Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Cuba : Going Consumerist?

Post-Navidad and Dia de Reyes numbers has some Cuban officials worried that people on the island are losing their communist perspective.
In a two-page spread, the Juventud Rebelde reported on the revival of "Three Kings Day," a Latin American tradition of giving gifts to children on Jan. 6, commemorating the arrival of three wise men who offered the newborn Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

"A tradition that seemed extinct in Cuban society rises again," the state-run newspaper said. "Although no one sees celebrating the millennial festivity of the Three Kings as heresy, the danger could be in (the holiday) accentuating consumerist habits and social differences."
Reportedly stores in central Habana were packed, especially the toy department.

Link : Fox News
Tags : Cuba, Communism, Three Kings Day

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. This just means that there is something the people want that Fidel can't provide (imagine that). Funny thing is that Fidel's goons are getting nervous despite the fact that these people bought these gifts to distribute to other people. I guess the inadvertent admission here is that giving voluntarily is consumerist and bad, but the government taking from the people is communist and good? Sounds like a control issue to me.

Anonymous said...

Correction: Not a control issue as much as it's a fear that what little free markets the Cuban people have access to allows them to practice altruistic ideals better than the political system that is supposed to be based on those ideals. To allow it to go on unabated is an admission that communism has even failed itself.