the sphere of concrete achievement
From a story in the London Telegraph about some recently released Cuban political prisoners:
Mr Castillo, 50, a journalist who wrote articles critical of the regime, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was terrible. It was like being in a desert in which sometimes there is no water, there is no food, you are tortured and you are abused.
"This was not torture in the textbook way with electric prods, but it was cruel and degrading. They would beat you for no reason even when you were in hospital.
"At other times they would search you for no reason, stripping you bare and humiliating you. There was one particular commander at a jail in Santa Clara who seemed to take delight in handing out beatings to the prisoners."
Mr Castillo, who claims he was denied proper medical aid for diabetes and heart problems, added: "We are nothing more than a reflection of the human cost of the fight being waged by the Cuban people."
But, as Chris Bertram has helpfully pointed out, Cuba has universal health care — that universe not including, of course, political prisoners, and being a universe of rather varying quality depending on whether you’re a Party member or not. But still! Those “middle-aged Cuban construction workers who held off the US forces for a while on Grenada”! Elian Gonzalez! “49 years of defiance in the face of the US blockade”! When you add it all up, the balance sheet is pretty darn clear. (Plus, the story about the political prisoners was in the Telegraph, after all.)
Mr. Bertram went on to summarize his position: “While freely conceding that the Cuban regime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that a certain curtailment of the right to political opposition is an unavoidable concomitant of transitional periods, and that the rigors which the Cuban people have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement.” Oh, wait . . . Sorry, that was someone else.
Well said.
— back40 · Feb 23, 07:05 PM · #
Of course, the question of whether universal healthcare is a good, independent of the vagaries of the Cuban regime, is a far more interesting one than whatever individual failures Chris Bertram has as a commentator. You might even question whether a “balance sheet”, whereby one totals up a shopping list of the various pluses and minuses of a given nation, amounts to much, outside of this kind of exercise in scolding. I’m personally tempted to wonder where Alan Jacobs would assign the idiotic aggression of the Grenada campaign in America’s ledgers, whether our “balance sheet” shows a plus or minus for such a nakedly bullying, worthless military action such as that one. The tempting corollary of that question is whether it’s really entirely out of line for someone like Chris Bertram to bring up that shameful episode, and to ask the question of whether our recent preoccupation with Cuba’s many failings should perhaps inspire us to consider our own problems, instead of inspiring yet another round of “America: Better than Third World Despotism.” And I guess it takes an embittered paleoliberal like myself to point out that “We’re better than Cuba/North Korea/Iran/Hamas/Whoever” is a pathetic statement, one which (while true) damns with faint praise, and reminds us again that questions like “Is America better than Cuba” are meaningless and self-serving compared to the question “Is America doing good in the world”.
I’ll admit to being intemperate and hectoring, here, but recently, it’s been par for the course.
— Freddie · Feb 23, 07:51 PM · #
Indeed, the complicity of medical workers to torture for political purposes tarnishes, and absolutely undermines, any so called “achievements” of the regime.
Cough cough, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/politics/24gitmo.html?pagewanted=print cough cough.
Excuse me.
— Derek · Feb 23, 08:01 PM · #
Freddie, it’s probably true that “The question of whether universal healthcare is a good, independent of the vagaries of the Cuban regime, is a far more interesting one than whatever individual failures Chris Bertram has as a commentator,” but sorry, at that moment I was interested in Bertram. There are questions even more interesting than the ones about universal healthcare, but I didn’t mention them either. I just typed out a blog post on something that caught my fancy.
Also, you seem to think I mentioned America, but if you look back at my post you’ll see that I didn’t.
In my book, it’s okay to write a post on one matter without bringing up everything else that could potentially be related to it or might be of greater significance.
— Alan Jacobs · Feb 23, 08:09 PM · #
Fortunately, there is one bit of Cuba beyond Castro’s reach—Guantanamo. No cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners there, of course…
— David T · Feb 24, 09:21 AM · #