A Tale of Two Eras

April 18, 2011


BY: THE HILL


Cuban author and columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner pointedly encapsulates a tragic reality:

Raúl Castro, a realist who cannot understand why Cuban children can't drink milk after the age of 7, is not unaware that his brother has been the worst leader in the history of the republic, founded in 1902. In 56 years of capitalism, despite bad administrations, corruption, frequent uprisings and periods of military dictatorship, the island became one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, and Havana one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The public sector was mediocre or bad, but civil society functioned reasonably well.

In contrast, in 52 years of communism, society became pauperized, and the urban landscape took on the appearance of a bombed territory. The communist-imposed public sector was terribly clumsy, infinitely worse than the one in the capitalist era, and civil society (which Raúl is trying to revive via artificial respiration) was cruelly crushed.