The cost of holding on to a revolution can be quite high. The USSR realized this the hard way and now Cuba desperately wants to save it by encouraging the private sector. Raul Castro has been doing just that since 2008 and it is against this background that one has to view the visit of US President Barack Obama to Cuba. He is the first occupant of the White House to visit Havana in 88 years and also the first since the revolution in 1959. The island, which is perhaps the last reminder, and a crumbling one, of the cold war that ended with the demise of the Soviet Union, is impoverished. The per capita income is $20 a month and with the US embargo still in place there is little hope of a revival. Raul Castro realizes that a prosperous Cuba can only emerge if ties with the US improve and private investment begins to pour in. Of course this will turn the revolution on its head, but it will help put bread on the table and patch up the potholed roads. Obama is determined and defiant enough to break the deadlock and absorb Cuba into the US sphere, but for that to happen the sour points – Havana’s human rights record and jailed dissidents, will have to be resolved. Raul Castro will have to make ideological compromises if he wants a better life for Cubans.
