Sarajevo, 2nd of May 2010
“It is possible to elaborate a radical socialistic program from the Christ's sermons, either you believe in God or not. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ's sermons, parabola and thoughts had been collected by the fishermen who couldn't read nor write. Sometimes I say: Jesus converted water to wine and multiplied fish and bread; it is the same thing that we want to do, to multiply fish and bread”, are the words of Fidel Castro.
The thing we call boomerang – effect, happened in Cuba. This small island, only twice as big as Bosnia and Herzegovina, is antagonizing imperialism over fifty years that USA tries to dictate to them. In 1960, Dwight Eisenhower said that he must do everything to knock down Fidel Castro and the communistic volcano in the USA's anteroom. After that, Fidel Castro survived over 600 assassinations, but Cuba never responded with force. In contrast, after 11th of September, Castro said that he feels deep pain because of the terrorist attacks. “The American regime cannot reduce empathy with American people and innocent victims”, he added. Cubans have endured all the American attacks and until today, they remained loyal to their regime, socialism.
In everything that American sanctions couldn't dispute and slow down, Cubans became very successful, sovereign and prosperous. Health and education systems are among the best in the world, Cuban sportsmen are champions in many disciplines, such as boxing, baseball or volleyball, and Castro and his regime enjoy a (certain) reputation worldwide. Many statesmen and world leaders visited Cuba during his fifty years mandate, among them Josip Broz Tito, Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indira Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Spanish king Juan Carlos, Mihail Gorbachov, Francois Mitterand, Leonid Brežnjev, Yasser Arafat, Olof Palme, etc. Also, Castro became befriended with many intellectuals, writers, artists, actors and important people from the whole world, such as Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Diego Maradona, Arthur Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Pablo Neruda, Henri Cartier – Bresson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Costa Gavras, Gerard Depardieu, Robert Redford, Noam Chomsky, etc. Ten US presidents switched during his regime.
Pope John Paul II‘s visit was one of the greatest proves that the church as an institution is not in conflict with the Cuban regime. It is worth mentioning that no other Pope ever visited Cuba. Fidel Castro says that aims of the church and socialism are not in conflict, but that some people from the church tried misuse their position in their fight against the Cuban Revolution. In article 54 of the Cuban Constitution, which is approved in 1976, is written that everyone has the right to believe and practice any religion they want to. Before the Pope’s visit to Cuba, this country has been visited by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and he officially opened a new Greek orthodox church in Havana. This church is the first of this kind in Cuba.
In a long interview, which Fidel Castro gave to Spanish journalist Ramonet, he admits that he is a Christian in the depth of his soul. In this interview, Castro mentions the Bible and its principles, and shares his great knowledge with readers of this 700 pages long interview. A quote of this conversation I prescribe here in the original shape:
“Few days ago, I told Chavez, Venezuelan president – because Hugo Chavez is an honest Christian and he speaks much about it – If the people consider me as a Christian, not from a religious angle of view, but from a social one, I declare that I am a Christian, regarding to beliefs and aims that I defend. It was the first doctrine that appeared in these times, these barbarian times, and a scale of very human set of rules has risen from it. There’s no need to be a Christian, in the religious way, to understand ethic values and values of social justice. Of course, I am a socialist, Marxist and Leninist, and I will always be.”
In another, also interesting quote, Castro talks about Hose Marti, former Cuban hero, who strived for Cuban and Puerto Rican independency already in the 19th century. Castro connects the whole conversation with religion:
“The base of his party was workers, people above everything. Although in that time it wasn’t possible to talk about socialistic republic, his program was the most human and advanced in that time. If you follow the line of the thought, it ends with a socialistic program. The same I say for the New Testament and the Christian sermon. It is possible to elaborate a radical socialistic program from the Christ's sermons, either you believe in God or not. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ's sermons, parabola and thoughts had been collected by the fishermen who couldn't read nor write. Sometimes I say: Jesus converted water to wine and multiplied fish and bread; it is the same thing that we want to do, to multiply fish and bread”. A rich guy, Epulion, paid the same amount to the people who worked four or eight hours. That was a communistic distribution of wealth, not socialistic. OK, even Jesus Christ used power at one moment when he scourged the traders and exiled them from the temple. But, some streams appeared that didn’t have to do so much Christian features, because they made a pact with rich people.”
