IT WORTH IT?
Cuba has 99.8% of alphabetization, and a child mortality rate of 6 out of every 1000 born. But in 1957, Cuba already was one of the most alphabetized and calorie consuming countries in Latin America, and it had the lowest mortality rate.
Cuban income is $6000 per year, according to the government but the real number is actually $240; 25 times lower than the official one. Even if it really was $6000, Cuba would rank 21stamong Latin American countries. In 1959 Cuba had more televisions per family than any other of these countries but that record has been lost. 9% of Cubans have access to a land line, 2% to the internet, and 1% have a cell phone. As mentioned before, Cuba has a high suicide rate, 25 every 100,000 according to the World Health Organization. Almost 10% of the population has fled the country, and thousands have died trying to leave the island. There have been at least 8250 disappeared or executed. There are been tens of thousands of political prisoners including journalists. The regime says the people support The Revolution, but if it was that way, they wouldn’t be afraid of people voting to choose their leaders in a democratic way.
Many blame the embargo, despite the US being the main exporter to the island. Countries like Chile, have achieved an incredibly larger economic progress, and they didn’t have to sacrifice as much liberty and human rights as communist Cuba. Others ask why we don’t free the oppressed Cubans. But we can’t because during the missile crisis with Cuba, the Soviets agreed to take their nuclear warheads away if we wouldn’t invade or allow any other country to do so. We Americans are honorable people, and we must keep our word.
Those who claim religion causes more problems than it solves, they should notice that many atheists, since they don’t care about doing what’s rights to save one’s soul, try to find as much pleasure as possible before they die. Do not get me wrong, there are some great secularists around...
To sum up, Cuba is another example of how Marxist governance doesn’t work. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is what made America great. Freedom brings success (and failure). Oppression is inhumane and destroys progress that has been achieved. What Cubans really want is not “equality” but opportunity.
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