Cuba: Beyond the Crossroads

As a long-term writer about matters Cuban, Ron Ridenour's reporting is exemplary in its thoroughness and attention to detail. His intimate insight into the day-to-day life of Cuban citizens and of the strenuous steps taken by the government to make sure that every Cuban has a basically sound quality of life, suggests that he has lived and worked in Cuba for ages, at various ground-level jobs, and is highly supportive of the social policies prevailing there. Ron is not a political theoretician, but his devotion to revolutionary Cuba cannot be doubted. Some of his comments are deeply resonant of comments that you frequently hear Cubans coming out with on building sites. They bespeak a guarded tendency to belittle high ideals with mordantly humorous asides about low-level corruption. In Ron's case, it gives his writing the salty bite of authenticity in a Damon Runyan sort of way, but it is obvious that he regards the Cuban Revolution as a pearl of great price. His sort of provocative and knowledgeable writing, if widely enough circulated, could do much to counter the routinely uninformed knee-jerk hostile coverage usually accorded Cuba by the media.