Fidel's folly falters
By Dimitri Vassilaros
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, January 23, 2006
Has anyone noticed that the Cuban government is on the verge of collapse? Fidel Castro's reign could expire before he does.
Mr. Castro recently went public about Cuban corruption so massive that it could destroy his so-called revolution. And going to the extremes that he did to save his 47-year-old stranglehold, his dictatorship looks like it's ready for the hospice, morphine drip, crematorium and dustbin of history.
Reading from his scripted speech in November, Castro asked, "Do you believe that this revolutionary socialist process can fall apart, or not? This revolution can destroy itself. We can destroy ourselves, and it would be our fault," according to the People's Weekly World Newspaper.
Can't hang this on Uncle Sam.
Castro blamed "vices, theft, (and) 're-routing' at the hands of 'social parasites' and the new rich." And anyone daring to profit from the sale of the family chicken.
But it's more than petty theft.
More than $36 million worth of gasoline was pilfered last year. Most weekends, state-owned cars are parked at the beaches frequented by the chauffeurs and their families. Castro even has talked about all the extra mileage run up by the government drivers who drop in on their girlfriends. He plans to install global positioning systems in all government vehicles (including tractors and ships) to keep an eye on everyone, according to a CBS News story.
In October, Castro impressed about 30,000 college students and young social workers, gave some black T-shirts and put them on the front lines to fight corruption. Youngsters who replaced the usual gas station grease monkeys reported revenues increased by $100,000 in one month.
Picture a dash of Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (without the mass graves), a pinch of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost (with a Cuban accent) and a populace as drained and desperate as the Romanians were at the end of the reign of Nicolae "Genius of the Carpathians" Ceausescu and his shrew wife, who were shot dead after singing the fourth word of the "Internationale" at their execution.
The "Year of Energy Revolution in Cuba" is at hand
Castro's "Brigades Against Wastefulness, Extravagance and Corruption" are taking a census of home appliances. The energy crisis is so serious that Castro wants to eliminate what few appliances a peasant might have -- an iron, hot water heater, electric hot plate or homemade rice cooker -- that consume too much precious Cuban current.
What peasant wouldn't trade them in for a brand new energy-efficient rice cooker offered by the state? And maybe, someday, rice.
El Presidente thinks his Castro kids could help Cuba save up to $20 billion in 10 years.
Much of the world sneered when President Reagan demanded that the Berlin Wall be torn down. Those same people probably thought that Mikhail Gorbachev would fix communism in the Soviet Union.
But how many have noticed that when the subjects in communist countries revolt -- peaceably or violently -- they rid themselves of the dictators and the communist system?
Castro has been keeping the seat warm for heir-apparent brother Raul. But if new rice cookers for the peasants don't do the trick, the Castros should think twice before breaking out in song with the Spanish version of the Internationale.
Viva la Revolucion! |
