Pan American Health Organization Places Cuba as World Leader

[Mika]

Source: mathaba.net

Pan American Health Organization Places Cuba as World Leader
http://mathaba.net/news/?x=600452
Cuba is one of the countries that advances the most in the
world with regard to medical attention, said Mirtha Roses Periago,
director of the Pan American Health Organization ''PAHO''.

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, July 31 (acn) The PAHO director is currently in the Cuban city of Cienfuegos where she toured several different health centers. She pointed out that Cuba offers a wide variety of activities and services related to health, and is a founding member of PAHO, which was established 106 years ago.
The UN official spoke to the press about the work carried out by Cuba with respect to its aging population and about new issues such as climate change, skyrocketing oil and food prices, and food security.

Roses Periago, who came to Cuba for the first time in 1985, said that movement for healthy municipalities began in Cienfuegos to promote healthy living.
She said that the study period to define ministry plans and needs for the next five years concluded last year along with discussions to define cooperation efforts up to 2015, related with the Millennium Goals.
Roses Periago said that Cuba has met the needs identified several decades ago to train more healthcare professionals and provide more clinics in towns.

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Read more: http://mathaba.net/news/?x=600452

[geomon666]

1. OMG!!!! The communists are taking over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

:scared:

[defendandprotect]

2. We've been trying to destroy them for 50 years . . . 'cause we know what we're doing!!

America keeps creating new diseases --- 37th in the world in health care!!!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Undoubtedly that leftist Michael Moore is behind this! Who knows how far his power reaches?

It's a shame more people don't realize how much can be done with so little, when people are concerned in raising the common welfare, so EVERYONE has a chance.

[Peace Patriot]

4. It's too bad we don't have a SANE policy on Cuba, that praises and COPIES what is

beneficial, while--if we must--objecting to, pressuring, trying to change--what isn't. Frankly, I think we've lost the right to criticize Cuba, considering the mass slaughter, torture, massive thievery and tyranny of the Bush Junta (with one their torture dungeons right there, next to Cuba, on the island). Cuba never, ever, in the entire history of its communist revolution, did as much harm to this country, or to others, as the Bush Junta has done.

In any case, we're not likely to have a SANE policy on Cuba--or on war, or on drugs, or on anything--until we...

...THROW DIEBOLD, ES&S AND ALL 'TRADE SECRET' VOTING MACHINES INTO 'BOSTON HARBOR' IN AMERICAN REVOLUTION II: THE END OF CORPORATE RULE!

[blue52power]

5. Yes Yes and No

...the mass slaughter, torture, massive thievery and tyranny of the Bush Junta (with one their torture dungeons right there, next to Cuba, on the island).

Cuba never, ever, in the entire history of its communist revolution, did as much harm to this country, or to others, as the Bush Junta has done. "

Although I agree with you in regards to the chimp, I can't cast a blind eye to repressive regimes like Cuba. You state, "...never in history of Cuba's... communist revolution...do as much hard to ...others"

Well, I think there have been many thousans who died in the revolution, and in prisons after the revolution in Castro's Cuba. No free speech or political affiliation. Consistent torturing and imprisoning of politcal dissidents.

[Peace Patriot]

6. I have come to completely distrust anything the U.S. gov't or the Miami mafia

says about Cuba (or anything else). Period. They're friggin liars. You say "many thousands died in the revolution." How many do you supposed died in OUR revolution? Batista was a horror! Cubans had much more cause for armed revolt than our Founders did. It was a war. People had been pushed too far. They had had it. And, although I remember the Cuban revolution, I was too young to get a clear impression of how bloody it was, and I certainly wouldn't have gotten an accurate picture from our corporate media, which was very bad on Cuba, even then. So I don't know. In any case, that was more than FORTY YEARS AGO. The revolution has mellowed, and is now known for the best health care system in the western hemisphere, and possibly in the world, and its highly regarded Spanish literacy program.

"No free speech." Do we have free speech? Fascist corporate fuckwads own all the media--except the internet. We can yell all we want here (until they privatize it), or go out on the streets and yell all we want (if we don't get tear-gassed), but our political representatives are DEAF TO US. So what does it matter? The whole vote counting system is now owned mainly by three rightwing Bushite corporations, who run it on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code. Do we have democracy? It is arguable that we do not. As for "consistent" torturing, I think that is happening on the other end of the island, no? Where is the evidence for Cuba "consistently torturing" prisoners? "Imprisoning political dissidents"? They say they imprison CIA spies. How can we really know, given the embargo and our lying media?

There is something I do know well, and that is the character of the Miami mafia, who welcome every bloody killer and torturer who flees Latin America when the people re-gain control of their government. Commercial airplane bombers. Hotel bombers. Torturers, assassins. All welcome with open arms by the Miami anti-Castro Cubans. They are fascist bastards, as bad as the Bushites--and have been poisoning U.S. Latin American foreign policy for forty years, not to mention consistently voting for the worst, most corrupt, most warmongering Republicans--and collecting special federal welfare for fascist Cubans in addition to everything else. Your tax dollars, and mine--supporting the worst elements of Latin American society, all clustered in south Florida, constantly plotting against us and the leftists in South America. If this is what you mean by "political dissidents"--the Batista crowd, these gangsters in Miami, who would re-enslave Cuba and all of South America--I can't say that I blame the Castro government for imprisoning people like them--assassination plotters, coup plotters, spies, the corrupt and the criminal. Cuba has the most powerful, fascist/corporate-run government on earth breathing down its neck. They have reason to be afraid.

The Cuba of the last 25 years has not followed the Soviet model--nor anything close to Stalinism. They have created a uniquely Latin American form of communism. It is rather intriguing that Cuba, of all the communist countries, is the only one that has survived as a communist system. I'm not saying that I would be happy to live under that system, but the more marginalized many of us become--with skyrocketing medical costs, skyrocketing transportation costs, a bankrupt federal government, no jobs, many with no homes, and our programs for the elderly and for the young all in dire threat, with our infrastructure crumbling, and with the our loss of so many of our rights--Cuban communism might start looking like a good alternative--a least parts of it.

In the rest of South America (Colombia excepted), they have taken the democratic path to reform, and they are combining elements of capitalism and socialism but with an emphasis on social justice that is in some part inspired by Cuba. What I was saying above is: why can't we have that kind of balanced view of things--which assesses Cuba's accomplishments honestly, without propaganda, and acknowledges that they've done some things right? And if we think political freedom is such great shakes, why don't we start by restoring it in our own country? Then maybe we'll have some ground to stand on, criticizing Cuba.

