I was surprised at the number of putatively informed political pundits who not only argued that the analysis I proffered in my Friday commentary (entitled Fidel Castro Admits His ‘Cuban Model’ Has Failed) was flawed, but also expressed incredulity that Castro would ever have uttered the words attributed to him.
Coincidentally, they were aided in their criticisms by an oxymoronic clarification Castro offered merely hours after my commentary was published. For, even though he conceded that he was quoted accurately, Castro insisted that:
The reality is that my response means exactly the opposite [i.e., that the Cuban model has been a rousing success].
(Reuters, September 10, 2010)
Well, I’ll chalk that up to a sudden onset of senility. But, as I indicated above, the proof is in the pudding. And nothing betrays Castro’s words in this case quite like the fact that the Cuban government announced just yesterday that it:
… will shift hundreds of thousands of state employees to the private sector in 2011 as the government prunes more than 500,000 workers from its payroll.
(Financial Times, September 13, 2010)
Now what could be a greater indicator of the failure of his (communist) Cuban model than that?!
Related commentary:
Castro admits Cuban model has failed
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