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The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. When I came upon the diary it was lying at the bottom of a rather battered red cardboard collar-box, in which as a small boy I kept my Eton collars. Someone, probably my mother, had filled it with treasures dating from those days. There were two dry, empty sea-urchins; two rusty magnets, a large one and a small one, which had almost lost their magnetism; some negatives rolled up in a tight coil; some stumps of sealing-wax; a small combination lock with three rows of letters; a twist of very fine whipcord, and one or two ambiguous objects, pieces of things, of which the use was not at once apparent: I could not even tell what they had belonged to.
L.P. Hartley — The Go-Between
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Perhaps my parents saw that travelogue on Havana before they honeymooned there in 1950. They said that the extremes of wealth and poverty and the prevalent contempt for decent and lawful conduct that was not compelled or narrowly expedient was so obvious as to be repellent. The atmosphere was one of fin de siecle waiting for the revolution.
In the 1930s and 40′s an American could go anywhere and do anything. My Father went to Havana once and visited Batista, who came out from his sergeant’s quarters at the barracks where his family was having dinner, just because as an American he could. An uncle of mine went to Dental School (before he went to Medical School) at the American University of Beirut. As a Jewish American it was perfectly safe and natural for him to go to Lebanon but he could not get into an American Medical School without first getting an advanced degree from overseas.
I wonder if the monument to the Maine is still there? The romance of Habana, the straw hats and linen suits, the Pan Am Clipper fly by and the steam ship liner pulling out of the harbor are classic and a “time stamp” on a bygone era. Living here in Guadalajara, I can fly there for $650 usd with four nights in a hotel in Habana…so far I’ve resisted the temptation. I have a Canadian friend who works for an oil company there who describes the country as decrepit, poor and depressed.
One of the pastors that I listen to at church has served at one time under Joe Gibbs and Bear Bryant.(some of the greatest football coaches of all time.) The pastor told a story tuesday about how he swapped what he knew about Jesus with a literary professor who told what he knew about Hemingway. The literary professor related that Hemingway didn’t believe in God. That therefor the correct lesson to be taken from the Old Man and The Sea is ….
In the Old Man and The Sea an old man goes out in a skiff from cuba and after a long fight — lands his life long dream: giant marlin. The fish is so big and his boat is so small — he has to lash the marlin to his boat to bring it home.
What happens?
Not hard to guess.
The sharks get it.
Instead of coming home with his trophy redemption fulfillment raison d’être– he comes home with bones.
Moral: without God the sharks will get what’s yours. The greatest achievements of life will come to nothing.
Good moral. But it makes me wonder. My mind wanders to Ecclesiastes. Of course there are also some prudent lessons for life in that book.
Note that these happy, prosperous, bustling scenes were filmed in the 1930′s, which we have been assured, were Absolute Hell on Earth.
LifeofMind: I think the very essence of the attraction of pre-Castro Cuba was the barely contained lawlessness you describe. And it is better under Fidel’s enlightned rule? I think not. The gap between the classes is not so great now only because the rich have been brought low – or moved out.
You really have to wonder what the place will be like if a Tragic Accident or simply the inexorable force of time takes care of the Castro brothers. Will the Miami Cubans move in and have it all back to the 30′s in a couple of years? Or will Cuba prove to be more like Afghanistan – eternally at war with itself?
This is a quotation from John Donne (1572-1631). It appears in Devotions upon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes – Meditation XVII, 1624:
“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
From Renaissance and Decay : per capita calorie consumption in Cuba was higher in the 1950s than it was 40 decades later.
A point about alleged inequality in Cuba pre 1959: it had the third highest per capita calorie consumption in Latin America. The lower the per capita calorie consumption, the higher the inequality. Or: the higher the per capita calorie consumption, the lower the inequality. The amount of food to eat is the most basic criteria for equality versus inequality.
Cuba compared itself to the US, where it didn’t come off very well, but compared to the rest of Latin America, it came off very well. In a number of measures, pre-Castro Cuba actually came off pretty well compared to the US, such as in MDs per population.
For the last half of the 1950s, life expectancy in Cuba was 8 years above that of Latin America. Today, the difference is 5 years. Think on that.
Whatever the status of Cuba before Castro,however just or unjust, however corrupt or honest, the following fact remains. Castro, the son of a land-robbing Spanish soldier, won. Castro was adept enough to maintain a totalitarian level of control for a half century. That is the reality.
Yes, the past is a foreign country we will not return to.
…per capita calorie consumption in Cuba was higher in the 1950s than it was 40 decades later.
That’s some document you cited, Gringo. From whence did they get the data on Cuban calorie consumption in the year 2350?
[/humor]
RWE,
Nothing I said indicates a preference for Fidel Castro over Fulgencio Batista. What Cuba lacked was a moral cohesion to go with their relative prosperity. The fact that it served as a playground for American corruption and profited from it is understandable.
As our host no doubt is aware there is a history of peripheral societies gaining capital by catering to the darker impulses of members of a wealthier center. For decades American sailors used Olongapao as a Sin City in the Philippines and the Filipinos paved roads and built schools with the money that came from the crews on shore leave. Both Cuba and the Philippines suffered from the alternating buffets of America’s regional, racial, religious and commercial (sugar) interests. Both were drawn closer but rejected in their aspirations for statehood.
While the Phillippines remains threatened by Islamic insurgency and their is always a threat of a renewed Marxism they have so far survived and remain potentially on the path to a brighter future. Cuba that started out more developed than some states in the American Union fell. The cultural and moral transformations that will be needed for them to overcome the legacy of communism and the preceding moral vacuum that opened the door to Fidel will be much harder I think to achieve.