From these quotes, religious leaders’ visits and other, also relevant, data, it’s easy to point out that in the Cuban case religion and socialism are not in conflict. As Fidel Castro proves it, in the same way Hugo Chavez speaks about his religion and beliefs. Without sanctions to this small country, Cuba would probably be “heaven on Earth”, among so many capitalistic, quasi – democratic, exploitative and colonizing societies. Of course, there are also some societies that function good, but socialists and religious people gravitate to a perfect order, without injustice, with much social justice and much goodness between the people. That is, free medical and dental services, cheap drugs and remedies, cheap food which is not genetically modified, beautiful coasts, nice temperatures during the whole year, tourism on a very high level, freedom of religion, regularized payment system where everyone works as they can, as well as all the other benefits that this island could offer, but entirely without American sanctions.
Some of these things Cuba already has, but constant shortage of some products led them to the edge of poverty during the Soviet Union collapse, which was their biggest partner. Except rice, sugar cane, some animals’ husbandry and fruits, Cuba doesn’t have conditions to produce everything that they need for a normal life. According to statistics, this long – term isolation made a damage of 79 billion $ to Cuba. George W. Bush has added some other sanctions, so his administration brought in some other repressive measures. For example, it is strictly forbidden to visit Cuba, without permission. Every American who does it, will pay a high fine. One couple who visited Cuba four times and wrote a book about it, paid 55.000$ fine. American Ministry of Finance also punished one biotechnological company with 168.000$, because their European branch delivered two sorts of children’s vaccines. The ships and boats owners who try to visit Cuba risk paying 25.000$ of fine and loosing their vessels. Cuban Americans can send money only to their direct relatives and they can go to Cuba only once a year, instead of previous three times a year. In addition to various other aspects of embargo, American authorities installed a sport embargo and refused to issue visas for the Cuban national baseball team in 2005. American explanation was that they don’t want the prize money to finish in Cuba, as Cuba was the world champion in this sport few times. In the United Nations report, Cuban government says that American authorities violate basic human rights to the Cubans who live in the USA and in Cuba, but also to the American citizens. Pope John Paul II strongly criticized American embargo to Cuba, mentioning that it’s in conflict with all religious and human principles. Ideology of Cuban people doesn’t match the Americans from 1960, because “the terrible communistic authorities are in the lobby of their country”. This idea of socialism still lives, after decades, in spite of all restrictions imposed by the United States of America.
Happy Press Freedom Day in Cuba:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/cuba-urged-respect-press-freedom-repression-journalists-intensifies-2010-04-30
http://en.rsf.org/cuba-authorities-imprison-one-27-04-2010,37163.html
Is this also the fault of the US blockade? To imprison people for voicing their opinion neither looks ‘Socialist’ nor ‘Christian’ to me, rather Stalinist or theocratic.
My solidarity goes to the prisoners of conscience in Cuba.
Mirza, I like that you try to create the positive image of Cuba… I have a job now to crate a positive profile of Somalia, for some foundation helping in Somalia. So any tips - welcome
Going back to John Paul, socialism and catholics… Soon in Poland there will be Fr. Popieluszko’s beatification. He was the Solidarity chaplain murdered by communist functionaries 25 years ago. Last year there was a movie about him and while I watched it I could compare to VJ Burma (a documentary about Saffron revolution in 2007). It was quite the same - oppressed nations demonstrating their rights to freedom with the help of the religion forces in their countries (Poland - catholic church, Burma - Buddhist monks)... and still in spit of the same national&religious; roots the government oppress their people, use force to make them silent and dependent… I can’t understand this.
