MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
UN assembly (188 out of 193 countries) condemns US embargo on Cuba
The United Nations General Assembly for the 21st time on Tuesday condemned the economic and trade embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba, a policy that has been in place for over half a century. 188 countries out of 193 voted against the restrictions imposed by Washington against Cuba, which date back to 1962, three years after Fidel Castro took power in a revolution. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesSo is the article saying that trade with the USA is the answer to Cuban prosperity? Condemn all you want......it;s your right as is ours to choose whom we trade with with......or not.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 11:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0#1
Oct 29th, 2014 - 11:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0While I'm no fan of the Cuban government (though I applaud its commitment to universal healthcare) I find the continued embargo odd and, **these days** counter productive. During the cold war it made sense - and provided a sink for Soviet resources in the form of aid.
However, I think change in Cuba could be driven by trade with the US. Moreover, the US trades (or has traded) with countries that have much worse human rights records.
I cannot see why the US would even consider this move whilst the Bat-shit Mad communist Castro brothers are still alive.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 11:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Allowing the Russians to place nuclear missiles and threaten the US with them is simply unforgivable.
There is no doubt in my mind, and I watched this unfold, that Fidel would have used them if he had the chance, so fuck them all.
#3
Oct 29th, 2014 - 12:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm probably tainted because I'm a different generation who didn't have to experience the cold war, but I don't think I agree.
“Allowing the Russians to place nuclear missiles and threaten the US with them is simply unforgivable.”
I think that's a silly attitude.
Firstly, Cuba is a sovereign nation, it's a bit rich for the US to dictate what a sovereign nation can do. What Cuba gained from the alliance with the USSR (in addition to vast soviet subsidies) was security against the US, which had shown on numerous occasions a willingness to interfere in its internal governance. Given the Bay of Pigs et al. its hardly surprising that Cuba went down this path. The USSR obviously gained as well been able to locate forces
This vote puts The USA in an embarrassing situation!! The so called nation of freedom is left high and dry by the rest of the world....... It is time that the USA changed its childish attitude.....
Oct 29th, 2014 - 01:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The USA doesn't care what other nations think. As the richest most powerful nation on earth we dictate to you not the other way around.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 01:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't know why people can't seem to grasp that.
a lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of sheep
The US embargo is irrelevant. Not even the Cubans are complaining about it.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 01:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0For the rest of the world, its a good chance to just shame the USA, but in practice they trade with Cuba, and the USA can't do jackshit.
If the UK voted in favour of this 'non-binding' resolution, I apologise to our cousins in the United States. Just how long do you punish a cesspit for aiming IRBMs at you? What's wrong with a thousand years? Threatening another country with total destruction, controlled by third-party nutjobs, is intelligent? Nutjob? You're the leader of a major 'power' and you take off your shoe and bang the desk with it? Russians are undoubted nutjobs. Look at us, we have to have bigger caps than anyone else. Designed to stop snow getting on their noses. In case they drop off.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 02:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@3 & 4. In a way, it's a pity that John F Kennedy was such a reasonable and intelligent man. Cuba should have been exploded. Problem solved. Permanently. And problems all around the world also solved. When will someone explain why exploding Moscow is 'bad'? The world can now do so much better than the nazis. Who needs Russians?
As alluded to in the article, Cuba also has the problem of having thousands of native Cubans now living in the US.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 03:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Those Cubans fled for their lives after Castro targeted them as “enemies of the revolution”, expropriated their land, homes and property, jailed, tortured and murdered their family members.
So while maybe 70% of Cubans today were not alive during the communist takeover, their elderly former country men and woman - at least those who managed to escape - still are.
Maybe if Cuba paid reperations to those thousands of Castro's victims, the embargo might be lifted. If not... then they'll just have to wait until 100% of all Cubans - native and expat - were born after the terror.
7. One breath we are irrelevant the next we're keeping the peasants in their place.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 03:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You should stick to one story.
