Curious about Castro

dr. elsewhere here

Long time no see.
Long time no think.

It’s been very very hot. And very very humid. Sure thought I left that behind when I departed the deep south.

More on that later.

It seems that one cannot leave the teeming torrent of current events for more than a few days without completely losing whatever grip one might have on the meaning and import of the flow that has become inundation.

As usual, Joe has been giving more than ample coverage to matters at the fore; Lebanon, and its accompanying insanities appear to have exposed the reality he was so cautious about when first this nightmare tore through our sensibilities. As horrifying as it might sound, it might take such carnage at the hands of Israel for the world to adjust its perspective on the middle east bully, much as the Holocaust forced the world to adjust is perspective on anti-Semitism. As the world turns….

And the nightmares just keep screaming forth, with Palestine and Iraq shouting for attention, as well as Afghanistan, not to mention Africa and our own little hell heating up for who knows what kind of summer climax to distract us from NOLA’s Katrina, or even from the upcoming elections that look oh so very bad for the repugs (yet what dems are watching the voting problems that could reverse this edge??).

For now, though, I’m curious about Castro.

I've actually long been fascinated with the man and his mission, I confess. Back in the late 60s, when his communist project was gathering steam after surviving our Bay of Pigs fiasco, the tales about the successful farming collectives, the removal of the wealthy and the predatory corporations that supported them, the support for the arts and education, and the miraculous health care, it was all so intriguing. Of course, it was also all subsidized by Soviet Russia. But then, how much of that sort of progressive social action would have happened had Castro taken up with the US instead of the USSR?

Cuba’s history, and Castro’s role in it, are extremely complex, far more than most of us realize. I claim no great insights, mostly just curiosity. Some interesting details that get swept under the carpet include:

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

* Pre-Castro Cuba under Batista actually enjoyed a lively economy and reasonably healthy middle class, along with a very slim sliver of uber-rich, and a large rural and urban poor.
* Batista was not the blond, blue-eyed Euro-blood portrayed in Sydney Pollack’s Havana, but instead embodied a blend of most of the descendents that populated the island, including African, Amerind, Chinese, and European.
* The Cuban mafia depicted in Pollack’s film, as well as in Coppola’s Godfather II, was quite realistic, as not only did American organized crime gain a significant foothold with gambling and prostitution and so on, but so did American corporate power impose its presence.
* Castro’s early support came in large part from the Cuban middle class, which was growing increasingly unhappy with the crime and American corporate influence (a universal theme, eh?), and he was championed as a Robin Hood of Latin America.
* Castro shifted to Communist ideology quickly after Havana fell in 1959, though he had not taken complete control immediately. There are stories of widespread slaughter of opponents when he did, though the US embraced him until he began expropriating US companies (particularly United Fruit) and paying them only the value they had been taxed on their properties. He visited the US only months after taking control as a guest of the Press Club, but was rebuffed by Ike. It was not long before he shifted to the attentions of Kruschev.
* The Bay of Pigs occurred in April of 1961, but had been hatched well before that, in fact prior to Ike’s leaving office, and thus likely prior to Castro’s shift to Communism, though no doubt intensified by it.
* The previous factoid should make anyone suspicious that the driving forces behind both the Bay of Pigs and the continuing rabid Castro-hating exile faction based in Miami might have at least some support from those American mobsters (and even American corporations?) who lost so much revenue when Castro took over.
* Given the numbers of vigilante missions taken by the thuggier elements of this exile faction, including their purported role in JFK’s assassination and Luis Posado Carriles’ terrorist activities (also apparently protected if not sanctioned by our government), suspicions of mob influence gain further ground.
* In another familiar US delusion, those backing the Bay of Pigs invasion insisted the Cuban people would be emboldened by it and join in the overthrow of Castro, but in fact, even E. Howard Hunt had to admit (albeit decades later) that his interviews of Cubans in Havana prior to the invasion showed full throttle enthusiasm for Castro.
* Stats about pre-Castro Cuba differ, depending on who’s presenting them. For example, exiles like to claim that under Batista, there were high wages and a high per-capita income (of course, these numbers can look good despite high unemployment and huge wealth disparity, as we see increasingly here in the US). In contrast, more Castro-friendly data show that Cubans now enjoy 100% literacy, low infant mortality rates, and 100% health coverage by a system acclaimed the world over for its emphasis on preventive care and natural treatments. Get this: Americans and Cubans have the same life expectancy, and yet the cost in the US is almost $6000 per capita, compared to less than $300 in Cuba. In fact, Castro has done more exporting of medicines than of revolution, even offering medical teams to NOLA after Katrina (which left Cuba with little damage and no death, due to exquisite planning), which Bush rejected.
* Perhaps the most fascinating example of Castro’s resilience can be seen in the Cuban recovery from the fall of the Soviet Union, which had essentially subsidized the island’s economy for three decades. Immediately after, food production and nutrition on the island plummeted, caloric intake dropped precipitously, and a crisis appeared imminent with an 80% drop in foreign trade. Instead of rolling over and begging to be bailed out, Castro converted its agriculture from conventional methods that included huge Russian tractors and polluting pesticides into a “Green Revolution” that, like the health care system, has become of model for sustainable agriculture the world over, while recovering the health of the population and the economy to previous levels.
* For those of you who saw Motorcycle Diaries, you’ll recognize the mind and heart behind the Cuban healthcare system as Che’s sidekick, Dr. Alberto Granado, on that journey; for those of you who have not seen it, do!

