By Jennifer Moreau, Burnaby Now June 10, 2011
There's nothing like a trip abroad to make you appreciate home. And
after a recent sojourn in Cuba, I've come to appreciate things formerly
taken for granted in Canada: things like fully stocked grocery shelves,
freedom of the press and toilet paper in abundance.
I set out on my first visit to the small, Caribbean island with a
certain political curiosity. I wanted to see the country before Fidel
Castro died. What was it like for people there? Did the revolution
improve the status of women? Were they healthy? Were they happy?
Cuba has always had a special place in the hearts of activists as the
tiny country that pulled off a revolution, stood up to the United States
and kicked out all of the foreign companies leeching off the land.
There's a leftist romanticism about the place, one of the last
strongholds of socialism, but in reality, it's not that glamorous.
They have a horrible human rights record and the prestigious distinction
of being one of the few countries in the world that refuses to let human
rights observers into their prisons.
The average Cuban makes less than a dollar a day, Internet is heavily
monitored (if you can get it) and there are only four national TV
channels, all state-run.
Cuba certainly has its successes. Illiteracy is virtually non-existent
(0.2 per cent) and women have seen some victories. The law states that
men have to take on an equal share of housework, for instance. There's a
real community feel to the place. The streets of Havana are always full
of people laughing and talking. Drugs are unheard of (mainly because
drug-related crimes are punishable by death), and the HIV/AIDS rates is
a low 0.1 per cent of the adult population.
The more nauseating signs of capitalism - McDonald's and the incessant
promotion of consumer culture, for example - are nowhere to be found.
Instead of billboards, there is state propaganda everywhere, with
slogans like "Socialismo, si!" and "Revolution, siempre."
One of the creepiest images I saw was a mural on the side of a run-down
housing complex. It featured a cartoonish four-eyed creature looking in
all directions brandishing a walkie-talkie, with some text that said
something along the lines of: "We stand on guard for socialism."
The mural was from Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, a
cross-country network of citizen informants that report any counter
revolutionary activity to the state.
As a journalist, Cuba's freedom of the press, or lack thereof, was
particularly alarming. Take the country's broadcast media - instead of
commercials, they run public service announcements that look like they
were shot in the '80s.
Havana used to have countless newspapers before the revolution, but
numbers dwindled to a handful, all state run, of course. The most
popular is the Granma, which I heard sells out quickly because Cubans
use it for toilet paper, an often scarce commodity.
So if you have a problem with the government, raising criticism in the
media is impossible. In fact, raising criticism, period, is impossible
unless you want to go to prison.
Even as recently as June 1, Human Rights Watch was on Cuba's back for
convicting six peaceful dissidents, suggesting little has changed with
Fidel's brother Raul now in charge.
People are still often arrested on charges of "dangerousness, "which
means you haven't actually committed a crime but there is the
possibility you may do so in the future.
Yes, I understand that the situation is complex and that Cuba has been
living for decades under a silly U.S. embargo that's choked the country.
I get the fact that Cubans were left virtually alone in the world after
the U.S.S.R. collapsed - which is what leftists will often remind you of
if you criticize the country: "Castro has to be that harsh because the
rest of the world is against him."
For me, Cuba has always represented change - the possibility and more
importantly the reality.
But social change is supposed to give people more freedom, strengthen
democracy and improve lives.
I went to Cuba with an open curiosity, only to return with more
questions. Sure, Cuba's defenders will point to the successes, mainly
literacy, free health care and education. But do you really need a
dictatorship for that? What good is phenomenally high voter turnout when
there's only one party to vote for? What's the point of organizing a
revolution to replace one dictator with another?
Jennifer Moreau is a reporter with the Burnaby NOW.
http://www.burnabynow.com/news/Home+sweet+compared+Cuba/4924447/story.html
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