The Truth on Cuba

[Yoder777]

As Americans, we've been led to believe that Cuba is an oppressive hell with an inferior quality of life. This is what our government wants us to believe about all socialist countries. During the Cold War, our intelligence community defined communism as any government that believes its resources should be utilized for the benefit of its people rather than for wealthy elites.

This definition was used to topple democratically elected leaders and stifle democratic movements throughout the world, including Greece, whose president was removed by an American-sponsored coup. Google "Greece" and "junta" to learn more. To this day, Cuba remains a thorn in America's side because of its survival as a socialist state.

By the normal measurements of quality of life, Cuba is a great place to live compared to the rest of imperial-dominated Latin America.

Even CIA statistics show socialist Cuba stands tall

By Caleb T. Maupin
Published Aug 6, 2010 10:17 AM

The Central Intelligence Agency, a ruthless enforcer of Wall Street’s drive for profits, publishes “The World Factbook.” It gives updated statistics for every country, some of which measure quality of life and societal health, such as life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, unemployment and industrial production. In this series, Workers World examines some surprising conclusions, all using the CIA’s own statistics. Even though these statistics often understate gains compared to United Nations figures, they can’t help but show that countries benefit by breaking with imperialism.

In Latin America, the CIA’s “World Factbook” confirms that socialism stands triumphant. The island nation of Cuba, having begun constructing socialism after the 1959 revolution, stands above all other countries in terms of quality of life.

The infant mortality rate is the count of children per 1,000 live births who die before reaching one year of age. Not a single country in Latin America has a lower infant mortality rate than socialist Cuba, which is lower even than that of the wealthy United States. This is a testament both to the Cuban health care system, which is publicly operated and controlled by working people and their organizations, and Cuba’s attention to public health.

The educational system in Cuba, like the vast majority of the economy, is prioritized by the government and subject to popular, democratic control. As a result, Cuba stands far above the rest of Latin America in literacy, with 99.8 percent considered literate, even slightly higher than the U.S.’s 99.0 percent.

Compare this to Honduras, where a repressive military dictatorship was recently installed in a coup d’état backed by Washington. Literacy in free-market, U.S.-dominated Honduras is 80 percent.

The life expectancy of Cubans is above every other country in South and Central America, and much higher than in the nearby Dominican Republic. In nearby Guatemala, where U.S.-backed paramilitaries have brutally put down all attempts to build a world free of capitalism, the life expectancy is only 70.59 years, compared to socialist Cuba’s 77.64 years.

Amidst the world economic crisis, Cuba’s rate of industrial production has dropped by only 1 percent, according to the Factbook. In the United States, production fell by 5.5 percent, and in the Britain, 9.8 percent.

This is probably due to the fact that the Cuban economy is not dominated by Western markets, but planned according to human need. As a result, an economic crisis in the West did not force the Cuban workers to suffer at the hands of Wall Street.

The statistics confirm what Karl Marx and countless others after him have said numerous times: that without the chaos of the capitalist market, which he dubbed the “anarchy of production,” a planned economy can better serve the people and provide for a good quality of life.
Even CIA statistics show socialist Cuba stands tall

Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments
By Owen Richards
Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments | Direct Action

Cuba is also a leader in environmentally sustainable practices:

Cuba: Breaking corporate power allows sustainable development
Cuba is a world leader in ecologically sustainable practices. It is the only country to have begun the large-scale transition from conventional farming, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, to a new agricultural paradigm known as low-input sustainable agriculture.

Cuba was the first country to replace all incandescent light globes with energy-saving compact fluorescents and to ban the sale of incandescents. It has also pioneered the decentralisation of electricity generation by installing thousands of diesel generators the size of shipping containers where they are needed. This has cut transmission losses and made the grid less vulnerable to disruption.

One reason why Cuba leads the world in sustainable practices is dire necessity: Cuba has had to adapt to acute shortages of energy, raw materials, manufacured goods and financing as a result of external circumstances.

In 2006, a World Wildlife Fund study concluded Cuba is the only country in the world with both a high UN Human Development Index — a composite ranking based on quality of life indices and purchasing power — and a relatively small “ecological footprint”, a measure of the per person use of land and resources.

