Castro’s False Claims of Success

100% literacy is wonderful,but what is the point when there are no opportunities to put literacy to work.Where are the vast libraries with works from all over the world?Where are the jobs?Where is the revolution to make peoples lives better?A great man is not arrogant and does not drag his people down and imprison them when they question.He does not deride and insult others instead of listening.The only great thing castro has done is outlived his enemies even as his people live in poverty and desperation.

I will begin by saying that anyone can destroy but it takes true genius to create. Castro is nothing more than an above average person with a hammer.

Every Cuban I've ever met has prided themselves on the Cuban education system; so it's untrue? Is it a lie or a modified truth? I'd love to read an article about education worldwide in newsweek:)
http://anhouraday.blog.com

BTW mmoo1, I did read the desultory blogs you post for propaganda purposes.
Sounds like the outre stuff you may read on kos and atrios, only they are whining about America.

In the word of the Great Cheney: "So?"


PS Somehow both our whiners and theirs are somehow able to create an audience.

"Great Article- The hellish mindset of Cuba-enthusiasts
It is a rule of thumb that anyone given to praising Cuba under Castro is a person of poor judgment"

It is a rule of thumb that anyone who makes judgments based on ruling thumbs has their thumbs lodged indelicately such folk are often developmentally impaired to to digestive issues. As for me, I like the rule of reality, or at least the rule of logic. I won't say the author of this nonsense is an idiot, because that would be merely an educated guess on my part.

Sorry for the repeat.

Mr Castaneda appears to be a lousy teacher as well as a lousy writer. One of the basic facts of teaching of journalism is to get the facts straight. Unless you are of the old Hearst "yellow journalism" school, that says give me an issue and I will make up the facts to support it. A few facts: Cuban infant mortality 4.7 per thousand live births (one of the lowest in the world, better than the US). 99.8% literacy, much better than the majority of the Latin American countries - and now Venezuela and Bolivia are also claiming near 100% literacy, thanks to a teaching system developed in Cuba and endorsed by UNESCO. Low birth rate, similar to many advanced European societies, a health care system with state of the art equipment (available from non-US associated companies from Europe) or developed in Cuba. Availability of several vaccines that were developed in Cuba, and now help people all over the world.
Mr. Castaneda and some of the readers comment on the number of political prisoners. By US State Department statistics, the number is about 220 - most accused of violations of some Cuban law. How many men and women are in prison in North Korea, China, and other countries for opposing their government? Usually they violate a law and are thrown in jail. Castaneda points out, as well as some of the people that comment on the article, that Cubans leave to go to the US. So do Dominicans, Mexicans, and others - many of these are not political refugees seeking a place where they may express their views without fear, they are economic refugees because they feel that in the US they can help support their families better - since the wages are much higher, even though most immigrants receive substandard wages. Cuba is not perfect, neither is the US, or any other country in the world. The US government hypocrisy has lasted too long. The US is Cuba's 4th largest trading partner - with great difficulties, and at times with fear that orders that Cuba has placed will be canceled and funds retained by order of the US Department of the Treasury.
Mr. Castaneda, why is it that in international educational competitions Cuban students far outperform other Latin American students? Mr. Castaneda, why did the Prime Minister of Trinidad elect to undergo surgery in Cuba and not Mexico or the US? Mr. Castaneda, now that Cuba produces almost 50% of the oil it consumes, and has the potential of a huge oil field off its north shore, why is it that there is a renewed interest in permitting this small island of 11.2 million people from developing further? Mr. Castaneda, why is Cuba one of the few countries in the world that will meet most if not all the Goals for the Millennium established by the UN? Maybe you should do a bit better research before you waste readers time with a poorly written and lousily researched article in this fine journal.

Also true, in case no American reader picked it up, is that Mexico hasn't had provinces for a long time, though sometimes in the back-country you hear the term. That's where I hear it even now.
The whole "Mexican States" idea flopped about as badly as the New Coke a few years back, but most people in the US don't know or care about that. They do know and care that millions of so-called "wetbacks" have "fled" these United States of Mexico, from the cities to the provinces, going where they could find a job, freedom from fear. They have resettled in the US, Canada, Central America, and the Caribbean. Yes, even to Cuba!. Now why don't "Americans" know that?
Oh, the freedom to be dumbed down, long may it live and breathe the breath of... Liberty!

