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Cuba and Taiwan: A tale of two islands [1]
['Frank Calzon', 'More From Author', 'February']
Date: 2024-02-04
It is too bad that there is no Charles Dickens around to write “Taiwan and Cuba, the Tale of Two Islands.”
Please let me explain. Eighty-one miles from China, Taiwan is a vibrant democracy that just held free and fair elections. Cuba, 90 miles from the United States, is under communism and held parliamentary “elections” for its National Assembly of the People’s Power which has 470 seats, the same number of candidates who were unanimously elected.
Taiwan enjoys a multiparty system. In Cuba, only the Communist Party is allowed. There hasn’t been anything resembling real elections since the Castros came to power in 1959.
Years ago, Andres Solares wrote a letter in Havana to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy asking for advice about elections and political parties. The letter was intercepted by the political police, and Solares was sent to prison. When the senator learned about it, he obtained his release.
A comparison between Taiwan and Cuba may be instructive. Back in 1959, Cuba’s GDP per capita was $3,006, higher than Taiwan’s, standing at $2,118, according to the Madison Project.
Now, Cuba’s GDP per capita has only risen to $8,326, whereas Taiwan’s has surpassed $40,000 despite having a smaller surface area.
Some blame the American embargo for food shortages, but during 2023 Cuba imported expensive electric cars for its ruling class.
Due to lack of maintenance, many apartment buildings in Havana have collapsed, but the American embargo does not prevent construction of five-star hotels for the tourist sector. School buses and ambulances are lacking, but Havana’s police drive a fleet of shining, new cars.
Cuba was once one of the largest producers of sugar in the world, but today there are serious shortages of sugar, milk, beans, rice and other products. A farmer who dares to sell a chicken, or a liter of milk to a fellow Cuban is sent to jail. Farmers may only sell to the government at a price established by the authorities.
Today, Cubans anxiously await the arrival of a foreign ship loaded with sugar. Cuba is a Caribbean island surrounded by a bountiful sea, but fish is rationed.
Manuel Rocha, a retired American ambassador, has been charged as a Cuban spy, and may be facing up to 60 years in prison. Ana Belen Montes, a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency, was released in January 2023 after spending 20 years in jail for spying for Fidel Castro. She promoted the lifting of the American embargo at the Pentagon, the Congress and the foreign policy community. Some died due to her chicanery.
There are American terrorists wanted by the FBI living in Havana and hundreds of Cubans have joined Putin’s army in Ukraine. Cuba’s closest allies are Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Iran.
There are 1,063 political prisoners in Cuba, the inflation rate was over 40% in 2022, and the draconian economic measures announced by Cuba’s president Miguel Diaz Cannel will have little impact, as long as Cuba maintains its communist economic model.
Cuba’s press censorship and the persecution of independent journalists are the reason for poor rankings in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index.
The regime, still under General Raul Castro’s control, desperately needs an infusion of dollars.
Cuba, like China, directs a sophisticated lobby targeting the U.S. Congress, American universities, media and religious leaders.
Foreign tourists subsidize the regime since all hotels are owned by the government. Americans wishing to enjoy the tropics may want to consider other Caribbean destinations.
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