Not only does Cuba offer an inspiring example of what’s possible when even a small, poor country frees itself from the tyranny of the corporate rich, Cuba and Venezuela lead a bloc of Latin American countries with progressive governments — the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America (ALBA) — on the world stage in the struggle for social and environmental justice.
Rio+20 : Cuba: Breaking corporate power allows sustainable development

 

[WalksWithChrist]

As Americans, we've been led to believe that Cuba is an oppressive hell with an inferior quality of life. This is what our government wants us to believe about all socialist countries. During the Cold War, our intelligence community defined communism as any government that believes its resources should be utilized for the benefit of its people rather than for wealthy elites.

This definition was used to topple democratically elected leaders and stifle democratic movements throughout the world, including Greece, whose president was removed by an American-sponsored coup. Google "Greece" and "junta" to learn more. To this day, Cuba remains a thorn in America's side because of its survival as a socialist state.

By the normal measurements of quality of life, Cuba is a great place to live compared to the rest of imperial-dominated Latin America.



Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments
By Owen Richards
Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments | Direct Action

Cuba is also a leader in environmentally sustainable practices:

Have you lived in Cuba?

Yes, I am really asking...not a rhetorical question. I lived in Cuba, but on the Naval Base back in the 80s as a child.

 

[KarateCowboy]

Cuba's infant mortality rate is kept artificially low by its abortion rate of 71%. They abort any pregnancy that even hints at problems.

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]According to a report by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the mortality rate of Cuban children aged 1 to 4 is 34% higher than the U.S. (11.8 versus 8.8 per 1000). But these don't figure into U.N.-spotlighted "infant-mortality rates," you see. So apparently the pressure (so far) is not on Cuban doctors to fudge these figures. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons also reports that the current maternal mortality rate in Cuba is almost FOUR TIMES the U.S. rate (33 versus 8.4 per 1000). Peculiar (and tragic) how so many mothers die during childbirth in Cuba? And how many 1—4 year olds perish, while from birth to one year old (the period during which they qualify in U.N. statistics as infants) they're perfectly healthy?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]This might lead a few people to question Cuba's official infant-mortality figures. But such people would not get a Havana bureau for their agency or network, much less a visa to film a documentary in Fidel Castro's fiefdom.

[/FONT]
What Sicko Left Out by Humberto Fontova[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]
[/FONT]

 

[Yoder777]

I enjoy being American. The point isn't that I'd rather live in Cuba but that Cuba has certain policies that the United States should emulate that have caused it to have perhaps the highest quality of life in Latin America.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

I enjoy being American. The point isn't that I'd rather live in Cuba but that Cuba has certain policies that the United States should emulate that have caused it to have perhaps the highest quality of life in Latin America.

You could make that argument for many countries around the world. Picking Cuba to make that argument, to me, just doesn't seem logical.

 

[KarateCowboy]

I enjoy being American. The point isn't that I'd rather live in Cuba but that Cuba has certain policies that the United States should emulate that have caused it to have perhaps the highest quality of life in Latin America.

If you go by the lies they give you. Saying they have an high quality of life is just plain delusional.

 

[Yoder777]

You could make that argument for many countries around the world. Picking Cuba to make that argument, to me, just doesn't seem logical.

It does when Cuba has been demonized by our government for fifty years.

 

[NightHawkeye]

The prerequisite for voting Republican is hating poor people ...

Wow ... why the hatred there, Yoder?


.

 

[KarateCowboy]

Wow ... why the hatred there, Yoder?


.

It's projection. It's been found that conservatives are considerably more charitable than liberals, despite earning less. If you want to know what progressives are up to then listen carefully to what they accuse their opposition of doing.

 

[NightHawkeye]

It's projection. It's been found that conservatives are considerably more charitable than liberals, despite earning less. If you want to know what progressives are up to then listen carefully to what they accuse their opposition of doing.

As explained in this article from American Thinker: Archived-Articles: The Psychology of the Self-Hating Liberal

Its roots are a self-hating neurosis that, in different forms has afflicted the European intelligentsia since the time of Rousseau. I first became aware of the strange mind games of the self-hating middle class liberal at university in the 1970's. It is a mindset that did then (and still does) dominate academic life. Students and their tutors alike - mostly the beneficiaries of upward striving family backgrounds - were consumed with a phony and entirely self- absorbed infatuation with something they called ‘the working class struggle'.

