http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,11983,1030632,00.htmlRevolution revisited
Cuba isn't perfect - but it is living proof that it is possible for a third world country to combat poverty, disease and illiteracy
Brian Wilson
Thursday August 28, 2003
The Guardian
Twenty-five years ago this month, I visited Cuba for the first time. The occasion was the World Festival of Youth and Students, which drew 20,000 to Havana from 150 countries - probably, to this day, the country's biggest display to the world of its revolutionary wares. I went as a journalist, which had its advantages. Rather than encamp with the motley British delegation, I stayed at the Havana Libre hotel, formerly the Havana Hilton. These were the days before tourism had become a Cuban necessity and, rather than change the Hilton symbols, there were notices alongside them stating: "Liberated from American imperialism." <snip>
It has always been part of the hypocrisy towards Cuba that people who would visit any other country in the world and accept its strengths and weaknesses at face value apply very different standards once the plane lands at Havana. Twenty-five years ago, that was apparent in the tortured behaviour of the British delegation. Now, as then, supposed leftists often see disapproval of Cuba as an opportunity to balance their ideological brownie points.
But for me, that visit was the start of a life-long love affair. There is no need to confuse that statement with uncritical acclaim for everything about the place. But criticism should never ignore the fact that Cuba's primary service to the world has been to provide living proof that it is possible to conquer poverty, disease and illiteracy in a country that was grossly over-familiar with all three. That is a pretty big service. The fact that it has been delivered in the face of sustained hostility from an obsessive neighbour makes it all the more stunning.
Fast forward 22 years, and I became trade minister in a Labour government. At my first meeting with the official in charge of trade with the Americas and Caribbean, he offered a summary of our commercial relations with just about every country. There was one conspicuous absentee. "What," I asked, "are we doing with Cuba?" The answer was very little, ostensibly because of a modest outstanding debt from the mid-1980s. Within a month, we were on a plane to Havana, and commercial normality now exists in our relationship. During that first ministerial visit, I was guest of honour at a small dinner and retain a copy of the diplomatic telegram which recorded the occasion. <snip>
- Castro as an admirer of Churchill; Castro as a pragmatist who recognises the inevitability of globalisation and wants Latin America to mould it; Castro whose withering remarks about the Soviet Union confirm just how unloving a marriage of necessity that was.
Those who think that Cuba will roll over and be trampled on when Castro eventually goes are, I believe, grossly mistaken. Cuba will continue to evolve pragmatically, as it has done beneath the rhetoric for 40 years, in order to defend the integrity of its achievements. The tragedy is that the evolutionary process - not least in regard to the liberal freedoms - could be so much more rapid and comfortable, if only the US would learn to co-exist a little more graciously.
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