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Meh, I was hoping for blog headlines like: "Cuban Cigars- worth the hype?" "Western Society - I mean, seriously" "Now THIS is a hand-made boat you could emig

• robchez 16y ago
  18 ways to stay in power when the entire world is against you!
  • lionhearted 16y ago
    Funny, but the answer is that part of the Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement to end the Cuban Missile Crisis was that the United States wouldn't invade Cuba, and anyone else with the force to do so was a NATO member/American ally. This is speculation, but looking at how the Cold War played out, then without that agreement the U.S. likely would've invaded Cuba at some point or other. It was still a good agreement overall because of the Moscow-Washington Hotline getting installed, though one can look at history and wonder if the Cuban people would've been better off living in an American territory similar to Puerto Rico instead of a backwards impoverished dictatorship. Hotline Agreement was good though - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Agreement
    • riffic 16y ago
      >backwards impoverished dictatorship. You mean the one under the Batista regime?
      • gyardley 16y ago
        Mildly clever, but this isn't an either-or issue. Cuba was a backwards dictatorship then, and it's a backwards dictatorship now.
        • Ennis 16y ago
          Perhaps in terms of GDP per capita or some fundamental rights like political opposition and freedom of speech. Otherwise, "backwards" is relative and baseless.
      • lionhearted 16y ago
        > You mean the one under the Batista regime? "one can look at history and wonder if the Cuban people would've been better off living in an American territory similar to Puerto Rico instead of [under Castro's rule]." You might not agree it would be better for certain, but you definitely can at least imagine an American Cuba that's healthier than the current Cuba. It's not a particularly high bar.
        • rayval 16y ago
          Actually, Cuba has the highest life expectancy in its region, and is basically equivalent to that of the US. In terms of social health (person to person), one can say that Cubans enjoy a better situation. "Political health" is a debatable rathole, on the other hand. The US has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world, and the largest prison population. (One in 31 adults in the US are under the supervision of the criminal justice system).
        • blasdel 16y ago
          "Healthier" is one of the only words that I would never use to describe an American Cuba — their Soviet subsidy led to them educating a ridiculous percentage of their population as doctors, so many that most work in other fields. Even now they still have twice as many working doctors per capita as the US, and are third in the world behind San Marino and Monaco: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=doctors+per+capita+all+countries http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=doctors+per+capita+all+... — I can't find good historical data, but I'm pretty sure it was even higher back in the 70s. Their mortality rates are the same as the US, and the food they eat is a lot healthier out of necessity due to low industrialization.
          • gaius 16y ago
            And yet, a bartender or cab driver makes more in tips from Western tourists in a day than a doctor does in salary in a month.
            • blasdel 16y ago
              Which is why the AMA in the US uses collective action to strictly limit the number of new medical degrees and licenses. They also do a lot of lobbying to ensure that their job territory is not encroached upon by nurses, EMTs, or other potentially capable non-doctors. If getting a medical degrees leaves you with no debt, and practicing as a doctor saddles you with little liability, why would you be able to demand a high salary?
      • riffic 16y ago
        "Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years ... and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state - destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista - hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend - at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections" -John F. Kennedy, October 6, 1960
    • deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
  • nandemo 16y ago
    For what is worth, Cuba is in good terms with the leftist governments in Latin America. At least with Brazil and Venezuela. Also note that the Cuba embargo is specific to the US. I'm not pro-Fidel at all, but it's not like Cuba is North Korea.
    • robchez 16y ago
      What's interesting now is that Cuba is slowly starting to allow foreign investment. However US citizens are not allowed to investment there.