[BeaverFever]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

Miami Herald: After 50 years, Cuba has little to show

$1:

F ifty years after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, the big question about the Cuban revolution is not whether it was justified, but whether it was worth it. From all available evidence, it wasn't.

A dispassionate look into Cuba today shows that, while the country has reduced the pockets of extreme misery that existed during the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, a majority of Cubans are poorer and have fewer opportunities to improve their lives than they did five decades ago...

More at link

Sadly getting rid of the animal Batista was a necessity. Unfortunately the instrument for change was just as bad if not worse than the sickeness it claimed to have cured.

That article isn't as unbiased as it claims to be. For example, it attempts to mislead the reader into thinking health care and literacy didn't improve at all, just because Cuba was already leading Latin American countries in those areas before Castro. But in fact Cubas health care improved dramatically compared to pre-Castro by any number of measures: infant mortality, doctors per capita, life expectancy, etc. etc. The Cuban today has better healthcare and literacy than the Cuban before Castro.

So the fact that Cuba continues to lead other Latin nations in these areas doesn't mean things haven't improved for Cubans. In fact, considering that Cuba has been under economic stranglehold from the US embargo for over half a century while those other Latin American countries have benefited from significant US and western investment and trade, and have had significant economic growth and prosperity of their own, it speaks volumes about Cubas progress in these areas.

And then the metric about number of tvs, radios etc as some measure of success is just dumb. Like OMG how will they ever know how The Bachelor ended? "Sure there are fewer dead babies and people live longer but good god, they have fewer TVs! " Only an American would think that way. And again let's not forget they're under embargo.

[BartSimpson]

raydan raydan:

Communism doesn't kill people, Commuinsts kill people.

[BartSimpson]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

The Cuban today hasn't better healthcare and literacy than the cuban before Castro.

You accidentally wrote something I can agree with.

Scary.

[raydan]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

raydan raydan:

Communism doesn't kill people, Commuinsts kill people.

When you try to correct me, at least spell Commuinsts right.

[BeaverFever]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

The Cuban today has better healthcare and literacy than the Cuban before Castro.

You accidentally wrote something I can agree with.

Scary.

Fixed it!

[BartSimpson]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

The Cuban today has better healthcare and literacy than the Cuban before Castro.

You accidentally wrote something I can agree with.

Scary.

Fixed it!

Thank you. Much appreciated.

[BartSimpson]

raydan raydan:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

raydan raydan:

Communism doesn't kill people, Commuinsts kill people.

When you try to correct me, at least spell Commuinsts right.

[Public_Domain]

[rickc]

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

Shitposting for the cause.

3 million people were forced at gunpoint to honour Castro in Havana today.

2:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480557673265-369206475.jpg

0:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480557656821-1680986631.jpg

Also here's one for the Black Book of Capitalism:

1:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480489990356485712037.jpg

I don't know who created that meme, but they need to pull their head out of their ass. 276 executions was a slow day for Castro.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113590852154334404
The InterAmerican Human Rights Commission detailed the executions of 166 Cubans on May 26, 1966. A full seven years after he took power just to lay to rest those claims from the left how all the executions came immediately after the revolution. The Cuba archive project has verified the names of 9240 victims of the Castro regime, so far.

[shockedcanadian]

rickc rickc:

Public_Domain Public_Domain:

Shitposting for the cause.

3 million people were forced at gunpoint to honour Castro in Havana today.

2:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480557673265-369206475.jpg

0:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480557656821-1680986631.jpg

Also here's one for the Black Book of Capitalism:

1:

tmp_5627-FB_IMG_1480489990356485712037.jpg

I don't know who created that meme, but they need to pull their head out of their ass. 276 executions was a slow day for Castro.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113590852154334404
The InterAmerican Human Rights Commission detailed the executions of 166 Cubans on May 26, 1966. A full seven years after he took power just to lay to rest those claims from the left how all the executions came immediately after the revolution. The Cuba archive project has verified the names of 9240 victims of the Castro regime, so far.

Some don't get it do they?

Castro was a Russian puppet who risked nuclear war for the world and potential to have his own citizens decimated. A man who was so insane, that he cursed his Russian masters because they dared to remove nuclear arms rather than risk nuclear war.