[Mika]

7. GREAT post!

Thank you for saying what needed to be said.

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Here are some of the major parties in Cuba. The union parties hold the majority of seats in the Assembly.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/cu.html

* Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) {Communist Party of Cuba}
* Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba (PDC) {Christian Democratic Party of Cuba} - Oswaldo Paya's Catholic party
* Partido Solidaridad Democrática (PSD) {Democratic Solidarity Party}
* Partido Social Revolucionario Democrático Cubano {Cuban Social Revolutionary Democratic Party}
* Coordinadora Social Demócrata de Cuba (CSDC) {Social Democratic Coordination of Cuba}
* Unión Liberal Cubana {Cuban Liberal Union}

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http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

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The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html


Or a long and detailed version here,

Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections
Arnold August
1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books


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[blue52power]

10. Castro has won reelection for 46 straight years lol nt

nm

[Mika]

52. Another newbie DU Cuba "expert" who's never been there, knows little about it...

.. but yet claims that "everybody knows" about it.

Please do inform us - when were you in Cuba to make your observations, and how long have you been studying Cuba and its various infrastructures?

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[IggyReed]

54. Sound logic...

We can't learn, and have opinions, about the countries we haven't been to yet. So, because I was never IN Stalinist Russia, I could never know enough facts to condemn Stalinist Russia? I’ve never been to Sudan, could I comment on that? If not, what level of expertise should I attain to be able to know enough about the situation to say anything? Should I shut up about Sudan until I do, or just wait to visit? Can people outside the US say anything positive about the country if they’ve never been here? What if they’ve invested lots of time to study the country?

[Hannah Bell]

62. you can have an opinion - but if it's based entirely on the us msm,

it's pretty worthless.

news flash: most russians, even under stalin, lived pretty ordinary lives & were never in a gulag.

which is why many of them have nostalgia for the period.

[blue52power]

67. You want to believe Marxist-Lenninist propaganda gofor it

We have the right to free dissent in this country.

Can't say the same for the ideology which you love.

[Mika]

73. And your experience in Cuba is?

I've lived in Cuba, and visited many times since, and what you claim is going on in Cuba is non factual opinion (which you have the right to have).

What is interesting is that the vast majority of those who have actual experience in Cuba have a much different story to tell than those rendering opinion based on hearsay as so many of DU's anti Cuba "experts" do.

Plus they tend to do it without the red baiting and cold war rhetorical insults.

Please, do tell ... your experience in Cuba is?


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[AlphaCentauri]

8. It's a pleasure to read your posts

[blue52power]

9. Quit drinking the kool aid

"...elements of capitalism and socialism but with an emphasis on social justice that is in some part inspired by Cuba"

Social justice. How can you have social justice with no political rights. Many good meaning liberals and socialists fell for the same cool aid with Soviet Russia back in the 20s and 30s. Social Democracies have the best of all worlds or the better of the evils. Communist dictatorships have failed in NKorea, Soviet Union, all of the Eastern bloc countries, Polan, Czech, E Germany, Hungary etc...all abysmal failures to their people. Yet you believe somehow Cuba is bucking this trend. Liberals used to believe in human rights. It's sad to see fellow liberals and socialists falling for the fables of tyrannies that have never in recorded history succeeded.

Yeah things are so great there that the pampered class of professional Cuban baseball players flee every chance they get. God only knows what the avg. worker and peasant is going through.

Amnesty Int'l and Human Rights Watch and UN entitities all agree that Cuba is a communist totalitarian dictatorship. The people suffer there, while other countries prosper.

Please don't ignore the horrors of dictatorships and tyrannies. Alexander Solzhenitsyn just died. Read Gulag Archipelago and understand what despotic communist regimes do to their people. If he wouldn't have written his books and had them sneaked out of the USSR, many would never have known the true repression and horrors that that govt. committed. Cuba is an island country, it's harder to get the truth out, don't be a dupe and believe their propaganda.

[Peace Patriot]

11. You misinterpreted my post. Or maybe I didn't write it well enough.

"...elements of capitalism and socialism but with an emphasis on social justice that is in some part inspired by Cuba."

I was talking about the OTHER South American countries--most of them--who have a SANE, balanced view of Cuba, unlike our madmen in the White House and Congress. Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Nicaragua, Brazil and many others--proven democracies with full civil liberties--trade with Cuba, invite Cuban doctors and health workers to assist them, use Cuba's literacy program, fly their poor to Cuba for eye operations, send students to Cuba's medical schools, and in many different ways, take a calm, balanced view of Cuba, without imitating Cuba's form of government. They can assess the good and the bad, and utilize the good.

As to social justice, Cuba's policy is that everyone eats, everyone has access to high quality health care, everyone has access to education through university, everyone has useful work, everyone is cared for, and people should collectively sacrifice and share, to achieve these ends. That is social justice. It is not necessarily political freedom.

But then, the Cuban communists had to develop a government under the constant threat of invasion. That would rather cramp notions of political freedom--if you never knew whether rightwingers might be colluding with the U.S. to torture and kill you, invade the country, re-enslave the people to the Miami mafia, and destroy your revolution. The Cuban revolutionaries had REAL reason to be afraid.

I don't know why we can't have a BALANCED view like this--and not all have to fall down in kneejerk genuflection to rightwing views of Cuba. Why can't we see things from many sides, rather than just one side?

You say that North Korea, Soviet Russia, and all the Eastern bloc countries were failed communist experiments. The latter--Soviet Russia and the Eastern bloc--are certainly over, as communist experiments, but they did last for (variously) 30 to 70 years. I'm not recommending them, however. What I'm saying is that there is something significantly different about Cuba and Cuban communism. It's not over. It's still there. And that is pretty remarkable, given the hostility--and the proximity!--of the U.S.

North Korea really isn't comparable. It is run by a nutcase dictator. Castro is not, and never was, a nutcase. He's a very smart and interesting man, actually.

Nobody goes on luxury tourist visits to North Korea. Lots of people go on luxury tourist visits to Cuba. Cuban communism is far, far, far different from that in North Korea. Would I want to visit North Korea? Absolutely not. Would I want to visit Cuba? Yes!

