Fidel Castro has done some pretty cruel things since taking power in 1959. He overthrew strongman Fulgencio Batista and installed a communist system that employed torture, executions and imprisonment, instead of religious and democratic freedoms.
Individual Cubans were denied land ownership, minerals and other resources that followed in exchange for food, housing and education. It was not a system of capitalism where you could work and and become an overnight success. It was a socialist system where all workers are treated the same and the state is in control. Business and other financial freedoms were out of the question.
Cubans lived as educated pheasants
All of the benefits of hard work were grasped by government officials, some of them corrupt who lived high on the hog and ninety percent of the nation of approximately 13 million lived as pheasants. It wasn’t a case of not being educated in order to achieve financial success in your chosen profession; it’s just that his system doesn’t allow it.
Cuba’s literacy rate of 99.7% is the 2nd highest in the world behind several countries tied for first with a 99.8% rate in 2015, according to UNESCO. Something strange here United States literacy rate was not reported by UNESCO. I wonder why? The CIA World Factbook has South Korea number one with a 100% literacy rate, followed closely by Latvia 99.9% and Cuba at 99.8% for 2015. Still no listing for USA. According to the World Atlas the good ole USA is not listed in the top 25% literacy rate.
Is there a connection between crime and illiteracy? You better believe there is. Gun crime in Cuba is virtually non-existent and the murder rate is way below most Latin American countries.
Gun Crime is out of control in America
According to the BBC, in 2015 there were 300 million guns in America nearly one for every member of the household. And on top of that there were 372 mass shootings in the US the same year, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870, according to the mass shooting tracker.
With all of the gun crimes, mass shooting and murders in America one might say the US is rich because of capitalism and Cuba is poor due to Socialism, and education has very little to do with it.
Not exactly.
When Castro overthrew the government and installed Russian communism, president Kennedy went bananas and did everything in his power to deny that form of government within 90 miles of our borders. He employed proclamation 3447-Embargo on all trade with Cuba in February 1962. These brutal sanctions entails commercial, economic and financial punishment on this nearby island nation. It did not mandate that other nations could not transact trade with Cuba, but if they fell under US influence they could be severely punished.
With the harsh realities on the ground Castro moved Cuba forward in spite of major trade sanctions, and connected to Black people not only in Cuba, but in America as well. You might say his system and the Embargo kept all Cubans poor. But at least they were all educated and in the beginning supported financially by the USSR.
Many of the Black revolutionaries bonded with Castro and were protected by his government when in pursuit by US officials. They saw Cuban society as mixed or biracial and unified in standing up to America and its imperialistic nature. And Castro got involved in armed struggle on the side of Black Africans fighting for freedom in Angola against White oppositions that supported Apartheid in South Africa. He sent 25,000 Cuban soldiers to fight against the White racists power structure in Angola. He also supported the African National Congress led by Nelson Mandela, who once said to Ted Koppel on Nightline that “Fidel Castro is my Brother.”
While Castro was unifying Cubans of all races, Black Americans were fighting for voting and civil rights. We were denied our rights even though our contributions to this nation is unparalleled in terms of blood, sweat and tears. Our free labor in the past is enjoyed today by the ancestors of racist slave owners and is one of the main factors that contributes to income inequality, economic and educational disparities that has plagued our communities far to long.
Castro survived the brutal embargo against his country and united his people, even after the USSR dissolved and Cuba had to go it alone without Russia financial help. Black Americans survived lynchings, assassinations and church bombings that killed many during our fight for equality. Several American presidents stood on the side of Apartheid in South Africa and against Nelson Mandela.
Fidel Castro will go down as being on the right side of change along with Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela.Cuba is not a rich nation and is way behind in ICT, Technology and Infrastructure. But they will continue to move forward in the right direction with a literate society, and the blessings of President Barack Obama who stood with Castro by eliminating the Embargo.
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