Nice try. Somebody had to remind us more often about tragically destiny of that small land under unjust embargo of their gigantic neighbor.
In the same time, we should never forget negative sides in countries with such heritage e.g. security paranoia and lack of human rights.
But does it justify total embargo in half of a century? Could we find a lot of worse examples? Everybody must answer after his conscience. Does forced isolation helps in bringing more democracy?
Dear Stefan,
Thank you for your comment. Even I am a journalist and I am coming from post socialistic country and know very good how to compare socialistic and capitalistic system. You are, generally, right, when you say that in Cuba some journalists cannot have a freedom. But you forgot the fact that it’s also a case in some democratic countries. I am really sorry cause of these (maybe innocent, maybe not, we couldn’t know), but I am also sorry because of every innocent victim in Guantanamo, Iraq or Afghanistan. Thousand of people were murdered in Iraq, because USA wanted “to bring democracy there”. Even if I am against Sadam Hussein and his regime, I cannot be sure that today it’s better. Of course it’s not.
But, we should go back to Cuba case. On your links I read a quote of Susan Lee, American journalist. I don’t know why should I trust them after so many victims in Iraq, where even Obama says that war is justified and legitimate? There is no war which is justified, especially in some other country’s land. And for the end of this comment: what is real difference between American and Cuban system? In Cuba there is only one party (which is not always bad, people from Yugoslavia can prove it), in America there are two of them. In Cuba you cannot say anything against a system, but in America you mustn’t say anything in favor about Afghanistan or any other system. In their opinion, all the systems, especially socialistic and communistic one are BAD AND ALWAYS BAD, which is not true.
And, in my opinion, it’s totally wrong comparing Fidel Castro and Stalin. It’s better to compare Stalin, Tony Blair and George Bush, because in number of victims, they are very close to each other.
Iwona, I agree with you in your point, especially I don’t think that killing the people who protest is a good option.
I would try to conjure the difference between socialistic system in Poland and Yugoslavia. In that time, when the Polish people were under the Russian pressure, we sang the song about it, of course in favor for the innocent people. Our authorities didn’t forbid that song, even we were also socialistic country. You can hear it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0oxH5S6mAg (it says something like “don’t send tanks to workers, Poland is in my heart, etc.”). I think it’s understandable a bit for you, cause of Slavic language.
Communism and socialism were misused by Soviet Union and their satellites, but Josip Broz Tito said “NO” to Stalin and we didn’t listen to them anymore, after the beginning of 60’s.
Wow. I have to disagree with quite many things I read. I’ll just put it bluntly: this article is biased in favor of Cuba, and as a journalist you should have at least attempted to show some objectivity. It’s not all shiny and rosy. Also, it’s quite often the case that religion is misused. Hitler can also be said to have identified himself as a Christian (and it’s not a far-fetched claim, but makes a precise point, unlike some of the above).
Ivaylo, do you have some arguments when you compare Castro with Hitler? I admit that there is some mistakes in this system, but the thing that I don’t like is that the only acceptable system for Europeans and Americans is capitalism. When I travel (I travel a lot), very often I hear the same propaganda about Yugoslavia, which I perfectly know that it’s not true.
I recommend you to read the book which is written by Ignacio Ramonet, Spanish journalist and it’s called “Fidel Castro, My Life”. It’s 700 pages long discussion, where it’s clearly explained everything on the issue of human rights in Cuba, death fine, and everything else, that “innocent” Americans serve as a negative about Cuba and Cuban authorities.
