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Caribbean-Latin America
Now he tells us: Cuba economic model doesn't work, says Fidel
2010-09-09
HAVANA: Fidel Castro has told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's economic model does not work any more, a rare comment on domestic affairs since stepping down from the presidency four years ago.
Hasn't worked since January 1, 1959, I reckon ...
The blunt economic assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows, particularly from his younger brother, Raul, the country's President since 2006.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries. Dr Castro replied: ''The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more,'' Mr Goldberg wrote on Wednesday in a post on his blog.
Poor Mr. Goldberg then was seen hunched over a stiff drink at the bar down the street from the Atlantic offices, wondering why he'd chosen a career as a progressive journalist and whether he should have listened to his mother and become an accountant ...
He said Dr Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Mr Goldberg's account.

Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who accompanied Mr Goldberg on the trip, confirmed the former Cuban leader's comment. She said she took the remark to be in line with President Raul Castro's call for gradual but widespread reform, and a comment on too big an involvement of the state in the domestic economy.

The Cuban state controls well over 900 90 per cent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $US20 ($21.82) a month in return for free healthcare and education, and nearly free transportation and housing.
We all understand that none of all that is 'free', but the writer at smh has to regurgitate what's been spoon-fed ...
Since stepping down in 2006 Dr Castro has focused on international affairs and has said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit perceptions he is stepping on his younger brother's toes.
Posted by:tipper

#9  Poor Mr. Goldberg then was seen hunched over a stiff drink at the bar down the street from the Atlantic offices, wondering why he'd chosen a career as a progressive journalist and whether he should have listened to his mother and become an accountant ...


michael douglass' character in Romancing the Stone

Plastic surgeon - $500k a year and up 2 my neck in tits and ass.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2010-09-09 23:31  

#8  The Soviets maintained the illusion in Cuba for a long time, particularly during the start up period. Hugo has no similar sponsor for his economic blackhole. Now the Chinese might be willing to chip in some resources in return for oil concessions, but they're already massively committed to the blackhole at the US Treasury.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-09-09 16:24  

#7  Jeffrey Goldberg is a low-cal neocon of some standing, FYI. The invite to Havana was issued because Fidel read Goldberg's epic "the Israelis feel they have to do something about the Iranian Bomb" article in the Atlantic last month.

Apparently Fidel's playing his hand at "elder
statesman" now that he's unexpectedly survived his resignation as murderous tyrant, and is playing at anti-anti-Semitism. I'm not sure if this new anti-Iranian game of the elder Castro's is a Cuban initiative, something he's doing in his dotage on his own hook, a rift in the Cuba-Venezuela-Iran chain of alliances, or a break-up between Cuba and Venezuela done at two removes.

The "Cuba doesn't work" strongly suggests a divorce between Cuba and Venezuela, since that's essentially the Chavez plan, with a bit of Bolivarian showmanship to distract the rubes and campus creatures. Castro's determined that the Bolivarian republic is about to go smash, and wants to negotiate an "out"?
Posted by: Mitch H.   2010-09-09 15:40  

#6  Re: the Simon theory --

And here I was thinking of Fidel having a "come to Jesus" meeting with himself (in the role of Jesus, of course).
Posted by: Gabby   2010-09-09 15:02  

#5   In a thousand faculty lounges across the nation, distraught professors are wailing, gnashing their teeth, rending their garments, and collapsing into pathetic sobbing heaps.

Wait until they're hit with the Simon theory.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2010-09-09 14:19  

#4  Given all the Hollyweird slugs who wax about the 'Cuban Model' but who do not move there, is anyone really surprised? White courtesy phone for Michael Moore.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-09-09 13:20  

#3  Fidel was just mistaken in 1959. Now in 2010 he's just demented.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2010-09-09 13:00  

#2  "Dr." Castro?

As in Demento? OR maybe a reference to the fact that the caudillo's tears cure cancer too bad he never cries
Posted by: lex   2010-09-09 12:55  

#1  In a thousand faculty lounges across the nation, distraught professors are wailing, gnashing their teeth, rending their garments, and collapsing into pathetic sobbing heaps. Not since Shoeless Joe Jackson confessed to fixing the World Series, not since it was revealed that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli weren't actually singing, has a beloved hero uttered such disillusioning words and crushed the faith of his adoring fans.
Posted by: Mike   2010-09-09 12:50  

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