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MightyLion · 18-21, M
I'm not sure why it's not letting me reply to your comments so I'll type it in a separate comment. Cuba was a first-world nation before Fidel. And it wasn't your stereotypical poor broke Caribbean nation being exploited by Americans as you say. The fact that it had the 8th highest wage in the world completely annihilates this idea. If Cubans really wanted Fidel then he would have just outright said he was communist. The whole reason he hid the fact that he was a communist is that he knew he would never be liked. The only way he'd be liked is by saying he would give the freedom of free elections that communism would never give.
According to you "Cuba is the most developed 3rd world country" so if you believe this than you'd know willingly or unwillingly that it would have been much better back when it was the most advanced spanish-speaking first-world country.
And common sense would tell you that after losing countless businesses and billions of dollars via confiscation and stealing that the U.S. government is going to refuse to do any business with Cuba until it changes and will thankfully continue its embargo.
And Cuba was a small country with a GDP twice that of Spain and a peso that at times surpassed the U.S. Dollar by one cent. So what is your point? None of the facts I've posted happen in a country like what you are describing. A poor unadvanced country doesn't have the 8th highest wage in the world, a city with more movie theatres than New York and Paris, a cow per inhabitant and so on.
Havana was one of the capitals of the world up there with cities like London and Paris and New York. Americans literally called it the Paris of the Americas.
Also homelessness does happen in Cuba I've seen it on my visits. When I lived there my family had to sell the house we lived in because the roof was going to fall in and there is almost no money to feed yourself in Cuba and even less for doing such repairs. The VAST majority of all structures in Cuba have received 0 repairs since Fidel and many are crumbling down and falling on people. Also, MANY houses don't have air conditioning and don't properly protect people from the elements such as rain and heat. Many have leaks and cracks and mosquitos get in very easily which there are A LOT of. Many people who are given houses by the government or who lose their homes due to lack of repairs end up living in little shed homes made from trash nailed together. So considering all that MANY homes in Cuba provide just about as much comfort as sleeping under a bridge like a homeless person.
And yes Cuba was very wealthy. That's why Fidel Castro had a net worth of $900 million dollars all while running this small island nation. An amount of money not even Queen Elizabeth had with her only $426 million net worth while being Queen of far larger land masses and for an even longer period of time than Fidel was in power.
Also if Fidel is so loving and kind and about equality and peace and love why didn't he dedicate at least $400 million of his net worth to fixing up Cuba. If Cuba is so perfect he doesn't even need not one million in his bank account. Why should he? Doesn't everyone get free healthcare, food, and housing in Cuba? Why does he have that much money? Why is the ruler of a small poor island nation with a small economy like you say having more money than Queen Elizabeth a queen of imperialism as I believe the left would say.
The facts speak for themselves. All the achievements Cuba had in the 1950s are things that don't happen in poor unadvanced prostitute illiterate countries like what you are describing Cuba to have been. And I hope the reason I can't reply to your comments isn't because you are silencing opposition to your viewpoint. Also, this is my last response on this topic because there's really not much to say since the facts and statistics of capitalist Cuba outright prove it was once advanced and doing very well unlike now.
[media=https://youtu.be/84KsRWIWLZc]
But anyways would you ever choose to live in any of the communist countries that there are in the world? Why or Why not?
According to you "Cuba is the most developed 3rd world country" so if you believe this than you'd know willingly or unwillingly that it would have been much better back when it was the most advanced spanish-speaking first-world country.
And common sense would tell you that after losing countless businesses and billions of dollars via confiscation and stealing that the U.S. government is going to refuse to do any business with Cuba until it changes and will thankfully continue its embargo.
And Cuba was a small country with a GDP twice that of Spain and a peso that at times surpassed the U.S. Dollar by one cent. So what is your point? None of the facts I've posted happen in a country like what you are describing. A poor unadvanced country doesn't have the 8th highest wage in the world, a city with more movie theatres than New York and Paris, a cow per inhabitant and so on.
Havana was one of the capitals of the world up there with cities like London and Paris and New York. Americans literally called it the Paris of the Americas.
Also homelessness does happen in Cuba I've seen it on my visits. When I lived there my family had to sell the house we lived in because the roof was going to fall in and there is almost no money to feed yourself in Cuba and even less for doing such repairs. The VAST majority of all structures in Cuba have received 0 repairs since Fidel and many are crumbling down and falling on people. Also, MANY houses don't have air conditioning and don't properly protect people from the elements such as rain and heat. Many have leaks and cracks and mosquitos get in very easily which there are A LOT of. Many people who are given houses by the government or who lose their homes due to lack of repairs end up living in little shed homes made from trash nailed together. So considering all that MANY homes in Cuba provide just about as much comfort as sleeping under a bridge like a homeless person.
And yes Cuba was very wealthy. That's why Fidel Castro had a net worth of $900 million dollars all while running this small island nation. An amount of money not even Queen Elizabeth had with her only $426 million net worth while being Queen of far larger land masses and for an even longer period of time than Fidel was in power.
Also if Fidel is so loving and kind and about equality and peace and love why didn't he dedicate at least $400 million of his net worth to fixing up Cuba. If Cuba is so perfect he doesn't even need not one million in his bank account. Why should he? Doesn't everyone get free healthcare, food, and housing in Cuba? Why does he have that much money? Why is the ruler of a small poor island nation with a small economy like you say having more money than Queen Elizabeth a queen of imperialism as I believe the left would say.
The facts speak for themselves. All the achievements Cuba had in the 1950s are things that don't happen in poor unadvanced prostitute illiterate countries like what you are describing Cuba to have been. And I hope the reason I can't reply to your comments isn't because you are silencing opposition to your viewpoint. Also, this is my last response on this topic because there's really not much to say since the facts and statistics of capitalist Cuba outright prove it was once advanced and doing very well unlike now.
[media=https://youtu.be/84KsRWIWLZc]
But anyways would you ever choose to live in any of the communist countries that there are in the world? Why or Why not?
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Gloomy · F
@MightyLion
Castro turned to Communism in the process of the revolution and reshaping the cuban system. He didn't start out as one.
You live in the imperialist nation that held your country hostage and that supported a corrupt dictator.
Also Cuba provides healthcare to all while the US rather lets people suffer in the name of profit.
The fundamental instinct at the heart of Cuba's revolution in 1959 was that slower wealth creation and limited political repression were a price worth paying for fairer distribution, and the consequent eradication of extreme poverty. It may not have been articulated as such, but that is how it has played out.
Along with South Korea, Cuba probably has one of the most impressive and distinctive stories to tell in the annals of modern development. Apart from achieving near 100% literacy many years ago, its health statistics are the envy of many far richer countries. It is a small country, but not too small – with 11 million inhabitants it is the same size as Bolivia and four times the size of neighbouring Caribbean island Jamaica.
No other similar country adopted Cuba's approach to development, although some tried, and the differences between poverty in Cuba and other Latin and Caribbean countries are stark. While average income has grown in Cuba at a similar speed to other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador, the poverty and social conflict still experienced in the mainland countries is very apparent. In Cuba, the extremes of opulence and misery are banished in favour of a generalised level of wealth, best described as "enough to get by".
Cuba has certainly forfeited any chance of becoming an economic powerhouse because of the egalitarian policies it adopted, but that possibility was always a long shot anyway. Holding out for some kind of big economic takeoff may be a fool's game for most countries – and that might be one of the most important lessons for other countries that want to log the kind of development statistics Cuba has achieved. As former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide said of his country's aspirations, Haiti was not seeking grandeur but the more limited ambition of moving "from misery to poverty with dignity".
It is easy to get seduced by Cuba's impressive development indicators and its assertions of idealist possibilities. The statistics are certainly dramatic, as Overseas Development Institute research emphasised last year. And Fidel Castro has certainly contributed as many wise and progressive thoughts to the world as he has unfortunate ramblings. But there are serious problems at the heart of the Cuban development model that have been left unaddressed for far too long.
Castro's leadership was the key factor in rapidly rising living standards for the poorest. In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba's children did not attend school. The literacy campaign begun by Castro in 1961 led, in 1970, to Unesco declaring Cuba the country with the highest primary and secondary school enrolment in Latin America. These development gains, among others, have continued to this day.
