The Cuban Revolution’s Undeniable Progress

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — I find it despicable to question the Cuban Revolution’s achievements, from any angle, even more so when lies are used to take advantage of the ignorance many readers have about the subject. Attempts of this kind spread like wildfire in reactionary media, both in the United States as well as other countries, playing into the Imperial masters’ game and win them over.

Recently, women’s inclusion in the workforce was questioned as not being an exclusive achievement of the Revolution, but a global trend. This is false, as the majority of countries still don’t even consider women when working out the unemployment rate, which is much higher than that of men. Plus, in nearly all of these countries, women earn less than men do working the same jobs, which is a form of discrimination, but not the only kind. There’s a reason why the United Nations develops campaigns against the violence that women and young girls suffer, which leads to femicide in many Latin American countries.

The respect and consideration that women in the Cuban Revolution have doesn’t exist in any other country in the world, not to mention in capitalist countries regardless of whether they are developed or underdeveloped nations.

Cuba was the first country in Latin America to wipe out illiteracy and I will dare to say that it was the first country in the world to make sure all of its population was literate, as there are remote places where illiteracy exists even in developed countries that have widespread access to education and many of these places have improved their literacy situation with the help they have received from Cuban experts. The same thing has happened in Latin America, where countries have wiped out illiteracy or are on their way to doing so, doing this with the Cuban Revolution’s help. Therefore, no other country can compare to Cuba in this regard.

With regard to current health indicators in Cuba, which are equal to or better than the First World in many regards, no other underdeveloped country has even come close to what Cuba has achieved and the fact that the Cuban Socialist Revolution has provided aid in the field of health in over 60 different countries is proof of this. In some countries, it takes on almost all of the country’s healthcare and also trains up health personnel in its universities so they can then go and practice in their own countries.

The claim that countries that were in the same position as Cuba before the Revolution have reached the same level as Cuba is an absolute lie. Let’s take one index as an example: the infant mortality rate. Last year, it was 4 children under 1 years old for every 1000 live births, and it has been the lowest in the continent (including the United States and Canada) for the past decade. This would be unthinkable if it weren’t for a socialist system, where profits aren’t given priority, but the wish to satisfy the people’s needs does.

Some people, who try to defame and belittle the Revolution’s achievements, argue that Cuba has always depended on “foreign benefactors”, but this is just another lie. The fact that the Cuban Revolution has been subject to a cruel economic, commercial and financial blockade is what needs to be said, which makes it impossible for Cuba to get funding from any international organization, like the rest of countries do, and therefore Cuba has had to depend on loans from other countries and favorable trade deals, like many countries have with the United States, on the condition of countries that are more favored in international trade.

It’s not that Cuba has depended on “foreign benefactors” and not on its own wealth, but rather that we are talking about a country which lacks huge reserves of natural resources, which makes it difficult to establish sustainable development and even more so when there is a tight blockade which makes progress even slower.

However, the Cuban Revolution’s achievements are becoming more and more certain, you can be sure of that! Cuba is making progress, although not as quickly as we all would like, but advances made in science and human capital which it has in every sector is a guarantee that we will have sustainable development, it’s making headway slowly but surely.

However, the Cuban Revolution’s achievements aren’t limited to just the education and health sectors, like many people want to pass it off as. Achievements made in sports and culture are something that many developed nations haven’t been able to do. Cuba can also flaunt the fact that it is one of the safest countries in the world, where the violence that prevails elsewhere in the world doesn’t exist here, where there aren’t any drugs which cause so much harm to the majority of their people.

I could add many others but I can’t make this article too long. However, what I have pointed out until now allows me to positively say that the Cuban Revolution has made undeniable progress.