Cuba: Sun, sea & sibling rivalry....

Good to know that family loyalty is alive and well in Cuba.

I see Fidel Castro released a statement earlier this week saying that his quote – "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore" - was misinterpreted by US magazine The Atlantic.

Well I am glad. As one of six, I know how important it is to keep your siblings sweet – and the best way to do that is to agree with them at all times! I am sure Fidel’s little brother Raúl, the country’s current President, is delighted to hear that he has the full backing of his older sibling, who himself led Cuba under the ‘model’ for more than 15 years. The last thing we’d want is for sibling rivalry to interfere with politics.... take note David and Ed... why don’t you take turns? Or perhaps share the leadership like good little boys – a sort of coalition leadership – Dedward has a certain ring to it, I think?! Anyway, I digress....

I must admit, I was a little slow on the uptake with news of Fidel’s ‘second’ wind’. I was on holiday when he emerged to give his first public speech in four years though. The fact that I was in Cuba at the time kind of weakens my excuse for not following the news, but the media is not quite the same there as it is here, and my Spanish is a bit sketchy!

But seriously, between sipping Mojitos, I did tune in to BBC World News to catch up on goings on! In truth, unlike my namesake Nick, I am not a big political boffin, and probably would have taken little notice of Fidel’s speech if it wasn’t for the fact that I was visiting his homeland. Likewise, I would probably have never taken any real interest in Cuba itself, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was holidaying there. But once you go to somewhere like that, and see the set up of the place, you really do become fascinated by it. Well I did!

Cuba is genuinely unlike anywhere I have ever been. I knew before I went there that it was a communist state, but didn’t quite know what that meant in real terms – I wondered if it would even be possible to have a classless society and how it would change life. Well, I reckon it pretty well is possible, and it changes life immeasurably. Arriving in Cuba and driving to the hotel you see people leading their cattle along the roadside, hitchhikers (Cuba’s transport systems aren’t great, so the Government has created laws to make sure that certain vehicles are legally obliged to pick up hitchhikers, and those not legally obliged are encouraged to) and families travelling around on horse and carts. A few buses transporting tourists and Cadillacs are about all you see on main roads – and that’s during rush hour. Oh and speed cameras don’t exist in Cuba; the police guess your speed (seriously!) and give points if they think you are driving too quickly – much better I think!

Right along the roadside are small clusters of houses, little communities, but unlike here, there is no ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’. Everyone is equally poor, or equally rich, depending on how you look at life. Some have precious little more than others – the odd family has a car – but generally speaking, there is a state of equality – no one is really better off than anyone else.

So how does this benefit people? How does it make for a better society? The Cubans benefit from a very good standard of education. Youngsters can stay on for further education at no cost, so there is no real culture of elitism – everyone has the same opportunities. The healthcare system is considered to be excellent. And, Cuba has a very low crime rate; as people can only inherit cars and houses (that’s right, they can’t buy them!), there is very little benefit in having money, so crime is probably pretty pointless.

It’s not a scientific way of measuring the success or failure of communism in Cuba, but all I know from my time there is that from the moment you arrive, to the moment you leave (and step on the plane to see miserable British tourists and travel reps, in my case!), you are welcomed with a smile, and a ‘hola amigo’, and you feel part of a real community, where everyone helps each other, and no-one is out for themselves.

I have pondered it, and I still don’t really know if Fidel was right or wrong - I couldn’t possibly say if life is better in a state of shared wealth. I suppose nothing is black and white, so maybe it is not as simple as ‘better’ or ‘worse’. So, I think, as I normally do, I will sit on the ‘grey fence’! Right now, suffering from jet lag, and looking out at the cold English sky, I think I would probably quite like to be sitting on that fence somewhere in Cuba, saying ‘hola’ to my neighbours, with a Mojito in my left hand, and maybe a nice big Cohiba cigar in my right (well, got to embrace the culture!)....