For some, Fidel Castro was a remarkable revolutionary and an accomplished orator. He was also the son of a wealthy sugar plantation owner whose biggest customer was U.S.-based United Fruit Company. He was educated at a private Jesuit school, and then enrolled in law school where he became immersed in socialism and nationalism, focusing his energies exclusively on politics. He could talk forever and was intellectually minded. He detested his country’s position as an economic colony of the U.S.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau was a revolutionary minded nationalist who forever changed our constitutional legal system. He was the son of a wealthy lawyer and businessman who sold his gas station business to Imperial Oil. He was educated in a Jesuit school, attended law school and became intellectually a socialist-oriented liberal immersed in nationalism and politics. He was uncomfortable with the U.S. economic predominance in our business and financial welfare.
The two men liked one another.
Cuba was ‘discovered’ by Columbus on October 27, 1492. For 300 years it was a Spanish colony supplying primarily sugar and tobacco to Spain and acting as a supply and communication base for the Spanish colonies in the Americas. With Spain’s international power declining in the 19th century, political discontent emerged with three options fighting for primacy – independence, autonomy within the Spanish empire or annexation by the U.S. Civil war broke out in the 1890s. U.S. business interests were affected. The navy blockaded Santiago harbour and Spain relinquished control of the island to the trusteeship of the Yanks. The 20th century was not kind to Cuba either. The first Cuban Congress of the Republic was elected in 1902. A succession of elected governments and military juntas became mired in incompetent administration, patronage and financial corruption. Prior to Fidel Castro’s takeover in 1959, the U.S. government intermittently stepped in to prevent collapse. That role was then taken on by the U.S.S.R. and continues with Russia.
Castro began his fight for economic independence by nationalizing U.S. owned factories and plantations. Eisenhower broke off relations and planned the Bay of Pigs invasion. Castro countered by making a deal with Khrushchev to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. Khrushchev withdrew the missiles from Cuba. Kennedy withdrew U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The stalemate continued until Pope Francis, Stephen Harper, Barack Obama and Raul Castro opened up talks last year.
Out of five centuries of political chaos, there still emerges some truly positive news. In 1999 Fidel Castro embraced an idea from Che Guevara, a close associate who was also a physician turned folk hero for some and terrorist for others. Castro established ELAM, probably the world’s largest medical school with 19,550 students from 110 countries. The curriculum is targeted on primary healthcare, community medicine and hands-on internship experiences. It is a variant of our Canadian community nurse practitioner training program. Cuban government revenue comes from collecting a portion of the incomes earned by Cuban workers abroad. In 2013 Cuba had doctors and nurses working in 77 countries and the government collected $8 billion.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Donald Trump chats up Raul Castro as he plans his revision of Obamacare. Fascinating – a communist country with a profit-generating healthcare system. And Michael Corleone wasn't even around.
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