Anyway, thank you for the comment
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Stefan,
well I am not journalist, but I learned more than once in my life on my own skin how “freedom of press” and new media does “making of more dollars”. Basic example (no connection with politics): American kids can watch MTV, VH1, FOX life and many more entertaining TV stations that bring them what?? Gossip about more gossip about Hollywood? How important is Hollywood in their life and childhood? Britney Spears is their idol? Thanks but no. Cuban kid will learn to make a cigar at the very early age, and to be able to count those cigars he makes he will also learn some basic arithmetics. At the very same age, American kid will see comercials (advertisement) on the TV about new super-powerful calculators and ask his parents to buy it, because “it’s needed for school”. Now the average parents will need to have some cash to buy that calculator if they decide to, while Cuban kid could probably buy it from cigars he made, but he doesn’t even need it to do basic math.
Just to make sure you don’t get me wrong, the point here is this: Having super TV-s and modern media and freedom of speech does not imply that people will live better. Best example is health insurance. It’s truth that America has top-standard treatments in medicine and posses best medicine tech. But what does America do to prevent illness? I bet you that if you visit 5 top developed countries of the world and pick an orange form each one, put them all on the table and compare the sizes, you will see that one picked in America is largest. Why? Because it’s not organic whatsoever. Is it quality to have more patients and be able to cure them, than to have less patients?
The best example of freedom of speech is of course Internet. This article http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/11-The-Internet-and-the-Recession.aspx is interesting in making connection in usage of internet and recession in USA. If you are really broke American without money, you can’t afford Internet operator, even worse, can’t buy PC or pay electricity for Internet hours. Does that mean that you shouldn’t be able to find a job and work because “free information” about jobs on the internet is not available to you. How free actually is this information?
And then again ask yourself is it better to work on making cigars every day, and wake up being happy that you know that you will make some dollars on cigars and if you get sick of making cigars the hospital will be free, then wake up and realize that you have no job and no internet and you can’t connect to the Facebook so you will end up being desperate and sick, but unfortunately hospital is not free.
Regards.
Neither communism nor capitalism is perfect form of society. Problem is not in the ideology of these two, problem is in imperfect human nature!
Mirza, I don’t compare Castro to Hitler. I am just providing an example in support of the claim that religion can be misused.
I agree Emir. I am talking exactly about free spirit and living with laws of nature as universal laws. Let’s put aside all religions, social believs etc. All I am saying is that in the past people used brain more, today they want to rely on machines. If you want to have machine doing most of your daily routines go and kill yourself, make more space for some newborn.
Cuba is great example of American intolerance towards those who are really free. Another fine example is China. Recently they had conflict with Google because Google bypassed filtering of non-chinese web-sites on “Chinese internet space”. Honestly, why should I sitting in China type in google search engine keyword NEED FOOD, and get this set of results {Wall Mart, Hannaford, McDonalds, Wendys, TacoBell, Starbucks, Burger King}, when I should get choice of 7 different chineese food restaurants. That would help me more. And if you tought for a second “in any case China still needs Google which is American” think again, because I bet google employs more chinese people than native americans.
Regards
Really now, Cuba and China are “really free” ?? How do you define freedom?
Freedom is being able to think outside of the box. And the box is America, and Europe also has tendency to become same…
Ivaylo, why United Nations don’t put similar embargo to China?
Love the radio playing here.
Mirza, have you ever been to Cuba? Have you had a chance to talk to the Cubans, except those from Comités de Defensa de la Revolución? I had. True, “the church as an institution is not in conflict with the Cuban regime”, because the church often is opportunist - but the Cuban nation is in conflict with the Cuban regime. People can’t wait Fidel death, and this doesn’t mean they dream about Americans coming. The world is not black and white: either you are pro-Fidel or pro-Bush, not at all. I am afraid to say this piece is not journalist work but propaganda, no better than of American red necks justifying war in Iraq.
Robert, thank you for the comment. I can understand frustration of some people who didn’t live in a real socialistic environment, so I totally understand if you have a negative opinion about my article.
But, I would like to say that you cannot compare American red necks who justify Iraqi war with any today socialistic system, because thousands of people are murdered in the name of democracy, especially in Iraq. How could I approve today that the democracy is better option for Iraq, than Sadam’s system. Of course Sadam is a criminal and he is one of the worst options for everyone, but is it better that people live or not? Now, many of them are killed, in the name of democracy.