Through its disproportionate hold on academic and media culture this mindset has now become mainstream. As it has spread through our culture it has been diluted and sublimated, Paradoxically this has made it even more poisonous by making it more difficult to apprehend. It has become a gossamer web of vaguely held attitudes. Here are some of them:

Being middle class is something to be slightly ashamed of. Being working class on the other hand - or better still affecting to be working class - makes you seem more heroic......As long as you are ‘left wing' you are not only a nicer person but you are also ‘radical' and therefore not boring. If on the other hand you are ‘right wing', well that means you are ‘reactionary' and mean......Business enterprise is essentially disreputable whereas getting a living off the public purse or in the arts and media is highly civilised. Being an engineer or a scientist is OK too, up to a point - for boring people anyway.....And of course all the problems of people in the rest of the world are the fault, not of those people themselves but of the prosperous West. More specifically, the blame lies with ‘the capitalist system'; not you personally of course. You show how much you care by going to Live Aid concerts and that makes you feel much better about yourself.
​

Mind games ... self-delusional mind games ... sigh ...


.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

It does when Cuba has been demonized by our government for fifty years.

No.

Go talk to people who lived their whole lives in Cuba and escaped. I have and I have really listened to them. One of my Spanish teachers escaped from Cuba and she told us what it was like is some pretty gritty detail.

Don't buy the hype.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

As explained in this article from American Thinker: Archived-Articles: The Psychology of the Self-Hating Liberal

Its roots are a self-hating neurosis that, in different forms has afflicted the European intelligentsia since the time of Rousseau. I first became aware of the strange mind games of the self-hating middle class liberal at university in the 1970's. It is a mindset that did then (and still does) dominate academic life. Students and their tutors alike - mostly the beneficiaries of upward striving family backgrounds - were consumed with a phony and entirely self- absorbed infatuation with something they called ‘the working class struggle'.

Through its disproportionate hold on academic and media culture this mindset has now become mainstream. As it has spread through our culture it has been diluted and sublimated, Paradoxically this has made it even more poisonous by making it more difficult to apprehend. It has become a gossamer web of vaguely held attitudes. Here are some of them:

Being middle class is something to be slightly ashamed of. Being working class on the other hand - or better still affecting to be working class - makes you seem more heroic......As long as you are ‘left wing' you are not only a nicer person but you are also ‘radical' and therefore not boring. If on the other hand you are ‘right wing', well that means you are ‘reactionary' and mean......Business enterprise is essentially disreputable whereas getting a living off the public purse or in the arts and media is highly civilised. Being an engineer or a scientist is OK too, up to a point - for boring people anyway.....And of course all the problems of people in the rest of the world are the fault, not of those people themselves but of the prosperous West. More specifically, the blame lies with ‘the capitalist system'; not you personally of course. You show how much you care by going to Live Aid concerts and that makes you feel much better about yourself.
​

Mind games ... self-delusional mind games ... sigh ...


.

That's a load of off-topic hogwash.

 

[Yoder777]

It's projection. It's been found that conservatives are considerably more charitable than liberals, despite earning less. If you want to know what progressives are up to then listen carefully to what they accuse their opposition of doing.

How much is that in giving to churches rather than actual programs for the poor? Giving money for another marble altar to be built isn't exactly charity.

There are certain societal problems that charity just can't or won't solve. What charity is going to provide medical care to every uninsured person in America? What charity is going to provide workers compensation for those who are injured on the job? What charity is going to provide financial assistance to people between jobs? What charity is going to care for our elderly? While private charity is able and willing to help some people with these needs, only government has the power and resources help the majority of people with these needs. Why spend billions of dollars bombing brown people in the Middle East when there are real problems here at home?

 

[Yoder777]

That's a load of off-topic hogwash.

One could claim that conservatives are self-hating, which is why they are so puritanical on sexual issues and providing help to the less fortunate. If you secretly hate yourself, it's easy to project that hatred onto gays and welfare queens.