But there have been two broad consequences. First, a generation of educated young people aspire to more in terms of living standards and life chances than their parents ever did. It is no coincidence that the older generation is more uncritically supportive of the revolution than the young – it knows what Cuba was like before.
Second, state-led development and investment is costly, especially when the international context becomes less favourable. Relying on goodwill, volunteering and accumulated capital has worked perhaps longer than anyone anticipated, but eventually wealth must be created and that, as the critics have always maintained, means a platform for the private sector to grow.
So it is better late than never that Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, has finally bowed to pressure and taken two major reforms through the national assembly. First, travel restrictions will be loosened, making it much easier for Cubans to travel abroad. And second, authorisation and encouragement will be given to small businesses. These follow on from other reforms and are part of a gradual but significant shift in Cuban development theory intended to strengthen a weak economy.
Apart from the notable economic benefits that should accrue from shifting thousands of jobs from the public to the private sector, the cultural and psychological effects will be enormous. Cuban youth has been immensely frustrated in recent years by the perceived inability to let its creativity flourish beyond a tight set of parameters. Right from the start, the Cuban revolutionaries acknowledged that policy decisions should encourage human flourishing rather than simply economic advantage, yet the consequences of denying opportunities to young people have contradicted these ideals.
The Cuban development model is as distinctive and worthy of study as those of the east Asian tigers. It has spent the last 60 years proving the doubters wrong, despite the constant attention of powerful ideologues gunning for its humiliation. The question is, how fast and deep do reforms need to be to ensure that the gains made are retained, while the aspirations of Cuba's people for more freedom and opportunity are met and the economy holds up?
In my view, it is appropriate and important that changes be implemented carefully and slowly. The gains made by the Castro regime in terms of state provision of basic public goods may seem solid enough, but the national and global economies are the objects of surprises and shocks.
If the challenge in the 1960s and 1970s was to establish a way of working totally counter to what had gone before, the challenge now is to demonstrate that the model can evolve into something more appropriate for the present context, without undermining its most impressive achievements. If it can do that, it will continue to present, as its detractors correctly feared, the "danger of a good example" and merit the attention of development theorists and practitioners seeking proven means to eradicate poverty.
Along with South Korea, Cuba probably has one of the most impressive and distinctive stories to tell in the annals of modern development. Apart from achieving near 100% literacy many years ago, its health statistics are the envy of many far richer countries. It is a small country, but not too small – with 11 million inhabitants it is the same size as Bolivia and four times the size of neighbouring Caribbean island Jamaica.
No other similar country adopted Cuba's approach to development, although some tried, and the differences between poverty in Cuba and other Latin and Caribbean countries are stark. While average income has grown in Cuba at a similar speed to other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador, the poverty and social conflict still experienced in the mainland countries is very apparent. In Cuba, the extremes of opulence and misery are banished in favour of a generalised level of wealth, best described as "enough to get by".
Cuba has certainly forfeited any chance of becoming an economic powerhouse because of the egalitarian policies it adopted, but that possibility was always a long shot anyway. Holding out for some kind of big economic takeoff may be a fool's game for most countries – and that might be one of the most important lessons for other countries that want to log the kind of development statistics Cuba has achieved. As former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide said of his country's aspirations, Haiti was not seeking grandeur but the more limited ambition of moving "from misery to poverty with dignity".
It is easy to get seduced by Cuba's impressive development indicators and its assertions of idealist possibilities. The statistics are certainly dramatic, as Overseas Development Institute research emphasised last year. And Fidel Castro has certainly contributed as many wise and progressive thoughts to the world as he has unfortunate ramblings. But there are serious problems at the heart of the Cuban development model that have been left unaddressed for far too long.
Castro's leadership was the key factor in rapidly rising living standards for the poorest. In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba's children did not attend school. The literacy campaign begun by Castro in 1961 led, in 1970, to Unesco declaring Cuba the country with the highest primary and secondary school enrolment in Latin America. These development gains, among others, have continued to this day.
But there have been two broad consequences. First, a generation of educated young people aspire to more in terms of living standards and life chances than their parents ever did. It is no coincidence that the older generation is more uncritically supportive of the revolution than the young – it knows what Cuba was like before.
Second, state-led development and investment is costly, especially when the international context becomes less favourable. Relying on goodwill, volunteering and accumulated capital has worked perhaps longer than anyone anticipated, but eventually wealth must be created and that, as the critics have always maintained, means a platform for the private sector to grow.
So it is better late than never that Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, has finally bowed to pressure and taken two major reforms through the national assembly. First, travel restrictions will be loosened, making it much easier for Cubans to travel abroad. And second, authorisation and encouragement will be given to small businesses. These follow on from other reforms and are part of a gradual but significant shift in Cuban development theory intended to strengthen a weak economy.
Apart from the notable economic benefits that should accrue from shifting thousands of jobs from the public to the private sector, the cultural and psychological effects will be enormous. Cuban youth has been immensely frustrated in recent years by the perceived inability to let its creativity flourish beyond a tight set of parameters. Right from the start, the Cuban revolutionaries acknowledged that policy decisions should encourage human flourishing rather than simply economic advantage, yet the consequences of denying opportunities to young people have contradicted these ideals.
The Cuban development model is as distinctive and worthy of study as those of the east Asian tigers. It has spent the last 60 years proving the doubters wrong, despite the constant attention of powerful ideologues gunning for its humiliation. The question is, how fast and deep do reforms need to be to ensure that the gains made are retained, while the aspirations of Cuba's people for more freedom and opportunity are met and the economy holds up?
In my view, it is appropriate and important that changes be implemented carefully and slowly. The gains made by the Castro regime in terms of state provision of basic public goods may seem solid enough, but the national and global economies are the objects of surprises and shocks.
If the challenge in the 1960s and 1970s was to establish a way of working totally counter to what had gone before, the challenge now is to demonstrate that the model can evolve into something more appropriate for the present context, without undermining its most impressive achievements. If it can do that, it will continue to present, as its detractors correctly feared, the "danger of a good example" and merit the attention of development theorists and practitioners seeking proven means to eradicate poverty.
Castro turned to Communism in the process of the revolution and reshaping the cuban system. He didn't start out as one.
You live in the imperialist nation that held your country hostage and that supported a corrupt dictator.
Also Cuba provides healthcare to all while the US rather lets people suffer in the name of profit.
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion you talking about facts whilst ignoring the atrocities commited by batista and america against the cuban people who suffered under their rule. If you honestly believe he was worth 900 million then you just follow right wing propaganda and ignore factual evidence or any common sense as nobody with that networth would live in a third world country which became as developed as it is today because of socialism which is why homeless rate in Cuba is next to zero. If you want to keep the act that facts speak for themselves then you should also acknowledge the facts that basista was despised by the cuban people and they wanted him gone and that's why the support for castro was so high. On paper it might have looked like batistas cuba was thriving but that's because he was appealing to rich Americans as well as mobsters but he didn't care one bit about the citizens who suffered mass unemployment and illiteracy thank to his dictatorship. The fact is also that the failed bay of pigs invasion happened because America sent back cubans in miami to overthrow castro, the embargo was placed to destroy the economy and the cuban missile crises happened because of America placing missiles in Turkey that were aimed at Turkey. America at that time was going through high racial tensions which lead to the creation of the black panther party who were demonised simply because they weren't bowing down to racism and castros cuba offered political asylum to members including Tupac Shakurs aunt
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion again the embargo exists solely to destroy cubas economy because America spat its dummy out that they lost any sense of power over the country and that che in particular was vocally against American imperialism and capitalism in general
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123
You spewing left-wing propaganda that not even Fidel believed while ignoring that Fidel was only liked over Batista because he concealed the fact that he was a communist and said he would bring back elections. Fidel is comparable to Stalin and Hitler by the things he has done. Did Batista make concentration camps? Did Batista indoctrinate kids from young? Do you see photos and videos of Batista tying up farmers and shooting them up like Fidel and Che? Can you find me videos of Cubans leaving on floating trash to escape Batista? Can you find me photos of empty grocery stores during Batista? Is there a cow per person now during communism? Was Cuba statistically the most miserable country in the world during Batista like it is now? Are you forgetting the Peter Pan operation which was the largest migration of unaccompanied children in the western hemisphere? It happened under Fidel NOT Batista.