Fidel is not important here, I am trying to discuss how good or bad situation would be without American embargo. I bet it would be better than in America, because I am coming from Yugoslavia, where the socialistic system functioned much better than today’s democracy.
Good choice of themes… In my opinion, Cuba would be much more developed without American sanctions. Story about democracy is a lie, why should everybody accept democracy as a system? It’s never questioned, and I am really wondering why?
First of all, I really enjoyed the article and it was a real pleasure reading it. After 50yrs Cuba has proven that it is sustainable and that people living there are more-less pleased with the life. I think that two most important things for a society are health care and education systems. My opinion is that you can judge the society based on those two. It is actually the USA that is struggling with these two. Is maybe envy the reason America is taking these actions towards Cuba?
In the end, foundation of every religion is actually a genuine communism, I dare to say.
I think you should first read and learn, and then write rosy articles and comments (I am not saying this does not apply to me either!). Countless people have given their lives - and not for you to justify the regime that took them.
Thank you Ivaylo for your commment, but you offered zero arguments on this theme, so I don’t have anything to say anymore, except that all my research on this theme is based on books, four of them, but it’s not journalistic style to post sources in fuss note, because it’s not a scientific work.
Also, thousands of people lost their lives in the name of democracy, for sure more than in the name of socialism. See: war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, war in Vietnam, or any other war where Americans participated.
Dear Ivaylo,
Here you can see all my scientific sources for this article
. I am sure you understand the most of my language 
.
Leksikon novinarstva, IŠKRO ‘‘Savremena administracija’‘, Beograd, 1979.
Mladen Arnautović, Kuba – Crveni vulkan Kariba, Filip Višnjić, Beograd, 2007. godina, str. 5
Ignacio Ramonet, Moj život: Fidel Castro, VBZ, Zagreb, 2009., str. 14
Sicko, dokumentarni film u režiji Michaela Moorea, prikazao je upravo kako za iste lijekove na Kubi treba odvojiti 10 centi, dok u SAD-u koštaju hiljade dolara.
Mladen Arnautović, Kuba – Crveni vulkan Kariba, Filip Višnjić, Beograd, 2007. godina, str. 70
Ignacio Ramonet, Moj život: Fidel Castro, VBZ, Zagreb, 2009., str. 12
Mladen Arnautović, Kuba – Crveni vulkan Kariba, Filip Višnjić, Beograd, 2007. godina, str. 50
Mladen Arnautović, Kuba – Crveni vulkan Kariba, Filip Višnjić, Beograd, 2007. godina, str. 71
Ignacio Ramonet, Moj život: Fidel Castro, VBZ, Zagreb, 2009., str 145
Ignacio Ramonet, Moj život: Fidel Castro, VBZ, Zagreb, 2009., str 144
Web sajt http://www.moljac.hr , govori o biografiji Fidela Castra, http://www.moljac.hr/biografije/castro.htm
Mladen Arnautović, Kuba – Crveni vulkan Kariba, Filip Višnjić, Beograd, 2007. godina, str. 42
Dear Mateja,
Also, thank you for your comment. I suggest you to check these sources from my previous comment, if you are more interested in this field. Communism has all the same principles like any religion, and it’s sad cause these two things are in conflict.
Hi Mirza,
I do find the Cuban society and culture very fascinating and was intrigued by the title of your post. It is interesting to see how religious beliefs - Christian but permeated by myths and ancient practices - survive in a socialist environment like that of the Cuban revolution.
Having said that, freedom of religion in the country is not accompanied by an equal level of freedom of expression. We both are journalists, and I am sure we both are particularly sensitive about this issue.
