With reference to Devaraj's 'Malaysia must emulate Cuba' (May 12), while we cannot deny that the kind of 'globalisation' the United States is trying to sell is a threat to Third World countries, is hiding in a cave away from the rest of the world safe?

What Cuba is doing now is exactly what the Ching Dynasty of China was doing hundreds of years ago. "Oh, the world outside is full of predators, let's shut our door and we will not get hurt". Yes, year after year, the predators get stronger, and we still remain weak. So one day, our 'door' cannot hold on any longer, the foreigners step in and burn our houses. Is that what we want to see?

The writer mentioned Cuba as a country that is not willing to bow to Yankee Imperialism. That's not true, what President Dr Fidel Castro is doing is not standing up to the US - he is hiding from the latter. Do we have to 'emulate' a 'chicken'?

The 1959 revolution of Cuba didn't free Cubans from the arms of Imperialism. It only freed Cubans from American Imperialism, but invited Soviet Imperialists as a replacement. Which is better? I can't tell, but neither is good.

Cuba had suffered under the iron fists of US before 1959, as a result of single commercial agriculture economy. Cubans planted sugar canes, they sold all the sugar to US. Sound's familiar? That's what the British did to its colonies in the past, including Malaya. Since Cubans couldn't afford to consume all the sugar, and US was the only buyer, Cuba's economy was totally controlled by US.

Then Castro came into power, chased away the Yankees, but invited the Soviets. Then, his 'fellow comrades' in Kremlin told Castro that all he had to do is just supply sugar to Soviet, and he would receive 'protection'. Still single producer, single buyer, so what's different?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia no longer needed Cuban sugar. In fact, it turned out that for the past few decades, the Russians had been dumping all the sugar they bought from Cuba into the sea, since the Soviet Union was a major producer of sugar itself. It was just preventing Cuba from selling sugar to any other country.

So, Russia no longer buys (but dumps into the sea) sugar from Cuba. This devastated Cuba's economy (because of its 'single produce' economy, a poisonous seed laid by the Americans, and nurtured by Soviets).

Without sufficient exports to raise money to buy enough petroleum for all, Cubans had to use donkeys to pull their buses. If anyone prefers donkeys or 1950s old Packard sedans over air-conditioned Intrakota or Cityliner buses; or prefers being hauled into dark Spaniard dungeons and being whipped for saying something the leader doesn't like, then Cuba is a paradise for him or her.

So, fellow Malaysians, the Americans are no angels for sure, but do you think distancing ourselves away from the US will do us any good? Try to understand why the US is so strong, learn from it so that we can become strong.

One must learn the strengths of an opponent and pinpoint its weakness in order to win. To become like US or Cuba, your pick!

By the way, I don't see any advantage to be gained from Malaysian-Cuban ties, unless we're allowed to put nuclear missiles on Cuban soil.