We just returned from a cultural
“people-to-people” 8-day tour of Cuba. It was a very different kind of tour.
Not your typical monuments, museums, historical buildings, etc. Although there
was some of that, it was more focused on meeting various segments of the population
– the elderly, pre-school and medical facilities, the art community, historical
renovators and social service organizations.
Some of these were government-sanctioned organizations and some of them
were private or entrepreneurial efforts. When combined, they constituted the
“good, bad, and ugly” of Cuba, as our tour director described them. In other
words, there was little sugar-coating going on.
What we witnessed was the impact
of our 50-year embargo and it was shaming. What we have done has not affected
the government that much – it has targeted the elderly, the children, and the
poor. Food, medicines, tools, and equipment are still hard to come by if at
all. Farmers still plow with yoked oxen. I believe we had hoped the embargo
would make the population rise up in protest and overthrow the Castro
government. That didn’t happen. All that happened was the people for the most
part learned to simply ignore the government and survive the best they could –
being creative, innovative, and making-do. It did expose the major flaw in the
Cuban society, however, which is their economic system. Their health care,
education, arts and housing efforts are going strong, although housing is
beginning to be an issue. Many homes are beginning to deteriorate and the
residents have neither the money nor the tools to handle the repairs on their
own.
Everything is changing. We felt fortunate to be there in the midst of
the beginning of their transition. The government understands the need to focus
on the economy and is recognizing the importance of entrepreneurism. It is
recognizing the need to embrace change in how they have done “business” with foreign
governments. It understands the need for better agricultural practices to grow
more vegetables because their traditional diet – starches and meats – is
leading to diabetes. It understands how it needs to provide more incentives so
neighborhoods will begin to improve themselves. Some have. Many haven’t. We saw
both.
But through all this the people themselves
are genuinely happy, gentle and very friendly. They love their country, its
emphasis on education (Cuba’s literacy rate is about 95% - one of the highest
in the world), arts of all kinds (visual, graphic, dance, music), health care
and their diversity. Real diversity is relatively new for Cuba. The traditional
Latino “macho” culture is waning. Gays and lesbians are openly entering
politics, the military, and business. They want more women in the workforce, but to
do that they have to meet child-care needs, which they are doing. They are
truly in transition. Our Cuban guide believes it will take another 5-6 years
for all these social transformations to settle in. [While we were there it was
announced that a ferry will begin operating from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Havana
and Jet Blue has been approved to begin service to Cuba in July of this year.]
Although we were in some very,
very poor neighborhoods – barrios, if you will – with piles of trash, local
government-sponsored ration stores and houses that resembled hovels rather than
homes, the expressions of subdued rage were absent. I don’t think they were
“Putting on the Ritz” for us. I believe they are a happy people. They were
excited to see us, meet us, and talk to us. They wanted to show-off – whether
with their wares, activities, art or especially with their Cuban music.
I really was amazed. I expected to see a lot of repressed anger and
frustration – either at their government or – especially – at the USA. It just wasn’t
there. Several times people on the street approached me and said, “Are you
American?” “Si.” I replied. Then, with 2 thumbs up and grinning broadly, “Obama.
Obama.”
I read recently in a novel Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane, [Harper
Collins, 2010] a description of the repressed rage that exists here – elements
we have seen rising up in the form of an angry Tea Party, para-military groups,
the NRA and gun carrying, voter repression, virulent hatred of the government
and especially Obama, and the popular promotion of fear, anxiety, conspiracy
and distrust for political gain. Not just hatred of policies – but of the people
who espouse them. If someone disagrees with a policy position I favor, I am
vilified. I’m sure you are too.
Lehane writes of a woman who
knew a run-away girl who was smart enough to enter an Ivy-League school: “So she could, what, enter some cubicle at a
slightly higher rate of pay? Hang her f***ing diploma on the partition wall?
She spends the next thirty-forty years learning how to short stock and steal
people’s jobs and houses, their 401(k)s? But that’s okay…. She sleeps like a
baby at night, tells herself she’s not to blame, it’s the system. Then one day
she finds a lump in her breast. And it’s not okay anymore, but nobody gives a
s**t, honey, because you made your f***ing bed. So do us all a favor and
die….The woman had never raised her voice, but the rage she’d expelled into the
atmosphere had been so torn and pitiable it rattled us all. And it wasn’t rare.
Quite the contrary. You asked a simple question lately or made an innocuous
aside and suddenly you were the recipient of a howl of loss and fury. We no
longer understood how we’d gotten here. We couldn’t grasp what had happened to
us. We woke up one day and all the street signs had been stolen, all the
navigation systems had shorted out. The car had no gas, the living room had no
furniture, the imprint in the bed beside us had been smoothed over.” [pp.
212-213]
That’s what’s happening here.
That’s not what I saw in Cuba.
Bottomline? I think we can learn
something from Cuba’s government whose policies mirror the country’s values. I
also think they can learn a great deal from us about general economic issues. If
you can go to Cuba, please do.
Although these messages are
mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this
message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual
journey.
Don
#1 June 2015
Copyright 2015
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