By John W. Lillpop
While Barack Obama and the Democrat Party veer far to the extreme political left in a new and unfunded era of big government Marxism, the tiny Island of Cuba offers an invaluable source for “lessons learned” from a society that has dabbled in socialism and is paying the price for that mistake.
In Cuba, it has taken more than 50 years for former Cuban President Fidel Castro and brother Raul to face reality and accept the fact that socialism/communism is not the answer to anything—especially when living in the shadow of the greatest economic powerhouse in human history.
That 50 year “learning curve” has been an unmitigated disaster for the everyday Cuban people who have lived in abject poverty under a tyrannical dictator whose ego is larger than the island of Cuba itself.
Only within the past few weeks has Fidel Castro come clean with the Cuban people and admitted the complete failure of his and Brother Raul’s dictatorial excesses in providing a decent opportunity for economic stability and social justice.
Way past due for a government that cannot even meet the people’s need for toilet tissue, right?
The latest communist bubble to burst in the faces of the Castro brothers has to do with 500,000 state employees who are about to lose their jobs.
As reported at reference 1, in part:
“Communist Cuba will shift hundreds of thousands of state employees to the private sector in 2011 as the government prunes more than 500,000 workers from its payroll.
“The official trade union federation said on Monday that eventually more than a million jobs would be cut.
“The plan represents the most important reform undertaken by President Raúl Castro since he took over from his brother Fidel in early 2008, and the biggest shift to private enterprise since all 58,000 small businesses were nationalised in 1968.
“The massive layoff of 10 per cent of the state labour force is scheduled to begin in October and stretch through March. New licences for self-employment would be issued beginning in October , the sources said. Geographical limitations on self-employment and prohibitions on obtaining bank credits, doing business with state entities or hiring labour outside the family, would be eliminated.”
Hmm. It would appear as though that tiny island is a veritable treasure cove of “Teaching Opportunities” for slow-learning Marxists in training to the north!
The big question: Will America’s egocentric, narcissist and in-over-his-head president be able to swallow his self-absorption long enough to do what is best for America?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4cd17af4-bf5e-11df-965a-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss
