Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Pre-Casto Cuba and the Lies of the Left
One topic that absolutely infuriates me is the perpetual sympathy given by intellectuals, artists, entertainment personalities, and journalists for the ruthless dictator of Cuba. The guy has been -- forcefully -- in charge for almost fifty years and there are people stupid enough to think Cuban citizens are actually voting him in during his decades of rule. These are the same clowns that shriek in horror that Bush has been elected to an eight year term.
The actor, Andy Garcia, recently directed a movie showing the other side of the Cuban "revolution," and more than a few intellectual neo-Comms didn't like it one bit that he accurately showed pre-Castro Cuba to be a relatively middle-class society -- which it was -- and not a cauldron of poverty in need of Marxist authoritarian oppression.
"Here's a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) report on Cuba circa 1957 that dispels the fantasies of pre-Castro Cuba still cherished by America's most prestigious academics and its most learned film critics: 'One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class,' it starts. 'Cuban workers are more unionized (proportional to the population) than U.S. workers. The average wage for an 8 hour day in Cuba in 1957 is higher than for workers in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. Cuban labor receives 66.6 per cent of gross national income. In the U.S. the figure is 70 per cent, in Switzerland 64 per cent. 44 per cent of Cubans are covered by Social legislation, a higher percentage then in the U.S.'''
"In 1958 Cuba had a higher per-capita income than Austria and Japan. Cuban industrial workers had the 8th highest wages in the world. In the 1950's Cuban stevedores earned more per hour than their counterparts in New Orleans and San Francisco. Cuba had established an 8 hour work-day in 1933 -- five years before FDR's New Dealers got around to it. Add to this: one month paid vacation. The much-lauded (by liberals) Social-Democracies of Western Europe didn't manage this until 30 years later."
One of the greatest flaws in the left's worldview is their continued sympathy and support for totalitarian government. No system is too cruel as long as it opposes a free economic systems and the individual initiative that causes such systems to thrive.
Unfortunately, few average citizens -- let alone students -- have exposure to the actual state of Cuban society before Castro seized power. Just as they do when they depict America today, the left wants people to believe that everyone in pre-Castro Cuba was absolutely destitute and craving a Communist police state.
The article linked above is an excellent brief overview of Cuban history and how limousine leftists continue to shower sympathy upon cruel, inhumane, and destitute socialist gulags. Particularly interesting in the article is the all too common act of movie reviewers to make a movie's political stand a greater issue than its quality as a work of filmmaking. Remember, Fahrenheit 9/11 was "the greatest documentary ever made."
-- so pathetic