A couple of days ago I watched a documentary called “Breton es un bebe.” This is how it begins, in case you understand Spanish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaWsrbcM2BI
This movie is a trip across what we would call surrealistic practices in the island’s most remote areas, although its director, Arturo Sotto, likes the expressions “wonderful realism” or “magic realism” better. It’s a very interesting and ironic film, which I strongly recommend to anyone who’s interested in Cuba. Unfortunately, though, it was censored in the country - I am not entirely sure why - which is a pity and a great loss for the Cuban public.
My friend Yendris Patterson, a Cuban artist based here in Barcelona who is also a friend of Sotto, decided to promote the movie and he screened it in his latest exhibition here. This is how I and some Spanish-based Cubans who went to see Yendris’ paintings got a chance to see it. I met many of them, and they all support the revolution, but I’m sure none of them likes the censorship which still makes the work of journalists, artists and film directors very hard in their home country.
Hey Tiziana,
Thank you for your, very extensive comment. Everything is true that you said, and it’s really one of the mistakes in some regimes like this, to forbid things like this movie. I’d like to find it in English and I will try with torrents now, cause I don’t understand Spanish, unfortunately :(. If I don’t find it, I will watch it with a help of some of my friends who know Spanish, and I’ll be back with a feedback here.
I am glad that you realized the point of my post (religion and socialism are not in conflict) and that you realize I don’t also find everything in Cuba is nice and sweet. All the systems have some mistakes, even former Yugoslavian, for which I think it’s the best system ever on Earth. And it’s needed to speak about it, but with a real arguments, and against any propaganda, even American or Cuban.
I’ll be also back when I study your comment more, cause I am in a hurry now and have no time to watch the movie right now. Anyway, thank you and stay in touch
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@Mirza
If Yugoslavia had the “best system on the Earth”, why did it fail?
There are many reasons for splitting Yugoslavia, one of them is participation of EU in balkanization this socialistic heaven. For me, as French person who works around 30 years in Bosnia, it’s impossible to compare today system with previous one. Of course, before this war, Yugoslavia was one of the best countries in Europe, today is nothing. When I have time, I will write longer post on this.
Cheers,
Jerome
@French in Bosnia
Do that, it’ll be very interesting to hear your opinion, you obviously have been there a very long time because you make the typical mistakes in English grammar one would expect from a speaker of Serbo-Croat and not of a speaker of French.
Maybe also check your sources: the EU didn’t even exist when the SFR Yugoslavia failed. Similar point about ‘impossible comparisons’ - if not learning by analogy how than?
I’d still like to know what Mirza thinks when he has time again.
Hey Stefan,
That is only my opinion. It doesn’t have to be the only one which is right, but I tried two systems, socialism and democracy, which is always connected with capitalism and you could already point out that I am not a fan of capitalism at all.
Why did Yugoslav system fail? Probably we were not ready enough for external and internal negative influences. Cold war finish meant also finish of balance between USSR and western countries, which Tito always did. Some reasons can also be found in a lack of critical thinking and real public opinion, as well as nationalism, which was influenced by later presidents of our republics.
I didn’t say that our system was ideal, my opinion is only that it was better than this one today, and all other democratic systems, which are, unfortunately, still the only more or less normal choice. People in Yugoslavia felt social security, had safe jobs and flats from a state, as well as many other good things which we don’t have today. And also, there are no these things in any capitalistic country.
Lack of democracy can be fulfilled with the elections within the party.
I’d also like to quote Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, who said following: “Nobody asked us do we want democracy as a system, which is not democratic way. Nobody questions democracy, which is also not democratic way and everybody puts you in Stalinistic way of thinking if you question democracy, which is wrong”.
Sorry if it sounds confusing, I am in a hurry, but if you want, we can discuss it more these days
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Just yesterday I had an argument with a friend of mine who claimed that “Stalin was good,” so I’m kindof not into getting into the same mud again. You are free to believe whatever you like, but if you intend to present it publicly, be clear about what exactly you are saying. For eg., “Freedom is being able to think outside of the box.” No, it’s not. Being able to think outside the box, whatever that means, is “being able to think outside the box,” not the meaning of freedom. It’s idiotic. Similarly with almost every other sentence in this article.