Also Cubans were the ones getting the 8th highest wage in the world not rich Americans and mobsters. Most of the facts an accomplishments like having one cow per citizen and most movie cinemas in Havana were enjoyed by CUBANS. Some Americans lived in Cuba but most just vacationed there because it was an advanced country it made for a great tourist destination. And what illiteracy? Cuba had more literacy than Spain.
The support for Castro was high because he was supposed to bring back FREE ELECTIONS. Something Batista took away. I guarantee if he was communist from the start he'd have exactly zero support.
If a radical militant leftist in Latin America, Europe or anywhere in the world were asked if he would be willing to live on a salary of $28 a month, he would think it was a joke.
But it's not. In the mecca of the Americas' left, Castroist Cuba, that is the average salary today, in a country that in 1958 boasted among the highest average salaries in the Americas, and ranked eighth in the world.
The year before the Castroist assault on power, Cuban industrial workers earned six dollars a day for an eight-hour day, and an agricultural worker, three dollars, figures duly registered in the statistics of the International Labor Organization (ILO), of the ONU.
That is, the salary of a Cuban industrial worker 60 years ago was $130 per month (the result of multiplying 30 weeks by 52 and then dividing by 12 months). That of agricultural workers was half that: 65 dollars monthly. And it is worth remembering that at that time the Cuban peso was on a par with the dollar, instantly exchangeable for it.
Of course, nobody in Cuba knows (he can't find out) that in 1958 that salary of six dollars a day was actually the eighth highest in the world, behind the US (16.80 dollars), Canada (11.73), Sweden (8.10), Switzerland (8.00) , New Zealand (6.72), Denmark (6.46), and Norway (6.10). The figures ILO's figures attest to this.
The salary of three dollars a day for Cuban agricultural workers, meanwhile, was the seventh highest in the world, after Canada (7.18 dollars), New Zealand (6.72), Australia (6.61), USA (6.80), Sweden (5.47), and Norway (4.38).
Of particular note is the fact that a 1958 dollar was equivalent to 8.68 dollars in 2018. Its purchasing power was nine times greater than today's dollar, according to the website El dinero en el tiempo (Money Over Time), after applying the appropriate formulas and taking into account the average inflation rate of 3.67% over these 60 years.
That is to say, in 1958 the working grandfather, "exploited" by the bourgeoisie, earned some $1,128 per month in today's money. 60 years later, his socialist worker grandson earns 27.92 dollars a month (670 pesos), a revelation made by his own National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in 2017. In Haiti, it is more than double that ($59).
Paying 794 dollars for a kilogram of chicken breast
In 1958, not only was the nominal salary of Cubans five times higher than today, but their real salaries were infinitely higher, taking into account the salary/price relationship then in place.
At that time prices in Cuba and the US were very similar. Therefore, it is worth knowing that in 1958 in the US, with an average salary of $364 per month, one pound of steak cost 75 cents; a liter of milk, 20 cents; a 14-oz. bag of Uncle Ben rice, 19 cents; one loaf of bread, 19 cents, one gallon of gasoline, 24 cents; a postage stamp, four cents.
A simple Ford car cost $1,967; an average three-bedroom house, $10,450; travelling on a cruise ship from Havana to Miami, $42 per person. And, for two dollars you could attend a game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
The contrast is absolutely stunning. At Cuba's grocery stores, according to an official list of prices published by Cybercuba, a kilogram of chicken breast with skin and bone costs between 3.80 and 4.50 dollars. One kilogram of second-rate beef: 4.20 to 5.20 dollars. To buy a 2013 Peugeot a Cuban and his descendants must work for 783 years (until the 24th century) to cover the cost: 263,185 dollars.
With those Castroist prices applied to the US, with a per capita income of $4,961 per month in 2017 (according to the World Bank), a consumer from Idaho or California would have to pay $794 to acquire a kilogram of chicken breast with bone and skin. Not even Kafka would have been able to imagine something like this.
The most dramatic situation is that of retirees. With an average pension of 12 dollars per month (287 pesos), as published by Cubadebate in 2017, on the island retirees and elderly non-retired people live in poverty and marginalization. The State does not do anything for them. They sell what they can, even their personal belongings, or newspapers, or peanuts, take turns in lines, or work as guards in public areas. Many rummage through trash cans. Such is the sad end of their lives.
However, according to official data from May 2018, while the budget for social security has been falling, and today is about 300 million, that dedicated to the Armed Forces and MININT increased from 1.702 billion in 2006 to 2.546 billion in 2016. Of course, they keep the dictatorship going.
Marxist exploitation, the worst kind of all
In fact, there is nothing in the world that squeezes more from a worker than the system designed by Karl Marx. First of all, because the socialist state keeps most of the worker's salary. It is confiscated without him noticing.
In light of the economic doctrine itself advanced by Marxin Das Kapital, the Castro regime not only appropriates the surplus value created by the worker (that is, the value that he creates over the value of its own labor force) but the State paying such low salaries also entails the appropriation of much of the value created by the worker to survive.
That value the worker created for himself ought to be received entirely in the form of a salary for his food, housing, transportation, and other needs, for him and his family. But the State seizes not only the gain that corresponds to it as the owner of the means of production, raw material, etc., but also much of the value created by the worker for himself. That is wage theft.
This kind of economic repression must be denounced. It is not about relenting in the battle for political and humanistic freedoms, but about speaking out louder to condemn Castroism's hitherto "invisible" economic repression.
Already inserted into the nation's DNA, this repression is the first misfortune that plagues everyday Cubans when they wake up in the morning. He cannot survive on his salary, by any means. Hence, this should be one of the primary demands of Cubans in their struggle for their rights and freedom.
If there were protests everywhere because the bread is no good, or never arrived; or because the potatoes did not arrive either, or because wages are not enough to buy basic groceries, or due to the lack of medication, or the accumulation of rotten garbage in the streets, or because they have been wallowing in outdated, unhealthy housing for the last 20 years... this would be a new form of internal pressure that it would be more difficult for the dictatorship to handle. And it would have an impact abroad.
The question is obvious: What good has the "socialist revolution" done Cubans if today their standard of living is so much worse than six decades ago?
The dictator and his military junta must be made to feel the people's rejection of their economic repression, and to realize that the absurdity born of the socialist model – which even Fidel Castro admitted "does not work" – is intolerable.
And it should be repeated everywhere: the average Cuba's grandfather in 1958 earned the equivalent of $1,128 in 2018, exactly 40 times more than his "revolutionary" grandchild – Che Guevara's "new man".
Ahhhhhh Yesssss all revolutionary accomplishments. Fun Fact the Cuban government doesn't even post its extreme poverty rate however it is estimated by private investigators that 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty making it poorer than Haiti which is a country considered to be amongst the poorest in the world. Haitians even have higher salaries and many Cubans migrate to Haiti for a better life or make trips there to buy from the abundant markets to sell things back in Cuba. If Cuba was really all that with Communism they wouldn't need US remittances to survive. If you come to Florida you'll find many places to send money to Cuba.
Myths of Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Education DEBUNKED:
[quote]
Free education and public health as the "genuine feat of the revolution" constitute, in my opinion, the best and most sophisticated (dual) myth that Fidel Castro has “sold” to Cubans and the world, among the many that he peddled in his time as a dictator, the longest in modern history.
These social services, at no cost to students and patients, constituted the crown jewel of Castro's propaganda, due to the human sensitivity they transmitted and their great proselytizing power.
I say that they are the best-sold because the myth endures today, even though it lacks a foundation. And it is the most sophisticated because it is not totally false: from the 60s until 1991 education and public health services were expanded throughout the country.
The myth rests on a deception and a fact that is overlooked:
1) Fidel Castro led everyone to believe that this achievement was due to the communist system implemented by he and Che Guevara, which he claimed was superior to the "bourgeois" socio-economic models in Latin America and the West.
2) For the past 25 years education and public health in Cuba have been a disaster.
The two key services did achieve remarkable levels ... but this was thanks to subsidies from the Soviet Union, and despite the Cuban government’s irresponsible and erratic management of these financial resources. Therein lies the myth.
Due to his narcissism, and for the purpose of political and ideological propaganda, Fidel plowed much of the Soviet money into massive social investments out of proportion with the country's economy and its degree of development, instead of dedicating it to the actual development of the nation, improving Cubans' quality of life, and ensuring education and health services that would be indigenous and sustainable rather than based on Band-Aids.
