Posted on 08/12/2006 3:12:06 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
August 12, 2006 - 17:53
You might have thought they had gone the way of the dodo bird. But as per a sighting on today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer web site, there are still defenders of communism out there in the Western press.
The P-I saw fit to accord space on its op-ed page to Andrew Buncombe of the UK's Independent newspaper. His column was entitled [not a typo] Cuba's agricultural revolution an example to the world.
If the headline wasn't enough to stop you dead in your tracks, the opening paragraph should have sent you running for the anti-emetic:
"To the right lay revolutionary tomatoes and to the left lay revolutionary lettuces, while in the glass in my hand, filled to the brim and frothing with vitality, was the juice from revolutionary mangoes. It was thick, unfiltered and fabulously sweet. It was also organic."
Other annotated excerpts:
"Urban farm[s] . . . are at the center of a social transformation that may turn out to be as important as anything else that has been achieved during Castro's 47 years in power."
And we all know how many achievements there have been!
"Laura Enriquez, a sociologist at the University of California-Berkeley, who has written extensively on the subject of Latin American agriculture, said: 'What happened in Cuba was remarkable. It was remarkable that they decided to prioritize food production. Other countries in the region took the neo-liberal [i.e. free market] option and exported 'what they were good at' and imported food.'"
Surprise! A Berkeley sociologist thinks communism beats the free market, too. Well, that wraps it up for me.
"The Vivero Organoponico Alamar is considered one of the most successful. Established less than 10 years ago, the 0.7-hectare plot employs about 25 people."
0.7 hectares equals 1.7 acres. It takes 25 people to farm it. And this is one of the 'most successful' operations? At that rate, a 1000-acre vegetable farm in California's Imperial Valley, one of the most productive farming areas in the world, would require 14,705 workers. !Ay caramba! The fact is that US agriculture is incredibly efficient. For some eye-popping numbers, check here. One example: In 1900, it took 35-40 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of corn. Today, only two and a half hours and one acre of land are required to produce 100 bushels. Sounds like the Cubans are stuck in the 1900 model, at best.
"'Not everything is perfect,' Salcines [one of the farm operators] said. 'But if you look at what capitalism has done for other countries in the region, I believe that the situation for poor people is better in Cuba. Our society is more equal.'"
Is the USA 'in the region'? Capitalism has worked a hell of a lot better for people here than communism in Cuba.
"[The] sense of cooperation -- along with the free meals for the workers -- added to the heady sense of idealism, the sort of socialist idealism that has earned Cuba many international supporters over the years, despite Castro's dictatorial rule and his repression of political dissent."
Yeah, if you ignore the oppression and mass poverty, there's really a lot to love about Cuba.
Buncombe concludes this way: "On a lawn overlooking the ocean, I paid the equivalent of an ordinary Cuban's weekly wage for a mojito. It tasted great, but it didn't taste of the revolution."
What a shame, Andrew.
Can't Buncombe see the irony? He's just written an article extolling the wonders of Cuban communism and arguing that it really works better than free markets. Then he lets drop that a typical Cuban would have to work for a week to buy one drink. What explains people like Buncombe, and why would the P-I possibly have let him waste a drop of their cyber-ink?
Seattle P-I/NewsBusters ping to Today show list.
Commies+socialists+marxists+leninists = dumb as rocks in a box.
UK Independent = Independent of Reason and Evidence
At least that's what they told me.
This article is nonsense. Farmers throughout the World produce agricultural products more efficiently than Cuba's economy could ever dream of doing. It's unfortunate that a newspaper sees fit to publish this bit of pro-Castro propaganda.
That paper published that Communistic crap because they know their readership.
Yep, almost all of us live in poverty and raise our own food out of necessity (except for a very few in the power structure, who live very well indeed...Castro being one of the world's richest men and all that). Unbelievable how these idiots delude themselves.
Dizzy with Success.
O-K.....now tell me, Ms. Berkeley Sociologist, which grocery store you would rather shop in. The beautiful Patrini's on University Ave in Berkeley, or a so-called grocery in Havana? H-m-m-m-m....I can guess your answer.
lol....Mr. Bumcombe would last less than a week in this "island paradise" before crying for his mum.
Such spectacular stupidity, in this day and age, with as much data on the true price of a worker's paradise, must be from a 'journalist' or a college professor.
Everyone is happy to work here at Fidelito's Organic Farms...
or they don't get a "free meal".
Here is the Letter to the Editor I submitted"
Re: Cuba's agricultural revolution an example to the world
I never even considered that communism was so superior to capitalism. Kudos to your fine paper. Do you think our farmers might be interested or will they need to be re-educated first?
"Our society is more equal."
Yes, equally poor!!
To my feet lay the bodies of Castro's slave laborers. In the distance, I could hear the moans of Castro's political prisoners.
Yes, society is more equal when everyone is poor (except, of course, communist party hacks, but some people are just more equal than others).
"To the right lay revolutionary tomatoes"
You can tell the revolutionary tomatoes by the little Che Guevara tee-shirts.
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