God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering
When I begin to write, I don’t know exactly what I will end up saying. I am writing, not transcribing, and sometimes, when I am lucky, I learn something. Last November I wrote a piece about the ruins of Havana. Today I reread an interview of Theodore Dalrymple, and was struck by words I glossed over the first time read them. The words I wrote opened my mind to the words of another.
FP: You have a fascinating essay in your collection “Why Havana Had to Die”. Can you summarize the main thesis in a few sentences?Dalrymple: Havana is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and it has perhaps the most harmonious ensemble of architecture, from the 16th to (most unusually) the middle of the 20th century. Moreover, the area over which this harmony extends is very large (i.e. it is not that enjoyed by a tiny population or elite). Hence, the city contradicts entirely the orthodox communist historiography of Cuba as an undeveloped society with a tiny rich class and everyone else deeply impoverished. Thus it was safer from Castro’s point of view to let it fall into ruins than to maintain it (quite apart from an inability to do so).
Posted on January 10th, 2007 by pwyll
Filed under: Cuba
Entries RSS
While I find Dr. Dalrymple’s thesis on why much of Havana today lies in ruins simply absurd, I completely agree with another section of his essay:
“…. I found the absence of the most grating aspects of commercialism aesthetically pleasing: McDonald’s restaurants (and their like) would ruin Havana as a townscape as comprehensively as time and neglect. And the comparative lack of traffic in Havana demonstrates how mixed a blessing the inexorable spread of the automobile has been for the quality of city life. Had Havana developed ‘normally,’ its narrow grid-pattern streets would by now be choking with traffic and pollution, a suffocating inferno like Guatemala City or San José, Costa Rica, where to breathe is to grow breathless, where noise makes the ears sing, and where thoughts turn to escape as soon as possible.”
“The streets of Havana, not like that at all, are pleasant to walk in. The air is clean, ….”
The Castro era in Cuba is all but over. The Cuban people must now turn their attention to their future. I hope they take note of their clean urban air, their walkable city streets, and their endurable noise levels.
Castro is dying. Havana is not dead, but does lie in ruins. Let’s all focus on how we can help build its new government, rebuild its citizens quality of life, and restore its glorious architecture.
Interestingly, the comment you could agree with, I found repulsive. “McDonald’s restaurants (and their like) would ruin Havana as a townscape as comprehensively as time and neglect.” Words fail me. The old Havana with a few McDonalds in it, or the new Havana Tough choice.
I think Dalrymple’s thesis is overblown, but there is an echo of truth in it. In order to claim that Castro’s Cuba is better off, one has to posit an incredibly miserable country pre-Castro. The city that Havana once was made a lie of any such claim. That said, Communism destroys all it touches, so no further explanation is required to explain the devastation.
McDonald’s has clean bathrooms that work properly.
First to the profane and then the sacred.
Dr. Dooley, your observation is exactly why I have used McDonald’s exclusively as reliable public restrooms in my travels across the country over the last 30 years.
pwyll: as is invariably the case, words do not fail you. Your point in comment 2 is a good one. Indeed, your thesis that communism destroys all it touches is one I will not argue with. But totalitarian communism is a failed experiment in governance of the 20th century that today is completely discredited.
Are you concerned that the citizens of Cuba will continue on the path Fidel Castro forced them down once they get the chance? I’m not. Cuba in the 21st century will take a new path. My plea is for restoration of Havana’s great architecture, preservation of it’s good air quality, and respect for Havana’s pre-Castro urban planning heritage. My hope is that Jeffersonian representative democracy and freedom of speech are cornerstones of Cuba’s new government.
I’m trying to learn from history and articulate goals that correct the mistakes of unbridled capitalism. I’m glad to get all the help I can.
The mistakes of unbridled government far outweigh those of capitalism. When government injects itself into a free market, rarely is anything but damage done.
Dear CCL:
You say that “[w]hen government injects itself into a free market, rarely is anything but damage done.”
I’ll just pick one counter-example, noting that you put the word “rarely” in that assertion. The following is quoted from page 21 of Life: Our Century in Pictures