Pathetic
Firstly, Cuba is a sovereign nation, it's a bit rich for the US to dictate what a sovereign nation can do.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 04:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In that same sentence it is a bit rich for any country to tell the USA who they must trade with.....no?
Besides isn't Cuba really the USA's island anyway?
#11
Oct 29th, 2014 - 04:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“In that same sentence it is a bit rich for any country to tell the USA who they must trade with.....no?”
Yes, and I never suggested otherwise. I was merely replying to #3 who suggested that Cuba had no right to enter into an alliance with the USSR and should be punished (indefinitely?) for what was effectively guaranteeing its sovereignty against US aggression.
“Besides isn't Cuba really the USA's island anyway?”
Perhaps you're being facetious but that's the kind of attitude that probably pissed Cuba off in the first place. That and the attempted invasion.
The problem as I mentioned is that the US position with regards to Cuba **seems** more based on vindictiveness for siding with the USSR than any concern about human rights violations. After all the US trades, or traded with, countries with much worse human rights records. In reality I imagine this is all terribly political with not only the huge number of Cuban immigrants in Florida potentially deciding a crucial swing state but also general public opinion having so long been driven against Cuba.
#9
“Maybe if Cuba paid reperations to those thousands of Castro's victims, the embargo might be lifted. If not... then they'll just have to wait until 100% of all Cubans - native and expat - were born after the terror.”
Seriously? So you're suggesting we punish the people of Cuba for what a unelected dictator did? We (the allies of the United Nations in 1945) didn't even do that to the Germans! That would simply alienate Cuba for all time.
@ 4
Oct 29th, 2014 - 05:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“I'm probably tainted because I'm a different generation who didn't have to experience the cold war, but I don't think I agree.”
You are correct, you are tainted by lack of worldly experience, but great, don’t agree.
“I think that's a silly attitude.” Well you would wouldn’t you?
Being a 30 / 35 YO socialist, only one step away from a Marxist and an admirer of New Labour makes it crystal clear to everybody that you never experienced the dread, fear even, of what the idiot Khrushchev, palled up with the commie bastard Castro, struck into the hearts of the western population at the time.
Castro danced to the tune of the Russians; he had no control in real terms of what was happening politically which destroyed the chances of Cuba EVER being accepted by those Americans who lived through the terror as I did.
But it’s great to be a university lecturer, isn’t it? I won’t bother with the next line, I am sure you know many of the standard endings, all of which are based on truth and reality.
What Cuba ‘gained’ from the USSR was the continuing tyranny of the Castro brothers even to this day and recovery may take many decades, if at all. If they had so much USSR wealth why are the population so piss poor? It couldn’t have anything to do with communism, could it?
You bet it could.
Actually Cuba being USA was specifically for the Argentine's who believe the Falklands is Argentina......proximity and implanted populations seem not to matter to Argentine's regarding the Falklands. Yes I was being facetious.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 05:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Cuba always had the right to enter any agreement they wish to. If other countries do not like it, they have every right not to interact and Cuba has to play the cards they were dealt from their own dealer.
Cuba had some help in their war of independence from Spain. Nor do I see Cuba, Puerto Rico or the others paying for their independence in the Paris Treaty.....but hey, PR can go it on their own and most native born Americans would prefer that than to subsidize a territory.
#13
Oct 29th, 2014 - 06:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Spare me the patronising bullshit Chris and your tired personal insults. Also spare me your sweeping generalisations that anyone with even mildly progressive views is somehow part of the red menace to be destroyed and denigrated.
For the record I hate the USSR for the incompetent criminals they were. I sincerely wish they had been dealt with in the 40s after their alliance with the Nazis backfired on them.
If I was going to closely align with any political theorist it would have been Orwell.
P.S. I actually don't understand your comment about my job. Care to elaborate?
Just out of interest only,,,,
Oct 29th, 2014 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0does Cuba have a valid claim to the rest of the island..
