Posted by
Silvio Canto, Jr. on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:38:10 AM
Castro will be 80 next month. He has been in power since 1959. What happens next?
Check out "Cuba, the corpse and Paradise" By CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER:
"Once Castro is dead and the transition begins, there will be a unique opportunity to bring about ''the Cuban miracle'': to turn a country of slaves subjugated by communist dogma and impoverished by collectivism into a prosperous and industrious nation of property owners installed among the world's richest nations, as happened to Ireland, Taiwan and Singapore, other small islands.
That transformation -- based on the enormous human capital in the country an with the aid of the United States, European investments and the intense collaboration of the Cuban diaspora -- can be accomplished within one generation and at a two-digit sustained pace of annual growth.
That's just as it happened in Cuba in the 1940s and part of the 1950s.
To reach that paradise, of course, one must first attend a long-awaited funeral." (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15061331.htm)
Montaner is right. Cuba will have a transformation to prosperity:
1) There are 2 million Cubans and their children in the US. We will invest our money and energies in Cuba's future.
2) The US will support Cuba. You can count on a huge economic assistance plan.
3) Cuba's incredible natural beauty will attract millions of tourists.
4) Cubans are an entrepreneurial people. We have demonstrated that in the US.
Before Castro, Cuba was on top of Latin America in every socio-economic standard, including health care and literacy.
Castro did not bring free medicine to the Cuban people. (http://www.therealcuba.com/Health%20Services%20in%20Cuba%20B.C..htm)
Castro did not bring literacy to Cuba. (http://www.therealcuba.com/FreeEducation.htm)
Castro did bring political prisons, hospitals without supplies and a restricted list of books to read!
Frankly, I am very optimist about Cuba's future. My generation has a duty to help Cuba. Based on my conversations, I think that most of us who came to the US as children will do our part when the bell rings.
Here it goes.
Cuba will be the Taiwan, Singapore or South Korea of Latin America. It will bring great satisfaction to my parents' generation, the ones who stood up to communism and served prison sentences. They were the ones betrayed by Castro and who paved the way for their children's success in the US.
Of course, Castro has to die naturally or by some other means.
Where is that French soccer player when we really need him? (http://cantotalk.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-killed-fidel-movie.html)