 

[NightHawkeye]

One could claim that conservatives are self-hating, which is why they are so puritanical on sexual issues and providing help to the less fortunate. If you secretly hate yourself, it's easy to project that hatred onto gays and welfare queens.

LOL ... I'll repeat the question for ya, Yoder ... guess ya missed it earlier ...

The prerequisite for voting Republican is hating poor people ...

Wow ... why the hatred there, Yoder?


Or ... to put it in an unbiased form ... Prove it.

The prerequisite for voting Republican is hating poor people ...

That's the rule on this forum, Yoder ... you post it ... you back it up.


.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

One could claim that conservatives are self-hating, which is why they are so puritanical on sexual issues and providing help to the less fortunate. If you secretly hate yourself, it's easy to project that hatred onto gays and welfare queens.

Post # 11...reply?

Also another question for you. Are your opinions about Cuba in any way related to Che? I ask because most people that seem to think Cuba is awesome have a warped view of Che and what he was really about.

 

[oldbetang]

As Americans, we've been led to believe that Cuba is an oppressive hell with an inferior quality of life. This is what our government wants us to believe about all socialist countries. During the Cold War, our intelligence community defined communism as any government that believes its resources should be utilized for the benefit of its people rather than for wealthy elites.

This definition was used to topple democratically elected leaders and stifle democratic movements throughout the world, including Greece, whose president was removed by an American-sponsored coup. Google "Greece" and "junta" to learn more. To this day, Cuba remains a thorn in America's side because of its survival as a socialist state.

By the normal measurements of quality of life, Cuba is a great place to live compared to the rest of imperial-dominated Latin America.



Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments
By Owen Richards
Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments | Direct Action

Cuba is also a leader in environmentally sustainable practices:

CUBA'S BOGUS STATISTICS

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Big Brother is watching you. Just don't ask me what else he's doing.

 

[paul becke]

As Americans, we've been led to believe that Cuba is an oppressive hell with an inferior quality of life. This is what our government wants us to believe about all socialist countries. During the Cold War, our intelligence community defined communism as any government that believes its resources should be utilized for the benefit of its people rather than for wealthy elites.

This definition was used to topple democratically elected leaders and stifle democratic movements throughout the world, including Greece, whose president was removed by an American-sponsored coup. Google "Greece" and "junta" to learn more. To this day, Cuba remains a thorn in America's side because of its survival as a socialist state.

By the normal measurements of quality of life, Cuba is a great place to live compared to the rest of imperial-dominated Latin America.



Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments
By Owen Richards
Cuban Revolution: Celebrating 50 years of accomplishments | Direct Action

Cuba is also a leader in environmentally sustainable practices:

A first-rate and well-targeted post. Much needed. Two caveats though, Yoda: the ever-present, secular, "anything goes" strain of sexual liberalism of the left (and the right, more secretly, where money is involved, e.g. pornography, prostitution, etc) is as inimical to Christianity as the economic, 'devil take the hindmost' liberalism of the right.

In that regard, with its hypocrisy, the right at least pays tribute to virtue, and the importance of that
can hardly be overstated. As Christ said, "Don't do as they do, but do as they say." The secularism of the left leads to moral anarchy and the increasing breakdown of society, although in the UK the formal Christian witness of the right, with which they attempt to mask their economic idolatry, is an ever-diminishing residue of virtue.

Unfortunately, politicans of every hue tend to be quite shallow worldlings, so that the respective focus of the right and left on the First and Second Commandment tends to be no more than a dogged, because essential, cynical 'front' in both cases. The Conservatives in power are actually an anachronism, their current office due solely to their coalition with the Liberals. They will never regain power as a single party. If they were ever going to it, it would have been after the crypto-Thatcherite, economic and societal mayhem left by Blair and Brown's NuLab(c), Tory lite Governments.

 

[Ishraqiyun]

Given the fact that they are a relatively small Island nation without massive amounts of resources and have been suffering under some pretty heavy embargoes it's surprising that they have done as good as they have. Still have a lot of problems though but I guess it could have more to do with the foreign policy of other nations then the actual domestic policy of Cuba.