Remember that Gatorade commercial featuring NBA superstar Michael Jordan, with folks singing, 鈥淚 wanna be like Mike!鈥�?
I鈥檓 reminded it first aired (or Air Jordaned) 30 years ago. That was when the communist Soviet Union 鈥� one of the most repressive state leviathans to ever choke Planet Earth 鈥� was melting down like the green-warted witch in the Wizard of Oz.
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So I鈥檝e always thought somebody should have made another ad in those days: 鈥淚 wanna be like Mikhail!鈥� As in, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian leader who died this week at age 91 鈥� and whose liberalizing reforms helped dump the Soviet empire into the slag heap of history.
If they had, I鈥檇 be WhatsApp-ing that YouTube video right now to another Mike 鈥� Cuban President Miguel D铆az-Canel. And I鈥檇 attach a message urging him to keep this in mind: It鈥檚 not too late to be like Mikhail, Miguel!
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I鈥檇 urge D铆az-Canel to take his own swig of Gatorade, and maybe spike those electrolytes with some Havana Club to help his inner apparatchik loosen up a tad. Then I鈥檇 advise him the world will remember Mikhail for glasnost (political opening) and perestroika (economic restructuring) a hell of a lot longer and a hell of a lot more fondly than it鈥檒l recall Miguel for propping up a jaded communist revolution in Cuba whose oh-so-inspiring mantra is 鈥�隆Patria o Muerte!鈥� 鈥� 鈥淗omeland or Death!鈥�
I鈥檇 also point out the world is backing the former Soviet republic of Ukraine against Russia right now. And that鈥檚 because the thought of Moscow re-forging even a portion of the U.S.S.R. that Gorbachev鈥檚 vision dismantled is as abhorrent as, well, watching Cuba this past year sentence hundreds of peaceful anti-government protesters to decades in prison. Or watching it force tens of thousands to flee the island because the state-run economy is such a disaster that even if you can find enough food, you鈥檙e probably eating it in darkness thanks to chronic power outages.
I still want to believe that Miguel has some Mikhail in him that he can channel once the dinosaurs of the Cuban regime are as extinct as the Soviet Union's became.
I鈥檇 also tell D铆az-Canel I appreciate the reality that he still needs to wait for a cabal of octogenarians to die 鈥� actually, make that nonagenarians now 鈥� before he dares download glasnost and perestroika into Cuba鈥檚 decrepit PC. As long as 丑颈蝉迟贸谤颈肠辞蝉, or old-guard revolution bosses like Ra煤l Castro (age 91) and Ramiro Vald茅s (90) are breathing, D铆az-Canel (62) will be staring down the barrel of a Cuban army rifle if he tries anything too Gorbachevista.
But I still want to believe Miguel has some Mikhail in him that he can channel once those dinosaurs are extinct. He鈥檚 a more practical civilian engineer who, in his earlier days as a provincial regime official, was known for riding a bicycle and listening to, rather than dictating to, ordinary Cubans.
VACUUM-PACKED CRYPTS
Gorbachev鈥檚 passing should remind him that it was much the same for Soviet reformers. When Gorbachev became the U.S.S.R.鈥檚 top boss in 1985, he was the first to be born after the Russian Revolution. The Stalins and Brezhnevs were finally in their vacuum-packed crypts. So, glasnost: game on. Perestroika: project green-lighted. In four years the Berlin Wall was down; in six years Soviet hostages like Ukraine were free.
Not coincidentally, D铆az-Canel is the first Cuban leader to be born after the Cuban Revolution. Now, consider the Cuban Revolution occurred four decades after Russia鈥檚 鈥� and that it鈥檚 been three decades since Russia鈥檚 imploded. It鈥檚 not just wishful thinking to suggest Cuba鈥檚 might be on a similar timetable.
More devout Cuban communists will of course issue the same warning we always hear from more devout Russian communists, not least of them President Vladimir Putin: Gorbachev, they insist, brought about more chaos than correction. There are two rebuttals to that. First, when has the dissolution of any rigid empire, from the Roman to the Holy Roman, not been chaotic? Second, Cuba is not an empire; it is a Caribbean island of little more than 11 million people.
Granted, democratic and economic reform is never smooth or effortless anywhere. Which is all the more reason Washington should be engaging Cuba now and not isolating it 鈥� so the U.S. has an influencing foot in the door if and when younger leaders like D铆az-Canel do opt to try something Gorbachevista.
If and when Miguel decides he wants to be like Mikhail.
