THE START OF A CUBAN RENAISSANCE… (…maybe…)

History repeats itself, they say, so now we seem to have come to the same point with Cuba that we once did with China. After decades of pretending that several billion Chinese didn’t exist, just because they were under a Communist totalitarian regime, none other than “Tricky Dick” Nixon concluded that was an idiotic posture for America to take…and began opening up relations with Peijing. Once that had happened, much like letting a genie out of a bottle, China’s re-development took off like a rocket, bringing it to where it is today (granted there are still some significant areas of concern about its regime, but at least there have evolved ways to deal with that).

A similar situation now exists with Cuba, as we prepare to establish respective embassies with each other again. How rapidly things will evolve from there…is an open question… but, having Cuba rejoin the western hemisphere’s collective community can only be good for all of it.

There are some very interesting parallels between China’s former situation and Cuba’s today. That is, how and in what way to relax central control of economic activities, while retaining absolute political control and power over them. It’s not an easy path to tread. Russia is a prime example of how chaotic things can become when such a transition becomes a stampede. Russia hasn’t really recovered from it. All its former commissars looted everything in sight to become oligarchs, a certain amount of civil conflict racked its people, and ultimately a new Czar of all the Russias named Vladimir…came to power.

In China, it wasn’t until Mao Tse Tung was dead and gone, and his Gang of Seven heirs were put aside, before things could really begin to progress away from its former ideological straight-jacket. Chou En Lai, China’s supreme military leader, shrewdly understood that too sudden a shift would only create chaos and even complete political upheaval. His approach to …tip-toe forward…by setting up special “economic zones” close to Hong Kong, where market economics could be given a free rein (ironically, most of the capital investment to power that came from Taiwanese business interests, besides those from Hong Kong). The rest, as they say, is history.

Cuba faces an almost identical situation. As long as Fidel remains alive, not much will progress forward. His brother Raul, like Chou En Lai, will have to bide his time, and very slowly relax the economic reins of control, perhaps with similar tightly limited “economic zones” where erstwhile “free market” types can ply their trades. How well that is handled will determine how Cuba will bloom again. The biggest concern for all Cubans, while their country blooms again, will be to avoid returning to the bad old days and ways of the old Bautista regime which brought about the revolution in the first place.

Comparatively speaking, both have been equally oppressive for the Cuban people. Simply put, no matter what color underwear it sports…tyranny…is always…tyranny.

Well, the only certainty we can say about Cuba…as we recall rather fondly…is that Cuban girls swing and sway in a most delightful way. That’s probably where they got the expression …VIVA CUBA LIBRE!

CENTURION