raul castro and his Chinese model for Cuba

raul castro, who the media consistently and mistakenly refers to as Cuba's president officially took over in monarchical succession from his brother, fidel the terrible, back in February. But he's been the de facto tyrant for exactly two years now.

We were told that the 77-years young dauphin is more "pragmatic" than his predecessor and also very "organized." The long and the short of it was that raul was billed as someone who would be strikingly different than fidel, who even the media recognized as dogmatic and disorganized. raul was someone under whom we would see economic changes in Cuba and there has been much talk about raul's "admiration of the Chinese model."

With the intensity of the trumpets of Jericho the international media echoed official regime announcements of new "reforms" in Cuba. The reforms consisted of merely removing absurd bans on some consumer electronics like cellular phones and computers. The munificent prince raul also signed an edict that would make Cuban hotels open to Cubans. Imagine that!

Of course all of these reforms are meaningful only to the people in Cuba who can afford a $200 cellular phone or a night in hotel that costs about the same amount. That is to say very few people on an island where the average state-sanctioned salary is somewhere south of $20 a month.

There was talk about doing away with the "exit visa" or "tarjeta blanca" that keeps all the slaves on the plantation. But alas it was just talk. When Yoani Sanchez won Spain's equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize for online journalism she was not permitted to leave the country to accept the award in person.

Last year, when he was only the interim dictator, raul the pragmatic promised milk to his loyal subjects. They are still waiting. Now raul has organized a plan of austerity for the Cuban people because of the effects of the global economic crisis and, of course, global warming.

raul the reformer also signed several human rights accords. When Europe announced that it was dropping sanctions against Cuba, preferring instead "constructively engage" the practical one, he responded by arresting and harassing several dissidents.

The only thing Chinese about raul castro's policies thus far is that he's duped all of the compliant international media organizations...

¡Los cogió de Chino!

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at July 28, 2008 05:20 PM

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Posted by: Marifea Perez-Unstable at July 28, 2008 11:36 PM

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