The Truth About Castro

Cuba features a universal health care system, a minuscule 1.9 percent unemployment rate, near-total literacy, complete political "unity" -- and hundreds of thousands of people ready to risk their lives to get the hell out.

How could that be?

Supermodel Naomi Campbell claims that Fidel Castro is "a source of inspiration to the world." Actually, in South Beach, dingbat stick figures can pocket millions strutting down runways, but in Cuba, young women are destined to toil in a socialist economy with little hope. They aren't inspired by Castro. Suicide rates are estimated to have tripled since El Caballo began running things.

Campbell is not alone in her adulation. Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson and Dan Rather all have had glowing words for the man. Filmmaker Michael Moore makes a hefty living persuading Americans to co-opt Cuba's health care system. Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel only recently, on Castro's dime, went for a chat with the great man.

This inexplicable hero worship has been ongoing for 50 years.

Now some in the media are skipping facts for "fairness" when it comes to El Presidente. After learning that the "Cuban president" was rejecting a "new term" in office, media attention regularly has washed over Castro's brutal history -- emphasizing, instead, the "charismatic" revolutionary's mixed bag of success.

In a leaked e-mail from CNN, a producer invites colleagues to "Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba -- namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration." (Fidel? Jeez, why not just call him Comrade Fidel?)

Please note: A) There's no such thing as a "free" anything. B) Cuban socialist "universal health care" is a disaster. C) The only racial integration Castro achieved in Cuba was bequeathing poverty to all races evenly. And worse.

In fact, if terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba ever are granted habeas corpus, they will be the only people on the island -- sans American personnel and Fidel himself -- to enjoy such rights.

The secret police -- operating in a building adorned with a mural of murderous thug Che Guevara -- have arrested journalists and political opponents.

According to Amnesty International, "Freedom of expression, association and movement continue to be severely restricted."

Last year, there were at least 69 "prisoners of conscience" that we know of, sitting in Cuban jails for their political opinions. In fact, in Cuba, you can get more than a year in prison for cracking a joke about the verbose bearded tyrant.

Deposing the corrupt Batista regime in 1959, Castro brought something far worse. According to Humberto Fontova, author of "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant": "In 1958, that 'impoverished Caribbean island' had a higher per capita income than Austria and Japan and Cuban industrial workers had the 8th highest wages in the world. Cuba also had the hemisphere's lowest inflation rate and her peso was always equal in value with the U.S. dollar."

Today? The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom finds that Cuba is one of the most repressive economies in the world, ahead of only North Korea -- another country where revolution has blossomed.

Yet for some reason, there is always a silver lining. In 2002, ABC's Barbara Walters claimed, "For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on earth."

Of course, literacy is not the yardstick for freedom. Nor are infant mortality rates. Nor is universal health care. Freedom is the yardstick for freedom. And Cuba has little of it.

Now Castro's kid brother, Raul, will be running things. Will he go the route of China and bring more economic freedom or maintain the status quo? No one knows. What we do know is that it's time to be less "fair" and more honest about Castro.

David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the author of "Nanny State." Visit his website at www.DavidHarsanyi.com. To find out more about David Harsanyi and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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