As dictators go, if I had to choose between a Castro-type dictator and George Bush and Dick Cheney, I would probably choose the Castro type. But "dictator" isn't exactly the right word for Castro. He is more like a king--a sacred figure. Cuban communists would probably scoff at this, but I think there is truth to it. He is the glue that holds things together--certainly more powerful than Queen Elizabeth, but not unlike her, in the sense of being reverenced, of being equivalent to the country itself--or rather to the poor peoples' view of the country. He is considered benevolent, and he is reverenced by poor people everywhere, not just in Cuba. He is a king. Beneath him, Cuba works fairly democratically. There are elections. There is widespread participation in day-to-day decisions. I think that may be why Cuba has survived, while all the other communist countries collapsed--because, a) Cubans are different than eastern Europeans or Russians--they are less mechanistic and bureaucratic, and more flexible and creative, and b) Castro let them be--he has not been dictatorial in the manner of Stalin, but more in the manner of a kingly guide.

I'm not judging this, pro or con. I'm trying to understand it. How has Cuba survived? And, to me, it's just ridiculous, given our own oppression, for us to cry "tyranny" against Cuba, and refuse to see Cuba's achievements. Aren't universal health care, universal education, a very high literacy rate, a very high infant survival rate, and other such achievements, good things? Yes, they are. Why deny it? Isn't our health care system cruel and defective by comparison? Yes, it is. So why don't we investigate what Cuba has done right, and try to learn from it, instead of wasting our breath on our hypocritical statements about democracy?

It's a kind of hysteria--if we praise something about Cuba, we might die from infectious communism. Capitalism hasn't done most of us any good lately. Maybe it's time we temper our views, open our minds, and start seeking solutions to our own very grave problems--and stop believing what our corporate rulers tell us. It's mostly crap, you know--about Cuba and about everything else.

[blue52power]

18. what is different

...about Cuban communism than the other failed systems?

"Soviet Russia and the Eastern bloc--are certainly over, as communist experiments, but they did last for (variously) 30 to 70 years. I'm not recommending them"

Yeah they lasted long enough in Russian to put their tyrannical jackboot on to people personal liberties. Along the way they killed over 60 million people.

"What I'm saying is that there is something significantly different about Cuba and Cuban communism."

How would you know there is anything different. You know nothing but what Cuban propagandists and a few dupes are willing to lie about. In a totalitarian system all the information is locked. You hear what they want you to hear.

A perfect case in point is the recent death of Alexander Solzhenitysin. Prior to his "Gulag Archapelago", we only estimated and guessed at the atrocities. After his book was sneaked out of Russia, the true barbarity and systemitized killing and jailing of a true Gestapo-State was known.

Every single communist system has failed. That is why peasants get on rafts and risk their lives to come to the US. With all of its flaws, the US give people the opportunity to bitch and moan and kick out the bums like Bush and his gang of oil barons. In Cuba you are imprisoned and tortured and killed. You will say nothing agianst the state or Castro.

Years from now we will have a "Gulag" written about Cuba as well. Bank on it.

[EFerrari]

12. You don't need to drag God into this, you have the internet

and access to information about Cuba.

Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have lovely things to say about the United States as well. Are you as versed on those entries? Not to mention the Red Cross that has been objecting to our war crimes for more than five years now.

Maybe we're just too prosperous, with this beam in our own eye and focused on the motes everywhere else. It's true, that damned upstart Castro should have just sold out to us when he had the chance. :sarcasm:

[blue52power]

19. Comparing Cuba to the US

is a mockery to the millions who have not been able to use their gift of free speech.

Since when its totalitarian communism, progressive?

[Mika]

31. I hear a vast majority of Americans speaking about universal health care and HQ ed. Do we have it?

No we don't.

Sometimes, just sometimes, actions speak louder than (just) words. That's how Cubans go about things now.

Before the 1959 revolution

75% of rural dwellings were huts made from palm trees.

More than 50% had no toilets of any kind.

85% had no inside running water.

91% had no electricity.

There was only 1 doctor per 2,000 people in rural areas.

More than one-third of the rural population had intestinal parasites.

Only 4% of Cuban peasants ate meat regularly; only 1% ate fish, less than 2% eggs, 3% bread, 11% milk; none ate green vegetables.

The average annual income among peasants was $91 (1956), less than 1/3 of the national income per person.

45% of the rural population was illiterate; 44% had never attended a school.

25% of the labor force was chronically unemployed.

1 million people were illiterate ( in a population of about 5.5 million).

27% of urban children, not to speak of 61% of rural children, were not attending school.

Racial discrimination was widespread.

The public school system had deteriorated badly.

Corruption was endemic; anyone could be bought, from a Supreme Court judge to a cop.

Police brutality and torture were common.

___



After the 1959 revolution
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html

“It is in some sense almost an anti-model,” according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank’s Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank’s dictum that economic growth is a pre-condition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not, downright wrong.

-

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank’s Vice President for Development Policy, who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999;

Chile’s was down to ten; and Costa Rica, at 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under the age of five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50% lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba’s achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

“Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable,” according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. “You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area.”

Indeed, in Ritzen’s own field, the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100% in 1997, up from 92% in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations - higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90% rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

“Even in education performance, Cuba’s is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile.”

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7% of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin American and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary school pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (age 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at 7%. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is 7%, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

“Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40% to zero within ten years,” said Ritzen. “If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it’s not possible.”

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada’s rate. Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

“What does it, is the incredible dedication,” according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.

No one can say with any credibility that universal education and universal health care needs to be forced on any population. Castro didn't give it to them either. Together, nearly all Cubans worked hard to create the infrastructure and systems that they felt were essential for any progressive system.

The Cuban people wanted universal health care for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, and organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a fair and complete h-c system.

The people of Cuba wanted universal education for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a complete and world class ed system, and they have it.

Cubans want to assist the world's poor and needy with doctors and educators, instead of gun ship diplomacy.. and that is what they have done WITH their government, not at odds with their government.

Can Americans make this claim about their own country? I'm afraid not.



Viva the good and decent people of Cuba!


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[blue52power]

33. what is the source of these statistics and how conforms them

These statistics have Cuba sounding like a great island of affluence, meeting the needs of its people. Yet nobody from the Us gets on rubber lifeboats and risks their lives to paddle to Cuba, they come in the opposite direction though. Cuban athletes are defecting all the time in free countries, but you'd have us believe it is so perfet there.

"instead of gun ship diplomacy.."

Ha. Tell to the thousands of Cuban troops that were attempting to assist the despotic Soviet Union colonize Africa. Not to mention the Cuban combat engineers and military that were caught in Grenada attempting to puppet a dictatorship.

These same "workers paradise" stats always come out of Marxist-Lennin communist countries. We've seen it all before from the Soviet Union lol. Then they system implodes and all the truth comes out.

I wonder how many liberals and progressives here would submit to a Bush dictatorship if he promised universal health care, but you'd all have to join the fascist Republican Party and agree never to protest or dissent".

People risk their lives to get out of Cuba for a reason.

