This article is an immense pile of shit. In the first paragraph, he calls Cuba a, "little Carribean upstart nation that has insisted on socialism as its economic form (read: "sharing what you have)."
This was the first sentence and I already felt like punching through a wall. Cuba embraced Castro when he first took over, true. But at the time he had not declared he was a socialist. As time progressed, his popularity dwindled so significantly that he has to take measures like banning people from emigrating and not allowing people access to the internet or alternate media sources, just so he can maintain his control. And even then, it's not quite socialism. It's authoritarian communism. He's a dictator, not someone who oversees the "sharing" as this piece of shit article declares. Party officials ride around in Benzes while my grandfather's small business was taken away and he was forced to work in a movie theater. I call complete and utter bullshit.
The second quote that drove me nuts was "On the ride in from the airport, I was delighted to see the gaily, hand-painted vehicles of my childhood cruising the road in good working order." Cubans don't drive those old ass cars because they think it's quaint and badass, it's cause they have no options. I'm really glad that Mr. Coyote was able to get nostalgic at the expense of a nation's poverty. That'd be like visiting a poor American's house and commenting how much their 1994 computer reminds you of their youth. He's missing the point: Cuba is in drastic need of repair, and it has almost no capacity to modernize and to provide amenities like efficient transportation for its citizens.
The next line I loved was "There is a level of decrepitude that covers much of the environment like a fine mist." Way to romanticize their poverty by making it seem like a more authentic reality than America's stuffy, superficial capitalism. Like being decrepit is more "hardcore" and hip than being boring and financially stable. If Coyote stayed in the country for more than a few days, he might notice that the decrepitude is not a "fine mist." It's a lingering cloud that has stood over the country for over half a century. The decrepitude is a day to day reality of the Cuban people. It is evidenced in the lack of toilet paper, and in the need for almost everyone to secretly have a 'black market' job just to support their family.
To romanticize a people's suffering is disgusting. This article says volumes about what Coyote hates in the US, and his general points are at times valid. Sure, American capitalism has an ugly side of conspicuous consumption, greed, and carelessness that has contributed to our current financial crisis. But to assume that Cuba stands as a perfect antithesis to American capitalism is silly. To assume it's a nation of content socialists is practically laughable. Coyote comes to Cuba with a disdain for his own affluent, comfortable life in a US city, then projects his white guilt onto a poverty-stricken nation by fetishizing and romanticizing their suffering.
Was he aware that this quaint little upstart country doesn't allow people to have computers, out of fear that people will gain access to free media? This ban is regulated by block captains, party officials who oversee all activities on each street to ensure people are living lawfully. What a quaint "big brother"-esque activitiy they have chosen for themselves! Is he aware that the lovely "upstart socialist" government puts homosexuals in exile, forcing them into far off camps or into prison? Is he aware that the government does the same for AIDS victims? Is he aware that when my uncle tried to leave the country by boat in order to reunite with his wife and his infant son, he was jailed for seven years as a political prisoner?
This article is a disgrace, and it gives a bad names to liberals everywhere. Peter Coyote, fuck you.
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