UN votes designed to cajole and embarass rather than persuade, reason and engage are more likely to do harm rather than good. Quiet diplomacy is the key not this UN nonsense.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#16 Meaning Guantanamo? No....the USA have a lease since fighting the for Cuban independence. They signed a lease that lasts as long as the USA pays the 4k rent......it use to be 2k.....lol.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 09:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Cheers capt...
Oct 29th, 2014 - 09:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think the USA would have ultimately gave up GTMO.....but not since one man has run it since 1959........one leader.....one political party since 1959......55 years. What is wrong with that picture. Now if one man, one party provided it's citizens a utopia.....sure, maybe........but they live like shit.....unless you are a politician.
Oct 29th, 2014 - 09:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ 12; @ 15;
Oct 29th, 2014 - 09:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“I was merely replying to #3 who suggested that Cuba had no right to enter into an alliance with the USSR and should be punished (indefinitely?) for what was effectively guaranteeing its sovereignty against US aggression.”
I never suggested any such thing: please SHOW me the text you claim makes that statement.
““I think that's a silly attitude.” That is my attitude you are denigrating: you could have said that you disagree with me, but now YOU claim “Spare me the patronising bullshit Chris and your tired personal insults.”
What insults? So you deny that you are “a 30 / 35 YO socialist, only one step away from a Marxist and an admirer of New Labour “
YES or NO? That is what is reasonable to deduce from your various posts, are you know claiming I am wrong: please elaborate where I am wrong.
Orwell was of course well before his time and had excellent foresight born out of personal run-ins with his “superiors”. I have my own personal copy of his book and one on my Kindle; I can always read something else into it, each time I read it. So there is something we can agree on.
“Care to elaborate?” Well I would have done but not after your little diatribe against me, other than to say this: you are not the only one to lecture at university.
I can't stand when someone says “mildly progressive”
Oct 29th, 2014 - 10:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Mildly Communist
Mildly Marxist
Mildly...
gag
The Once Great City of Havana
Oct 29th, 2014 - 10:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/once-great-city-havana
@16 & 17 Guantánamo was leased to the USA after the Spanish American War as a naval base to protect the new Cuban nation against any attempt by Spain to reconquer their lost terretory.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 12:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0It was never intended to be a concentration camp for Taliban detenees as being outside US the principle of Habeus corpus enshrined in almost all western law.
No I am not supporting the terrorists, but if we descend to their lawlessness we are no better than they are.
The Yanks had a perfectly g odsecure prison for those terrorists - Alcatraz
@3 ChrisR
Oct 30th, 2014 - 01:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Allowing the Russians to place nuclear missiles and threaten the US with them is simply unforgivable.”
A bit like the US placing nuclear missiles in Turkey and threatening the USSR with them? They had to be removed as part of the agreement to get the russian ones out of Cuba...
The embargo? Only 'people' its hurting are american businesses....
And yes the US has a better claim on Cuba than RGland has on the mythical malvinas
7 SNOTTY
Oct 30th, 2014 - 01:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0“The US embargo is irrelevant. Not even the Cubans are complaining about it.”
Yes, they are, SNOTTY.
I have been there several times and talked with many university educated locals in Havana, and many other places.
“Castro didn't make the best choices... ”
was something I heard echoed a few times.
However, there is optimism, “ We lived under the Spanish Empire, the American Empire, and the Soviet Empire, now we have a chance to do better as ourselves”.
This was a part time 30's-ish University Prof ( tourist guide paid better). Not a fan of the Soviets, who abandoned them.
On the flip side, many young people in their 20's, wanted cars, smart phones, and a ticket outta thar... “ Can you give me a job in Canada???”
6 yankeeboy “we dictate to you not the other way around”
Oct 30th, 2014 - 04:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Is Castro still in power? How's the embargo going after 55 years?
Another American failure...just a few miles from their coast.
