Posted by
Silvio Canto, Jr. on Friday, August 04, 2006 10:48:07 AM
Luis M. Garcia is author of Child of the Revolution: Growing up in Castro's Cuba, published last month by Allen & Unwin. Today, he writes about our native Cuba and the lies associated with with the Castro dictatorship.
Check out A nation that dares not speak the truth.
1) What about Cuba's standard of living?
"In fact, during the late 1950s, Cuba had a relatively large and growing middle class, heavily unionised workforce, and farmhand wages that were higher on average than for similar workers in France, Belgium and even West Germany, according to the International Labor Organisation. There were huge economic and social inequalities, of course, but these were no different to the inequalities found in much of Europe at the time and in the rest of Latin America."
2) What about health care?
"There have been some real achievements in this field. But before Castro, Cuba had a good health system by Latin American standards. In other words, Castro started from a high base.
Cuba's infant mortality rate of 32 per 1000 live births in 1957 was the lowest in Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world, as detailed by Cuban-American author Humberto Fontova.
Cuba ranked ahead of countries such as France, Belgium, Japan, Austria and Spain, all of which would eventually pass Cuba in this indicator. Today, Cuba ranks 24th in the world on this measure."
3. What about free education for all?
"Compared with the rest of Latin America, Cuba has always been among the most literate countries in the region. It ranked fourth among Latin American countries in the late '50s. Since 1959, the literacy rate has increased from 76 per cent to 96 per cent last year, which is mighty impressive but not unique. Panama, which ranked just behind Cuba in this indicator during the '50s, has matched Cuba's improvement when measured in percentage terms, as the US Department of State confirms."
4) Everybody loves Castro and the revolution."Who knows? Castro has never tested his popularity with Cubans via secret, multi-party elections. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans still turn up to hear Castro speak in Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion, but then again, huge crowds turned up to cheer Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, just days before he was toppled and executed in late 1989 in a popular uprising. And millions rallied in support of Francisco Franco in Spain just months before his long and agonising death."
Of course, we are not surprised to see Fidel and Raul Castro lie to stay in power. However, it's sad how so many others buy into the lie because they hate the US.
I guess that some leftists hate the US more than they care about the truth or the Cuban people.
The truth will eventually prevail. History will show that Castro destroyed Cuba.
We are not saying that Cuba was perfect in 1959. Yet, no one had to leave Cuba in a raft before Castro. Sadly, many have died leaving Cuba since Fidelismo was imposed on the island.