[Judi Lynn]

35. You only know what the propagandists have told you. There are DU'ers here who have been there DURING

elections, who have LIVED there and who have WORKED there, who have relatives there, who have been in and out of Cuba, who maintain relationships with friends there.

There are people who read DU who have corresponded with DU'ers who have had Cubans who are visiting the U.S. for one reason or another as guests, who also maintain those relationships. Clearly these old, continuing relationships with the people of Cuba, and with Cuba itself provide some trustworthy context one doesn't get from the controlled corporate media.

[blue52power]

39. If they like it in Cuba, why do they defect so often

It is a police state.

You castigate the US "corporate controlled media", but soak in like the Soviet dupes of the 1930s through the 1950s, "state controlled media and information".

Coffee.
Smells good. Wake up and try some.

[Judi Lynn]

40. Why did the corporate media start referrring to the immigrants as

Who on earth do you think the waves of undocumented immigrants are fleeing from when they stream into the United States from islands throughout the Caribbean, sometimes simply taking boats from one island to others, like the many peope who pile into small rickety boats and brave the ocean to get to Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, etc.?

Why do people from all over Latin America risk their lives in attempting to cross the U.S. border from the Pacific to Texas? Why is it they do this, year after year, knowing full well that HUNDREDS DIE IN THE EFFORT EVERY YEAR, and that, if caught, they will be thrown out immediately?

What is different about the Cuban immigrants? They are offered a broad smorgasbord of inducements, REWARDS NOT GIVEN TO ANY OTHER NATIONAL, OR ETHNIC GROUP EVER, FROM ANYWHERE, through the generosity of the Cuban "exile-"arranged Cuban Adjustment Act. As soon as they can manage to arrive in this country, by hook or crook, by smugglers, or innertubes, they are INSTANTLY LEGAL, if Cuban, even if they have prison records, and they are eligible immediately for social security, for a work visa, for food stamps, for Section 8 US-taxpayer financed HOUSING, for free medical treatment, for welfare, even for financial assistance for education. ALL these gifts are waiting for them, and they are all accepted, to the point Florida Cuban State Senator, Rudy Garcia's little old grandmother, herself, had someone take her to get signed up for her own food stamps, even though her family owns and operates a home flooring company, and clearly can afford to assist her:

Stalin Would Be Proud
And only Kafka could have dreamed up a character like Rudy Garcia
By Tristram Korten
Published on May 01, 2003

The dismissal of six workers from a local office of the Department of Children and Families is one of the most surreal governmental dramas to play itself out in some time. Certainly you recall the incident. On March 4 an aide to state Sen. Rudy Garcia was accompanying the senator's 94-year-old grandmother to the Hialeah DCF office to inquire about her food-stamp eligibility. The aide, Francis Aleman, claims she and Garcia's abuela were treated rudely. She complained to DCF brass in Tallahassee and voilà, everyone up the chain of command got the axe. Garcia happens to sit on two committees that fund and supervise DCF....

Two of the fired employees had not even worked at the Hialeah office for one and a half months. They never saw, heard, or talked to the grandmother. The day they were canned they must have felt like characters in a Kafka novel, complete with self-important politicians (and their aides), obsequious bureaucrats, and a labyrinthine system so mindless that once set in motion, it couldn't be stopped.

This is as absurd as it gets. First, what the hell is the grandmother of a state senator doing on food stamps? Much less a senator who in 2001 listed his net worth as $100,212, and his income as $63,829. "She's an American citizen and she wants her independence," Garcia explained to me. "I can't tell her what to do. This is a nominal amount, around $30 a month."

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-05-01/news/stalin-would-be-proud

http://www.fldfs.com/pressoffice/newsletter/2006/032006/Dsc_5089R%20Sen%20Garcia%20Speaks,%202-Shotsm.jpg