Stating that social progress in Cuba was the product of the centrally- planned state economy was a massive sham. Cuba never would have achieved anything if it had depended on its own economy, the most unproductive and undercapitalized in the Americas. That is, Fidel took the credit while "Uncle Sasha" paid the bills, with aid of 4 to 6 billion dollars annually.
Obviously, upon the USSR's collapse, this all came crashing down. And the country's social showcase, about which the commander so relentlessly boasted, cracked. Today the regime no longer talks about education or public health. It can't.
Madness and waste
The atrocities committed by Cuba's deceased pharaoh are countless. In one of his fits of lunacy he came up with a plan that would be "unique in the world," which he called Country Schools, under which he ordered the construction of 535 gigantic educational facilities, of three to four floors, in the Cuban countryside, (40 of them for subsidized Third World students), with a very serious impact on the national economy and the lives of Cubans.
The commander spent billions of dollars over the course of the 20 years his outlandish experiment lasted, until 1991. Ten billion tons of cement were used, and 2,000 Russian buses (Giron) were assembled to transport the students. 16 million tons of food and 15 million tons of fuel were consumed, not to mention the technical equipment and teaching staff, uniforms, and all the sundry supplies necessary.
With such massive financial resources he could have helped develop the national economy and meet the population's most pressing needs.
The vast majority of the secondary and pre-university students were transferred to live in those schools and work as agricultural laborers part time. Students from the cities were taken to work in agriculture for periods of between 45 days and 3 months.
When the subsidies from Moscow ceased, the huge buildings in the countryside were abandoned. Some were converted into prisons, and others into houses – which remain empty due to the lack of workers who want to toil on terrain overrun with marabou.
The social damage done was also great, negatively impacting hundreds of thousands of teenagers: psychologically, in their family relationships, morally, sexually, academically, educationally, and by hampering their social development.
Incidentally, it behooves us to remember that in Cuba the brainwashing of children, adolescents and young people was institutionalized. They were instilled with a distorted view of Cuban history and of the world as anti-imperialism was drilled into them, "proletarian internationalism" was praised, and they ere taught a contempt for democratic values and individual freedoms. Fidel Castro was venerated along with his idiotic contention that "the future belongs entirely to socialism" andthe most absurd slogans, like "Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che."
A shortage of schools before 1959?
Another of the major myths propagated is the claim that in Cuba before 1959 there were barely any public schools or teachers, and that university education was so expensive that it was inaccessible for workers' children.
False. In 1958, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, Cuba had 7,567 public (free) elementary scho
You spewing left-wing propaganda that not even Fidel believed while ignoring that Fidel was only liked over Batista because he concealed the fact that he was a communist and said he would bring back elections. Fidel is comparable to Stalin and Hitler by the things he has done. Did Batista make concentration camps? Did Batista indoctrinate kids from young? Do you see photos and videos of Batista tying up farmers and shooting them up like Fidel and Che? Can you find me videos of Cubans leaving on floating trash to escape Batista? Can you find me photos of empty grocery stores during Batista? Is there a cow per person now during communism? Was Cuba statistically the most miserable country in the world during Batista like it is now? Are you forgetting the Peter Pan operation which was the largest migration of unaccompanied children in the western hemisphere? It happened under Fidel NOT Batista.
Also Cubans were the ones getting the 8th highest wage in the world not rich Americans and mobsters. Most of the facts an accomplishments like having one cow per citizen and most movie cinemas in Havana were enjoyed by CUBANS. Some Americans lived in Cuba but most just vacationed there because it was an advanced country it made for a great tourist destination. And what illiteracy? Cuba had more literacy than Spain.
The support for Castro was high because he was supposed to bring back FREE ELECTIONS. Something Batista took away. I guarantee if he was communist from the start he'd have exactly zero support.
If a radical militant leftist in Latin America, Europe or anywhere in the world were asked if he would be willing to live on a salary of $28 a month, he would think it was a joke.
But it's not. In the mecca of the Americas' left, Castroist Cuba, that is the average salary today, in a country that in 1958 boasted among the highest average salaries in the Americas, and ranked eighth in the world.
The year before the Castroist assault on power, Cuban industrial workers earned six dollars a day for an eight-hour day, and an agricultural worker, three dollars, figures duly registered in the statistics of the International Labor Organization (ILO), of the ONU.
That is, the salary of a Cuban industrial worker 60 years ago was $130 per month (the result of multiplying 30 weeks by 52 and then dividing by 12 months). That of agricultural workers was half that: 65 dollars monthly. And it is worth remembering that at that time the Cuban peso was on a par with the dollar, instantly exchangeable for it.
Of course, nobody in Cuba knows (he can't find out) that in 1958 that salary of six dollars a day was actually the eighth highest in the world, behind the US (16.80 dollars), Canada (11.73), Sweden (8.10), Switzerland (8.00) , New Zealand (6.72), Denmark (6.46), and Norway (6.10). The figures ILO's figures attest to this.
The salary of three dollars a day for Cuban agricultural workers, meanwhile, was the seventh highest in the world, after Canada (7.18 dollars), New Zealand (6.72), Australia (6.61), USA (6.80), Sweden (5.47), and Norway (4.38).
Of particular note is the fact that a 1958 dollar was equivalent to 8.68 dollars in 2018. Its purchasing power was nine times greater than today's dollar, according to the website El dinero en el tiempo (Money Over Time), after applying the appropriate formulas and taking into account the average inflation rate of 3.67% over these 60 years.
That is to say, in 1958 the working grandfather, "exploited" by the bourgeoisie, earned some $1,128 per month in today's money. 60 years later, his socialist worker grandson earns 27.92 dollars a month (670 pesos), a revelation made by his own National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in 2017. In Haiti, it is more than double that ($59).
Paying 794 dollars for a kilogram of chicken breast
In 1958, not only was the nominal salary of Cubans five times higher than today, but their real salaries were infinitely higher, taking into account the salary/price relationship then in place.
At that time prices in Cuba and the US were very similar. Therefore, it is worth knowing that in 1958 in the US, with an average salary of $364 per month, one pound of steak cost 75 cents; a liter of milk, 20 cents; a 14-oz. bag of Uncle Ben rice, 19 cents; one loaf of bread, 19 cents, one gallon of gasoline, 24 cents; a postage stamp, four cents.
A simple Ford car cost $1,967; an average three-bedroom house, $10,450; travelling on a cruise ship from Havana to Miami, $42 per person. And, for two dollars you could attend a game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
The contrast is absolutely stunning. At Cuba's grocery stores, according to an official list of prices published by Cybercuba, a kilogram of chicken breast with skin and bone costs between 3.80 and 4.50 dollars. One kilogram of second-rate beef: 4.20 to 5.20 dollars. To buy a 2013 Peugeot a Cuban and his descendants must work for 783 years (until the 24th century) to cover the cost: 263,185 dollars.
With those Castroist prices applied to the US, with a per capita income of $4,961 per month in 2017 (according to the World Bank), a consumer from Idaho or California would have to pay $794 to acquire a kilogram of chicken breast with bone and skin. Not even Kafka would have been able to imagine something like this.
The most dramatic situation is that of retirees. With an average pension of 12 dollars per month (287 pesos), as published by Cubadebate in 2017, on the island retirees and elderly non-retired people live in poverty and marginalization. The State does not do anything for them. They sell what they can, even their personal belongings, or newspapers, or peanuts, take turns in lines, or work as guards in public areas. Many rummage through trash cans. Such is the sad end of their lives.
However, according to official data from May 2018, while the budget for social security has been falling, and today is about 300 million, that dedicated to the Armed Forces and MININT increased from 1.702 billion in 2006 to 2.546 billion in 2016. Of course, they keep the dictatorship going.
Marxist exploitation, the worst kind of all
In fact, there is nothing in the world that squeezes more from a worker than the system designed by Karl Marx. First of all, because the socialist state keeps most of the worker's salary. It is confiscated without him noticing.
In light of the economic doctrine itself advanced by Marxin Das Kapital, the Castro regime not only appropriates the surplus value created by the worker (that is, the value that he creates over the value of its own labor force) but the State paying such low salaries also entails the appropriation of much of the value created by the worker to survive.
