Comment by dzonga

7 days ago

Cuba should've learned from China.

Communism with Cuban characteristics.

Then got energy independent-- by importing a lot of solar panels, wind turbines from China.

then they wouldn't be suffering an energy embargo from the US.

for the few cases they need hydrocarbons import from Russia.

12 comments

dzonga

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thiagoharry  6 days ago

You are forgetting the criminal economic and trade embargo against Cuba. With what money would they buy these Chinese solar panels? How exactly would they obtain the dollars? What economic activity do you propose for them to industrialize and become internationally competitive, given that they are an island with very few natural resources and, thanks to the embargo, have to pay much more for any resource compared to any other country?

  • dzonga  6 days ago

    I'm not - clearly going against a superpower hell bent on destroying you and making you a colony hasn't exactly worked for them. I'm just pointing reality as it is - you can't force the US to change - it will remain imperialist.

    economic activity - export labor to China, Africa they've already been doing that already.

    they still receive money from other countries not just the US.

    I have lived under a US sanctioned country - blaming the US doesn't help - most of the fault lies in administration of said country - the effects of sanctions is less than say the effect of an incompetent administration

    • thiagoharry  6 days ago

      Yes, they are already doing that. Tourism, exporting skilled workers (doctors), exporting rum and cigars. Exactly the economic activities that do not require external raw materials. And with that, they have achieved social indicators vastly better than all their neighbors. So I don't really see the basis for your accusation of incompetence: Cuba does well what it can.

      But what it can do is fragile. Without industrialization, there is no way to have stable wealth. China and Vietnam themselves only industrialized and followed that path after trade blockades were lifted. Without that, the Chinese reform and its opening to the market would have come to nothing.

      Moreover, it is strange to defend a crime by naturalizing the idea that the criminal will always act that way. That may well be the case. In that case, it is morally necessary to turn against him and stop him.

xp84  7 days ago

China first got a lot of money by exporting billions (trillions?) of dollars of stuff to the whole world with their huge labor force (and presumably a lot of raw materials either homemade or imported). Cuba doesn’t have that ability.

An alternative plan: Cuba could also, at any point, have given up on Communism and rejoin the rest of the world. Even China sold out a lot of its communist ideals if we’re being honest, which helped the West feel pretty okay doing business with them.

  • skeledrew  7 days ago

    > Cuba could also, at any point, have given up on Communism

    Why should they? If it wasn't for the decades of sabotage it would've been working for them reasonably. Should they succumb to the bullying from another country that hates their ideals?

    • xp84  6 days ago

      Ah yes, the “Communism would be working out perfectly, if it weren’t for everybody else sabotaging us!” rationalization.

      Are there, have there ever been, any examples of real communist states where most of the commoners are not in poverty?

      3 replies →

  • poulpy123  7 days ago

    And Cuba is a small island next to the US, not a massive juggernaut on the other side of the world