Clearly, I have a bias to this sort of accomplishment that empowers the poor and ultimately respects the planet, especially in light of the fact that Cuba has been the tiny fly living in the shadow of the cranky, rolling elephant for so long.

I have a friend who had a deep interest, on several dimensions, in the Hemingway library in Havana, and so traveled there when it was not so discouraged as it is now. She was fortunate enough to meet with Castro, have dinner with him, and report that his investment in preserving Hemingway’s work was vast and sincere, as was his knowledge of the material. She also found him charming, urbane, personable, and a delightful conversationalist, as well as dedicated to his people, though he focused the discussion on matters Hemingway.

At one point in our chat about her exciting adventure, I commented to my friend that I had long wondered if Castro might have led his country differently had he not been so relentlessly dogged by the US all these years. I also wondered if he might have allowed for elections, might have relaxed some of the communist limits on commercial enterprise, and might have encouraged cultural exchanges had the US not forced him into isolation. But it is easy for me to account for a paranoid and protective response to numerous assassination plots and open hostility from one’s closest neighbor; any other response would seem suicidal, really. She agreed, though she admitted that she had little to go on beyond the sketchy histories we are privy to. And, of course, being charmed by the guy.

All this being said – including the heavy investment of the mob in Batista’s Cuba, the role these Cuban thugs played in the Bay of Pigs invasion and the JFK assassination, the role they continue to play in terrorizing the island and its leader, the continued harboring of these terrorists (most obviously Posado) by our government – is it worth considering that Castro’s illness may not be death, as Joe suggested (via Joy), but induced, as in poisoning?

I have nothing to support that assertion but suspicion. But suspicion well-based.

It will likely be weeks if not months before we know anything more of Castro’s condition and fate. His ministers claim to have spoken with him and say he is recovering, and his sister notes his illness but also his strength; if the reports are accurate, he is indeed ill, weakened, and in for a long recovery, given the nature of surgery for diverticulosis. Or whatever it may be.

In the meantime we have plenty of information to consider, such as the Bush administration’s decision just two weeks ago to apply $80 million to the support of Cuban dissidents (which in itself sounds almost as if maybe they knew something?), and of course, the shameful and depraved celebration of an old man’s illness by the same Cuban exiles who could not stomach returning a child to his father if that father was in the same country as this ailing leader of an isolated but self-reliant island.

Would Elian be better off had he remained in the US with video games and Nikes and unbridled pollution and astronomical health care and education costs? Would Cuba have been better off had Castro remained enamored of the US with its NYTimes and Coca Cola and cars and astronomical wealth and weapons?