Links on Cuba (Plus a Book Rec)

No, Fidel Castro Didn't Improve Health Care or Education in Cuba

"According to UNESCO, Cuba had about the same literacy rate as Costa Rica and Chile in 1950 (close to 80 percent). And it has almost the same literacy rate as they do today (close to 100 percent)...

"Meanwhile, Latin American countries that were largely illiterate in 1950—such as Peru, Brazil, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic—are largely literate today, closing much of the gap with Cuba...

"Cuba led virtually all countries in Latin America in life expectancy in 1959, before Castro’s communists seized power. But by 2012, right after Castro stepped down as Communist Party leader, Chileans and Costa Ricans lived slightly longer than Cubans. Back in 1960, Chileans had a life span seven years shorter than Cubans, and Costa Ricans lived more than two years less than Cubans on average."

The upshot of all of the data cited in the article above is that Castro's regime lived off earlier successes -- and eventually slowed established trends. Why? Because socialist systems are parasitic by nature. Such systems are neither innovative nor wealth generating; the only reason they survive at all is due to previously amassed resources (which socialists eventually squander) and/or the largess of the capitalist world.

Of course, even if it were true that Castro established a successful literacy program after rising to power, personal stories such as this one from the Miami Herald...

I went to school in Cuba under Castro. Here's what it's like, Bernie Sanders.

...reveal the emptiness of such an achievement in the face of Castro's sins. Honestly, I can't even wrap my head around how morally confused you have to be to apologize for a government that killed, imprisoned or otherwise oppressed thousands for not being sufficiently enthusiastic about The Revolution. That's like apologizing for Mussolini because he made the trains run on time (which actually turns out not to be true either).

Quite frankly, if Bernie Sanders is doubling down on his pro-Castro BS, he has neither the judgment nor the probity to be allowed within fifty miles of the Oval Office.

Trump is no genius, but at least he doesn't cheer for our enemies.

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And just in case the lived experiences of Cuban Americans are insufficient to persuade you that socialism is not, in fact, a beautiful ideal, try this:

Pretending to Sleep, Monalisa Foster

This author escaped from Communist Romania when she was a child, and she wrote this short story to work through her experiences under Ceaucescu. It's not a happy read -- but these days, I think it might be a necessary one.