A Stitch in Haste

Apparently Fidel Castro is trying to spin Hurricane Ivan:

“Against Fidel, Ivan couldn’t do it,” read the headline of a state-controlled newspaper in Havana after Hurricane Ivan passed through Cuba without causing a single casualty. The same storm killed at least 50 people in the United States and at least 70 in other Caribbean countries.

…For days, the indefatigable dictator became the island nation’s meteorologist in chief, commandeering the airwaves to track the storm’s progress and to orchestrate preparations and evacuations. His omniscient Communist Party turned itself into a formidable Federal Emergency Management Agency. By the time Ivan touched land, nearly 2 million people had been taken to shelters. It isn’t as if they had much choice, but perhaps escaping Fidel Castro’s televised harangues proved a sweet inducement.
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Cuba’s record on disaster prevention is impressive. After October 1963, when Hurricane Flora devastated the island and killed more than 1,000 people, the Cuban government overhauled its civil defense system. It was so successful that when six powerful hurricanes thumped Cuba between 1996 and 2002 only 16 people died. In 1998, for example, when Hurricane George battered the island, only four people died. Elsewhere in the region, about 600 people were killed.

Still, there is something ghoulish about Castro trying to rely on hurricanes to justify his people’s lack of freedom. He refused any outside aid, as if to equate the storms with the U.S. economic embargo.

Of course, Castro would probably have never known there was even a hurricane approaching until it was too late if not for NOAA satellites or Cuban refugees in the U.S. and elsewhere feeding information to loved ones back on the island.

And as for destruction, it’s hard to destroy an economy that has already been destroyed by decade after decade of oppressive Communist rule.

Similar Posts:

• Speaking of Communist Elites…
• Maybe They Can Retrieve Elian While They’re At It
• Hurricane Victims “Just Tired of It” (So Are We!)
• “Humanitarian Communist” is Still an Oxymoron
• Is Castro’s Death a Public Good?

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