abajo el fascismo

well i keep trying to post pictures from my trip but blogger doesn't seem to want me to, so i'm giving up and moving on. rest assured, it was a very pretty trip to san diego.

the news i really want to talk about is fidel castro's temporary cession of power to his brother, raul. i've studied cuba a lot: it was the topic of several research papers, including my thesis, in college, and i spent a month there in the summer of 2003. i have to say, there is a lot about cuba and its government that has been successful: its health and education systems are absolutely first rate, and its fierce determination to resist the american hegemony that has paralyzed many other tiny caribbean nations is extremely respectable. but what i saw in cuba is a country that is struggling, unnecessarily, in order to cater to the every whim of its leader. fidel castro earned the respect of the cuban people in 1959 but has failed them in many ways since.

cuba is in so many ways a wonderful country with a proud history. the opportunity to move forward without castro is a great one, and the enthusiasm of the cuban exiles is understandable. my high school spanish teacher was herself an exile, and though she has been in the united states since 1960, she continues to count the days until she can return. my only hope is that the united states stays the hell out of it, though it sure doesn't seem likely.