Senator Rudy Garcia

~~~~~~~~~~
Other immigrants come here, over water, from distances over 700 miles away, not the 90 mile trip by smuggler boat from Cuba. Other immigrants die in the desert, by the HUNDREDS EACH YEAR, many never counted as they're never found, and all these people face deportation the moment they arrive, as well as violence at the hands of filthy, ignorant, violent idiot right-wingers, even murder, obviously, not to mention continual hostility, and hatred.

Even when this race of psychopathic, low-achieving right-wing idiots never, ever even meet immigrants face to day in any part of their daily lives, they can still be counted on to rave on and on about how much they hate non-Cuban and non-European immigrants, just the way right-wing drooling fools claim they hate "Democrat" American citizens.

Well, it's time for you to wake up, and realize even your corporate media, long ago started referring to the Cuban arrivals here as "economic immigrants."

By the way, would you take the time to explain WTF you meant when you wrote this?

"You castigate the US "corporate controlled media", but soak in like the Soviet dupes of the 1930s through the 1950s, "state controlled media and information"."

It doesn't make a lot of sense. Please focus and write it clearly.

[blue52power]

41. a authoritarian wouldn't understand that statement

Because they don't see a disntinction between "state controlled media and information" and any other form of media and information. Why? Because that is all they know.

So those in the police state of Cuba could be forgiven for not knowing this.

However, you simply do not wish to address the statement, which is fine.

[Judi Lynn]

42. You should explain to people how it is you know Cuba is a "police state." You go to Cuba,

like other DU'ers from the States, Latin America, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc.?

They don't agree with you.

[blue52power]

45. A thought

"...At one time we dared not even to whisper. Now we write and read samizdat, and sometimes when we gather in the smoking room at the Science Institute we complain frankly to one another: What kind of tricks are they playing on us, and where are they dragging us? gratuitous boasting of cosmic achievements while there is poverty and destruction at home. Propping up remote, uncivilized regimes. Fanning up civil war. And we recklessly fostered Mao Tse-tung at our expense— and it will be we who are sent to war against him, and will have to go. Is there any way out? And they put on trial anybody they want and they put sane people in asylums—always they, and we are powerless..."

Alexander Solzhenitysen, 1974...before being arrested for his dissent and exile to W.Germany

[Judi Lynn]

43. Actually, I'm waiting for you to explain why it is you perceive Cuban immigrants

as "fleeing" from a "police state" but seem oblivious that hordes of OTHER PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES ARE DYING ANNUALLY TRYING TO GET HERE, WITHOUT ANY GOVERNMENT BENEFITS WAITING FOR THEM, LIKE CUBANS.

You slipped right by that one, but it remains an open question for you to address.

[blue52power]

44. Isn't it obvious

Humans crave freedom.

[Judi Lynn]

46. Would you explain why you call it "craving freedom" when many of them go right back

to see relatives the very first chance they get? Why aren't they afraid of being thrown in jail?

[Hannah Bell]

64. compare the net migration rates....

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2112.html

cuba: -1.57/1000
ecuador: -7.8
guatemala: -2.2
el salvador: -3.4
dominican rep: -2.4
grenada: -11.4
honduras: -1.3
jamaica: -5.8
mexico: -3.8
nicaragua: -1.1
grenadines: -7.5
samoa: -9.1
trinidad: -11
virgin islands: -9.3


some of the top destinations for migrants: qatar & uae. for the "freedom," sure.

the general trend is: from poorer countries to richer ones. for work.

[Judi Lynn]

66. Now that is one great idea! You're the 1st I've seen to look into those stats. Beautiful. Thanks. nt

[blue52power]

68. lol, Castro doesn't hand out visas

and they are sea locked.

[Hannah Bell]

63. cuba has less out-migration than most of latin america,

if it's so great in capitalist mexico, for example...why is 1/4 the population here? why do they risk dying in the desert or getting shot by vigilantes?

cuba is an island, & most ordinary people don't have the money for airfare. but relatives of the miami cubans regularly travel to miami, & vice-versa, because they have the fare, little publicized fact.

[bean fidhleir]

53. risking their lives to paddle to the US

Approximately 1-5% of any population will be utterly self-centered, to the point of criminal psychopathy in the worst cases. They are characterized by atypically flat reactions to stress and a poor grasp of reality in that they almost never learn from the mistakes they make (or rather those they live through and are not imprisoned for).

Those who risk their lives in makeshift boats to reach the US are doing it for the money, and people who risk their lives for money are, almost by definition, not in good shape mentally. They're like the Darwin Award candidates who play russian roulette for dollars.

Now, you can claim that it's not for the money, it's for "freedom", but then you have to tell us what that means in operational terms, i.e., what do they do here that they couldn't do there. And that's where you'll get stuck, because it always boils down to the money and the chance to become rich enough to exploit other people.

[Hannah Bell]

61. you're silly.

you can go to the web & read reports from ordinary tourists who did things like bicycle across the country & stay at ordinary folks' homes (on a whim, not planned by intourist) & talk to people who had a variety of opinions & (gasp!) some even criticized castro.

no kgb followed them or censored their web postings.

cuba ain't the gulag.

at least no more than the us, where we can run our mouths forever, precisely because it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

[blue52power]

69. The Marxist-Lenninists are the silly one's

What a bunch of dupes.

I thought this was a progressive board that believed in human political rights and more of a socialized economy, but I see we still have the duped class. The same dupe types that got taken and though The Soviet Union was such an ideal state.

The fact of the matter is that The Soviets were complicit with Nazi Germany and still would be had it not been for Hitler attacking the Soviets.

[WriteDown]

49. Speaking of the internet....

I am still waiting for our Cuban DU members to chime in with their personal experiences with the Cuban healthcare system.

Don't get me wrong, I am no huge fan of our healthcare system, but I'll take this ranking with a grain/pound of salt.

[Judi Lynn]

50. Three of them have discussed their own experiences with the Cuban healthcare system over the years.

You'd know that if you'd been a member that long.

They've used both domestic services and services open to tourists for walk-in emergencies. All three of them spoke very highly of the quality of care they received, and witnessed.

A Canadian DU'er wrote of her experience at a Cuban health spa which caters to world tourist medical trade, but closes to tourists one day of each week and is used only by Cubans. Very interesting, and certainly not something we'd hear from U.S. corporate "news" organizations.

[WriteDown]

51. I think you missed my point

Were they posting from Cuba? 3 seems like a miniscule number. I was commenting on the lack of a free exchange of information, not the healthcare system. I have personally had experiences with 2 international healthcare systems including Canada and Germany. They're are definitely some advantages and some disadvantages. As someone who has had 5 surgeries for sports related injuries, some are better than others.

[Judi Lynn]

14. The people suffer there, eh? Wonder why that is, don't you?

By the way, it would be a terrific idea if you, as a progressive, started calling your Representative, Senators, and discussing dropping the embargo and travel ban with them.

As anyone could guess, Americans will be much more capable of seeing the great damage inflicted upon the people by their government, their highly acclaimed universal medical treatment, their education system, and the progress they've made, or not made since they threw out the filthy, corrupt, death squad loving bloody dictator, Fulgencio Batista and the nest of filthy vipers who comprised Cuba's ruling class, if they could simply take a boat or plane to Cuba. Most Americans don't believe they should be forbidden from travelling to a country which is so tiny, and so completely helpless.

