Cuba Dreaming

In Havana a fit place to sit and reflect on the revolution is on the park bench next to the sitting statue of John Lennon. A society like the one he imagined is taking shape in the Cuban archipelago. The academic and popular discussion of Cuba in the United States mostly misses the key point: the revolution is achieving a new form of democracy based upon shared social goals. These priorities were enunciated during the 1959 political void left by the almost complete collapse of the old order symbolized by Fulgencio Batista. The original revolutionary objectives have been upheld ever since. This constancy, together with inspirational leadership and the control of corruption, has provided a level of consensus sufficient for the revolution to endure while socialist systems elsewhere fell apart. Basic continuing priorities are mutual assistance, education for all, employment, universal health care, housing, dignified retirement, the promotion of art, a humanitarian international role for Cuba, and public participation in public life. Essentially, all of this is now reality. Three striking indicators are that Cuban student performance is well above that of any other Latin American country, public health statistics have reached the developedcountry range, and 85 percent of families own their own dwellings. For the first time there is a Latin American country in which it is normal for all to be healthy and educated. This has been accomplished by hard work and consumerist denial sustained for almost a half century. But 2005 is a turning-point year for the revolution. At last, more material rewards are at hand. This is because of government policy and international cooperation with-particularly-Venezuela, China, Canada, and Spain. The government's decision to switch from the dollar to the euro as a legal circulating currency was accompanied by a calling in of tucked-away dollars to be changed into convertible pesos if they were not to be discounted 10

Aside · Democracy · Economic history · Latin Americans · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · History · Law