Santoculto writes:
Communists are even WORST than liberals limousine or gauche caviar.
Just lies lies and lies
It’s compulsive.
Defend totalitarian regimes like Maduro in Venezuela or Castro clan in Cuba look “smart” just for borderline lunatics/mattoid on “””humanities”””.
I would certainly agree that Cuba is a totalitarian system. However, it is more democratic than you think. For instance, everyone in Cuba must be a member of a labor union and there is a labor union for each type of job. For instance, a hospital might have people from 43 different unions working in the place. Really it is all one big union, but it has a separate branch for each type of worker. Doctors are in the Physicians Union, custodians are in the Janitorial Union, etc.
Also more things are decided at the local level than you might think. For instance, the recent revisions in the Cuban Labor Code were done by putting forth the proposed changes to all of the Cuban unions. All of the unions commented on what things they wanted changed and how they wanted them to change, what changes they would support and what changes they would oppose. It was only after massive consultation with all of the Cuban unions that the Labor Code changes were undertaken.
The elections are held at the local level, and every area has a local representative in the government. Yes, they are all part of the same party, but they do run against each other at the local level. And at the local level you can even have some pretty ferocious campaigns between the various CCP members who are running for the position. They give speeches, attack their opponents and compete on trying to serve the people better. I believe they even have campaign posters.
If you go to vote at the local level, you might have a choice between four or five people running, and they all campaigned against each other to try to get your vote. However, the elections are not money-based, so I sometimes think they are fairer than the money-based elections we have here.
There is quite a bit of debate in Cuba. The political science departments of the universities have been publishing papers calling for a modified multiple party system for some time now.
The debate about the limited capitalism that has been opened up has been quite ferocious. And right now there is a significant wing in the Cuban Communist Party who want to go the China/Vietnam route to socialism, sort of a “socialism with Cuban characteristics.” They are in a huge power struggle with those who see the China/Vietnam route as incipient capitalism and are determined to stop the others. No one is getting jailed, purged or even fired for having any of these views.
There are about 250 openly acknowledged dissident organizations, and there are probably only ~500 political prisoners in the whole country. As you can see, most of the dissidents are walking around free most of the time. Most dissident groups are small grouplets with very small numbers of people (maybe 10-20 people). So there are maybe 5-10,000 active dissidents in the whole country.
The dissidents are very much disliked by your average Cuban who considers them to be traitors. Actually it is a serious problem, as gangs of ordinary Cubans often form outside of the dissidents’ homes denouncing them. These are not organized; they are just local people who hate the dissidents.
Your average Cuban may indeed want change, but nevertheless the dissidents are generally despised as traitors working for the CIA (which is pretty much what most of them are). The dissidents spend a lot of time at the US Interests Section in Cuba (what we have instead of an embassy), and they get a lot of money and instructions from the US government folks in that building. The Cubans say they are collaborating with the US to overthrow the system, and that is exactly what they are doing.
There is a campaign called Socialismo o Muerte! (Socialism or Death!) in Cuba that has been going on for many years now. Many Cubans have been joking that it should be called Socialismo es Muerte! (Socialism Is Death!) instead. Cubans have a great sense of humor and most people joke about the system all the time. Nobody who talks like that goes to jail. Cubans complain about the system all the time. It’s a national pastime like baseball. On the other hand, they do not really want to get rid of it. Probably a majority support the system, and everyone loves Castro who is seen as some father figure. Really most of the hardcore dissidents took off and most of the people who are left are regime supporters.
For many years, the US spent a lot of money on something stupid called Radio Marti, which was a CIA funded radio station out of Florida that broadcast nonstop anti-regime propaganda to Cuba. However, the regime has been jamming the signal from Day One so it is pretty much a waste of money. Nevertheless, many people can get the signal, but studies showed that of Cubans who could get the signal, only 2% listened to the political content. Many Cubans did indeed listen to Radio Marti, but they only listened to the baseball games! After that came TV Marti, but that was also jammed and hardly anyone watched that either.
A leading dissident is a young woman named Yoani Sanchez with permanent PMS who writes her own blog. She is very popular in the West, especially in the US, but in Cuba, no one reads her or even likes her much. She bitches about such horrible things as not having access to Blu-Ray disks in Cuba! Seriously. She gets money from the US and she periodically leaves the country. Recently she went on a tour of the US where she went around the country collecting money and giving speeches denouncing the regime. The regime let her go to the US and let her keep her money. Every now and then they haul her ass into jail and keep her for 1-2 days and then release her. So they just harass her a bit.
There is an online journal called the Havana Times that I recommend everyone read. It is written by local Cuban journalists often coming from a critical point of view, but that POV varies between attacking the regime from the Left to attacking it from the Right. Last time I checked, not much happens to those writers.
The Cuban regime does not lie very much. Their health figures have been checked by the UN and they were found to be correct. The regime is honest about many things such as the problem of substandard housing, especially in Havana. Party newspapers like Granma are full of discussions about problems in the country and what should be done about them.
Maduro is not a totalitarian. Venezuela has one of the freest presses on Earth, possibly the most free. The Venezuelan press is vastly freer than the press in the US or anywhere in the West.
And Venezuela has the fairest elections on Earth.
I am not aware that the Venezuelan regime lies much, or at all, really.