That value the worker created for himself ought to be received entirely in the form of a salary for his food, housing, transportation, and other needs, for him and his family. But the State seizes not only the gain that corresponds to it as the owner of the means of production, raw material, etc., but also much of the value created by the worker for himself. That is wage theft.
This kind of economic repression must be denounced. It is not about relenting in the battle for political and humanistic freedoms, but about speaking out louder to condemn Castroism's hitherto "invisible" economic repression.
Already inserted into the nation's DNA, this repression is the first misfortune that plagues everyday Cubans when they wake up in the morning. He cannot survive on his salary, by any means. Hence, this should be one of the primary demands of Cubans in their struggle for their rights and freedom.
If there were protests everywhere because the bread is no good, or never arrived; or because the potatoes did not arrive either, or because wages are not enough to buy basic groceries, or due to the lack of medication, or the accumulation of rotten garbage in the streets, or because they have been wallowing in outdated, unhealthy housing for the last 20 years... this would be a new form of internal pressure that it would be more difficult for the dictatorship to handle. And it would have an impact abroad.
The question is obvious: What good has the "socialist revolution" done Cubans if today their standard of living is so much worse than six decades ago?
The dictator and his military junta must be made to feel the people's rejection of their economic repression, and to realize that the absurdity born of the socialist model – which even Fidel Castro admitted "does not work" – is intolerable.
And it should be repeated everywhere: the average Cuba's grandfather in 1958 earned the equivalent of $1,128 in 2018, exactly 40 times more than his "revolutionary" grandchild – Che Guevara's "new man".
Ahhhhhh Yesssss all revolutionary accomplishments. Fun Fact the Cuban government doesn't even post its extreme poverty rate however it is estimated by private investigators that 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty making it poorer than Haiti which is a country considered to be amongst the poorest in the world. Haitians even have higher salaries and many Cubans migrate to Haiti for a better life or make trips there to buy from the abundant markets to sell things back in Cuba. If Cuba was really all that with Communism they wouldn't need US remittances to survive. If you come to Florida you'll find many places to send money to Cuba.
A bankrupt project
According to Cuban economist Emilio Morales, president of Havana Consulting Group, a diagnosis of the Cuban panorama reveals the reasons justifying use of the term.
"It must be said that the Cuban state does not currently have the capacity to meet the basic needs of the population. The country is in tatters, up to its neck in debt to the Paris Club and other creditors, including its political allies China, Russia and Venezuela. It has lost its lines of credit due to its delinquency with its creditors," he recalls.
"The country exports practically nothing, and almost depends on the community of Cuban exiles to survive. In 2021 it exported $1.966 billion and imported $8.933 billion; in other words, the country imports 4.2 times what it exports. The remittances that the country receives are greater than the sum of most of its exportable items, demonstrating that a group of more than two million Cubans has to maintain, with its prosperity in the free and democratic world, a population of 11.2 million people living under the yoke of a dictatorship."
In addition to this, Morales cites an inflationary crisis, with the dollar trading at one dollar for 200CUP on the informal market, plus the 700% devaluation of the peso in just two years; the largest migratory exodus in the history of the country; the scandalous deterioration of the health system, exacerbated by a lack of supplies and medicines; and the government's inability to respond to natural disasters, given that the damage caused by the recent hurricane is compounded by thousands of people who were already waiting for solutions for their homes after previous years' weather events.
"This situation clearly confirms that the model does not work, that the state does not have the capacity or the financial resources to meet the population's basic needs. This explains the acute shortage of food and medicines in the country at this time, when food can only be bought in dollars, not in the local currency with which the State usually pays workers," he stresses.
"Right now the state does not have the resources to guarantee the electricity needed by industry and homes, so the country is practically paralyzed. As a consequence of this energy breakdown, the population does not have access to many services, including drinking water, given the government's inability to pump it and guarantee the supply."
Morales notes that the people's natural resentment of this state of affairs has led the regime to resort to a policy of terror to silence their numerous protests.
"However, the brutality applied to a defenseless population has not served to quell the peaceful protests by citizens. On the contrary, these have actually increased in recent days. As the protests escalate and the subjugation increases, the people are beginning to respond in other ways to fend off the repressive forces."
"This scenario of chaos that the country is enduring today is nothing more than the result of the Government's dereliction of its obligations and governmental priorities," which is "the result of the transformation of a socialist State into a mafia state in the hands of a small military and family elite that controls the wealth and the business system of the country, its repressive apparatus, and the Government itself, which it uses as a puppet for citizen control. This mafia, which is beholden to no government entity, and controls more than 80% of the country's economy, has devised a financial scheme to steal the country's wealth and export it to tax havens through a complex network of companies that operate in the shadows and that, year after year, bleed Cuba dry, without the bureaucratic government being able to do anything about it."
"Today they cannot conceal a scenario in which the total disconnect between the government and the population is manifest, where the leaders have no empathy for the people; where, in the face of a dire crisis, dictator Raúl Castro is hiding and not showing his face; where the president-designate is spurned and repudiated by the people, denoting that the country is heading towards anarchy in the face of this power vacuum that struggles to sustain itself through terror," he said.
A definitive fall
Cuban economist Rafaela Cruz, who has analyzed the current Cuban crisis on numerous occasions, stresses that, given that "Castroism is today a simple mafia organization, a self-imposed group that violently excludes anyone who disputes its power, an organization with the sole purpose, through force and coercion, of plundering the people," Cuba is a country currently ruled by "a failed mafia: failed in its parasitism, because a good parasite is capable of coexisting with its victim, but Castroism has never known how to milk the cow without killing it."
She explains this with an image: "Castroism is like a man falling from a 63rd floor and, seconds before hitting the concrete below, shouts with fervor: 'Look, I'm flying,' believing that he is in control of the situation, and that the rest of us believe him. Failure in Cuba is a process. It's one of those falls that may seem long, but, once it has begun, is bound to come to an abrupt and ugly end."
According to Cuban economist Emilio Morales, president of Havana Consulting Group, a diagnosis of the Cuban panorama reveals the reasons justifying use of the term.
"It must be said that the Cuban state does not currently have the capacity to meet the basic needs of the population. The country is in tatters, up to its neck in debt to the Paris Club and other creditors, including its political allies China, Russia and Venezuela. It has lost its lines of credit due to its delinquency with its creditors," he recalls.
"The country exports practically nothing, and almost depends on the community of Cuban exiles to survive. In 2021 it exported $1.966 billion and imported $8.933 billion; in other words, the country imports 4.2 times what it exports. The remittances that the country receives are greater than the sum of most of its exportable items, demonstrating that a group of more than two million Cubans has to maintain, with its prosperity in the free and democratic world, a population of 11.2 million people living under the yoke of a dictatorship."
In addition to this, Morales cites an inflationary crisis, with the dollar trading at one dollar for 200CUP on the informal market, plus the 700% devaluation of the peso in just two years; the largest migratory exodus in the history of the country; the scandalous deterioration of the health system, exacerbated by a lack of supplies and medicines; and the government's inability to respond to natural disasters, given that the damage caused by the recent hurricane is compounded by thousands of people who were already waiting for solutions for their homes after previous years' weather events.
"This situation clearly confirms that the model does not work, that the state does not have the capacity or the financial resources to meet the population's basic needs. This explains the acute shortage of food and medicines in the country at this time, when food can only be bought in dollars, not in the local currency with which the State usually pays workers," he stresses.
"Right now the state does not have the resources to guarantee the electricity needed by industry and homes, so the country is practically paralyzed. As a consequence of this energy breakdown, the population does not have access to many services, including drinking water, given the government's inability to pump it and guarantee the supply."
Morales notes that the people's natural resentment of this state of affairs has led the regime to resort to a policy of terror to silence their numerous protests.
"However, the brutality applied to a defenseless population has not served to quell the peaceful protests by citizens. On the contrary, these have actually increased in recent days. As the protests escalate and the subjugation increases, the people are beginning to respond in other ways to fend off the repressive forces."
"This scenario of chaos that the country is enduring today is nothing more than the result of the Government's dereliction of its obligations and governmental priorities," which is "the result of the transformation of a socialist State into a mafia state in the hands of a small military and family elite that controls the wealth and the business system of the country, its repressive apparatus, and the Government itself, which it uses as a puppet for citizen control. This mafia, which is beholden to no government entity, and controls more than 80% of the country's economy, has devised a financial scheme to steal the country's wealth and export it to tax havens through a complex network of companies that operate in the shadows and that, year after year, bleed Cuba dry, without the bureaucratic government being able to do anything about it."
