Be careful what you wish for

I have read a few articles relating to Castro’s death and his contribution to the continent and country. 

They are, to summarise, pro Castro, anti-west with a domestic racial flavour; if you love him, you are black and if you hate him, you are white. 
Which, given the history of our country, is a point of confusion to me.

Cuba excels at many things. Their success in healthcare, nutrition and literacy would make our respective ministers blush and rightly so. But Cuba is also very proficient (as most communist states prove to be) at suppressing, free expression, opposition and a free media.
Not to mention that these civil liberty infringements are supported by a judiciary that can reach sentencing faster than Usain Bolt can run a hundred meter dash.

In South Africa, with the new hate speech bill on its way, one can definitely feel the political cogs turning against free speech and it makes one rather appreciative of this right (at least for now, while we still have it). And this is what confuses me so. 

In a country that was formed out of protest action, mobilised by great demonstrations and inspired by immense speeches (in a time when it was nigh on suicidal to do so) why are we so seemingly desperate to give it all up again?

A closer inspection of the hate speech bill renders a rather alarming conclusion: Hurt anyone’s feelings, in any way, and your reward is a possible ten year jail sentence. Is this free speech? C’mon.

If we look at the contingent of our citizenry that is currently making full use of the right to express themselves: the Julius Malemas, the labour unionists, the Fallist movements; we find the space dominated by black South Africans. These expressive groups of dissenters, ironically, have the communist manifesto at the forefront of their agenda’s.

It is important to note that a change in government, from a democracy to a communist state requires immense force and violent coercion against its own citizens. Business and private property will be nationalised through the barrel of a militant revolution. Dissent will be squashed and dissenters will be disappeared. The natural rights of human beings to go where they please, to meet whom they please, to discuss what they will, are the first rights that will be suspended and they will be suspended indefinitely (Does this remind of you anything? Apartheid perhaps?).

The Castro/Communist fan club response to the abortion of these most basic of human rights seems to be: What is more important? Health care or rights? Nutrition or rights? Literacy or rights? And it is a powerful argument as most of us are put in a situation where we or one of our loved ones faced a terminal disease and would give up anything, including our rights, for the sake of decent healthcare. 

However, the question arises, once we are cured, will we be satisfied to live the rest of our lives in immobile silence and conformity? Will we be satisfied when every aspect of our existence is dictated to us: where to go, where to live, what to eat, what to wear, what to read, what to think etc. No more or less property of the state, utilised and disposed of as it sees fit.

I don’t want to draw a conclusion, except to point out the fact that history is awash with examples of people of all colours who sacrificed all the things that Cuba is good at and more for the right to self-determination, free expression and other important civil liberties which now, we seem so willing to abandon for another failed socialist experiment of Orwellian proportions. 

One hopes that it will, at the very least, serve as a sobering and cautionary thought to the Castro/Communist fan club. 

Be careful what you wish for (the end of civil liberty, including your own) because you just might get it.