Raul Castro Puts it on the Line

first, let's remember that Prince Regent Raul ran the Army and the tourist industry, the two things in Cuba that work (slight exaggeration only).

and let's remember that whereas King Fidel spoke for hours (sometimes days) during meetings of the National Assembly, Prince Regent Raul has limited himself to brief, content-driven remarks.

Prince Regent Raul has also encouraged those around him to "tell it as it is."

What is clear is that Raul's style and form are very different from Fidel's style and form. Whereas Fidel is the magician keeping an illusion going, Raul appears to be the realist trying to keep the illusion from blotting out reality.

Fidel's style worked for 47 years: the rambling speeches, the ideological absolutes, the positioning of Cuba as David to the U.S.'s Goliath, the subservience of economic progress to the ultimate goal of socialist purity -- or as he put it so often, "Socialism or Death". For Fidel, there was no third option.

Raul, on the other hand, limits his comments to brief statements. He has embraced Chinese-like capitalist means in order to keep his armed forces going (through control of hard-currency earning tourism). Let's also not forget that among his first foreign policy statements were two (yes, two) dialogue initiatives towards the U.S. -- the first ignored, the second rebuked.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Raul and Fidel appear to be that, whereas Fidel's ultimate goal was to keep Cuba socialist no matter the price, Raul appears ready to sacrifice (or at least compromise) socialism to make Cuba work.

Almost immediately upon taking power, he launched a "theft in the workplace" campaign in the media, highlighting one of Cuba's great problems: since only the state has anything worth having, everybody else steals from the state. He also called for "frank" discussions about Cuba's many economic ills.

In recent comments, he stated that the Revolution was tired of excuses, and that bureaucratic delays were "inexplicable." Stating Cuba's public transportation is on the point of collapse, he seems to be calling for major reforms in that sector.

One thing is certain: Prince Regent Raul seems willing to tackle the very apparatus of government bureaucracy as the problem, whereas his brother saw that bureaucracy as the price to be pay to run a socialist dictatorship.

Will Prince Regent Raul be successful in streamlining all (or most) of Cuba's infrastructure and economy as he succesfully did with the Army and tourism?

That appears to be his goal.

We can only wait and see.