HOW TO VISIT A SOCIALIST COUNTRY
Richard Levins
Harvard School of Public Health Boston, MA USA
Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Boyeros, Havana, Cuba
(Monthly Review April 2010)
Travelers from the United States to Cuba cross more than 90 miles of sea: they cross decades of history. They may be limited to one suitcase, but carry trunks full of ideological baggage including biases about Cuba, beliefs about communists, commitments as to what a good society should be like, and a collection of conventional poli-sci formulas about power, government, and human behavior.
“Coming from North America or Europe to a typical Cuban urban neighborhood, the visitor’s first impression might be one of poverty: crumbling or poorly maintained buildings, pot-holed streets, ancient cars, homes where there are few “extras” etc. On the other hand, if you arrive from Latin America or another developing country, other aspects of Cuban life might get your attention: no street kids, no malnourished faces, no beggars, and people walking the streets at night with almost no fear.”(Circles Robinson, Havana Times September 2008).
Or easily identified as foreign, they may be beset by scouts for private tiny restaurants, offers of guides, ginateras (a Cuban euphemism for usually amateur prostitutes).
Members of delegations usually have planned itineraries, visiting various institutions and cultural events. They will learn about health care, education, cultural and sport resources, commitment to an ecological pathway of development, urban agriculture, equitable distribution through the rationing system, full employment, formal aspects of the political and judicial systems, achievements in gender and racial equality. These are all true, and demonstrate how far a poor country can go with so little. But it is obviously not the full story. There is nothing sinister in this, These are the things that Cuba has been pioneering in, is most proud of and eager to show the world.
When you get to know people better, the descriptions become more nuanced. Given the platform of achievement, difficulties and dissatisfactions command people's day to day attention. Basic equality has been undermined, not by socialism but by concessions to capitalism. There is no homelessness, but some 16% of the housing is classified as substandard. There is no unemployment, but there are wasteful jobs like parking lot attendants which have become necessary only because of the inequality. There has been a massive recruitment of teachers in order to reduce class size, but teaching is not just a job, it is a calling. People enter on a wave of enthusiasm and some learn it isn't their thing, leading to a great turn-over in the teaching profession. And there are people who manage to live without working. There is little crime by U.S. standards, but you still have to lock your car.
My own experience has been that the more committed revolutionaries have the most serious, complex, and thoughtful criticisms, while counterrevolutionaries mostly complain about particular hardships or unpleasant incidents.
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