Fond Memories of Cuba I
Senor Bradbury (Write On #501), may I suggest you learn Russian and get on the next Aeroflot flight to Moscow to do a little comparative piece on the degeneration of a revolutionary process and the consequences of force marching a society towards the joys of capitalism.
While in Moscow you will find people sleeping in tunnels, beggars on every street corner and highly educated human beings pawning their heirlooms just to get by.
I found the film quite useful, not because it shattered any of my illusions, but because it confirmed my belief in the ability of the Cuban people to resist the onslaught of American Imperialism.
Sure, the Cuban government has made numerous mistakes and I am sure there are all manner of bureaucrats in the Communist Party just waiting to turn the clock back to the pre-revolutionary days of gangster-dominated capitalism.
But, thankfully, there are just as many, if not more Cubans who will fight to the death to continue the revolutionary process. It is the revolutionary process that is important, not Fidel or Raul or whoever, but the living, breathing revolution that has continued over the last 40 years.
Oh, while I'm at it, may I suggest a comparative piece on the living standards and the democratic rights "enjoyed" by the people in a place such as Haiti or Guatemala or even Grenada?
Damien Lucas
Bronte NSW
Fond memories of Cuba II
While I agree with David Bradbury (Write On #501) that it isn't possible to cross all the "t"s and dot all the "i"s in 77 minutes, the problem is that he chose to leave them all out of his film, Fond Memories of Cuba.
Cuba isn't a utopia and, yes, it has problems — a fact acknowledged by the revolutionary government and anyone who has intimate knowledge of Cuba.
Bradbury, however, chooses not to contextualise these problems or include any information on what the revolutionary government is doing to redress them. Instead, he makes sweeping generalisations, fails to back up any of his allegations about corruption and bureaucracy and superimposes his own disillusionment over the voices of the Cubans he purports to allow to speak for themselves.
David lists as one of Castro's "crimes" economic mismanagement and a reliance on sugar crops. Perhaps David should've spend more time talking to agricultural workers in Cuba and he would've discovered that since the collapse of the USSR, Cuba has transformed its agricultural economy by engaging in sustainable agriculture, organic farming, urban gardens and small farms.
Indeed, far from embracing "globalisation as the only game in town" and driving the country into the ground, Castro's government has done the opposite.
In April 2001, World Bank president James Wolfensohn was forced to applaud Cuba's economic achievements, saying they were doing "a great job" without the aid of the World Bank and that developing countries "should learn from Cuba". According to the World Bank's 2001 Index, Cuba topped nearly every developing country for health, social welfare and education, improving in these area's despite the collapse of the USSR and the US blockade.
Kim Bullimore
Campsie NSW
[Abridged.]
Fond memories of Cuba III
I recently saw David Bradbury's Fond Memories of Cuba and was extremely disappointed.
I am a teacher in the NSW public education system. I feel therefore I can speak (I have 15 years' teaching experience) with some authority, having visited Cuba three times in the last four years. I spent time in Cuban schools, both in the rural areas and in Havana.
I was appalled at the fact that Bradbury made no mention of Cuba's highly lauded education system, which has been extolled as the best in the Third World (and by comparison is better than Australia's, in some aspects) and hailed by UNESCO's International Schools Program.
I am very concerned that a person with little or no knowledge of Cuba — let alone its achievements in education — could view the film and come away none the wiser about the education system. Why was one of the major achievements of the Cuban revolution not portrayed to at least balance the barrage of negative elements?
Why was it not mentioned that Cuba's overall illiteracy rate was reduced from 23%, according to the last census taken before the Revolution, to 3.9%, a rate far lower than that of any other Latin American country?
Why did the film not show that education is provided free, from infants through to post-graduate levels, and that materials and uniforms are subsidised? Why not mention the fact that support staff — such as nurses, child psychologists and teachers aides — are attached to every classroom? Why was the recent initiative to reduce class sizes to 15 students not mentioned?
Surely, it is not because Bradbury did not know this! There is a plethora of areas that I would like to take issue with, particularly the lack of political analysis of the US economic/trade blockade and its effect on all areas of life, not just education.
It is precisely because of the achievements accomplished despite the embargo, and because of Cuba's socialist system, that the film lacked depth and truth. Bradbury should have been a voice in defence of a system that is successful in churning out well informed, creative, intelligent, critical thinking, assertive, proud people. An achievement which, sadly, I cannot attribute to the Australian capitalist education system.
Noreen Navin
Sydney
[Abridged.]
Wither the Greens?
The increase in support for the Greens at the recent Tasmanian election raises a few questions in my mind.
What is the basis for this success? How much of this electoral support has been drawn from previous Liberal Party voters and how much support is due to the Greens being seen as a progressive alternative to Labor?
Strategically does this result suggest that the Greens have resolved some of their electoral ambivalence and have decided to position themselves to attract a certain franchise — more to the left than towards the "centre"?
What is that resolution in terms of policies and practice? Will we see a reprise of the accord with Tasmanian Labor or a series of deals on a quid pro quo basis — like the aborted swap that enticed Bob Brown to consider the sale of Telstra?
This success also focuses attention on the current bitter debate within the Democrats over electoral positioning. Is this discussion too late to save the Democrats from, maybe, political oblivion? Indeed, are the Greens already set to displace the Democrats in the mind of the electorate while garnering more potential support in the current environment of widespread disillusionment with the major parties?
Dave Riley
Brisbane
Greens' success
I think it's ironic in the article on the Greens' success in Tasmania (GLW #501) that the Labor and Liberal parties should say they can't break a signed agreement like the Regional Forest Agreement, when, with respect to human rights, they can readily break a signed agreement like UN refugee convention. Is a business contract more honourable? This is why the Greens are successful and why the Liberals were trounced.
The times are definitely changing and the wind is blowing our way, and it would be wise if socialist greens were to join the party to leaven green philosophy with some more red.
I fear that as Greens become broader and more successful, they will attract less idealistic members who through numbers and clout will lessen both the red and the green. It will be Labor all over again.
Hopefully, Tasmania will inspire the country and lead us out of the waterless, treeless desert that both Labor and Liberal have led us into.
Brian Souter
Canberra
Meg Lees and Telstra
Apparently Senator Meg Lees told the Adelaide Advertiser recently: "If Telstra is to be sold, not one cent of the proceeds should go into Mr Costello's little black debt tin. The proceeds must go to major environmental reconstruction and major infrastructure proceeds across the country."
But Meg, isn't Telstra a major part of Australia's infrastructure?
Meg got such a buzz from negotiating with Howard over the GST that she wants another taste of power.
Barry Healy From Green Left Weekly, July 31, 2002.
Perth
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