National Post



July 9, 2004

Propping up a tropical tyranny

For those Canadians who cling to the conceit that Cuba's socialist system
presents a humane and economically viable alternative to Western capitalism,
this week's Post series on Fidel Castro's tropical tyranny should be
required reading.

As reporter Isabel Vincent has shown, universal access to quality health
care may be official policy in Cuba. And indeed foreigners flashing around
U.S. dollars can fly to Havana and obtain prompt, first-class treatment. But
Cuba has a "two-tier" system -- the kind most of Cuba's Canadian supporters
would angrily decry if it were implemented here at home. Those Cubans who
lack connections to high-ranking government officials must endure long
waiting lists and indifferent treatment in poorly equipped hospitals.

Moreover, Cuba is hardly a workers' paradise: Even middle-class Cubans and
professionals find it difficult to get ahead without working second and
third jobs selling trinkets to tourists or driving taxis. When foreign
investors set up shop, the Cuban government converts their local workers
into de facto slaves. Friends of the ruling party siphon off the bulk of
their foreign-source wages, and bureaucrats tax away most of the rest.

All of these facts are well known to even a casual observer of Cuban
affairs. But this being Canada, it is useful to point them out all the same.
Since the Trudeau era, elites in this country have been eager to cozy up to
Fidel Castro's regime. Even today, as the dictatorial Mr. Castro continues
to stifle dissent and imprison his political enemies, the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) remains actively engaged in projects
aimed at bolstering Cuba's infrastructure.

The reason mostly boils down to national hubris. For decades, the United
States has pursued a hard-line policy of diplomatic and economic sanctions
against Cuba. Canadian nationalism, inevitably defined in reflex opposition
to what Washington does, therefore argues for Canadian-Cuban rapprochement.

We are not arguing that Canada should join the U.S. trade embargo against
Cuba -- which, to our minds, has been counterproductive because it allows
Mr. Castro to blame his country's many problems on the United States. But
that doesn't mean our government should be actively helping Cuba, either.
CIDA has a limited amount of funds at its disposal, and can help only a
small fraction of the world's impoverished billions. Given the unmet
humanitarian needs of such struggling democracies as, say, Afghanistan,
Nigeria and India, why on earth would we divert any funds to prop up a
dictatorship?

This is hardly the first time such a question has been put to CIDA. And in
response to its critics, the agency has posted a document on its Web site
entitled Why is CIDA involved in Cuba?

"Considerable progress has been made in improving the social conditions of
the Cuban people, as reflected in the country's high literacy levels and low
infant mortality rates," the document states. "In 1989, Cuba lost its main
trade partner and major source of financial subsidy, the Soviet Union. The
break-up of its former ally, combined with the ongoing U.S. trade embargo,
led to a deep recession ... CIDA can assist Cuba through an exchange of
technology and expertise to encourage economic reforms that will both help
preserve the significant investments that Cuba has made in its people and
assist in Cuba's efforts to stimulate economic growth."

In regard to the improving "social conditions" that so impress CIDA, we
refer the agency's officials to Lawrence Solomon's fine essay on the facing
page. As for "Cuba's efforts to stimulate economic growth and activity," we
would be interested to see CIDA expand on what fate befell Cuba's "former
ally," Soviet Russia. Having cast off dictatorship and embraced democracy,
recall, the Russians went through a lean decade. But the country is now
booming in a way that the average Cuban could scarcely comprehend. So is
China, another nation that -- economically at least -- has cast off the
dogmas of communism.

The lesson is plain: Prosperity is impossible without freedom. And in the
long term, all of CIDA's band-aids will do little to "stimulate economic
growth and activity" until Mr. Castro's Soviet-style dictatorship is
overthrown.



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