27 Marcos, tag along puppy
Oct 30th, 2014 - 05:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0“How's the embargo going after 55 years?”
Chuckle!
Are you kidding?
Do you think it makes any difference to the economy of the US?
Not a bit, you fool.
Cuba is likely no better off under Castro, than Batista.
There's still prostitution and poverty etc.
Cuba was probably a great place under the Soviets - subsidised energy, infrastructure, food, an educated populace, first class Medical services, a beautiful place, propped up by the resources of other Iron Curtain countries.
They went through some tough times after the Soviets left.
Food and energy were expensive or in short supply.
Infrastructure became very rundown over the years, in part because of the blockade.
Tourism and cheap Venezuelan oil, have helped turn things around again.
...and the U.S. hardly knows they are there.
Marcos ask the people of Cuba. It has no impact on the Castro boys, they live like a God. It is not the USA's responsibility to care for the populace of Cuba....that's Castro's job. If one country, the USA in this case has so much impact on another's economy.......what does that say? Oh yes..........tell Castro to repay the stolen assets of American businesses. How's those car sales going in Havana? You know I still love a decent Cuban cigar but they are over rated. DR's can be found just as good. You know they have counterfeit Cubans made right in Cuba? What a country.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 09:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 25 Frank
Oct 30th, 2014 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0“A bit like the US placing nuclear missiles in Turkey and threatening the USSR with them? “
Not at all. The Turks were happy to have them on their soil; the rockets had protected them from the Russians as well.
“They had to be removed as part of the agreement to get the russian ones out of Cuba...”
As I understand it the rockets were already marked for removal as they were out of date and the US had better options by then. They were used as a bargaining chip to salve the overheated brain of Kruschev but only six months after the Cuba rockets were to be gone.
“The embargo? Only 'people' its hurting are american businesses....”
How? I just cannot imagine how that is played out in reality. What are the Americans so desperate to obtain from Cuba that they don’t already have from elsewhere?
@30 ChrisR
Oct 30th, 2014 - 10:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0“As I understand it the rockets were already marked for removal...” This is true, but the Soviets didn't know that, which made it easier for Kruschev to sell JFK's deal to his own hawks in the Politburo ( saving face ).
“What are the Americans so desperate to obtain from Cuba...” Cheap(er) sex & better cigars?
Ironically It's the cuban community in Florida that opposed most vehemently that the blockade be lifted.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 10:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0Wonder what will happen if Marco Rubio gets the Republican nomination for running for the presidency in 2016??
#32 you are correct....it is a strong voting block for Floridian politicians. Most Americans do not give a flying fuck about Cuba anyone aside from them being under a dictatorship. The people suffer and the dictator “Brothers Castro” live a life of capitalist luxury.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 12:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0ChrisR.....agreed 11 million poor Cubans have no impact on American business. What could they possibly buy with their income to have a positive flux on American businesses balance sheets?
#21
Oct 30th, 2014 - 02:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“What insults? So you deny that you are “a 30 / 35 YO socialist, only one step away from a Marxist and an admirer of New Labour”
Sure, I deny the bit that suggests I'm one step from Marxism. I'm not and neither is New Labour. In the same way that I don't think Thatcherism is one step from fascism.
““Care to elaborate?” Well I would have done but not after your little diatribe against me, other than to say this: you are not the only one to lecture at university.”
That doesn't at all sound like what you were implying. Perhaps I'm just sensitive having to continuously fend off insults about my profession. Most people don't even realise that science (specifically astrophysics) lecturers (in Universities) spend most of their time on research, not teaching.
“Orwell was of course well before his time ...”
You realise Orwell was very much left-wing right?
But, back to the matter in hand: Cuba.
Cuba is quite poor. However, look at nearby countries with similar histories, like the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Despite free market economies, and the ability to trade with the US, both are poorer than Cuba (in Haiti's case MUCH poorer). Moreover, Cuba's life expectancy is well above that of these nations (Cuba: 79.4, Haiti: 63), and in fact close to the US (79.8).