Matt, sorry about that. Remind myself 40 years= 4 decades. 40 years ≠ 40 decades. year ≠ decade. Proofread. Proofread.Proofread.
LifeoftheMind #8:
Yes, I think we are in violent agreement that while Fidel is an absolute disaster that Batista was no prize either. My high school physics teacher took Fidel’s measure early. He knew Batista and knew what he was. When Castro arose, he and some others offered to help him set up a commercial radio station; Castro responded by grabbing the guys they sent down and holding them for ransom.
I had never thought of the similarities between Cuba and the Philippines. As Macarthur said, the Philippines were a South American country plopped down in the middle of the Pacific. Had the Nazis invaded Cuba and forced us to retake it perhaps it would have gone the same way as the Philippines, with a series of despotic but pro-U.S. leaders yielding eventually to some real hope of democracy. But I guess that militarily Cuba was not very important to us but valuable to the USSR. Whether Castro was inclined toward communism, hated the USA, or simply saw a better deal by siding with the Soviets I do not know. In any case, the approach he took gave him an excuse for holding power for 50 years.
I do tend to agree with you that the damage to Cuban society from Castro will make the future very difficult whichever way it goes. The Miami Cubans could go home and turn the place around, but not without some substantial bloodshed, I suspect.
RWE,
Our agreement need not be violent. I abhor violence, it makes me unhappy, and then bad things happen.
/Sarc
Batista was an interesting man and his wiki (all disclaimers noted) seems reasonably even handed. Remember that when my father met him in 1933 Batista was a sergeant living in the barracks and was considered a reformer whose coup d’etat was arranged by the US envoy. That diplomat was none other than the close friend of FDR Sumner Welles. To me as a promising reformer who tragically sank into corruption Batista resembles Charlie Rangle.
While some of the old generation of Cuban exiles in Miami might dream of lost estates I doubt that many of their grandchildren would see a future in returning to the island, and fewer would be welcomed. Cuba has been stripped of its entrepreneurial classes to a far great extent than happened in Eastern Europe. This also changed the demographics of the nation. Most of those who fled the island were of European ancestry and most of those who remained are of African descent. This will complicate any future social and political settlement.
I think Iraq will give us an indication of the path before a ‘Castro-free’ Cuba. Just as Saddam crushed the spirit of the Iraqis, so to has Castro of the Cuban people. 40 plus years of tyranny will not be overcome quickly or easily. Those that benefitted from the regime will resist any chance to the status quo; those that suffered under will desire retribution. The mix guarantees bloodshed. Neighbor states allied with the former regime will seek to remain players in Cuba and will use whatever means at their disposal to undermine anything that threatens their status. Exiles will return with high hopes that will be dashed on the rocks of reality; that 40 plus years of Castro’s tyranny has changed Cuba beyond recognition. And the United States will be vilfied for doing too little and doing too much at the same time. The future is dim indeed for the Cuban people. They have a long, steep road ahead of them out of the abyss.
and one or two ambiguous objects, pieces of things, of which the use was not at once apparent: I could not even tell what they had belonged to.
Sound to me like an apt description of Jerusalem and Havana both. Similar designs remnants of a Crusader and Spaniard past, narrow streets that change the appearance of things in the midday sun, all shadow with little movement of heated air.
But where in Jerusalem you could once upon a time get your fortune told at the Damascus gate, in Havana there was never a fortune to tell of in these modern times, just waste. have things changed so much they are foreign, or just enough to give a different look to an ancient tale.
I believe we will have an answer soon enough, and I think the past is that same foreign country, doing things with slight difference but still in all, the same place.
Charles, nice post there. Ecclesiastes,the book of the preacher is rich. It shows the dead end that cynicism takes men to, vanity and vexation of spirit. Solomon who in many ways squandered the moral capital he inherited and possessed as a youth nevertheless concluded : “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man
For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it is good or it’s evil.
Didn’t watch the whole travelogue on Havana. Were Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky given their due?
15. trangbang68:
Were Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky given their due?
…….
nope. but maybe this was shot before they arrived. lansky arrived in 1938 and luciano arrived in 1947. For that matter I didn’t see anything on hemingway either. He didn’t arrive until 1939.
To Lifeofthemind:
Your parents eithr lie to you or they had some deep perception problems. It is well established by economic studies that Cuba in the 50′s had a higher income per capita than Spain, and similar to Italy. And Havana was a wealthier city than most European capitals of that era.
The story of your father meeting Batista coming out of his sargeant’s quarters has the smell of poor fiction. By the time any American could recognize Batista, he was already a Coronel.
Silvia.
It would be interesting to see those same scenes of Havana today. However much of a sin city Havana was before 1959, the whole country is a hell hole today.
Jeez we really do have an infestation of gratuitous and illiterate troll abuse from East of the Bug. Or is it from East of the Dinaric Alps? This has now spread across all active threads. Wretchard is there a solution?
15. trangbang68:
Come to think of it talkies in the early 30′s were just profoundly exciting and wonderful. It was the new thing like radio in the 20′s or tv in the 50′s or the various internet things of this decade.
…for the above reason I would cheerfully speculate that…
I wouldn’t put it past meyer & earnest to have seen the travelogue and said to themselves… I’m going there.
I wonder if Hemingway knew about Lansky’s –and later lucky’s–work.
In some sense they would also fit the Old Man & the Sea as an allegory.
author’s note: To be read in your best Mommy Dearest tone and droll
Sylvia my dear, one reallly must try to educate one’s self before prattling on about those of whom you have no earthly idea of what you speak. Seriously dahling, at least try to keep your slip from showing…