The Today Show in Cuba
Will Matt Lauer ask probing questions about the free education in Cuba? The accepted view of education in Cuba points to the high literacy rate of Cubans as a triumph of Fidel Castro's revolution, but like most information coming from Cuba, the official version and the facts are very different.
First, let's define education. No one can argue with the basic standard put forth by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states:
1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
(1) First of all, based on the above definition, is education in Cuba free? Using Cuba's own standard of measurements, which includes social factors, you have to answer no. In fact, Cuban parents pay a very high price for their children's education. When a Cuban child enters school, that child's parents loose all parental rights. Their child does not belong to them, their child is property of the State of Cuba, specifically Fidel Castro, and as such they have no normal parental rights. They are forbidden by law to teach their children anything that contradicts Cuba's socialist ideology. Cuba's Code of the Child states:
"The communist formation of the young generation is a valued aspiration of the state, the family, the teachers, the political organizations, and the mass organizations that act in order to foster in youth the ideological values of communism."
From Article 5: "Society and the state watch to ascertain that all persons who come in contact with the child ... constitute an example for the development of his communist personality.
Article 8: "Society and the state work for the efficient protection of youth against all influences contrary to their communist formation."
What about merit? Are Cuban school children rewarded for merit? No, they are only rewarded for their loyalty and adherence to the Marxist ideology of the regime. In fact a dossier is kept on every Cuban child and used to determine their "suitability" for admittance to the University, and for jobs.
I ask Mr. Lauer, would you want this "free education" for your children?
(2) Cuban children are indoctrinated in a most horrific way. They are taught to hate anyone who disagrees with Fidel Castro's government, including their parents. From an early age, they are taught to spy on their parents, neighbors, and friends. Their elementary school years are spent participating in political rallies and military training. They are told horrific stories about intended invasions from the great enemy, the United States. They are taught with trickery, that it is Fidel Castro, and not God who is the supreme ruler.
Fidel Castro's regime, thumping its chest about family values during the Elian Gonzales controversy, is in fact responsible for the destruction of the Cuban family.
(3) Cuban parents have no say in the education of their children, so they can:
(a) Accept the "triumph of Castro's revolution" and give up their rights to their children.
(b) Pretend to go along with the demands of the state but secretly tell their children that what they are taught in school is a lie, and then teach them the values and beliefs they want their children to learn. This choice no doubt ends with their children being "outlaws" in the eyes of the state. There is no tolerance of dissent in Fidel Castro's Cuba.
(c) They can attempt to leave the island and join the almost two million Cubans already exiled.
If they leave, there is heartbreak, separation, and the lonely pain of exile. If they stay, it is worse, much worse.
There are no happy endings in Cuba, and so far, those rafts only go one way.
Note: In researching education and children in Cuba I was confronted with a disturbing amount of documentation about sex tourism, specifically evidence of very young girls working as prostitutes to help feed their families. At this point, I haven't found enough reliable statistics to include that information in this post. There is no question that very young girls and boys are selling themselves to tourists in Cuba, the question is, how many children are involved, and how does that compare to other countries. We all know that civil society in Cuba has degenerated, but are things so bad that families condone the prostitution of their children?
That's a hard pill to swallow, and requires a lot more research.
Sites referenced for this post:
http://www.nocastro.com/archives/elianindex.html
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