travelswithalice

When it comes to Cuba, everybody has an opinion. Depending on what school of thought one has bought into and how much of it he has packed into his travel bag, Cuba is either an outpost of romantic revolutionary zeal or just a failed socialist experiment. The tourist is irresistibly drawn to add his own flourishes to whatever picture he has gleaned from history books and tourist pamphlets.

There are several constants in any Cuban holiday story: Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, old cars, art deco buildings, and salsa.


I went in search of cuba libres- as in cocktail- and arroz ala cubana, a childhood favorite. What I found was that cuba libres have been made irrelevant by mojitos; and arroz ala cubana by the ubiquitous Cuban sandwich.







I also went in search of a story about a country devastated by revolution. A story of how the US embargo is isolating and bringing to its knees a country intent on sticking to the tenets of an unfashionable ideology. And the big story behind all this, of course, is the story of a clutch of scraggly photogenic intellectual rebels taking over an entire country by throwing out an unpopular, corrupt government. Fifty two years on, they're still running the country.

The Cuba I found is nowhere near down on its knees. Virtually 100% literate, Cuba offers free education at all levels to all its citizens. It even offers free university education to deserving citizens of other countries. There are presently about 10,000 foreign students studying in Cuban universities. There is one teacher for every 37 Cubans. They have a labour force of at least a million technicians, technologists, and university graduates.

Rumoured to have some of the best doctors in the world, they have one doctor available for every 300 Cubans.They have an enviable health care system. Free. And made accessible to all citizens through various poly technical centers, hospitals, and medical centers. There are benefits covering sickness, maternity, and work-related injury. As well as old age, disability, and survivors pensions.

Cuba has culture- art, opera, ballet, theatre, popular music and dance, cinema. Available to all. In some cases, free. There are Cuban writers, poets, painters, and musicians renowned throughout the world.


So how is this a failed experiment in anything? I wonder what it's like to have no bills to worry about? No school fees, no hospital bills, no doctor's fees even! To have dancing in the streets, at stadium-like dance halls, at bars on every street corner. Music seems to be the people's lifeblood; drumbeat their pulse. In Havana, I heard drums start to beat every morning soon after I woke up.


Does all this make the citizenry uninvolved and frivolous? From where I stand- and that’s way back as a tourist- they look far too relaxed. It's like not much is expected of them by the government. Or even by themselves. Bread and circuses come to mind.

What? Wouldn't they rather march angrily up and down streets carrying protest placards? Have labor strikes maybe? Watch politicians hurl accusations at each other on TV?