Ivaylo, if you don’t want to discuss, it would be better not to say anything, even if you just want to collect more comments. Anyway, thanks for calling us idiots, it was very professional. Enjoy EU in Bulgaria, but think about road mafia on the streets.
I’m just throwing a red flag out there. Nobody can demand that I do anything further.
It’s your choice, but you should know that the way of calling idiots someone who doesn’t think like you is, at least, not professional. In my case, red flag doesn’t mean what it means in your case. For detailed explanation, see http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/josip_broz_tito_still_lives_in_our_hearts_photogallery_and_video
I said it’s idiocy to define freedom as “ability to think outside the box” which by itself doesn’t mean anything anyways, and even if it mean, it’d still be idiocy. That’s a “professional” (whatever that means) position.
But this is pointless, I’m ceasing my comments on this thread.
Read that before you comment:
http://desdecuba.com/generationy/
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/?p=3399&sl=auto&tl=en
It’s full of articles, and English is even worth than mine, it looks that Google only translates it. What do you exactly mean?
I mean that Cuba is not what you portray it to be. If you can’t read googlish, click on the icon with GB’s flag, it’ll sift through articles and show some written in English.
It would be nice if you pay attention to this article and CUBAN MIXTURE OF SOCIALISM AND RELIGION. I admit that there are some mistakes in Cuban systems, but I will also always say that much more people are killed in the name of American democracy, than in the name of Cuban socialism.
And yes…. This kind of blogs that you put here cannot be reliable sources. I posted here some books and you simply ignored it. If you want, I will translate in English all these titles, which I used as my sources.
Mirza, you heart is in right place, however, your facts about Cuba in many ways misinterpreted.
The problem is not with the system, the problem is in people/s and their desire to corrupt the system they live in,
Socialism in todays form , at this point, is not sustainable ...
Please, leave the nostalgic notion, what was then is in the past , we must move forward ,
Did you know that Oxford dictionary will remove “should have been” from the english language
EBS Kulin, thank you for the comment, but I don’t agree that “moving forward” is escaping from the socialism towards capitalism. And if you could understand the list of literature, it would be nice if you check these books. If not, I can translate it for you, if you are interested.
Real and truly socialism is the only good system for this planet. Capitalism will kill us one day.
Greets from Montenegrin coast!
It was a great entertainment reading the comments
. I am on a socialist side too-maybe also because of my Yugoslav nostalgia, but most importantly because I can compare life in the region and so-called West. I have to say that I was sure that the level of personal accountability is way higher in the Western side, and how wrong I was. Experiencing consumerist ignorance of throwing garbage all around, not caring about other people and neglecting community as such makes me think that unipolarity has not led us far…I guess, the most constructive way would be to move over comparisons of different political leaders which does not take us anywhere (I don’t know why Hitler and Stalin are constantly on agenda while we have contemporary issues which show that individual leaders have not dramatically changed…), but we should rather start thinking in what kind of system we want to live. I think socialist experiments had many advantages, but they failed. An interesting step forward would be to take positive sides of it, e.g. social equality, education system, health system, and other socialist ideas which are generally admitted as “the right path” (e.g. there is a brilliant book on the topic why do equal societies live better)and think about “better future”. I most probably turned this debate out of the initial scope, but I felt I should make a comment 
Everything is better than wild democracy, which is governing now.
Fantastic
Thanks Mark… I see you are very active last two days
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Tanja, I totally agree with you, I also live abroad and can compare all these things that you say…
Hi all,
I didn’t notice this blog earlier so my comment here is most probably outdated but I couldn’t resist to make my comments. I have a similar opinion like Mirza and my opinion did not get constructed over night and not without a research on the subject.
What I see here that many who commented negatively this excellent article used debate, trying to push its own view over Mirza’s opinion.
