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I saw on the news tonight that Raul is going to also allow selected businesses to have credit accounts. Small businesses to buy inventory and home builders will be able to purchase construction materials on credit. Do they have calendars that have 2011 on them?
Will they let people buy back what the state stole from them?
If the state stole it, then they shouldn't have to buy it back.
But the way i see it, they should've taken up arms against the rebels and fought for what they had instead of all running here. It's not like Castro had a million man army. But no, they didn't stay to fight, they came here. They obviously wanted to peasants to do their fighting for them, and when that didn't work out, they left.
But revisionist history says that it was a paradise during the Batista regime.
It was not paradise nor was it hell on earth, that is an oversimplification.
Havana had a decent sized middle class, and was reasonably prosperous enough, however the countryside was extremely, extremely poor and conditions were horrendous.
The problems of Cuba in the 1940s prove why inequality in a society, a topic very much in the news in the USA lately, can prove to be corrosive to democracy and eventually to a society in general. Cuba was a democracy at the time but had very deep problems with economic inequality, overdependence on a single crop (sugar) which weakened the economy. As a result corruption increased and political violence became epidemic. In 1952 former dictator Batista ran in the presidential election which most likely would have been won by social democrat Eduardo Chibas - after Chibas died under extremely dubious circumstances, Batista mounted a coup d'etat and overthrew the government. Chibas supporter Fidel Castro took to the hills and became a revolutionary.
There is a lesson here regarding the consequences of when economic inequality gets too out of control.
It was not paradise nor was it hell on earth, that is an oversimplification.
Havana had a decent sized middle class, and was reasonably prosperous enough, however the countryside was extremely, extremely poor and conditions were horrendous.
The problems of Cuba in the 1940s prove why inequality in a society, a topic very much in the news in the USA lately, can prove to be corrosive to democracy and eventually to a society in general. Cuba was a democracy at the time but had very deep problems with economic inequality, overdependence on a single crop (sugar) which weakened the economy. As a result corruption increased and political violence became epidemic. In 1952 former dictator Batista ran in the presidential election which most likely would have been won by social democrat Eduardo Chibas - after Chibas died under extremely dubious circumstances, Batista mounted a coup d'etat and overthrew the government. Chibas supporter Fidel Castro took to the hills and became a revolutionary.
There is a lesson here regarding the consequences of when economic inequality gets too out of control.
Aaaaaaabsolutely!
I've never completely sympathized with Cuban Exiles, because like i said in my last post, they should've stayed and fought for what they had. Again, i'd understand if Castro entered Havana with some great Army, but they were pretty ragtag. If an army like that can take over a country the size of Cuba, that points to some pretty serious support for them.
So when folks make the case that Castro took the country by force, i don't buy it. No, they had popular support. And if they want the Castro regime gone, they should go down there and overthrow it themselves...or the people that live in Cuba right now should do it. But i don't see why it's any of our business.
I've never completely sympathized with Cuban Exiles, because like i said in my last post, they should've stayed and fought for what they had. Again, i'd understand if Castro entered Havana with some great Army, but they were pretty ragtag. If an army like that can take over a country the size of Cuba, that points to some pretty serious support for them.
So when folks make the case that Castro took the country by force, i don't buy it. No, they had popular support. And if they want the Castro regime gone, they should go down there and overthrow it themselves...or the people that live in Cuba right now should do it. But i don't see why it's any of our business.
The only Cubans who still supported Batista's government in 1957 were those who were making money from it. Upon the arrival of Castro's forces in Havana, Batista fled and made no attempt to hold on to power (unlike, for example, Gaddafi)
Castro upon coming to power had full support from the Cuban people. He would blow that support by becoming power-mad and power-hungry - cheered on by the support of those around him like his brother and Che - but that is a whole different story. Suffice to say that absolute power corrupts absolutely including those who have good intentions to begin with. That is a story for another time.
What is clear is that the embargo has failed and doing away with it would create jobs in the US.
It was posh for everyone else BUT the Cuban people themselves, which is why the Revolution succeeded in the first place.
It's a common myth among Black Americans that Castro ushered in this era of great equality. The truth as always is often more complicated. Also it's been said that Black Cubans actually had a higher standard of living than Black Americans before Castro. Many of the poor Black "Cuban" sugar cane workers were in fact Haitian immigrants.
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