C K Lal's analysis is sharp, his attacks are as ruthless as the armour of a revolutionary and his suggestions are profoundly pragmatic. However, I disagree with his view in 'Revolution, regression and reformation' (#261) that Cuba is like North Korea. Cuba, unlike North Korea, is the only socialist country where education and health facilities are not only free but parallel to standards in the US and Canada. Cubans have one of the best education systems and their students are among the world's best in the fields of mathematics, physics and social sciences. Cubans enjoy free medical check-ups with free medicines and free surgical operations. They have better health and education facilities than the majority of Americans. No doubt Castro is a dictator but he is a benevolent one. He could not endure the injustice the neighbouring superpower was inflicting on Cubans. What the Americans did to Cuba was similar to what India is doing to Nepal. Like Castro we need a socialist revolutionary who will stand up against Indian imperialism and its brainchild, the Maoists. Fidel Castro isn't Mao, Stalin or Pol Pot, so don't insult him. He is a true socialist and a rational architect of modern socialism. He took Cuba to a new level from where democracy can grow. If a future democratic Cuba remembers Castro it will remember him not as a tyrant but as a man who made Cuban society fit to appreciate and protect. I agree with Mr Lal that communism all around the world has been used to construct the most rigid form of social inequality in the pretext of creating a classless society. But Cuba is different.

Annabel Rana,
Sanepa