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I
have no doubt that travel broadens the mind. Not only
does it allow you to experience different cultures,
languages, ways of living and much more, but it also
allows new perspectives to be developed. New opinions
and judgements are typically formed as the direct
result of travel and these can be used to gain deeper
understanding of countries home and abroad. This is
all generally for the good. However, short visits
to new countries, especially when tourist-based, can
also lead to highly impressionistic, superficial and
shallow evaluations. This is especially so when perspectives
on and information about a country have been heavily
distorted in advance by the mass media and political
prejudice, whether knowingly or not. Unfortunately,
such a situation inevitably arises in the case of
Cuba.
There
is arguably no other country in the world that has
generated such clichéd and hackneyed representations.
Indeed, as co-ordinator of the Cuba Support Group
in Belfast, I find myself responding on a constant
basis to newspaper and magazine articles about Cuba
that present distorted, negative and simply incorrect
information and representations.
On
the back of many short 3-4 week visits to Cuba, I
recently had the privilege of living in Havana for
nine months. In doing so I was able to immerse myself
in the varied delights, hardships and contradictions
of life in the Cuban capital. What I experienced was
a vibrant, steadfast, humane and ever questioning
people, striving to pursue a unique revolutionary
way of life and path of development. After more than
forty years of an ever tightening economic blockade
by the US, the overnight fall of the Soviet bloc and
the subsequent disappearance of export markets, Cuba
has not only survived, against all external expectations,
but has pushed forward its socialist Revolution.
The
recent UN Human Development Report 2003 puts Cuba
at 52 in the league table of most developed countries
in the world, placing it back as a country of 'high
human development' for the first time since 1990.
In terms of life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy,
educational enrolment and attainment, doctors and
nurses per head of population and many other social
indicators, Cuba equals or outperforms many 'developed'
countries. Yet, it is important to remember that Cuba
remains a 'developing' country in Latin America. That
is the paradox. Cuba should not be assessed by visitors
and commentators in terms of developed, typically
US, capitalist consumerist norms, but against the
standards of other Latin American countries. When
that is done Cuba comes out extremely well. It's no
wonder that millions of impoverished people across
the continent look to Cuba as a model for their own
future. This paradox of being a 'developing' country,
but one with many 'developed' social achievements,
also affects Cubans who now have high expectations
given their level of education and training.
At
a day to day level the priority given by the Cuban
government to the well-being of all Cubans is clear
through its full subsidisation of many aspects of
life. Each person receives a weekly package of free
basic foodstuff; all aspects of education from primary
to higher level are free and open to all on the basis
of ability; health care is free at all levels from
visits to the local GP through to major surgical operations;
power cuts are still experienced because of energy
shortages, but the cost of electricity is minimal;
the telephone system is modern, extensive and cheap;
public transport is effectively free, with a regular
network of buses and 'camellos' costing 40 and 20
centavos respectively for a trip anywhere in Havana,
equal to around €0.01, backed up by máquinas,
old north American cars which act as collective taxis,
similar to black taxis in Belfast, costing 10 pesos
(around €0.30); a wide and high quality range
of international, especially Latin American, cinema
costs 2 pesos (equal to around €0.06); world-class
theatre, opera, ballet and all kinds of music concerts
cost around 10 pesos (around €0.30); the cost
of entry to baseball, the national Cuban obsession,
and other sporting events is next to nothing; and
there are a range of radio stations and three high
quality television stations (one of which is novel
in being wholly educationally-based, with another
planned for the near future).
These
are just some of the aspects of ordinary day-to-day
life in Cuba. The issue where most needs to be done,
especially in Havana, is housing. Like many Third
World capitals, overcrowding remains a problem given
factors such as in-migration from the countryside,
and a massive refurbishment programme is outstanding.
However, almost no-one pays any housing costs, a huge
saving in monthly expenditure; something difficult
to comprehend in Ireland. One astonishing example
of communal social action is the ongoing fumigation
of every building in the capital against dengue fever,
undertaken by hundreds of young people on a voluntary
basis. Dengue fever has been a major killer in other
parts of Latin America and Cuba is now the place others
go to receive advice and support on how to eradicate
the tropical disease.
Cuba's
achievements in education, health care, the arts and
culture, sport and science can only be understood
in the context of its socialist form of development.
Cuba is a highly egalitarian society where the differences
in the standard of living between doctors, judges,
teachers, nurses, office workers and street cleaners
are minimal. The sickeningly deep levels of income
and wealth inequality inherent in capitalist countries
don't exist in Cuba. Cuba's intensely human-based
society simply could not have been created under capitalism
and are a product of the socialist principles that
underlie its Revolution.
Yet,
it is true that material resources in Cuba remain
constrained largely due to forced underdevelopment
from outside, and this is leading to continuing social,
economic and personal hardships. However, Cuban society
keeps advancing, basing its development on principles
and actions designed to benefit all its people and
not the profits of foreign transnational corporations
or the interests of a small elite class.
Cuba
is not a perfect society; how could it be given the
continuing and increasing economic, ideological and
military aggression it faces from the US, and now
the EU. However, in a world of hegemonic US-led neo-liberalism,
Cuba continues to show that not only is another world
possible (the slogan of the worldwide anti-capitalist
or anti-globalisation movement), but that a better
world is possible (the preferred slogan in Cuba).
To
live in Cuba for just nine months was a truly refreshing
and uplifting experience in so many ways; a way of
life far removed from the selfish, cynical, corrupt,
individualistic and anti-social attitudes that pass
for society in Ireland and other capitalist countries
today. Cuba demands informed understanding based on
fact and relevant perspectives. We in Ireland, as
elsewhere, have so much to learn.
Douglas
Hamilton is the Belfast Co-ordinator of Cuba Support
Group - Ireland and can be contacted at douglascuba@yahoo.com
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