Babalu Blog

Vargas Llosa on (c)astro

"The hopes awakened by the Cuban revolution have not been realized,"

So says Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, as quoted in today’s Sun-Sentinel on-line edition.

He is also quoted as saying:

"Cuba is today a poorer country, with huge inequalities between the lives of the nomenclature, tourists and the average Cuban."

Yes, Cuba is much poorer that it was in 1959. And it is the ONLY country in this hemisphere that doesn’t hold multi-party elections.

This being a presidential election year, it reminds me of the “misery index”

Ever since Jimmy Carter ran for President way back in 1976 and started using the phrase “misery index” the phrase pops up every four years. The candidates always ask are you better off now than four years ago?

In Cuba’s case, the question is are you better off than 49 years ago. If all of a sudden Cuba would embrace the free market system, it would probably take 10 to 15 years to get to where the country was in 1959.

That’s some “misery index”!

This is ultimately how (c)astro will be judged by history. Acording to Vargas Llosa there will be NO absolution for the tyrant as he wonce promised, but then again the only promise he ever kept was not to shave until he fullfilled the promise of good government:

"I don't think history will absolve him, instead it will show that Fidel Castro was the continuation of a long caudillo tradition that has done so much harm in Latin America,"

And nowhere in the story is there a line telling us about the free education and health care.

Read it Here.

CAMBIO

Posted by Gusano at May 9, 2008 03:45 PM |

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Posted by: rra at May 9, 2008 06:19 PM

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