"Today they cannot conceal a scenario in which the total disconnect between the government and the population is manifest, where the leaders have no empathy for the people; where, in the face of a dire crisis, dictator Raúl Castro is hiding and not showing his face; where the president-designate is spurned and repudiated by the people, denoting that the country is heading towards anarchy in the face of this power vacuum that struggles to sustain itself through terror," he said.
A definitive fall
Cuban economist Rafaela Cruz, who has analyzed the current Cuban crisis on numerous occasions, stresses that, given that "Castroism is today a simple mafia organization, a self-imposed group that violently excludes anyone who disputes its power, an organization with the sole purpose, through force and coercion, of plundering the people," Cuba is a country currently ruled by "a failed mafia: failed in its parasitism, because a good parasite is capable of coexisting with its victim, but Castroism has never known how to milk the cow without killing it."
She explains this with an image: "Castroism is like a man falling from a 63rd floor and, seconds before hitting the concrete below, shouts with fervor: 'Look, I'm flying,' believing that he is in control of the situation, and that the rest of us believe him. Failure in Cuba is a process. It's one of those falls that may seem long, but, once it has begun, is bound to come to an abrupt and ugly end."
Myths of Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Education DEBUNKED:
[quote]
Free education and public health as the "genuine feat of the revolution" constitute, in my opinion, the best and most sophisticated (dual) myth that Fidel Castro has “sold” to Cubans and the world, among the many that he peddled in his time as a dictator, the longest in modern history.
These social services, at no cost to students and patients, constituted the crown jewel of Castro's propaganda, due to the human sensitivity they transmitted and their great proselytizing power.
I say that they are the best-sold because the myth endures today, even though it lacks a foundation. And it is the most sophisticated because it is not totally false: from the 60s until 1991 education and public health services were expanded throughout the country.
The myth rests on a deception and a fact that is overlooked:
1) Fidel Castro led everyone to believe that this achievement was due to the communist system implemented by he and Che Guevara, which he claimed was superior to the "bourgeois" socio-economic models in Latin America and the West.
2) For the past 25 years education and public health in Cuba have been a disaster.
The two key services did achieve remarkable levels ... but this was thanks to subsidies from the Soviet Union, and despite the Cuban government’s irresponsible and erratic management of these financial resources. Therein lies the myth.
Due to his narcissism, and for the purpose of political and ideological propaganda, Fidel plowed much of the Soviet money into massive social investments out of proportion with the country's economy and its degree of development, instead of dedicating it to the actual development of the nation, improving Cubans' quality of life, and ensuring education and health services that would be indigenous and sustainable rather than based on Band-Aids.
Stating that social progress in Cuba was the product of the centrally- planned state economy was a massive sham. Cuba never would have achieved anything if it had depended on its own economy, the most unproductive and undercapitalized in the Americas. That is, Fidel took the credit while "Uncle Sasha" paid the bills, with aid of 4 to 6 billion dollars annually.
Obviously, upon the USSR's collapse, this all came crashing down. And the country's social showcase, about which the commander so relentlessly boasted, cracked. Today the regime no longer talks about education or public health. It can't.
Madness and waste
The atrocities committed by Cuba's deceased pharaoh are countless. In one of his fits of lunacy he came up with a plan that would be "unique in the world," which he called Country Schools, under which he ordered the construction of 535 gigantic educational facilities, of three to four floors, in the Cuban countryside, (40 of them for subsidized Third World students), with a very serious impact on the national economy and the lives of Cubans.
The commander spent billions of dollars over the course of the 20 years his outlandish experiment lasted, until 1991. Ten billion tons of cement were used, and 2,000 Russian buses (Giron) were assembled to transport the students. 16 million tons of food and 15 million tons of fuel were consumed, not to mention the technical equipment and teaching staff, uniforms, and all the sundry supplies necessary.
With such massive financial resources he could have helped develop the national economy and meet the population's most pressing needs.
The vast majority of the secondary and pre-university students were transferred to live in those schools and work as agricultural laborers part time. Students from the cities were taken to work in agriculture for periods of between 45 days and 3 months.
When the subsidies from Moscow ceased, the huge buildings in the countryside were abandoned. Some were converted into prisons, and others into houses – which remain empty due to the lack of workers who want to toil on terrain overrun with marabou.
The social damage done was also great, negatively impacting hundreds of thousands of teenagers: psychologically, in their family relationships, morally, sexually, academically, educationally, and by hampering their social development.
Incidentally, it behooves us to remember that in Cuba the brainwashing of children, adolescents and young people was institutionalized. They were instilled with a distorted view of Cuban history and of the world as anti-imperialism was drilled into them, "proletarian internationalism" was praised, and they ere taught a contempt for democratic values and individual freedoms. Fidel Castro was venerated along with his idiotic contention that "the future belongs entirely to socialism" andthe most absurd slogans, like "Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che."
A shortage of schools before 1959?
Another of the major myths propagated is the claim that in Cuba before 1959 there were barely any public schools or teachers, and that university education was so expensive that it was inaccessible for workers' children.
False. In 1958, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, Cuba had 7,567 public (free) elementary scho
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123 https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1481158020_27259.html
Fidel's best sold myth "Free Education"
Fidel's best sold myth "Free Education"
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion and yet they have a better literacy rate than America, same life expectancy as America, near zero homeless people as opposed to the millions in America, helped with Mandelas fight with apartheid South Africa and handled covid lot better than America
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion free healthcare as well so if a Cuban woman gives birth she dosent have to pay 12 thousand dollars like an American woman has to do
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion the education in Cuba became free for all people as well which lead to the dramatic improvement in Literacy rates
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion America brainwashes its kids through making them pledge alliegeance to the flag which creates toxic nationalism, a hatred for anyone who is considered a minority and the system bans any written works that they feel will subvert kids ways of thinking such as they are doing with critical race theory because the system is worried that it will wake the youth up to the true history of America rather than blindly follow the idealised history of the country
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123
Also in Cuba they pledge allegiance to the flag and say phrases like we will be like Che which glorifies a murderer. And the communist system bans anything that thinks differently than them and expressing different thoughts from them can get you arrested and even killed. The communist government also hides that Cuba was far better in its capitalist days by spewing all the lies that you spew. In reality the only reason Cuba a country poorer than Haiti doesn't look as bad as Haiti is because of how advanced it was in its Capitalist days that despite the dirty and crumbling buildings it doesn't look as bad of a country as the quality of life it gives.
The only thing the government builds is hotels for tourists so it can encourage the exploitation of Cuban people and prostitution of Cubans which is far higher now than in the 1950s when Cuba had the 8th highest wage and people could just live off of normal jobs. The only thing the government has done to stop homelessness is create a large exodus of Cubans leaving behind buisinesses, movie cinemas, and mansions which were all repurposed and turned into homes for a growing population that has nowhere to go since in Communism little to nothing is built. So yeah the lack of homelessness is all thanks to Capitalist Cuba.
Human well being right? Is this why people leave on rafts?
Oh look more well being wooooowwwww what an achievement.
In 2021, Cuba was far the most miserable country in the world with the misery index score of 1,227.6. Venezuela ranked second with the index score of 774.3.
Quality of life around the world
The misery index was created by the economist Arthur Okun in the 1960s. The index is calculated by adding the unemployment rate, the lending rate and the inflation rate minus percent change of GDP per capita.
Quality of life around the world
The misery index was created by the economist Arthur Okun in the 1960s. The index is calculated by adding the unemployment rate, the lending rate and the inflation rate minus percent change of GDP per capita.
A shortage of schools before 1959?
Another of the major myths propagated is the claim that in Cuba before 1959 there were barely any public schools or teachers, and that university education was so expensive that it was inaccessible for workers' children.
False. In 1958, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, Cuba had 7,567 public (free) elementary schools and 869 private ones; that is, 8,436 in all. Of those public schools, 1,206 were in the countryside. In the mid-50s public education staffed 25,000 thousand teachers, while private schools employed another 3,500.
The public education system also had secondary schools (high schools), schools for teachers, home schools, kindergartens, trade schools, fine arts schools, surveying schools, arts and crafts schools, journalism schools, advertising schools, and technical schools, among others. With more than 150 such institutions, in the 1955-1956 academic year 70,029 students were enrolled.
