VABALOG

Kaks eriliselt erinevat mõtisklust Kuubast ja Castrost

Kuna Fidel otsustas lõpuks ameti maha panna, siis on tekkinud olukord piisavalt ebamäärane, et soojenda üles mõtted demokraatlikust ja turumajanduse võimalustele avatud Kuubast. Nagu enamus asjadega selles maailmas pole ka Kuubas lootust kiireteks muutusteks, mis tähendab, et Kuubast kirjutades kaevatakse üles nii vanu mälestusi kui värskeid külastuskogemusi.

Nii kirjutab Neil Clark, kes määratleb ennast ise vana-kooli vasakpoolsena, Spectator’is hiljutisest Kuuba külastusest ja ootustest, mis tal olid Kuubat külastades:

My wife and I, as unreconstructed paleo-lefties who support Clause Four, free school meals and NHS dental provision, had long wanted to visit Castro’s Cuba. All the people whose views we respect had said that the Caribbean island was a progressive model whose policies on education and healthcare ought to be copied throughout the world. We went there last April desperately wanting to like the place — after all, if George W. Bush and other right-wing nasties hated Cuba so much, then the country must be on the right tracks.But we returned home terribly disillusioned. Neither of us had been to a country which was so utterly decrepit.

Sarnaseid lugusid võib kindlasti teisigi leida, ent üks huvitavamaid, mis minul õnnestus lugeda pärineb Tim Berry’lt, ettevõtjalt, kelle firma tegeleb äriplaanide tarkvaraga ja kes on nooruspõlves olnud korporatiivkonsultant. Ühe korporatiivkliendi projektiga seoses veetis Tim ka päris mitu nädalat Kuubal. Tema on üks nendest vähestest ameeriklastest, kes on isiklikult Kuubas käinud ja isegi Castroga aega veetnud:

Fidel, however, was like a human magnet. Everybody hung on his every word, not because we had to, not because it was good business, but because he was the kind of leader that attracted attention and admiration. His warmth, his sense of humor, his dedication to ideals, all of that made his personal power obvious. In his presence, it seemed only reasonable that an entire nation could depend on his one-man rule. Even though it was easy to see that Cuba wasn’t working, it was also easy to believe it wasn’t because it didn’t have a great leader. To this day I’m convinced that Fidel would have risen to power almost anywhere. His ideals weren’t working, and Cuba wasn’t working, but Fidel Castro was.

Kuna Tim on ka ajakirjaniku rolli täitnud, siis on tal ka teisi päris huvitavaid täheldusi kohalike mentaliteedist ja suhtumisest:

I liked these people we worked with. And with time I realized that they were spouting slogans and phrases to each other — for example the ubiquitous “companero,” meaning “comrade” — because that was important. Of course they were watching us, and that was off-putting but expected, but when I realized they were also watching each other, and spouting slogans as a protection, that gave me that special intellectual claustrophobia. It made me think how much it meant that I could be on salary with Business International and work on my own time with other publications, without a government interfering. That I could quit and open a travel agency if I wanted. My companeros, on the other hand, were assigned a career. One was the economist, and one was the tour guide, and neither could choose to change. And the worst part of it was that success was clearly related to spouting slogans, not necessarily to competence and performance, and major life changes were not easy options…

Kuuba puhul armastavad osad inimesed hirmsasti välja tuua tervishoiusüsteemi, kuid Arnold Kling tuletas hiljuti meelde ühte nalja, mida ta Kuubat sageli külastavalt professorilt oli kuulnud:

One Cuban young woman complains to another. “He lied to me! He told me that he was a luggage handler! It turns out, he’s nothing but a neurosurgeon!”

Kling selgitab, et Kuubas teenib pakikandja tänu jootrahale rohkem ühes päevas kui neurokirurg terve kuu jooksul. Iga üks võib sellest teha omad järeldused – olgu siis tegu kiratseva vaesuse või lihtsalt lameda naljaga.

Kuubas kiratsevat vaesust tuletab meelde ka Johan Norberg, kes juhib tähelepanu Kuuba arengutasemel enne Castrot:

Fidel Castro´s social achievements usually ignore that Cuba was higly developed before communism. Before 1959 Cuba had more doctors per capita than Britain, lower infant mortality than France and West Germany, more cars per capita than the Japanese and more television sets than West Europeans.

See tekitab huvitava küsimuse sellest, milline oleks kuubalaste elatustase kui sotsialistlike poliitikate asemel oleks riik pööranud liberalistlikus ja turumajandusele sõbralikumas suunas?

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