You have no doubt seen the handiwork of the Cuban fascist, racist, former ruling class in South Florida, where they were able to help Miami become a repeat winner of the U.S. Census Bureau's "Poorest City in a Population Over 500,000," and the proud bearer of the FBI's designation as "America's Terror Capital," due to years upon years of murders, bombings, maimings, vicious attacks on Cubans or anyone they believe to not be as psychotically anti-Cuba as they are. People in Florida who favor normalizing relations with the island have been slaughtered, people who have called for moderation have been bombed, businesses which do business with Cuba, as in sending packages there for customers get bombed, and travel agencies, and art galleries showing Cuban art, and auditoriums featuring Cuban musicians threatened, while crowds gather, waiting for audiences to show up, and hurl D-cell batteries at them, rotten eggs, tomatoes, baggies filled with excrement, with urine, etc., etc. as well as saliva spat upon them along with completely vulgar insults, bringing in police, and carrying away victims.

As a progressive you will undoubtedly see the wisdom in dropping the embargo which has been condemned all over the world, and is condemned yearly by an ENORMOUS majority in the U.N. General Assembly, as being not only brutal, but defiant of international law.

A few facts regarding the impact of this piece of filth:"Denial of Food and Medicine:
The Impact Of The U.S. Embargo
On The Health And Nutrition In Cuba"
-An Executive Summary-
American Association for World Health Report
Summary of Findings
March 1997
After a year-long investigation, the American Association for World Health has determined that the U.S. embargo of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens. As documented by the attached report, it is our expert medical opinion that the U.S. embargo has caused a significant rise in suffering-and even deaths-in Cuba. For several decades the U.S. embargo has imposed significant financial burdens on the Cuban health care system. But since 1992 the number of unmet medical needs patients going without essential drugs or doctors performing medical procedures without adequate equipment-has sharply accelerated. This trend is directly linked to the fact that in 1992 the U.S. trade embargo-one of the most stringent embargoes of its kind, prohibiting the sale of food and sharply restricting the sale of medicines and medical equipment-was further tightened by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act.

A humanitarian catastrophe has been averted only because the Cuban government has maintained a high level of budgetary support for a health care system designed to deliver primary and preventive health care to all of its citizens. Cuba still has an infant mortality rate half that of the city of Washington, D.C.. Even so, the U.S. embargo of food and the de facto embargo on medical supplies has wreaked havoc with the island's model primary health care system. The crisis has been compounded by the country's generally weak economic resources and by the loss of trade with the Soviet bloc.

Recently four factors have dangerously exacerbated the human effects of this 37-year-old trade embargo. All four factors stem from little-understood provisions of the U.S. Congress' 1992 Cuban Democracy Act (CDA):

1. A Ban on Subsidiary Trade: Beginning in 1992, the Cuban Democracy Act imposed a ban on subsidiary trade with Cuba. This ban has severely constrained Cuba's ability to import medicines and medical supplies from third country sources. Moreover, recent corporate buyouts and mergers between major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies have further reduced the number of companies permitted to do business with Cuba.
   
   
2. Licensing Under the Cuban Democracy Act: The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments are allowed in principle to license individual sales of medicines and medical supplies, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons to mitigate the embargo's impact on health care delivery. In practice, according to U.S. corporate executives, the licensing provisions are so arduous as to have had the opposite effect. As implemented, the licensing provisions actively discourage any medical commerce. The number of such licenses granted-or even applied for since 1992-is minuscule. Numerous licenses for medical equipment and medicines have been denied on the grounds that these exports "would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."
   
   
3. Shipping Since 1992:The embargo has prohibited ships from loading or unloading cargo in U.S. ports for 180 days after delivering cargo to Cuba. This provision has strongly discouraged shippers from delivering medical equipment to Cuba. Consequently shipping costs have risen dramatically and further constricted the flow of food, medicines, medical supplies and even gasoline for ambulances. From 1993 to 1996, Cuban companies spent an additional $8.7 million on shipping medical imports from Asia, Europe and South America rather than from the neighboring United States.
   
   
4. Humanitarian Aid: Charity is an inadequate alternative to free trade in medicines, medical supplies and food. Donations from U.S. non-governmental organizations and international agencies do not begin to compensate for the hardships inflicted by the embargo on the Cuban public health system. In any case, delays in licensing and other restrictions have severely discouraged charitable contributions from the U.S.

Taken together, these four factors have placed severe strains on the Cuban health system. The declining availability of food stuffs, medicines and such basic medical supplies as replacement parts for thirty-year-old X-ray machines is taking a tragic human toll. The embargo has closed so many windows that in some instances Cuban physicians have found it impossible to obtain life-saving medicines from any source, under any circumstances. Patients have died. In general, a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive public health system is being systematically stripped of essential resources. High-technology hospital wards devoted to cardiology and nephrology are particularly under siege. But so too are such basic aspects of the health system as water quality and food security. Specifically, the AAWH's team of nine medical experts identified the following health problems affected by the embargo:

1. Malnutrition: The outright ban on the sale of American foodstuffs has contributed to serious nutritional deficits, particularly among pregnant women, leading to an increase in low birth-weight babies. In addition, food shortages were linked to a devastating outbreak of neuropathy numbering in the tens of thousands. By one estimate, daily caloric intake dropped 33 percent between 1989 and 1993.
   
   
2. Water Quality: The embargo is severely restricting Cuba's access to water treatment chemicals and spare-parts for the island's water supply system. This has led to serious cutbacks in supplies of safe drinking water, which in turn has become a factor in the rising incidence of morbidity and mortality rates from water-borne diseases.
   
   
3. Medicines & Equipment: Of the 1,297 medications available in Cuba in 1991, physicians now have access to only 889 of these same medicines - and many of these are available only intermittently. Because most major new drugs are developed by U.S. pharmaceuticals, Cuban physicians have access to less than 50 percent of the new medicines available on the world market. Due to the direct or indirect effects of the embargo, the most routine medical supplies are in short supply or entirely absent from some Cuban clinics.
   
   
4. Medical Information: Though information materials have been exempt from the U.S. trade embargo since 1 988, the AAWH study concludes that in practice very little such information goes into Cuba or comes out of the island due to travel restrictions, currency regulations and shipping difficulties. Scientists and citizens of both countries suffer as a result. Paradoxically, the embargo harms some U.S. citizens by denying them access to the latest advances in Cuban medical research, including such products as Meningitis B vaccine, cheaply produced interferon and streptokinase, and an AIDS vaccine currently under-going clinical trials with human volunteers.

American Association for World Health
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 1208
Washington, DC 20006
Tel. [phone] / FAX [phone]

http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html

[blue52power]

16. The problem

...is not the embargo. I do support lifting the embargo and consider it inhumane and a violation of Human and Social Rights, for the people of Cuba to be artificially embargoed by the United States.

However, it would only be a moderating of the pain the people suffer there. Cuba, like all repressive communist regimes fails their peoples both politically and materially. The Soviet Union, all the former East Bloc countries and North Korea are all prime examples. Your point about the embargo supports this fact. Cuba needs the strength of a social democracy like the US to bolster its economy.

