Flagrant Communism!

Without meaning to start a trend, I couldn't resist posting about communism again.

The above picture is from Chongqing, China, where a woman resisted pressure from developers and government officials to allow them demolish her home. She claimed that the compensation offered was below market prices. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped them from demolishing the 280 other buildings that once surrounded her house, excavating the site, and therefore leaving her unable to access her property. One of the sad things about the whole saga is the fact that the only reason the woman has even been able to resist for so long is the fact that she has political family connections, and the media interest that the story has gotten. According to a quote in the NY Times:

“If it were an ordinary person, they would have hired thugs and beat her up,” said a woman dressed in a green sweater who was drawn by the throng. “Ordinary people don’t dare fight with the developers. They’re too strong.”

After more than two years of battling, the house has since been demolished as the woman finally accepted a new offer of compensation which has allowed her to buy a similarly sized apartment in a different area of the city.

In the past month

"...the National People’s Congress passed a historic law guaranteeing private property rights to China’s swelling ranks of urban, middle-class homeowners, among others. Some here attributed Ms. Wu’s success to that, as well as her knack for generating publicity."

China's innovative integration of communism and capitalism is bound to lead to problems such as private property rights etc. But this is an example of the kind of flagrant corruption that is endemic in every communist system. Even though communism is supposed to benefit the people, a citizen in a communist system has nearly no civil rights. In urban China, it is a case of Chinese people being constrained by communist laws while being exploited by a capitalist system. Civilians can get bullied into accepting shitty compensation so that a PRIVATE developer can build high density condominiums to SELL and PROFIT from.

I'm not naive enough to believe that a similar case can't happen in a capitalist country, and of course not all capitalist countries are democracies, but I just feel there is an element of deceit in the Chinese system, and I don't really like it.

I'd like to know what others think.

Crrrrrrazy Commies

In Cuba, the name of the game is full-on, unabashed, flagrant propaganda. Cuban television stations are mostly political. Apparently Castro used to go on television regularly and make 6 hour long speeches. According to our tour guide, Castro is in the Guinness Book of Record for the longest speech! I saw President Chavez of Venezuela doing the exact same thing on television while I was there. The museums are all very biased, telling how Castro single handily won battles etc.

The most interesting propaganda is, of course, about the United States. Around the US embassy they have erected big billboards. One says that Bush + an anti-Castro Cuban terrorist living in Miami = Hitler. Another shows an American trying to scare a Cuban and the Cuban laughing at him. There was a billboard for a fake movie called The Assassins starring a hilariously photoshopped George Bush and the same terrorist guy. The U.S. Embassy which was near my hotel was surrounded by police, we weren't even allowed to stand around outside for more than 30 seconds.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. is getting its own propaganda in. They have cheekily erected a scrolling text screen on the top of the embassy building which comes on at night. Apparently it tells 'the truth' about Castro, such as how he is making large investments in Venezuela while Cuba suffers.

Of course, Castro was not about to just sit by and let the Americans pollute the Cubans minds with this nonsense, so he erected a load of huge black flags on on enormous flagpoles which fly in front of the embassy and block the text screen when looking from a distance. As a result apparently many Cubans climb onto the rooftops of their buildings to read the screen.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Flagrant

I guess I'll give you guys a quick guide as to how the holiday went:

Toronto was alright. The highlight of Toronto was probably seeing 300 on a 6 storey imax screen in high definition. It was an experience of such flagrant sensory overload that it pretty much literally blew my mind. They really need to bring the imax back to Dublin (but no more fish documentaries narrated by Sting!). I arrived in Toronto on a Friday night, but the downtown seemed to be pretty dead at night, there was no buzz around the place.

Cuba is where the real action is. The place is so feckin good. People are great, Havana is great, it's just so much more interesting than Toronto. Old Havana is beautiful but crumbling. Even though they have restored some of the buildings in Old Havana, they seem to mainly only restore buildings in the tourist areas.

Cuba has the friendliest people I've ever met, they seem happy and look healthy but in reality are ridiculously poor. The rations the people get are a joke, e.g. 5kg of rice a month, enough meat for 1 meal per month, 1 bar of soap a month, 1 tube toothpaste per family per month, and anything between 5-10 dollars a month depending on job. In 1992 a second cuban currancy was created, which US dollars/euro etc is exchanged into. These Cuban dollars can be used in the various shops, hotels, restuarants, supermarkets. There is basically a very small capitalist economy within the communist system. The problem is that the only way for a Cuban to get Cuban dollars is either to have relatives in the US sending money, or working around the tourist industry getting tips. A 2-tier society has been created, consisting of those who have access to Cuban dollars and those who don't. Everybody needs to have them in order to supplement the useless rations that they get, so people in rural areas struggle the most. Remember farmers aren't allowed to eat the food they produce. They live on rations just like everyone else.

As a result of this crazy situation, all the well educated people have tried to move into the tourist industry. For instance, apparently there is such a shortage of teachers that they've cut the training period for a teacher from 6 years of University in-order to teach 1 subject, to 6 months training to teach 8 subjects. Apparently today many of the teachers are poorly educated 18-20 years olds, so the standard has really dropped. The average Cuban seems very well educated though, and I couldn't believe how much English was spoken, considering the countries political isolation. One can still get their child a decent education if they secretly send them to an ex-teachers house for private classes. But of course people have to pay for it with scarce cuban dollars.

What really made the holiday though was that we met a guy named Carlos. He was our private tour guide of Havana on our 2nd day there, he was really interesting and honest, he even showed us his own house. He's a former state prosecutor who has moved into the tourist industry. Hes a cool guy and he really helped us out. Carlos basically became our personal guide for the whole holiday. Thanks to him and his 'contacts' we saved money in pretty much everything we did, like moving into the National Hotel (which has had a ridiculous amount of cool celebrities stay there since 1930, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Nat King Cole, I can't remember them all. Strangely they seem to most cherish Michael Keaton. Can't argue with Batman!!), saw Bueno Vista Social Club, and he and his wife took us on a trip out to an amazing part of the countryside called Vinales. Vinales was probably the most beautiful place I've ever been to, it was full of glaciated valleys. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park.

Randomly staying in my hotel was that dude Ade Adepitan. he's the black guy who does the wheelchair hiphop dancing on the BBC between programs. I think he was also a paralympic basketball player for Britain.

I had a great time, especially in Cuba, probably one of the best holidays I've been on. I'd recommend it to anyone. Although its definitly not a perfect place, my opinion of communism has improved a lot (from a very low base!). There is a strong community, its safe, the people clearly have an easy going lifestyle, and in fairness its by far the most stable country in the carribean. Oh and I have to mention the cars. Many of those old 1950's cars were in fantastic condition. What I was suprised by was the amount of the old Soviet Ladas, they were EVERYWHERE. And I have to admit, the Ladas don't even look that bad anymore. Infact, I'd love to have a lada. In my opinion they were so legendarily shit that they now should be regarded as the musthave retro-icon of 1980's flagraliciousness.