Cuba's Lesson

So much of what is published about Cuba is negative, that one is left with the impression that there's nothing positive going on there.

Well, it so happens that Cubans are rebuilding small and poor communities that were hard-hit by three hurricanes and tropical storms in 2008, and they are doing it with their own resources and at a very low cost. The new housing is nothing fancy, but when you lived in a wooden house that was blown away by a hurricane, and now you have one made of cement blocks, it's a vast improvement. The truly remarkable thing about it is the fact that the materials used are gathered up from the neighborhood and transformed by low-tech machinery right there where they're going to be used. In other words, it's a community effort, much in keeping with the socialist model of the Cuban revolution, of solidarity and the "new man" envisioned by Che Guevara.

A different and better world is indeed possible.

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