When people compare the West to the Communists regimes it's a major insult. Look at the Gulags, which existed for decades and were responsible for countless lives, the Chinese "Great Leap Forward" by Mao, which killed tens of millions over a 4 year period! Explore the invasions of Russians by small forces for no other purpose other than to rule with an iron fist. Not to mention societies which were highly suspicious of one another, family members, friends, store owners, foreigners. Civilizations who had more covert operatives per citizen than any civilization in history, some suggest one cowardly, rat bastard per seven citizens in Russia and East Germany.

Fidel Castro was smack dab in the middle of this "movement". A man who had no contribution to the world other than his dictatorship, and after 50 years of rule he has nearly $1 BILLION? Does anything think this billion dollars were earned by his invention and business acumen? If there is a hell, he qualifies for entry.

Even Putin recognizes the harm of the past in Russia. He approved education of Stalins terror in his schools. So, as much as we view him as a bad dude, compared to some of his predecessors he is a Saint. Castro was just another product of these systems and communist outreach programs.

The only reason those in his country celebrate him is because they consume some of the same propaganda socialists around the world do. Furthermore, he is viewed as a man of courage for standing up to America, which really isn't fair, as the nation who was strong were the Americans who could have easily have done away with him with a full scale invasion, but unlike the Russians, they understood that such actions are excessive. The embargo certainly didn't help the Cuban economy, Castro indirectly had his hand in this. Cuba is still so far behind that even the smell of capitalism is extremely popular, such as when they opened up real estate markets a few years ago. Plenty of video of the population reacting positively and with celebration.

[ShepherdsDog]

You wrote letters to him too, did you?

[JaredMilne]

The real tragic-and pathetic-thing about Castro and his fellow commies was that they came to power on the upheaval of populations that were fed up with self-serving leadership that didn't even pretend to give a shit about their welfare.

Of course, when they came to power the commies weren't that much better. I'm still bemused at how many progressives are willing to overlook Castro's and Che Guevara's murders of homosexuals in Cuba, repression of any dissent, the fact that so many people tried to flee the "paradise" those guys built, and more.

It's true that many of the commie regimes did achieve gains in literacy, healthcare, etc., but that's because they were the first regimes to actually start applying mass education and social services to the public. Western countries like Canada, West Germany and the UK achieved similar gains with their own social safety nets, even as they left room for capitalist markets to create wealth and techonological innovation...the same innovation that many would-be Marxists enjoy in spreading their message and communicating with each other.

Even then, Castro's achievements weren't necessarily as great as people like to make them out to be. Just look at what the Washington Post had to say about Cubans' health and life expectancy before and after Castro:

$1:

Using comparisons with data for Costa Rica and Argentina, the pair calculated that Cuban consumption levels in 2000 were 52 percent of 1955 levels. At the time, Cuba was still suffering the aftereffects of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2007, they estimated, Cuba’s per capita consumption was 72 percent of the 1955 level.

Other studies confirm that Cubans generally suffered a loss of living standards. Data from the mid-1950s indicate that per capita consumption of calories in Cuba was 2,730 in the mid-1950s — and 2,357 in 1996. Meanwhile, other countries in the region saw an improvement; for example, Mexico went from 2,420 to 3,137 calories. In other words, Cuba declined about 13 percent, while Mexico gained almost 30 percent.

As for health care and education, Cuba was already near the top of the heap before the revolution. Cuba’s low infant mortality rate is often lauded, but it already led the region on this key measure in 1953-1958, according to data collected by Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba specialist and professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. In terms of life expectancy, Cuba was in fourth place in the mid-1950s — and advanced to third in 2005-2007. Literacy was also high — fourth place in 1950s — and Cuba advanced to second place in 2005-2007.

“We suspect that overall healthcare outcomes would not have been much different given the remarkably low levels of infant mortality in Republican Cuba,” Ward-Peradoza and Devereux said. But they said the revolution probably improved education.

In particular, gaps between the rich and poor were narrowed after the revolution. Free national public education was expanded, as was the free public health system. The number of rural hospitals increased from one to 62, for instance. The Cuban health-care system in particular places strong emphasis on preventive medicine, making it easy for Cubans to get checkups.

But in terms of GDP, capital formation, industrial production and key measures such as cars per person, Cuba plummeted from the top ranks to as low as 20th place. That came at a cost, even though Cubans are well educated.

And at the end of the day, when you attain a personal fortune of a billion dollars, while your general population continues to live in squalor, how are you that much different from the guy you overthrew?