From The Times Online:
Cuba - what a word to conjure with. And what nonsense people have used it to conjure up for half a century now. Those who are determined to see Cuba through the rosy tints of revolutionary spectacles have for decades claimed the country as proof that socialism can work; a Cuban David was able to stand up to the western Goliaths of colonialism and corruption, and Castro’s revolution 50 years ago last week brought peace and plenty - or, if not exactly plenty (given the wicked US blockade), then something better in the shape of brotherly and sisterly content and hospitals far better than those of the National Health Service.
All my adult life this has completely infuriated me. I cannot count the number of friends and acquaintances - at one time almost everyone in the BBC - who have flocked to Cuba and come back with socialist stars in their eyes. It has been extremely irritating to be lectured on Cuba’s moral rebuke to capitalist democracies by people who actually knew nothing about the place - even less, very often, than I did. Cubans are happy, they claimed; it’s a joyful, free society, full of hospitable, joyful people.
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