Cuba and Formosa (now Taiwan) , are two islands that in the 1950’s had very similar populations and economies, the sugar cane was their main industry, but the standard of living was much higher in Cuba. Cuba was rapidly entering an period of development and diversification of its industrial base.
In fact, the standard of living of Cuba was superior to the standards of living of the rest of Latin America, and also of Japan, South Korea and most of Europe, including Western Europe.
In 1958, before Castro, Cuba had almost not internal or international debts. The Cuban peso was accepted internationally on par to the dollar. At the triumph of the revolution,(Jan 1, 1959) Castro found in the Cuban treasure $400 in gold and foreign currency, the equivalent to several billions in today’s dollars.
Today, under capitalism, Taiwan and South Korea are developed first world nations, while Cuba under communism descended to the level of Haiti and his international credit is at the bottom on par to Somalia. The contrast between capitalist South Korea and communist North Korea, and the debacle of communist Cuba are clear examples that Marxism, in any of their facades, is harvesters of sorrow, misery and oppression. Nevertheless, it seems that many people in Latin America prefer to live under communism even though it only brings oppression and misery.
As Spanish philosopher stated: “Those who ignore history are damned to repeat its errors.”
History repeats itself, Venezuela, a very rich country with great reserves of oil, was taken over by communists puppets of the Castro’s brothers, now is going bankrupt and its people are suffering the same lack of the most elementary staples of modern life, just as the Cuban people have been suffering for more than five decades.
Regardless of whatever Pope Francis and the Marxist liberation theologians might say, modern capitalism offers freedom and progress. Socialism, in all its forms, brings less freedom and more misery.
Cuba, a previously prosperous self sustained country, under the Castro regime all economic infrastructures were destroyed and became a Mecca for international terrorism under the sponsorship and finance of the Soviet Union. (Read the Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism by Clair Sterling).
To maintain Cuba, a dagger to the heart of the U.S., was a heavy burden for the Soviet Union, in fact, Castro was one of the main contributors to the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union.
After the dismembering of the soviets, Castro found in Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez the comrade that kept afloat Cuba’s regimen of terror. Now, with the bankruptcy of Venezuela, Castro found another “sugar daddy”, comrade Barack Obama, that came to the rescue of the Cuban communist regime adding to the welfare rolls of U.S. 11 million Cubans enslaved in the prison island, another heavy burden for the disappearing American middle class.
Great post.
Excellent post.