Poverty in Cuba is Deliberate

[El Presidente]

50 + years of failed foreign policy has been summed up beautifully in this article. 

 

"I would really like it if the US lifted the alleged blockade so that we could see what other excuse the Cuban government comes up with to explain poverty in the country."

https://havanatimes.org/opinion/poverty-in-cuba-is-deliberate/

 

Poverty in Cuba is Deliberate

 November 17, 2020

It’s not collateral damage from the US blockade or capitalism’s neoliberal system

By Benjamin Noria

HAVANA TIMES – For many years now, word has spread on our TV screens and newspapers, that the US blockade is the reason for poverty in Cuba. I would really like it if the US lifted the alleged blockade so that we could see what other excuse the Cuban government comes up with to explain poverty in the country.

The idea that poverty is deliberate in Cuba and not collateral damage from the US blockade, might be difficult to understand after so many years of mind control.

But the US doesn’t have a blockade against Cuba, strictly speaking, it has an economic embargo. It was the mechanism they found to seek compensation for properties that were nationalized and illegally expropriated from US business owners based on the island, during the early years of the Cuban Revolution.

In political science, our national poverty would be called a “national interest”. That’s to say, it is an advantage for the Government to stay in power. If we really think about it, we realize that if a Cuban is poor, they are a lot easier to manipulate. Moreover, it’s easier to make them dependent upon the State.

It’s easier to oppress poor people. It’s a lot easier to control the general population, if they don’t have the resources they need to rebel or to think for themselves. Cubans lack enlightenment and this is deliberate, they are susceptible to being played in any way the State apparatus deems fit. So much so, that if they take away a pound of sugar from their rations, they say nothing.

Greater poverty = greater dependence = greater slavery and, as a result, less freedom, less creativity and less happiness. State paternalism takes on the task of satisfying the biological and spiritual needs it believes the population needs. Here, politicians aren’t interested in the country’s prosperity, they just want to cling onto power. In short, poverty is a tool for government domination.

It’s no accident that Cubans are forced to purchase basic goods via a rations booklet at neighborhood stores. It is no accident that milk is only being distributed to children aged 0-6 years old. Nor is it by chance that butchers are only being stocked once a month with eggs, chicken and fish. Or that every member of a household is only being given one bar of bath soap and one to wash clothes.   

Protein deficiency is deliberate, so that the general population can’t use their brains properly. Long lines that leave people senseless due to deliberate shortages at stores, stop people from thinking about politics and using their intelligence to resolve the country’s problems. All of this is being done under the pretext of the US’ economic blockade.

Cuba is the poorest country in Latin America right now. Its leaders are so obsessed with power that the country won’t make any progress for a long time yet.  The government has channeled all its energy into arguing people’s dissatisfaction with capitalism in poor countries and the consequences of neoliberalism.

Blaming poverty on the US blockade or on Capitalism’s neoliberal system is a strategy that the Cuban State discovered to stir hate for capitalism among the general population. Hate with a long history, as it will be 62 years in just a few months’ time.

The government’s rejection of the US blockade and capitalism has managed to create a mass movement. It has given the Cuban people a mission to fight and stand together for. Of course, this is extremely convenient for politicians, ideologues and everyone else who is living well off of a supposedly “Communist” government in Cuba.

[Nino]

I can't believe it - so God finally threw some brain & common sense down to earth ....

Been saying the same for years.

38 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Blaming poverty on the US blockade or on Capitalism’s neoliberal system is a strategy that the Cuban State discovered to stir hate for capitalism among the general population. Hate with a long history, as it will be 62 years in just a few months’ time.

Hallelujah ...

[Nino]

41 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

50 + years of failed foreign policy has been summed up beautifully in this article. 

IMHO - it is basically 50 years of failed internal policy.

[El Presidente]

 

1 minute ago, nino said:

IMHO - it is basically 50 years of failed internal policy.

Oh no doubt. 

From a US foreign policy perspective, 58 years of having the wool pulled over its eyes. 

[Islandboy]

How refreshing it is to read someone’s opinion on a complicated matter of importance and actually agree with the sense it all makes.

[helix]

?

[SCgarman]

Without sounding cold hearted, as an American I really think the majority of the population here really doesn't think about Cuba nor care what goes on there. Cuba, nor it's government is rarely ever in the mainstream news here. The most Cuba news was when former Pres Obama "loosened" things up between the two countries. Anyway, all that is moot now. One has to wonder how many of the younger generation Cuban Americans in Miami are concerned or care what happens on the island anymore. 60+ years of the status quo. 

[El Presidente]

6 minutes ago, NYgarman said:

Without sounding cold hearted, as an American I really think the majority of the population here really doesn't think about Cuba nor care what goes on there. 

 I don't think it is cold hearted. I think the same applies to most countries.

It is hard to say with any certainty what Cuba would look like today without the US embargo.  If you look at its regional neigbours it may have had a half dozen coups by this stage.

Looking at the regime changes in Nicaragua, Chile, Bolvia, El salvador etc......maybe they should have supported them