Even though material needs such as food and healtcare are deficient in Cuba, even if it could provide these things...they live politically, in a repressive dictatorship, where only certain affiliated communist Parties approved by Castro, can function. No free speech.

Don't you support deocracy and freedom?

[AlphaCentauri]

15. What have been the benefits of capitalism in Africa and Latin America?

There is a tendency to make people believe that democracy is equal to capitalism, then it looks like totalitarianism doesn't exist in the capitalist economic system.

[blue52power]

20. If you think that totalitarianism

exists in the United States, you need to read some histories of what real repressive regimes are.

Start with Nazi German and Soviet Russia to begin with.

But don't forget the millions in the killing fields of Cambodia.

In the United States we have civil liberty gaurantees, despite the recent FISA bill be pushed down our throats. Communist Cuba only has social gaurantees that they cannot meet.
We have an opportunity to vote in people like Democrats that will help the lower classes economically.

Castro has won reelection for over 40 years. Disgusting repression

[AlphaCentauri]

21. Since when we started to count the victims of capitalism

My question is about Latin America, Africa and the middle east the so called third world and capitalism, I can't take Europe or the US as examples of success with capitalist economies because their wealthy has been gain by appropriation of land or natural resources from other countries.

Since capitalism can co-exist in a totalitarian regime, in a monarchy, in a dictatorship we can't link capitalism to democracy. People around the world die because they can't buy food, medicine or the basic elements to have a prosperous lives that is a co-lateral damage of capitalism, that will take me to another question how old is capitalism and how many people has die due to the free market and forced appropriation of natural resources?

I know it's easy to say everything about the communist totalitarian regimes ignoring our own regimes, just tell me how many people have die as collateral damage of capitalism?

[blue52power]

22. well

That's sort of a weak argument because capitalism doesn't exist in the third world areas that you mention. Most of those countries are just totalitarian countries that are exploited by greedy capitalism.

Capitalism isn't perfect, agreed. But it hasn't truely been tested in most of those areas. It is getting a decent test in some of the larger SAmerican countries and is doing fairly well.

What is your alternative to capitalism?

[AlphaCentauri]

24. No other economic system has been used or tested in latin america except Cuba

many of them are not totalitarian regimes they were in the pass exploited by greedy capitalism promoted by international corporations, not local corporations.

The countries that are doing better in South America are those who are moving away from neo-liberalism the purist flavor of capitalism.

[blue52power]

25. We pretty much agree on that

The third world countries get exploited by economic powers for their cheap labor and natural resources.

I would also contend that there is no such thing as pure capitalism. It's really social capitalism with large subsidies by governments, even in the more pure systems like the US.

The Federal Reserve in the US in proving the flaws of pure capitalism by having to ensure liquidity by pumping in government loans to the failing banks nationwide. They also have eaten up collateralized debt obligations from failing mortgage bankers and insurers.

The pure capitalism we hear about in the US is really propaganda. We are a socialized capitalist system, and there needs to be a mix to keep checks on the greed of capitalism.

[AlphaCentauri]

58. then my previous argument was correct not weak

[blue52power]

71. no I don't see the causal relationship between those statements

But, if you want to make that claim, I'll be glad to listen.

This whole thread has opened my eyes that many are hurting our cause as liberal who want political freedoms and human rights with more economic social justice. If it is about the totalitarianism of repressive states - that hurts our cause drastically, as history has shown.

[AlphaCentauri]

72. Well, I see a perspective for a monolithic political and social view

diminishing what others can contribute to democracy and freedom will hurt more the country as a whole than just the two factions of one ruling party.

Asserting that other points of views will hurt the establishment but not enrich democracy and freedom is a totalitarian tough where no one can discus other economic systems or alternatives to social problems.
After all keeping the status Quo as it is was a theme of the slave masters, of the native american genocide executers, of the apartheid, the cheer leaders of gender discrimination...

[Judi Lynn]

28. Cuba overdosed on capitalism by 1959. It damned near killed the poor, that, and the death squads.

Hard to imagine we've got warped, greedy citizens in this country, still, who presume it's ALL our "backyard," and their future is going to be our choice, as well.

Latin America has a secret for these clowns.

[roody]

32. Castro has won reelection for 40 years.

He is very popular. He is reelected by the parliament, not by popular vote. Why don't you visit Cuba? See for yourself. I call a DU meetup in Cuba in December. How about December 22? I'm a free person, a U.S. citizen---not about to obey some stinkin' embargo.

[blue52power]

34. no freedom in Cuba no election

Unless you are approved to run by the Castro regime.

Those elections are kangaroo elections and everybody knows. Imagine Bush approving all Party's and candidates with verying degrees of facism. Neo con facists over here, free market facists over here, fundamentalist facists over here and nascar facists over here.

Now choose in your "free" election lol...put down the kool aid.

[roody]

36. You don't know anything about Cuba, and I

guess you won't go there. That would ruin your beliefs about it. You would have to be a free person to disobey the embargo anyway.

[blue52power]

38. I don't agree with the embargo

Do I want to go to that God forsaken place?

Hell no.

If I could go back in time I wouldn't want to go to the Soviet Union either, and I certainly don't want to go to North Korea or to Cuba now. I do like going to Aruba though lol.

[roody]

47. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Cuba is a lovely

place full of happy people. There are even some happy dogs there unlike many Latin American countries. There are thousands of young women who are studying for meaningful careers instead of carrying around two or three malnourished children, unlike many Latin American countries. That is because Cubans have complete reproductive freedom. Imagine that!

[Hannah Bell]

65. well, you can vote for anyone you like here....

but only one of the corporate-approved candidates will be supreme leader.

& only the candidates approved by the business community will have any pull locally.

just a different flavor of koolaid.

[Judi Lynn]

37. It would be some meeting if all the people here who have been there all met there, wouldn't it?

We also have DU'ers from Canada, and people in Europe who've spent time there, some of them TONS of time, and ALL of them think Americans are completely insane for putting up with this crap.

[bean fidhleir]

55. "real repressive regimes.... Start with Nazi Germany"

You evidently never read They Thought They Were Free. The ordinary Germans who lived through the Hitler era even afterwards thought that, while the war had certainly been bad and destructive, Germany under the Nazis had been a fine place to live, not repressive at all.

They thought about Hitler's Germany the same way you think about the US, actually.

[blue52power]

57. The comparison actually works for all authoritarian countries

People in many authoritarian dictatorships know they are not free but eventually when information is all from one source and there only state sanctioned political affiliation, they are induced to "think" they are relatively free.

Ironically, some people on this board have it totally ass backwards and deny that the US has freedoms, albeit with a greedy capitalist economic system. But it is objective fact that Cuba is not free in any way, shape or form. There are always idealists who still think that if "just the right dictator" is in charge, it will work. Unfortunately for the people in communist NKorea, China, and Cuba, those idealists are primarily live in real free countries like the United States.

[bean fidhleir]

59. You seem to have ideas that cannot be changed by mere facts

You claim Nazi Germany was and Cuba is a totalitarian regime, while the US is free. Yet you apparently can't see how you might be like the Germans in the '50s who refused to believe that there had been anything totalitarian about Nazi Germany. They thought they were free, too.