Insulting Cuba on the basis of its economy really doesn't make sense. The important thing is the curtail of civil liberties, which continues to this day.
I personally think the Cuban embargo during the cold war was completely justifiable and the correct response. However, the old cold war is over (though maybe a new one is beginning). The embargo these days is really just spite in my opinion (and political expedience given the number of Cuban exile voters). It can't be justified in terms of human rights when the US continues to trade with countries with much worse records. However, I nevertheless support the right of US to continue its embargo but don't lie about the reasons.
34 you last sentence is all that needs to be said on the subject.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 03:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#35
Oct 30th, 2014 - 05:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I guess... I just can't see why two countries, who used to be friends, can't be friends again now that the main reason for the disagreement (the alliance with the USSR) is gone. This is especially when the US is friends with various “unsavoury” regimes in the Middle East.
My guess is that the US is so entrenched in its embargo it couldn't do anything about it for fear of losing face, particularly amongst the Cuban exile population. When both Castro brothers are dead I imagine there will no longer be a sufficiently high hurdle to cross and things can change.
Or the US could just go on punishing the people of Cuba for a dictators mistake 50 years ago...
No country in the world is in the “people first” business despite what the pontificate. Cuba's populace is not mine nor anyone of the USA's problem either. And yes we, as do all other countries do business with less than desirable leaders and countries. However there is always a cost/benefit to them. I see no benefit to the USA extending a hand to Cuba. Castro should be more if he cared about the condition of his people. But...that hardly matters to him as long as he is comfortable.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 05:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#37
Oct 30th, 2014 - 06:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“ I see no benefit to the USA extending a hand to Cuba. ”
I can think of a few:
- As a market for US goods and culture replacing other countries. Cuba has a significant population and is not particularly poor.
- As a source of: sugar, nickel, baseball players, apparently the best cigars, and oil.
- A cheap source of highly trained medical professionals.
But perhaps most importantly:
- To piss Venezuela off.
For all its faults Cuba has managed to provide excellent healthcare to its people, and as far as I know has provided medical assistance in emergencies around the world.
@ 38 inthegutter
Oct 30th, 2014 - 06:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“- A cheap source of highly trained medical professionals.”
Well they managed to kill off Chubby by misdiagnosing his problem and ‘blinded’ the correct treatment in the process.
Ah!. Isn’t that a bit of a downer, if you are the patient?
But they are cheap, no denying that.
#39
Oct 30th, 2014 - 06:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0One single example? Come on, you're better than that.
As I noted, they have a life expectancy well above that of other nearby countries and comparable with advanced states.
#38 their cigars are no longer “great”.....damn good but not great.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 07:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Baseball players we get anyway.
The Cuban culture exists in Miami....and Tampa bit time. Funny my Argentine wife thinks they are load, rude and obnoxious. Somewhat the way PR's come across in the USA.
I am not so convinced on the medical side. While it may ”piss off Venezuela, I also see it benefiting Venezuela.....the trickle down effect.
there entire country is nothing more than a major city to the USA. Castro should be making more of an effort if he really wanted it. There is few incentives for American businesses to want to sell in country where the leader can decree anything he so desires...........like taking the assets of businesses. Argentina did it and no one is getting trampled to setup shop there either. I do not see American businesses pressuring politicians to open the trade barriers. Either that or American businesses do not have puppet strings on politicians like the trolls here love to post about. I think American business sees Cuba as a geo-political question mark that does not have enough potential to make that leap and has a wait and see attitude.
The Left has always had a deep psychological need to believe in the myth of Cuban health care. On that island, as everywhere else, Communism has turned out to be a disaster: economic, physical, and moral. Not only have persecution, torture, and murder been routine, there is nothing material to show for it. The Leninist rationalization was, “You have to break some eggs to make an omelet.” Orwell memorably replied, “Where’s the omelet?” There is never an omelet.
