Gamal Nkrumah traces the highlights of Africa's historical relationship with Fidel's Cuba "This is what has given Cubans a sense of national dignity and pride, unmatched in any other people. This is not to say that Cubans believe they are in any way superior, I am not talking in chauvinistic terms here," explains Fernàndez. "What I'm saying is that our national pride comes from the confidence of having defeated US imperialism. Against all odds, a tiny island in the Caribbean, with 11 million inhabitants, has survived the unequal battle against the superpower and has come out undefeated." For the first time in its history, Cuba no longer depends on an empire; it is truly independent. The island nation has defeated innumerable US-financed and US-sponsored terrorist attacks, and has freed itself of economic dependence on the USSR, but the Cuban people have paid a high price for their independence. Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, US terrorism against Cuba has killed 3,500 people and left 2,000 permanently handicapped. Few countries in the world have suffered attacks comparable to those launched on Cuba. What's more, US economic warfare against the island has exacted a heavy toll on ordinary Cubans. Cuban government sources estimate that the nearly 50-year-old economic blockade -- the oldest and most damaging blockade in trade history -- has cost the country over $89 billion in lost trade revenues. The US has continued to enforce, and if anything tighten, its economic siege, though the UN General Assembly has for the past 16 years regularly condemned the US for violating Cuba's right to trade freely. The 2002 General Assembly report on the blockade notes that, "the US decision to cause hunger, disease and the desperation of the Cuban people, as a tool to achieve the goal of political domination, has not only been maintained but has been strengthened." Still, despite the hardship, the Cuban Revolution has survived and this year Cuba's economy showed an impressive growth rate of seven per cent. The government has worked hard to revitalise the economy since the break up of the Soviet Union, Cuba's traditional main trading partner. It has established strong trade relations with China and has co-signed the People's Trade Agreement (PTA) with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2006. The PTA exchanges the export of Venezuelan and Bolivian natural resources for much-needed Cuban medical and teaching services. "This is the happiest day of my life," said Fidel after signing the treaty. "This agreement is the most ethical that has ever been signed." He was referring to the "people before profits" concept of the PTA, determined by people's needs as opposed to the profit motive of capitalism. "Strong solidarity, mutual cooperation and aid between people must prevail, free from any interest in business or market profits... benefits may improve the lives of the poor, the exploited and the discriminated," reads the communiqué introducing the PTA. It is in the same spirit that the Cuban Revolution has sought to improve the lives of the Cuban people. After the revolution illiteracy was eradicated within one year, an achievement unmatched by any other country in the Americas, with the exception of Venezuela, where Cuban teachers worked on an ambitious literacy programme that has, since its inception, successfully graduated 1.4 million students. Cuba's literacy level is the highest in the region, with 99 per cent of Cuban children reaching the fourth year of high school. Education is universal and free from primary school to graduate school. Art schools, enrolling more than 20,000 students, have mushroomed all over the country and, in addition, tens of thousands study in art pre-schools. Cuba has the lowest student to teacher ratio worldwide, and Cuban children obtain the highest scores in mathematics and languages in standardised international tests. The revolution's top priority has always been to provide an excellent educational system, with equal opportunities for all. This, Cuba has achieved, with flying colours. "We realised the greatest cultural and educational revolution in the world," says Fidel, who believes -- with Jose Mart� -- that culture is the prerequisite to freedom. The revolution has similarly excelled in medicine. Cuba's first class healthcare system is renowned the world over, making Cuba a popular destination for medical tourism. Cuba's medical success story is particularly impressive when compared with 1959 pre-revolutionary statistics. Since 1959, life expectancy has increased by 18 years, and transmittable diseases like dengue fever, polio, neo-natal tetanus and diphtheria have been eradicated. Infant mortality has been reduced by 60 per cent, and last year Cuba had the lowest infant mortality indicators in the Americas, along with Canada. This, Cuba was able to achieve because it has the highest ratio of physicians per capita in the world. "Millions of impoverished people in Third World countries, in Africa but also in South and Latin America -- where 43 per cent of the people live under the poverty level of less than $2 a day -- are waging a daily struggle, oftentimes at the risk of their lives, to obtain only a fraction of the social gains realised by the Cuban Revolution," says Ignacio Ramonet, in Fidel Castro: Biograf�a a Dos Voces. Has the Cuban Revolution then won its battle? Yes and no, says Fidel. Corruption exists in Cuba; income inequalities have surfaced following the opening of special "dollar stores" that the government established in the 1990s to combat an emerging black market and re-channel the hard currency into the Cuban economy; services should be improved and bureaucratic red tape eliminated. Reform is necessary. "What we need to do is improve the economy," says Fernàndez. "We can't rest on our laurels because a revolution is, by definition, in constant flux. Beyond our current social indicator success story, our economy should become a model for the region -- and beyond." Fidel is confident that this will happen. "Cubans are well equipped," he says. "They have culture, and a cultured people will always seek to construct a better world."
