Posted on 02/25/2008 1:36:04 PM PST by Signalman
Neil Clark says that he went to Havana in search of a left-wing Utopia and discovered instead an island fortress of poverty, corruption and currency apartheid
It’s a country where the vast majority live in poverty, while a tiny, corrupt elite live in luxury. It’s a place where, 14 years after South Africa abolished apartheid, a form of it still operates.
Welcome to Cuba, the ‘socialist’ paradise built by that great egalitarian Fidel Castro, who after 49 years at the helm has finally decided to hand over power — in the manner of a true democrat — to his brother Raúl.
My wife and I, as unreconstructed paleo-lefties who support Clause Four, free school meals and NHS dental provision, had long wanted to visit Castro’s Cuba. All the people whose views we respect had said that the Caribbean island was a progressive model whose policies on education and healthcare ought to be copied throughout the world. We went there last April desperately wanting to like the place — after all, if George W. Bush and other right-wing nasties hated Cuba so much, then the country must be on the right tracks.
But we returned home terribly disillusioned. Neither of us had been to a country which was so utterly decrepit.
Stay on the officially approved tourist trail round the newly renovated streets of ‘Old Havana’ and you’d get the impression that Cuba was a tropical version of Switzerland. There are smart restaurants, designer shops and modern hotels. Wander a few streets away, however, and you’ll witness scenes of incredible dereliction. Dilapidated buildings with wires hanging out, streets that haven’t been resurfaced for more than 50 years, balconies that look like they’re going to fall down at any minute.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.co.uk ...
“he went to Havana in search of a left-wing Utopia and discovered instead an island fortress of poverty, corruption and currency apartheid”
What makes him think that ISN’T a left-wing Utopia? That’s as good as it gets.
He’s describing Miami now. The US in 5 years if Obama has anything to do with it. (I’m glad the little pantywaste, hand wringing, bed wetting liberal got to see his beloved Cuba, first hand!)
Typical liberal drivel.
Hehehe, someone should post this over at the DUmp and watch the excuses and insults come pouring in by people who never stepped foot there but will scream and berate anyone who speaks ill of the place.
Beat me to it.
Neil Clark isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree, though he did wise up regarding Cuba.
A few years ago he was caught responding to spam comments posted on the comments section of his blog. That is, real spam about discount drugs and penile enlargement and things like that.
So no, he is NOT describing Miami. The true leftist idiots in Florida live in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
I supect this wouldn’t have been written if he hadn’t been personally annoyed by a grubby little shakedown.
“All the people whose views we respect . . . “
Well, there was the Clarks first mistake.
Well, just DUH. Imagine that, Utopian it wasn’t. Another lib hit in the face by reality. This would be the only reason I can think of to let people travel there.
New definition of a conservative: A liberal who’s taken a trip to Cuba.
It’s still Bush’s fault!!!, Don’t you know that the evil republicans embargo is the main cause of their problems. Remove the shackles... Of course they, the liberals, fail to mention in this argument all of the money the rest of the world pours into Cuba...
The loony-Left will simply paint the author as “a right-wing shill with a transparent Leftist facade”. Cuba is a worker’s paradise of equality!
I get the impression that the author’s main beef with Cuba is not the poverty of the masses, but the wealth of the ruling political class. If everyone was poor, if there were no anomalous rich-folk with BMWs, private beaches, tourist districts with nice restaurants, I am sure that their stay would have been ideologically pleasant (but they still would never return - equality may be ideologically pleasing, but come on, the dining and the fashions are unacceptable!).
That's how bad the oppression is there, that none dare speak what they saw, lest harm come to their guests; add to that the fear of "official" punishments here in the U.S. would be crippling, if I had ever visited Cuba, which I haven't, and you've got a scenario of silence that "unofficially" abets the murderous regime.
I know nothing.
He probably does, considering what they teach in school now.
Cuba went from being a colonial hellhole under Spain to being a corrupt dictatorship under Bautista to being a tyrannical Communist puppet of the Soviet Union under Castro.
Cuba has always been pathetic.
I’ll give him credit for acknowledging what he found, and that it wasn’t all the fault of the U.S.
It sure makes one proud to know this is the swill we threw Elian Gonzales back into at the point of a storm trooper’s weapon. That was a day to be proud of.
When I read of what unbaised (and in this instance even an admittedly biased one) people find in Cuba, it makes my eyes tear up. I cannot help but have an affinity to the Cuban populace, whereas the left has an affinity for Fidel.
And this is what the left finds charming, and conservatives decry.
Consider me a conservative until the end of time.
The totalitarian nature of Castro’s Cuba is no right-wing myth, but a reality.
A light, albeit dim, has been switched on.
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