ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Cuba: Not Perfect But Worth a Look

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cuba: Not Perfect But Worth a Look

By Doug Morris
College of Education, Eastern New Mexico University
          Positive comments about Cuba must be prefaced with a reservation: "Cuba is not perfect."
        "Imperfection" is often used to denounce the ongoing Cuban experiment in people-first politics and economics, as though the un-attainability of "utopia" renders struggle for a more decent society useless. This is a gross misrepresentation of what social struggle for a good society oriented toward the development of fulfilled and flourishing human beings is all about.
        The socialist goal, in Cuba and elsewhere, is not utopian perfection, but to understand history humanity and society as complex and interacting processes and relations into which we can intervene as informed and involved agents capable of producing decent societies and more fulfilling lives grounded in substantive forms of equality, freedom, justice and democracy.
        Having recently returned from an eighth visit to Cuba researching Cuba's profoundly successful "ethic of care" based education system, I'd like to share perceptions that challenge assumed misperceptions about Cuba in order to reveal something important about our own lives and saving rather than losing the future.
        Outsiders see photos of old cars, deteriorating buildings, a still-involved Fidel (his new weapon the essay), hear Cuba is "Communist," and conclude: "Cuba's stuck in the past."
        The frameworks we bring shape our perceptions.
        When visiting Cuba from a rich country we notice: dirty streets; inadequate housing; no excessive commodities; no advertisements; hotels not up to standards; poverty, etc., and assume "the revolution" failed. While the perceptions are real, they are incomplete.
        Visitors from poor countries note the absence of beggars and homeless; no hungry, emaciated children languishing in gutters; safe streets, low crime, vibrant people; free health care for all, a deep commitment to children as the most important social members — they are the future — and a level of grass-roots political participation and social intelligence unseen in most places.
        In my view, Cuba is, in crucial ways, "living in the future," while struggling to overcome serious present problems — the harsh and illegal U.S. blockade that also punishes third countries for Cuba dealings; a conflicted economy; internal paternalism; creeping commercialism and increasing class stratification from insidiously creeping capitalism's presence, etc. Defense includes a battle of ideas that works to maintain people-first socialist commitments and values while Cuba is forced to interface with global capitalism's emphasis on greed, exploitation, individualism, alienation and violence.
        Cuba points to a possible better future by demonstrating that international relations, rather than being pursued through aggression, chauvinism and domination, can be grounded in solidarity, care and support as evidenced by Cuba sending more doctors around the world to help the poor than any country; the Cuban literacy program "Yes I Can" bringing literacy to millions of global citizens; "Operation Miracle" a free ophthalmologic rehabilitation project that has assisted over 1.6 million people from 35 countries; free medical education at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana for global students, including U.S., who return home to assist the poor and needy (Christ-like) — the school will graduate 3,500 more health professionals in July; the export of agricultural scientists and farmers sharing programs rooted in sustainable principles and organic farming, etc.
        The World Wildlife Fund designated Cuba the only sustainable society on the planet.
        Cubans are proud of their continuing commitments to free health care for all, the best elementary education in the hemisphere — Cuban students score "off the charts" on international tests; equitable distribution of resources; an ecological pathway of development; more teachers and doctors per-capita — and books per household — than anywhere; full, and now meaningful, employment along with free university education for all as long-term projects; collectively controlled, government supported and knowledge-intensive urban organic gardens growing food and medicinals (roughly 10,000 gardens in Havana); successes in gender and racial equality; the expansion of participatory and representative democracy; and an "ethic of care" value system experienced as both a right and duty.
        With climate change, ecological disasters, U.S.-centered global militarism, rising job-eradication, increasing inequality and capital's relentless pursuit of profits portending increasing calamities and suffering, the future is threatened, thus urgently demanding alternative processes of social and economic organization.
        Cuba, while far from perfect, offers vitally hopeful lessons in solidarity-based people-first economics, politics and internationalism worth learning, engaging and critically supporting if we want to avoid social suicide.

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