Oct 30th, 2014 - 09:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Then there is the real Cuban system, the one that ordinary people must use — and it is wretched. Testimony and documentation on the subject are vast. Hospitals and clinics are crumbling. Conditions are so unsanitary, patients may be better off at home, whatever home is. If they do have to go to the hospital, they must bring their own bedsheets, soap, towels, food, light bulbs — even toilet paper. And basic medications are scarce. In Sicko, even sophisticated medications are plentiful and cheap. In the real Cuba, finding an aspirin can be a chore. And an antibiotic will fetch a fortune on the black market.
A nurse spoke to Isabel Vincent of Canada’s National Post. “We have nothing,” said the nurse. “I haven’t seen aspirin in a Cuban store here for more than a year. If you have any pills in your purse, I’ll take them. Even if they have passed their expiry date.”
The equipment that doctors have to work with is either antiquated or nonexistent. Doctors have been known to reuse latex gloves — there is no choice. When they travel to the island, on errands of mercy, American doctors make sure to take as much equipment and as many supplies as they can carry. One told the Associated Press, “The [Cuban] doctors are pretty well trained, but they have nothing to work with. It’s like operating with knives and spoons.”
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/health-myth.htm
Sicko (2007)
Oct 31st, 2014 - 01:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0“A documentary comparing the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations, and HMO horror”
Director: Michael Moore
Writer: Michael Moore
SICKO: EN CUBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDuVndy4qJc
43. MA
Oct 31st, 2014 - 02:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0La Mentira de la medicina Cubana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE9u2CR75u4
Those poor yanks(and some porteños ) believe the propaganda they see on TV, and think that is really what the US is like.
Oct 31st, 2014 - 04:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0#42
Oct 31st, 2014 - 08:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0Some of that may well be true, however, Cuba's healthcare system is undoubtedly better (or at the very least more effective, in terms of its primary aim of ensuring Cubans live long healthy lives) than neighbouring capitalist nations, with similar histories and economic resources. Can you not admit this? If communism has failed healthcare in Cuba can you not see that capitalism (or more generally the market) has produced an even bigger healthcare failure in neighbouring countries. Indeed, its perhaps worth noting that the US healthcare system (as fantastic as it is for those able to pay) certainly fails those without adequate health insurance. This may be the crux of our disagreement, I firmly believe that high-quality healthcare should be accessible to all citizen irrespective of the ability to pay.
More generally, anyone who thinks that economics should be left completely to either the state (i.e. pure communism) or the market is a fool, both have proved utterly disastrous in human history. The real argument is the level of state intervention, with people like myself believing (at least in the context of the UK) more state involvement is needed. This does not make me a communist as many of you are so fond of implying.
P.S. I love the continued referencing of Orwell, here is one of my favourites ;)
“I suggest that the following six-point programme is the kind of thing we need. The first three points deal with England’s internal policy, the other three with the Empire and the world:
1. Nationalization of land, mines, railways, banks and major industries.
2. Limitation of incomes, on such a scale that the highest tax-free income in Britain does not exceed the lowest by more than ten to one.
3. Reform of the educational system along democratic lines.”
#45
It's a bit rich for you to speak of the propaganda people in the US are fed. Your state indoctrinates you from birth to believe your have a right to that of others.
Michael Moore is hardly the man any modest minded individual would want to believe. A bolivarian commie might, but no prudent minded person would. He makes some valid points but on his best day he is an extremist.
Oct 31st, 2014 - 09:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Those poor bolivarian commies(and some porteños ) believe the propaganda they see on TV AND utube, and think that is really what the USA is like.......never having been there.
Marcos .....you speak like a man with a paper asshole. So I ask you.....what do I believe about the USA?
@ 40 inthegutter
Oct 31st, 2014 - 11:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0“As I noted, they have a life expectancy well above that of other nearby countries and comparable with advanced states.”
