Thanks, Raul · 6 April 2008

I had the best talk last week with CP about the topic of dynasties. What a phenomenon. The whole ideological premise of the “America” thing is that there is nothing holy in royalty—no God running in the veins of a child just by dint of birth. My understanding is that Brahmin family ties are more political- economic than holy, so it interests me when I see Americans of all people attributing spiritual leadership qualities to children. Legacy is in nurture, not nature... I actually like the sociological shorthand on this one.

Anyway. The dynasty that is blowing my mind right now makes NO appeals to other-worldly legitimacy (given that they're a bunch of materialist athiests--ha!): just the thickness of blood. It’s an old Latin American Strongman anti-coup strategy to install your kid brother as chief of the military when you take over the ship of state (see especially Daniel Ortega); and in Cuba Raul Castro has been holding steady in the beta role for decades. (And I guess there's a little birthorder "nature" stereotyping in that: insofar as a Beta bro would likely be that must more trustworthy than the presidential Alpha in such a role.)

The NYT’s reporting on Cuba is just as odious as its coverage of WMD, but I actually don’t like Castro either. At all. I’ll hold off on the litany that starts with political executions round about 1959. 

What’s getting me now is the bag-o-tricks that Raul’s dispensing on the populace to play the Good Cop now that the dynastic succession has taken place. At first there was the authorization of sex-change operations and the intimation of something like domestic partner benefits to come. (Cuba has been awesome on sex ed if your straight and non-trans, but that's a fascinating top-down expansion their unique version of the "human rights" regime.) Last week, Raul announced the legalization of cell phones (never mind that Cubans live on $25 a week—not a huge Verizon market unless you're specially connected) and the news that for the first time in 50 years the people will be allowed to stay in hotels. Also, Cubans can now buy and sell CDs and DVDs.

Is this a joke? Mind-blowing on so many levels.

Good luck keeping the Cubans appeased with stocking-stuffers until the northern beast takes notice and authorizes the CANF to strafe Havana with Big Macs. From my perspective it is ALL a drag if you're in Cienfuegos or wherever—albeit the near future will be worse than the present. We and Fidel have teamed up to screw these people over pretty badly for fifty years, but the few things Cuba has done right—mass education, sustainable agriculture, basic healthcare, some social equalities—are about to go bye-bye.

But hey, a tiny elite will very soon have a lot more stuff, and this is the story we’ll hear from the right-wingers at the NYT Havana desk when it comes time for capitalism shock-therapy.

Till then Raul’s symbolic but life-altering concessions may at least soften the blow that’s about to land.

Go spend some dollars there in the meantime… feel the last echoes of the epic twentieth century and help some humans afford phones. It is beautiful, fascinating country buffeted by so many storms--all the kind that brew offshore and descend as a cyclone.

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: morality , social theory

Comment

1. I don’t know that it would be a good idea to trust MY beta bro with any armed forces…

   Posted by: R · Apr 7, 09:37 AM · #

2. Also: The big complicating factor you don’t bring up is the two currency system. All this new consumable stuff is bought with the “convertible peso,” which is the currency created for tourists and foreigners. 60% of Cubans have some access to this currency (through remittances from Miami, etc.), but very few really operate in that inflated world. The convertible peso is currently valued at 24 times the value of the regular peso, which means that a 4-pak of toilet paper sold in a convertible peso store costs the equivalent of 2 days of a government worker salary (gov’t workers are paid in regular pesos).

   I bring this up only to point out that making new consumer goods available isn’t entirely a miscalculated effort to appease elite Cubans so that they wire their relatives back in Miami to back off on the lobbying for Big Mac strafing (or, as I thought you were arguing the first time I read this, a really miscalculated attempt to keep the average Cuban appeased with toys s/he actually can’t afford). At least in part, opening up this elite consumer market is an attempt to sop of the convertible currency that the elite have been hording (for nowhere to spend it), as a first step toward trying to equalize the two currency system and move back toward a single currency. (This is not to say, however, that I have confidence in this larger currency equalization project…)

   Posted by: R · Apr 7, 09:52 AM · #

3. You’re completely right. Thank you for understanding my argument… most may just think I’m pointing and saying “Holy Shit, they didn’t have phones?”

   I guess that currency equalization will be REALLY painful especially as the gov’t stops providing access to cheap staples (and as agriculture internationalizes). But for now, spending local is probably the best possible palliative. I assume there’s a national phone company… can they team with Verizon to make national cell phone service?

   Riiiiigght. Again the most insane element of this story—that Cuba is NINETY MILES from Havana— is back in play. Just like the VOA radio broadcast from the blimp called “Fat Albert” over the Keys in the 80s (and the Miami-broadcast airing of Goodfellas I picked up from a Havana hotel room a decade ago), I assume Verizon can beam service over the “border” pretty easily. Haven’t read how the elites have actually been getting their service, but assume a deal has been made.

   If you live next door to Guantanamo can you use their wi-fi?

   Economic transition hurts. God the “triumph of capitalism” narrative is creepy.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Apr 7, 11:51 AM · #

4. “...a really miscalculated attempt to keep the average Cuban appeased with toys s/he actually can’t afford”

   Hey, I thought this was the proprietary US economic model!

   Posted by: cody · Apr 7, 01:07 PM · #

5. Holy shit BatGirl, they don’t have cellphones! WOW! That means they don’t have blackberries, which means they look at you all through dinner! It must be nice there.

   Though I have had a Cuban Pork sandwich here in town, and my friend who had been there said ‘This isn’t anything like Cuban – it tastes good’!

   I guess you can’t get everything. Um, anywhere.

   Posted by: Gregor · Apr 7, 02:10 PM · #

6. BatGirl! (Love that.)

   In Cuba, pork is for tourists. So maybe it’s bad because the home-cooking folkways have gone out of it.

   There are sensibilities there that I have not experienced anywhere else though. I don’t want to romanticize too much because I suspect I would feel so hemmed in and suppressed there, but there are angles of light, a sultriness, an understateness, and decayed richness and winking in-joking openness that probably only poetry can begin to touch.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Apr 7, 06:22 PM · #

Commenting is closed for this article.