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Jeffrey Goldberg traveled to Cuba for a rare interview with Fidel Castro. Goldberg's intro begins: "There were many odd things about my recent Havana stopover (apart from the dolphin show, which I'll get to shortly), but one of the most unusual was Fidel Castro's level of self-reflection."

Jeffrey Goldberg's discription of this picture: 'I'm in the low chair; Che's daughter is behind me, with the short, blondish hair; Fidel is the guy who looks like Fidel if Fidel shopped at L.L. Bean.' 09/08/10 (photo: Jeffrey Goldberg/The Atlantic)

Comments

+1 # Guest 2010-09-10 04:19

uite an interview. I guess it relly happened!

+8 # goodsensecynic 2010-09-10 05:29

As a Canadian and therefore exempt from American policies restricting the right to travel, I first visited Cuba in 1973-1974, the 15th anniversary of the revolution.

It remains remarkable how the Cuban experiment has survived another 35 years despite America's best efforts to destroy it economically, and despite Russia's abandonment of the island following the "collapse of communism."

If accurately quoted, Castro's musings about the state of the Cuban economy are probably valid. But Americans, who have steadfastly supported cruel dictatorships throughout Latin America can take no solace in the internal problems of the Fidelistas. An early embrace of democratic socialism would have cost everyone far less in "blood and treasure," and everyone (the USA above all) would have been happier for it.

-4 # Guest 2010-09-11 10:54

Wow, he's finally figuring out that Communism doesn't work, but he's stopped short of an apology to America, or returning the properties that the Government stole from the Americans, so I guess their dip into Capitalism WILL benefit the Europeans and Brazilians!
The Cuban "experiment" lasted only due to some people/companies/nations trading with them DESPITE the embargo, and the Cubans' willingness to accept their buildings falling down on their heads--and even the deaths that caused--with noone to repair them.
And as the previous article said, Cubans bring American tech to their tech-starved families, despite the alleged embargo!
Castro is STILL the grandfather of global Anti-Americanism, so it wouldn't do for him to TOTALLY admit he was wrong, let alone apologize, would it?
And noone noticed what America gave up in OUR side of the Cuban Missile Crisis "agreement"!

+6 # Guest 2010-09-10 06:53

What the Cubans have is a spirit of solidarity and cooperation that pervades all aspects of life. It's good to hear Fidel say that state control needs to loosen. There have been agrarian reforms already that allow the citizens to benefit from community/neighborhood farms, rather than rely on the allocations from the huge Soviet style State farms.

0 # Guest 2010-09-11 11:30

Yes, but they were stealing it anyways, might as well give it to them...Although it's called "Progressive Communism", it's actually a slow creep toward Capitalism: People WANT to be rewarded for their efforts! Hell, people want to be rewarded for OTHERS' efforts too, but that leads to the "sucker effect" that ruins productivity, here and apparently abroad!

+3 # JoanWile2 2010-09-10 07:40

What a charming article. More than ever, one is frustrated and mystified by our government's restrictions on travel to and commerce with Cuba. One would like to go if only to see the dolphin show, which Goldberg describes so tantalizingly.

-1 # Guest 2010-09-11 10:55

You can--hell, the previous article pointed out that if you have family in Cuba, you can even smuggle them some American technology, so they can have our benefits without admitting their way doesn't work!, rather than swallowing their pride in exchange for American goodies--Interesting how that works, isn't it, they can have their pride and eat it too!

+7 # Guest 2010-09-10 09:26

When will we realize that the American (US) economic model doesn't work for us anymore?

+3 # Guest 2010-09-10 16:37

Perhaps it's because the USA has been on a stage of stupor since the day they robed the nation in the election fraud, supported none other by the right wing conservative supreme court justices.

And because of it, the USA has ceased to be a nation of leadership and is morally defective.

We have become during the past 40 years a nation of torture, lying, murder, etc., to the point where now Americans are fielding some of the most evil candidates for running the country.

It has become a nation at war with it's conscience.

0 # Guest 2010-09-11 11:28

Well, my father believes the nation's decay started in 1965, when our nation went from a monocultural bloc to a fractious mess fighting amongst itself for dominance, AND abroad, we stopped fighting to WIN, and limited ourselves to playing "fair" at the urging of our Corporate Masters and an increasingly corrupt, corruptING media's corrosive influence!
I myself believe it was in the late 80s, early 90s, when it stopped being expected to do for yourself, and welfare dependence became a VIRTUE, rather than a stigma, and/or we had to give up our right to judge, and label bad things and bad people as bad, lest we "HURT THEIR FEELINGS"!

With no consequences, no "stick", if you will, people have no reason to change bad behaviors, especially bad behaviors that are PROFITABLE for them!

All the "loss of leadership" and "Moral Defect" is just consequence of THAT decay!

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