Is that down to:
1) they don't over eat because things are scarce and they have little money;
2) they are not exposed to 'modern' foods like McD's, etc.?
Final question. Given the choice would you rather be treated in a local Cuban hospital (not the VIP ones) or in a UK, US, EU one?
#48
Oct 31st, 2014 - 12:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”Is that down to:
1) they don't over eat because things are scarce and they have little money;
2) they are not exposed to 'modern' foods like McD's, etc.?“
In part yes, but consider the differential with Haiti/Dominican Republic which have similar levels of scarcity but much lower life expectancy.
”Final question. Given the choice would you rather be treated in a local Cuban hospital (not the VIP ones) or in a UK, US, EU one?”
Well that's a straw man argument if I've ever seen one. Obviously my answer is the UK or EU anytime and the US if I had insurance. However, if we only care about healthcare, I would prefer to be a citizen of Cuba rather than Haiti/DR/Jamaica/etc.
I am not sure I would want to have a heart transplant in Cuba or a DBS for Parkinson's in Cuba either. Even cervical discectomies (of which I've had a few).
Oct 31st, 2014 - 12:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I currently live under a system of socialised medicine, and it is generally very good.
Oct 31st, 2014 - 02:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Supplemental Health care insurance is affordable, but I have honestly never needed it.
There do appear to be fewer Medical Specialists available than the U.S., so there is a wait to see one.
Elected surgery is subject to waiting as well.
The doctors are top notch.
There is socialised medicine in Mexico, or at least, cheap insurance.
A medical professional from the British and Canadian systems I know well, is very impressed with health care there.
For those without insurance, paying cash, for a visit to a GP or a Specialist, it is very very affordable in comparison with Canada, and it is readily available with no waiting.
Socialised medicine can certainly work.
7 Nostrum of NostrolL (#)
Nov 01st, 2014 - 03:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The US embargo is irrelevant. Not even the Cubans are complaining about it.
Yes Nostril, it is quite difficult to make ones voice heard from the inside of a gaol cell.
It is well-known that Cuba has many, many political prisoners and that The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (the government 'stasi') is everywhere.
23 Leiard.
Thanks for the excellent article.
@ 49 inthegutter
Nov 01st, 2014 - 07:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Well that's a straw man argument if I've ever seen one.”
I fail to see why asking a straight forward question, without altering the basis of the ‘argument’ or misrepresenting your point is in anyway a straw man argument.
I was simply asking the obvious question of someone who has strong beliefs about a subject which are diametrically opposite to my experience. Frankly, I wouldn’t let a Russian trained doctor anywhere near me and I posted many times that Chubby was blinded by his doctrine to put himself in the hands of such people.
Swire can twitter on about the help from Cuban doctors in the Ebola problem all he likes. If successive politicians hadn’t screwed up the medical training in the UK we would have British doctors with known abilities to support the much vaunted UK-run Ebola facilities in Sierra Leone instead of relying on Cubans. I just hope it doesn’t all end in tears.
The U.S. continues to believe it's the only game in town as its influence continues to fade away. With practically all the world's countries telling it otherwise, it keeps blindly withholding this ridiculous blockade of a minuscule country, a country who nobody thought could survive the Soviet demise but still is there, pocking its tongue to its oversized, arrogant neighbour and its--less and less--pitiful lackey friends.
Nov 03rd, 2014 - 06:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Enrique....is the USA the answer to Cuba destitute? Or have they chosen that way for a reason? Your cunt of a leader is trying to tell the US whom they can chose as a advisor.....now you wish to tell us whom to have trade with? When they reimburse US businesses for the stolen assets. But I see the Castro boys dead in 5 years and a new Cuban policy.
Nov 03rd, 2014 - 10:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0Who would choose to volunteer to live in VeneCuba?
Nov 05th, 2014 - 12:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0Even Enrique prefers Canada.
Enough said.
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