Potemkin villages are named for Prince Potemkin, the very pre-Soviet toyboy of Catherine the Great.

I always thought they were Mr Ed villages.

Now if only that care and attention extended to the right to democratically elect their government etc…

Interesting question, Adam, although you didn’t phrase it as such.
Would you rather be, say a poor black American with your (barely) functioning democracy, virtually non-existent health care and limited prospects, living in a crime and drug ridden ghetto, or a Cuban.

We tend to automatically assume that the right to democratically elect a government should be of paramount significance to all, and maybe it is. But when the ‘democratic’ system is so compromised, and living standards for some, so desolate, you’ve go to question that assumption.

It’s interesting to see a national custom continued, perhaps enhanced, “after the revolution”.

e.g. Soviet secret police akin to Tsar’s secret police

Mao acting like an Emperor of old

Castro as President-for-life (remember those tales of how awfully dictatorial was his predecessor Battista?)

Kim Il Sung handing power to his – wait for it,…. collective leadership?? elected successor??? – no, to his SON of course !! The exquisitley coiffed and rational Kimbo Junior (mini-me)

Margaret Thatcher attempting to be Winston C, after las Malvinas were invaded

+++++++++++++++

Now, closer to home: what national characteristics of Australian history do we see exemplified in our national and state leaders?

convict/thieving

squatters/ land grabbers

indigenous persons dipossession experts

beer-guzzlers

wharfie/union coercionists

battling against drought + flood + bushfires/hardy innovators

cricketing legends

????

Ambigulous

Add Java to the list. And to answer your next question: there are very few Commies left in that part of the world. (They all got killed off by Suharto.) That’s not a Potemkin village operation. Solid foreign policy move by Cuba.

I believe Steve was referring to an inportant part of Communist practice, from the early Soviet Union onwards.

1. Invite selected symapthisers to visit an otherwise closed nation.

2. Put on faked showcases (e.g. happy villagers, productive modern factories, happy farm workers, etc) with countrymen acting parts under duress. Some of the actors actually very badly off but smiling for the cameras and visitors.

3. Await glowing reports to appear, produced by duchessed writers, etc back in Europe, USA, Australia etc.

4. Repeat process in
Eastern Europe,
“Peoples” China,
North Vietnam,
Cuba,
Kampuchea (rarely),
Libya under the younger Gaddafi,
Iraq under Saddam,
Libya
etc
etc

Sickening.

But distressingly effective.

How gullible were the visitors? And how gullible are so many of us still today?

A little more scepticicsm, friends; a little less blind faith!

cheerio,
Ambigulous

satp, whatever Cuba’s other failings (which I agree are considerable), it is a fact that they have a higher life expectancy than the US (especially than some US minorities), a fact that they have a much lower infant mortality rate and a fact that they have lower levels of morbidity. The first two of these, in particular, are not stats that could be faked for long without detection. And they also have a considerable cash-earning industry in training medical personnel from other countries (mainly in Latin America because of the language) – again not something easy to fake.

Sheesh.