Truly, you should get out more.

[blue52power]

70. Another dupe

of the alure of communism.

So said that progressives and liberals fight for human rights and economic justice while others hurt our cause with totalitarian propaganda.

[bean fidhleir]

74. Oh aye, a' the worald's oot o' step but you, Wullie.

[Mika]

75. Actually...

"others" hurt "our" cause by regurgitating Cubaphobic propaganda.

If we really want progress (as in progressive) then we really need information based on actual experiences in Cuba, instead of relying on the polarizing red baiting from the cold war era.


Cubans have transformed Cuba from a corporate slave state and have received many awards and international recognition for their progressive approaches to many of humanity's problems.

There are zero homeless children in Cuba.

There are no Cubans who go hungry in Cuba.

Every Cuban has access to world class health care, pre birth to death.

Every Cuban has opportunity to receive a good education, including higher post grad ed.

Cuba continues to progress.

Cubans did these things (and much more) because they formed government to represent their ideals - this is an expression of their freedom to make the changes that they desire.


While many American Cubaphobes mewl on and on about freedom of expression, how is that freedom expressed in the US?

Do we have health care for all? No. (Many times the total population of Cuba of Americans have no access to health care.)

Do we have universal education for all? No.

Do Americans go hungry? Yes.

Are there homeless children in the US? Yes (in the high 6 or 7 figure range).


In every country freedom is expressed in different ways, and, like it or not, Cuba seems to be more in line with the rest of the developed nations than the US in social/gov freedom of expression.

[fascisthunter]

17. You Don't Get It Because You DOn't Want to Get It

[Vidar]

30. Bravo!! Excellent post!

[Judi Lynn]

13. While looking for material on Rafael Diaz-Balart, whose last job in Cuba was as Batista's

deputy minister of Governance, after serving first as a lawyer for United Fruit, known now as Chiquita Bananas, the deadly octopus which has spread its tentacles throughout Latin America, then looking after their interests as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, then as a Senator, I found the following which described conditions for people who were NOT fortunate enough to have been born into the families of the large land holders in Cuba, the vast majority of poor people.
Dr. Alfredo Jones speaks of his childhood in Cuba prior to and including Batista's bloody puppet dictatorship:

~snip~
In charge of implementing and enforcing vicious racist and
segregationists laws, was Dr. Rafael Diaz Balart, recently honored by
the US Congress and Florida International University, by giving his
name to one of their buildings. His meritorious curriculum was later
followed by his son, Dr. Rafael Diaz Balart, father of Florida US
Congressmen Mario and Lincoln Diaz Balart, both born again humanists
and staunch supporters of these cruel measures.

In our community, "on the other side of the tracks", we were forced to
live in thatched shacks without electricity, running water, jobs,
schools or their preferred weapon of subjugation: Healthcare! What we
did have, was rampant infant mortality, hunger, hundreds of deaths
through preventable diseases and the infamous gully with its putrid
effluent, running through our community spreading disease and deaths.

With the mass media at their disposal, they will continue to do what
they have practiced since time immemorial. They will attempt to
discredit this and other factual statements about their murky past and
repugnant present. Everyone who reads this testament is invited, not
to believe it, but to visit the cemeteries in Banes, Naranjo Dulce,
Marti, Baguanos, Chaparra, Baragua and tens of others Cuban Soweto's,
large and medium size cities across the country and please, take the
time to read what is engraved on the crosses and headstone, all of
which are mute indictments of their horrendous past.

The world needs to know them! They assume that all of those they
abused, vilified or caused the death to their family members or
neighbors, are still illiterate, unable to speak for themselves and
remind them of their deeds. Wrong!

I remember and denounce, when mothers with children knocked on doors
every night, asking for your left over, as their only meal.

I remember when a family member was ill, you did not go to the
hospital, and you went to the home of one of these "powerful"
individuals and pleaded for a note written by them, if you were to be
admitted to the hospital.

I still remember when we were branded at birth, our future decided and
were not allow to work in department stores, office settings or drive
a Greyhound-type bus, while boys at the age of 12 or 13 went to the
fields and girls the same age, became maids.

I remember when the Public School System in Cuba provided a hot cup of
chocolate, a couple of crackers and a bonus on Fridays, consisting on
a slice of white cheese, knowing that most students had nothing to eat
except this hand-out. Shortly after Batista's coup d'etat, the
cheese disappeared, the chocolate followed suit and one day, they came
by collecting our aluminum cups! Some of the executioners of these
brutal violations of children rights and their descendents are now
leaders in many anti Castro Human Rights, Religious and Social groups
in south Florida, tearfully decrying the plight of those living in
Cuba. What a bunch of hypocrites!!

More:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.cuba/2007-03/msg01012.html

[slackmaster]

23. Yet Cuba remains one of the world's greatest producers of a harmful, addictive substance

Regulate tobacco as a drug.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/washington/31tobacco.html?ref=us

It seems just a little hypocritical to heap praise on them for their efforts to promote healthy living when their economy depends so heavily on selling a drug that kills millions of people every year.

[Judi Lynn]

26. Cuba's primary source of income is tourism now, tourism with the REST of the world. n/t

[ckramer]

27. Where is Pan American Health Organization located?

Let's bomb them now!

[Judi Lynn]

29. We'll just let gawd sort them out!

Pat Robertson took money from his poor congregations
to send to Guatemala to assist the right-wing death squads









Efraín Ríos Montt, darling of American fundamentalists, and Ronald Reagan
monster who destroyed entire villages at a time, trying to kill every leftist

[Judi Lynn]

48. World Health Organization: Cuba's primary health care revolution: 30 years on

Bulletin of the World Health Organization
ISSN 0042-9686 versão impressa
Bull World Health Organ v.86 n.5 Genebra maio 2008
doi: 10.1590/S0042-96862008000500006
NEWS

Cuba's primary health care revolution: 30 years on

With the community-based polyclinic as its centrepiece, the country's primary health care system has produced enviable results as it continues to adapt to new challenges. Gail Reed reports from Havana.

"We fought for the Declaration of Alma-Ata before it was official," says Dr Cristina Luna, "and its message has guided and challenged us ever since." At 43, Luna is Cuba's national director of ambulatory care, and on her shoulders rests the country's entire primary health care system, by many standards one of the world's most effective and unique.

Cuban health authorities give large credit for the country's impressive health indicators to the preventive, primary-care emphasis pursued for the last four decades. These indicators – which are close or equal to those in developed countries – speak for themselves. For example, in 2004, there were seven deaths for every 100 000 children aged less than five years – a decrease from 46 such deaths 40 years earlier, according to WHO. Meanwhile Cubans have one of the world's highest life expectancies of 77 years.

The centrepiece of this system is the community-based polyclinic, each of the 498 nationwide serving a catchment area of between 30 000 and 60 000 people. The polyclinics act also as the organizational hub for 20 to 40 neighbourhood-based family doctor-and-nurse offices, and as accredited research and teaching centres for medical, nursing and allied health sciences students. "These are the backbone of Cuba's health system," Luna says.

More:
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0042-96862008000500006&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=pt

[SOS]

56. Interesting numbers

Average life expectancy:

USA: 78
Cuba: 77

Annual per capita spending on health care:

USA: $7,500
Cuba: $250

[TaffyMoon]

60. I cant believe the media published a positive story about Cuba,

the next thing you know they'll be writing accurate stories about Palestine!