Today almost no one in Cuba realizes that at the University of Havana the annual tuition cost was only 60 pesos (equivalent then to some 60 dollars), payable in three installments. A young person could study Medicine, Engineering, Law, Architecture, Accounting, or become a doctor in the Social Sciences, Philosophy and Letters, or Pedagogy, for five pesos a month.
In practice the classes, lab sessions and sports, including those at the impressive Balneario Universitario in Miramar, with its Olympic pool and beach, were free. I have it on good account that for 50 cents at these facilities one could have a lunch of steak, rice, French fries, salad and a dessert. There was also free medical care at the Student Clinic, housed on the seventh floor of the current Hospital Fajardo.
Of course, students also had to buy books and things for their classes, but at the university bookstore ("Alma Mater") prices were low. Those families from inland would have to pay for their students' lodgings in some kind of guesthouse near the university, which cost an average of 50 pesos a month and included breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In 1958 Cuba actually had a health care system of a high professional and technological level. There were 35,000 hospital beds. With a population of 6.6 million, there was 1 bed for every 190 inhabitants – better than the figure of 1 bed per 200 inhabitants in many developed countries. The United States had 109. In 2013, three years ago, there were 38,642 beds, one for every 289 inhabitants.
And in the late 50s Cuba boasted the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America, followed by Argentina and Uruguay, according to World Health Organization. With reference to doctors per capita, in 1958 the island was surpassed only by Argentina and Uruguay.
Collapse when the subsidies ceased
When the USSR disappeared, Venezuelan aid was able to partially defray Cuba's social spending. But, given the inexorable deterioration of the economy under Castro, the demand for cash grew, and the subsidies from Caracas proved insufficient. To make matters worse, oil prices plummeted.
Today the educational system in Cuba is a catastrophe: there is a lack of textbooks, notebooks, pencils, uniforms, materials and technological equipment for classes and laboratory work. Neither are there enough qualified teachers and professors, there is no Internet access, or modern curricula worthy of the 21st century.
The school buildings and furniture are dilapidated and falling apart. Fraud and corruption run rampant among teachers and students. In exchange for "gifts" for the teacher, students are fraudulently passed. The budget for education has been drastically reduced.
Meanwhile, in the health sector, rather than an increasing number of beds and hospitals, those that exist are being shut down. 60 hospitals have been closed since 2010. 25% of the country's hospitalization capacity has already been lost. And the shortage of medicines is alarming.
In 2010, 47,000 employees were fired from the health sector. Family physician offices fell from 14,007 in 2006 to 11,506 in 2013, and continue to dwindle due to the lack of doctors, as they are exported like white-coat slaves, with 75% of their salaries abroad confiscated from them. This, in the 21st century.
Nearly half of the 82,000 Cuban doctors who graduated in Cuba (also foreign graduates) are not on the Island. Rather, they are serving in 67 countries, mainly in Venezuela and Brazil. Hence, primary medical care has been hit hard, and specialized care, even harder.
Hospitals are in a sad state: a lack of basic hygiene, swarming with cockroaches and mosquitoes, patients have to bring their own sheets, pillows, syringes and, sometimes, even iodine and mercurochrome. Many surgical procedures are not performed due to the lack of surgeons, thread for sutures, or something as simple as gauze to absorb blood. The little food available for these hospitalized is almost inedible.
Conclusion: Fidel fooled everyone with such cunning that many, both on the Island and off it, still believe that education and public health are great "feats of the Revolution." I encourage those true believers to visit Cuba, and its hospitals and schools off the circuit reserved for tourists.
Without money flowing in from overseas, an economic and social crisis has ravaged education and public health on the Island. It is a national disgrace.
Another of the major myths propagated is the claim that in Cuba before 1959 there were barely any public schools or teachers, and that university education was so expensive that it was inaccessible for workers' children.
False. In 1958, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, Cuba had 7,567 public (free) elementary schools and 869 private ones; that is, 8,436 in all. Of those public schools, 1,206 were in the countryside. In the mid-50s public education staffed 25,000 thousand teachers, while private schools employed another 3,500.
The public education system also had secondary schools (high schools), schools for teachers, home schools, kindergartens, trade schools, fine arts schools, surveying schools, arts and crafts schools, journalism schools, advertising schools, and technical schools, among others. With more than 150 such institutions, in the 1955-1956 academic year 70,029 students were enrolled.
Today almost no one in Cuba realizes that at the University of Havana the annual tuition cost was only 60 pesos (equivalent then to some 60 dollars), payable in three installments. A young person could study Medicine, Engineering, Law, Architecture, Accounting, or become a doctor in the Social Sciences, Philosophy and Letters, or Pedagogy, for five pesos a month.
In practice the classes, lab sessions and sports, including those at the impressive Balneario Universitario in Miramar, with its Olympic pool and beach, were free. I have it on good account that for 50 cents at these facilities one could have a lunch of steak, rice, French fries, salad and a dessert. There was also free medical care at the Student Clinic, housed on the seventh floor of the current Hospital Fajardo.
Of course, students also had to buy books and things for their classes, but at the university bookstore ("Alma Mater") prices were low. Those families from inland would have to pay for their students' lodgings in some kind of guesthouse near the university, which cost an average of 50 pesos a month and included breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In 1958 Cuba actually had a health care system of a high professional and technological level. There were 35,000 hospital beds. With a population of 6.6 million, there was 1 bed for every 190 inhabitants – better than the figure of 1 bed per 200 inhabitants in many developed countries. The United States had 109. In 2013, three years ago, there were 38,642 beds, one for every 289 inhabitants.
And in the late 50s Cuba boasted the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America, followed by Argentina and Uruguay, according to World Health Organization. With reference to doctors per capita, in 1958 the island was surpassed only by Argentina and Uruguay.
Collapse when the subsidies ceased
When the USSR disappeared, Venezuelan aid was able to partially defray Cuba's social spending. But, given the inexorable deterioration of the economy under Castro, the demand for cash grew, and the subsidies from Caracas proved insufficient. To make matters worse, oil prices plummeted.
Today the educational system in Cuba is a catastrophe: there is a lack of textbooks, notebooks, pencils, uniforms, materials and technological equipment for classes and laboratory work. Neither are there enough qualified teachers and professors, there is no Internet access, or modern curricula worthy of the 21st century.
The school buildings and furniture are dilapidated and falling apart. Fraud and corruption run rampant among teachers and students. In exchange for "gifts" for the teacher, students are fraudulently passed. The budget for education has been drastically reduced.
Meanwhile, in the health sector, rather than an increasing number of beds and hospitals, those that exist are being shut down. 60 hospitals have been closed since 2010. 25% of the country's hospitalization capacity has already been lost. And the shortage of medicines is alarming.
In 2010, 47,000 employees were fired from the health sector. Family physician offices fell from 14,007 in 2006 to 11,506 in 2013, and continue to dwindle due to the lack of doctors, as they are exported like white-coat slaves, with 75% of their salaries abroad confiscated from them. This, in the 21st century.
Nearly half of the 82,000 Cuban doctors who graduated in Cuba (also foreign graduates) are not on the Island. Rather, they are serving in 67 countries, mainly in Venezuela and Brazil. Hence, primary medical care has been hit hard, and specialized care, even harder.
Hospitals are in a sad state: a lack of basic hygiene, swarming with cockroaches and mosquitoes, patients have to bring their own sheets, pillows, syringes and, sometimes, even iodine and mercurochrome. Many surgical procedures are not performed due to the lack of surgeons, thread for sutures, or something as simple as gauze to absorb blood. The little food available for these hospitalized is almost inedible.
Conclusion: Fidel fooled everyone with such cunning that many, both on the Island and off it, still believe that education and public health are great "feats of the Revolution." I encourage those true believers to visit Cuba, and its hospitals and schools off the circuit reserved for tourists.
Without money flowing in from overseas, an economic and social crisis has ravaged education and public health on the Island. It is a national disgrace.
Also in Cuba they pledge allegiance to the flag and say phrases like we will be like Che which glorifies a murderer. And the communist system bans anything that thinks differently than them and expressing different thoughts from them can get you arrested and even killed. The communist government also hides that Cuba was far better in its capitalist days by spewing all the lies that you spew. In reality the only reason Cuba a country poorer than Haiti doesn't look as bad as Haiti is because of how advanced it was in its Capitalist days that despite the dirty and crumbling buildings it doesn't look as bad of a country as the quality of life it gives.
