I've been hearing a lot of growing lamentation from colleagues about how the normalization of relations with the U.S. will ruin Cuba. Yes, Cuba where a dictator is in charge, where healthcare and income are sub-standard, with a closed economy and a government-controlled news outlet, where all businesses are owned by or suffer from the coercive control of the same government, where the romanticized vintage Chevys and Fords are really in such poor condition that restorers, not journalists or clergy [two groups who know little about cars] recognize them as junk that should be crushed and melted.
Cuba, once a viable economy and example to the rest of the Caribbean basin, was destroyed by one of the most puzzle-witted systems ever to infect human history. There are actually people, educated people, who think that participation in the global economy will "ruin" all of that. Honestly, I wish educated Americans would give up this chimera of the simple and noble peasant.
That's why this recent article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune left me a little disquieted.
Potential downside of the U.S.-Cuba thaw: A unique country gets globalized
Among the many things I could pluck from the prose, this one really challenged the craw:
"In Cuba, on the other hand, I found a reprieve from this bombardment. The local economy, while bereft of many necessary items, was untouched by this influence — virgin-like, and really a breath of fresh air. It spoke of the promise of a free land that was really an expression of the people who lived there rather than what executives drum up in marketing campaigns. More than that, you did not feel that the people were individually corrupted by a consumer culture...We might think we are free, but in reality we are controlled by the media, banks and corporate interests that run this country and influence every thought we have."
Yes, that's the problem. The "promise" of a free land; one does not "feel" the people were corrupted. Promises and feelings aren't substitutes for reality. It seems an easy trade to accept Coca-Cola signs if it means windows can be replaced, roofs can be restored, and prostitution isn't the most common part-time job. It would be nice if my own religious institution would address these very real concerns, but we seem mostly to be at the "noble peasant" stage.
This is a better appreciation:
A visit to the Havana that tourists never see