Seriously?

A couple of nights ago I was at a dinner where one of the attendees started to talk about the passing of Fidel Castro.  I almost fell out of my chair when he immediately trotted the tired old line about how Cubans had "universal health care and high literacy."  

Seriously?  People still cling to this line of defense for Castro?  As I said to this person, "If you gave me control of the army and the police, the ability to jail anybody who dissents and a series of outside donor states who propped up my economy, I'm sure I could deliver the low-quality health care you are describing to everybody."

Is the bar really this low?  Even this guy had to admit that Castro had built a police state and utterly destroyed the Cuban economy and infrastructure, but somehow this was a fair trade-off for access to medical clinics.

As I said, I almost fell out of my chair because I would have thought that even the most devoted fellow-travellers had seen the light about Castro in recent years, particularly after the clampdown he began after September 11, 2001, when he knew that the outside world was no longer watching.

It beggars belief, but what was more frustrating was that this guy kept trying to back track and claim he was not supporting Castro or excusing him.  That argument might have held water if I didn't learn later in the dinner that he had actually been employed as a PR person by Castro to help him improve his international image.  (His one contribution - ditch the fatigues for something casual, like a jump suit.)

You can't make these people up.