How about stopping debating and using other methods like dialectic (first 4 sentences are enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic).
So, yes, Cuba’s society (and lets not forget, like ANY other presently existing one) does have problems, perhaps even unjustifiable ones.
Nevertheless, lets face facts.
How was in Cuba before the revolution and compare it to the present state:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cuba
Just some excerpts from above links:
State before:
The Spanish colonized Cuba until 1898 and left the country with an illiteracy rate of 63.9%. Schools were not accessible to the poorest Cubans and this resulted in a low literacy rate for the country compared to the city. Prior to 1959, of the Cubans over the age of 15 years, 22% were found to be illiterate and 60% of the country was found to be semi illiterate because many rural Cubans had a third-grade education or less.
State now:
Cuba has a 99.8% literacy rate,[12][13] an infant death rate lower than some developed countries,[14] and an average life expectancy of 77.64.[12] In 2006, Cuba was the only nation in the world which met the WWF’s definition of sustainable development; having an ecological footprint of less than 1.8 hectares per capita and a Human Development Index of over 0.8 for 2007.[15]
I just wonder how would ANY other country in the world manage if totally isolated for so long like Cuba was/is?!
The links with blogs about negativity of Cuba’s society are present in the comments. I actually checked one of them translated from Spanish to English via web translating engine. I don’t get one thing. The blog is full of complains how much government is spying on them, how they don’t have freedom of speech but at the same time the writer lives on Cuba, is not hiding and is writting/complaining about opressive regime?!
As Mirza said, problem do exist but I would a bit wonder how the whole country could have developed without being attacked/blockaded etc.
I was also researching about internet/computer situation on Cuba. Internet is full of negative comments how it is very expensive, how a normal Cuba’s citizen cannot afford internet and that Cuba failed in organizing it. But then it is forgotten that the only link to internet at that time was a satellite connection (started with 128 kbps for the whole country) which IS a very expensive mean. And still, it WAS available. While other countries get Gbps of links for ignorable amount of money per speed unit Cuba whose start as an underdeveloped country was not something to envy has to manage with the most expensive mean of transporting information.
I myself come from Sarajevo too. I did have a negative opinion on our “old” system in ex-Yu irritated by seeing incompetent people on the positions they should occupy, both politically and professionally. But I am seeing the same things in this capitalistic system side. Incompetent ones are everywhere.
I moved away due to lack of jobs after the war and searched another option. I did find it, I live in Finland, not so capitalistic society but much nearer to western countries than any socialistic one. It is a nice place and I am satisfied. But one interesting thing I did notice.
In 70’s my parents bought with their teachers salaries a new VW beetle. I calculated that they would need around 14 full netto salaries to pay the car.
The same calculation I used for myself now. I have a very good salary (for Finnish standards) and I would need 10 full netto salaries (money going into house loan substracted because my parents didn’t need a loan for the house) to buy a new Golf now. VW beetle in 70’s could be compared to the present Golf.
So, 10 very good European capitalistic salary against 14 socialistic ones. You can watch it that it is 40% more but I see it different. I see it as only 4 months more.
This comparison is actually the last thing to mention. Having a car, a symbol of consumerism should not be considered as a measure of quality of any society. I did mention it though because I somehow believe that most of those who commented negatively here only get the point through exactly these examples.
So, with all those assumptions/viewpoints found in the comments trying to make socialism inferior to capitalism I somehow fail to agree.
To shorten it, Mirza thank you for the article and by the way, I am reading the book about Castro you suggested, almost done with it and I am grateful I got more info about the whole thing
Babo
True, Babo, I have to offer apologizes for some of my comments. I was rude and unargumented.
That’s the point Ivaylo. You read the arguments and accepted the explanation. My viewpoints are not always correct but if we all would always keep the brain active and accept discussion I am sure our world would be much nicer to live in
Thanks Ivaylo for honest comment!