The only thing the government builds is hotels for tourists so it can encourage the exploitation of Cuban people and prostitution of Cubans which is far higher now than in the 1950s when Cuba had the 8th highest wage and people could just live off of normal jobs. The only thing the government has done to stop homelessness is create a large exodus of Cubans leaving behind buisinesses, movie cinemas, and mansions which were all repurposed and turned into homes for a growing population that has nowhere to go since in Communism little to nothing is built. So yeah the lack of homelessness is all thanks to Capitalist Cuba.
The exodus of people fleeing Cuba for the United States hit an all-time high this year as the Caribbean country intensifies its brutal crackdown on citizens, and the United States’ southern border crisis continues to spiral.
Border authorities recorded more than 227,000 Cubans attempting to enter into the United States illegally from December 2021 to 2022, which represents the largest exodus in history, Agence France-Presse reported.
The 227,000 is more than the two largest previous mass departures when 125,000 Cubans left for the United States in 1980 and when 34,000 people did in 1994, Florida International University’s Jorge Duany said.
Border authorities recorded more than 227,000 Cubans attempting to enter into the United States illegally from December 2021 to 2022, which represents the largest exodus in history, Agence France-Presse reported.
The 227,000 is more than the two largest previous mass departures when 125,000 Cubans left for the United States in 1980 and when 34,000 people did in 1994, Florida International University’s Jorge Duany said.
Human well being right? Is this why people leave on rafts?
Cubans kill themselves roughly three times as often as Venezuelans, four times as often as Brazilians, and five times as often as Mexicans, according to the most recent statistics available from the World Health Organization. But that’s nothing new. For most of its history, Cuba has had the highest suicide rate in Latin America, and one of the highest in the world.
Oh look more well being wooooowwwww what an achievement.
Gloomy · F
@MightyLion If you look at the suicide rates the US has a higher one.
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion and what does America do when people speak up against the system, they demonise and attempt to silence those that criticise the state and what it truly stands for. Wasn't the American revolution won through murder?
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion americas suicide rate is 16.1 and cubas is 14.5
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123 Based on what I just investigated from quick google searches the suicide rate in Cuba was 14.5 in 2019 and for the United States it was 13.5 from 2019 to 2020.
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123 You can protest in America and not get jailed for 20 years or killed. And America doesn't have statistics under any president comparable to Hitler or Stalin like Cuba under Fidel. Also America is a very good country, it may not be perfect but it gives everyone freedom of speech and many great things you can never really get in a communist country. America is one of the few countries where you could be very poor and somehow still be overweight. Imagine living in poor conditions in Cuba and waiting hours in line for food and walking everywhere for bad quality food. You'll probably get underweight.
The United States is very good. Just look at all the things you can buy at Dollar Tree with just $80 from one weeks salary? More than a Cuban can at any store in Cuba with one months salary.
The United States is very good. Just look at all the things you can buy at Dollar Tree with just $80 from one weeks salary? More than a Cuban can at any store in Cuba with one months salary.
Gloomy · F
@MightyLion Tell that to the protestor that got shot protesting Cop City and all the innocent people of color that passed away due to police brutality.
Comparing Hitler to Castro is ridiculous and any person affected by the Holocaust would call a claim like this relativism.
You can be poor and overweight cause the US allows chemicals in the food that are illegal in Europe cause they are really unhealthy and affect peoples hormones.
Comparing Hitler to Castro is ridiculous and any person affected by the Holocaust would call a claim like this relativism.
You can be poor and overweight cause the US allows chemicals in the food that are illegal in Europe cause they are really unhealthy and affect peoples hormones.
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion people in Cuba have protested just the other year so that's clearly nonsense. It only gives freedom of speech to those with money and a member of the ruling class but if your a worker or worse still a homeless person then you are ignored. How can poor Americans still be overweight? Makes absolutely no sense and is just a contradiction as I'm sure those who are poor would love to be able to eat when they like. America has one of the highest population of prisoners, 1,675,400 to be exact and around 40 per cent of them are black people
This message was deleted by its author.
Gloomy · F
@Guitarman123 my comment?
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion cuba has a incarceration rate of 510 per 100,000
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123
Fidel Castro jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin during the Great Terror. He murdered
more Cubans in his first three years in power than Hitler murdered Germans during his first six.
Fidel Castro shattered—through mass-executions, mass-jailings, mass larceny and exile—virtually every family on
the island of Cuba. Many opponents of the Castro regime qualify as the longest-suffering political prisoners in modern
history, having suffered prison camps, forced labor and torture chambers for a period three times as long in Fidel Castro’s
Gulag as Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered in Stalin’s Gulag.
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara beat ISIS to the game by over half a century. As early as January 1959 they were film-
ing their murders for the media-shock value.
Fidel Castro also came closest of anyone in history to (wantonly) starting a worldwide nuclear war.
In the above process Fidel Castro converted a highly-civilized nation with a higher standard of living than much of
Europe and swamped with immigrants into a slum/sewer ravaged by tropical diseases and with the highest suicide rate
in the Western hemisphere.
Over TWENTY TIMES as many people (and counting) have died trying to escape Castro’s Cuba as died trying to escape
East Germany. Yet prior to Castroism Cuba received more immigrants per-capita than almost any nation on earth—more
than the US did including the Ellis Island years, in fact.
Fidel Castro helped train and fund practically every terror group on earth, from the Weathermen to Puerto Rico’s
Macheteros, from Argentina’s Montoneros, to Colombia’s FARC, from the Black Panthers to the IRA, and from the PLO
to AL Fatah.
Would anyone guess any of the above from reading or listening to the mainstream media recently?
more Cubans in his first three years in power than Hitler murdered Germans during his first six.
Fidel Castro shattered—through mass-executions, mass-jailings, mass larceny and exile—virtually every family on
the island of Cuba. Many opponents of the Castro regime qualify as the longest-suffering political prisoners in modern
history, having suffered prison camps, forced labor and torture chambers for a period three times as long in Fidel Castro’s
Gulag as Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered in Stalin’s Gulag.
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara beat ISIS to the game by over half a century. As early as January 1959 they were film-
ing their murders for the media-shock value.
Fidel Castro also came closest of anyone in history to (wantonly) starting a worldwide nuclear war.
In the above process Fidel Castro converted a highly-civilized nation with a higher standard of living than much of
Europe and swamped with immigrants into a slum/sewer ravaged by tropical diseases and with the highest suicide rate
in the Western hemisphere.
Over TWENTY TIMES as many people (and counting) have died trying to escape Castro’s Cuba as died trying to escape
East Germany. Yet prior to Castroism Cuba received more immigrants per-capita than almost any nation on earth—more
than the US did including the Ellis Island years, in fact.
Fidel Castro helped train and fund practically every terror group on earth, from the Weathermen to Puerto Rico’s
Macheteros, from Argentina’s Montoneros, to Colombia’s FARC, from the Black Panthers to the IRA, and from the PLO
to AL Fatah.
Would anyone guess any of the above from reading or listening to the mainstream media recently?
Guitarman123 · 31-35, M
@MightyLion how's that possible when the ussr had a much bigger population of people than Cuba?
MightyLion · 18-21, M
@Guitarman123 This is your heroe?
According to the scholars and researchers at the Cuba
Archive, the Castro regime’s total death toll—from tor-
ture, prison beatings, firing squads, machine gunning of
escapees, drownings, etc.—approaches 100,000. Cuba’s
population in 1960 was 6.4 million. According to the
human rights group Freedom House, 500,000 Cubans
(young and old, male and female) have passed through
Castro’s prison and forced-labor camps. This puts Fidel
Castro’s political incarceration rate right up there with
his hero Stalin’s
Archive, the Castro regime’s total death toll—from tor-
ture, prison beatings, firing squads, machine gunning of
escapees, drownings, etc.—approaches 100,000. Cuba’s
population in 1960 was 6.4 million. According to the
human rights group Freedom House, 500,000 Cubans
(young and old, male and female) have passed through
Castro’s prison and forced-labor camps. This puts Fidel
Castro’s political incarceration rate right up there with
his hero Stalin’s
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