Planck's Constant

Although I expected the Berlin Wall to fall sooner or later, I was surprised when it did. Although I expect Fidel Castro to die sooner or later, I will be surprised when he does, given all the false rumors of his previous deaths.

When Castro finally does die though, that will not be the end, but the beginning of a revolution. Very few people know this but before Castro liberated Cuba from foreign exploitation it was an economic powerhouse with an economy stronger than half of the countries in Europe at the time.

USA Today,
28 Aug 2006
Cuba's economic fate up in air

Cuba's economy was stronger in the 1950s, when it was one of Latin America's top trade powers. Havana was a hot tourist site, and the U.S. and Great Britain were Cuba's largest trading partners.

It only became a banana republic after Communism. Presently, Hawaii has a bigger tourist industry than all of Mexico combined and I expect that Cuba, once liberated from Castro's clutches, can do even more business given the island's proximity to the US.

What puzzled me when I was younger was why the US tolerated Castro at all [yes, yes, I know JFK promised never to attack Cuba after the Bay of Pigs fiasco]. After all we have invaded countries before that never attacked us, Germany in World War Two, Korea in the early 50s, and Vietnam in the 60s. This is what happens when you are white-knuckled scared of the enemy as we were of the Soviets during the cold war.