True, the freedom of speech in terms of mass media is inhibited by the Cuban government. Freedom of speech in America is inhibited by government encouraged isolation and/or ridicule for anything or anyone perceived as threatening to public passivity. WWD in Iraq anyone? Oppose the war? Don't buy the 2 party line? ad nauseum.
I have attended open, public services in Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches in Cuba. The interdenominational seminary at Matanzas is one of the finest schools of theology in the Caribbean. " Fidel y Reliigione" was a best seller a few years ago as Fidel faced his own mortality and embraced his people's religious dimension. Of course, the practice of Santeria is virtually universal in Cuba and has been for over 250 years. That we don't know any of this is an indication of the limits of our own freedom of the press.
BTW, there are more bookstores in Habana than in some entire provinces of Mexico. Let's talk Geneva Convention, Guantanamo, and habeas corpus under Bushco when we compare human rights issues.
Everybody is hungry in Cuba, but nobody is starving... how does that record compare to the US and Mexico, eh?
I often grieve for Americans who do not know who Jose Marti was, while every Cuban knows Abraham Lincoln. So much for an informed public. I grieve for an America under the thumb of mind-numbing materialism and confusing it with freedom, justice, and religion.
God Have Mercy on America!

For decades the government of Cuba has prohibited free speech, open media, libraries, organized religion and technological communication. The Cuban government's policies are responsible for the bare shelves at the food stores. This is not a revolution to be admired. I grieve for the citizens of Cuba that they are deprived basic human rights. ¡ViVA CUBA LIBRE!

Make that "Viva ZAPATISTAS" and all who legally oppose the rogue government in Mexico. Mr. Castaneda may be a shill, but he is no fool. The darkest street in Manhattan is far safer than any place at all in his homeland. He has nada to fear from Cuba, (nor does anyone for that matter), but is reviled by the man and woman in the streets of Mexico. What a sham.

That there are countries in Latin America that are to the left today is a result of what Cuba accomplished with one hand tied behind it' back. No two revolutions are the same.

That countries like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Peru can even lean left is HUGE!

The Cuban revolution's accomplishments only look meager if you use the McDonalds world view. But if you use a lens that examines how the least of the population on a vast and diverse continent have an improved quality of life, you have a different picture.

Cuba is doing remarkably well considering how hard the Capitalists have tried to destroy them financially with sanctions over the last 50 years. American Capitalists have done their best to crush this little country, and have failed. Just watch what happens when the embargo and sanctions are lifted.

The 'Right' is always quick to point out the economic hardships that others are suffering, and strategically avoid the fact that those economic hardships have been imposed for that purpose. What is being exposed in many of our current issues, and this one is no exception, is that the 'Right' is not the source of the propaganda as many believe, but rather a product of it. Capitalism itself will not fall, but it's grip on America's Democracy is slipping fast, and reality is driving a deep wedge between the 'Right' and the Capitalist agenda that is not what they believed it to be. The propaganda is failing for a reason, and for the same reason, the 'Right' is on the verge of collapse, I think I'll just let the author ponder that reason on his own.

James Hovland, a product of freedom

How is the wonderful health care system in Mexico? What about the education system? I have lived in Mexico and have family who live there and it would be a joke to say either the health system or the education system there come anywhere close to the health and education systems in Cuba. Mexican public schools are horrendously underfunded and their public hospitals routinely lack the most basic medicines and medical instruments. And Mexico is a much wealthier country than Cuba, which doesn't have a tight embargo on its economy. Also, more Mexicans flee to the United States than Cubans, and Mexico has a generally much worse human rights record than Cuba. Western journalists (and tourists, except Americans) are free to go to Cuba and check out their health clinics and hospitals and schools.
Also, you forgot to mention the terrorism against Cuba that was supported by the United States after 1959. The US still refuses to extradite the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who blew up a civilian Cuban airplane, killing 73 people. Of course Castro doesn't trust the US. Of course he''s paranoid! Check out http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm

Whilst reading the article I was certain that thye author was one of the rabid right wing Cuban exiles in Miami. To my chagrin it was instead a former Mexican foreign minister? The anti-Castro cabal in Little Havana must surely confer on you the title "Honorary Cuban Exile" after your Castro-bashing piece.

The miracle of Cuba is that it survived. Always under the gun and stifled for basic items from its powerful neighbor across the Florida Straits, Cuba has managed to survive and in fact when compared to its neighbors to the east on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) we can say that Cuba has done reasonably well given its constraints.

Mr. Castaneda should look at every single country from Argentina all the way up to Mexico and do an unbiased comparison of all of these Latin American countries in terms of living conditions, medical conditions, crime and other social indicators over the past 50 years and he will see that Cuba has nothing to be ashamed of.

Two weeks ago the Prime Minister (Patrick Manning) of one of the richest Caribbean countries, oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago went to Cuba for an operation to remove a cancerous growth. And Trinidad is no socialist state and they can certainly afford the "best" medical facilities anywhere in the world. Yet he chose Cuba because of its sterling reputation as regards medical care.

Yes, Cuba has its flaws but it certainly has much to be proud of.