OK, damn, we give up. Communism obviously don't work, marxism is flawed. What ideology should I pick now? Liberalism? What do you mean "share in the profits"? I doubt the starving beggars in Pakistan and India will disagree with you. We don't have anything else, except the primitive socialism in Cuba, of course. Why is "capitalism the best we've got"? The working class are exploited by the capitalist class under a capitalist system. If the working class would get rid of the exploiters, then naturally, that would be a better system, for us. That's not the idea regarding Marxism, and that is not how a communist society will work. In the socialist phase (the phase between capitalism and communism), people will work according to their ability, and receive according to their work. In a communist society, the people will work according to ability and receive according to need. In a communist society we will not be "just as rich". Everyone having a red bicycle? In a communist society, people will not be the same. We will not be robots. Humans are different, and thus people will work at different speeds, lengths, and people will have different needs. I don't think we should look for a society that is "perfect". But we must continiously analyze, and try to improve society. But society today, where man exploits man, where the oppressed praise the oppressor, this consumer society.. Can't you see that it is totally wrong, and unhealthy? In a communist society, we all would all probably have a few hours of dirty work during hte week. Instead of one person doing all the dirty work all the time, we would all do a little, once in a while. People won't get paid. People will take what they need. If you need a computer, then it's yours. At the same time, you will give back to society. You won't have to worry about financial problems. You won't work for a boss that can fire you whenever he want. You will work for society, instead of the upper class. Exactly! What do you want then? Do you want to be the exploiter, or the exploited? The oppressor, or the oppressor? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gilligan wrote: well i set my pay at $1000 an hour. *Ewan* wrote: Sorry, not as individuals, the workers of all industry, collectivley, via workers councils, (soviets). Gilligan wrote: haha i was about to say. Im glad you mentioned the soviets. I for one, wouldnt want to have lived under assholes like Stalin and Khrushchev and Lenin. Answer: Not the Soviets, like in the Soviet Union. Soviet is the Russian word for "Council".
¨ Actually, I remember reading a book about Che, where he mentioned there were three or four television stations in Cuba. Cuba is a small country. In Norway, the common people might have 3-4 different channels. My father has approximately 2-3. This was, if I remember correct, in 1958-1961. I thought so too ("there are no elections in Cuba"), about half a year ago. Even though I had supported Cuba for some time, it took me some months beofre I actually learned that there are elections in Cuba. Here is a random article I found by searching, by Granma, one of Cuba's newspapers. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/febrero/mier23/9etapa.html
Over 23,3 percent of the population during the Batista regime, could not read. The Cuban revolution started in 1956, and the violence ended for the most part, in 1959. A campaign for ending illiteracy was launched. There is little point of having 58 daily newspapers, if no one can read.
i dont think cuba could have the highest standard of living in central and south america in 1959 when a cuban peso had the same value as a U.S dollar and that was when the U.S dollar was prob the strongest currency in the world. "if most cubans people could not read" .. yes many of the poor in Rural areas could not read, i know many people here in the U.S born here that cant read today.
TO THE EUROPEAN UNION My name is Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva. I am a blind Cuban lawyer, president of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, presently constrained within the limited territory of the province of Ciego de Avila, after languishing 26 endless months in prison where I suffered physical torture at the hands of the military personnel of Cuban State-Security. I send to you greetings filled with gratitude, respect and admiration for all the wellbeing that the peoples and the governments of Europe have bestowed upon the world. The European Union recently decided to postpone, for another year, the sanctions placed against the Cuban government in 2003. Due to the implications this decision entails for me and for all those in an internal opposition that grows under great repression, I must respond from my own humble social context in Cuba in order to express to all members of the European Union the realities and dangers we face. There still remain in prison 61 victims of the criminal wave of repression of 2003, when they were all imprisoned in good health. Two years later, the medical records of most of these detainees reveal a pathetic state of health. Four hundred political prisoners are psychologically crushed on a daily basis in Cuban prisons, where most of their human rights are denied. There, they are victims of the government’s hate and revenge. Prison conditions could not be worse: crowded cells full of insects and rodents, lack of running water, rotten food, physical mistreatments, insults, and the inability to rest and sleep, turn these penitentiaries into centers of terror and annihilation of a wide sector of the Cuban population which the authorities describe as "antisociales" More than 500 young men were sent to prison in the last two months accused of the hideous legal term called "dangerous conduct". That is, the Cuban government continues to condemn hundreds of innocent young Cubans to up to four years and confines them in maximum security prisons, even in violation of the Cuban penal code, which stipulates their detention in re-education centers where they are supposed to study and work. Many of these detainees are human rights activists and political dissidents. Far from an honest and sincere policy of opening up to the world, the government of Havana continues to bet on the martyred resistance of an entire nation, presenting a false image of our reality, which is filtered and manipulated before being projected before the world. This resolution approved by the European Union, within the framework of its due rights, has not diminished my high esteem for Europe. Nevertheless, as a Cuban who loves his country, I highly disapprove a fatal decision that forsakes, at a crucial moment, more than 500 Cuban political prisoners. In addition, it places the Cuban government in a favorable position to attack with violence the defenseless people of Cuba who struggle peacefully for the respect of human rights, God’s liberties, democracy and the rule of law. We are still convalescing from our "black March" of 2003, and expect at any moment the vindictive blow proposed by Fidel Castro to the Cuban dissidence in the past days before Cuban television cameras in the program "Mesa Redonda". May God bless the World, Sincerely, JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ LEIVA President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights under house arrest
I agree. Like I've said before, 90 percent of the rural population was malnurished under the US-supported Batista regime. The living standards of the Cuban population has been horrible throughout history. Although still problems, the Cuban revolution ended that evil circle, fortunately. Cuba has, as far as I know, the highest living standards in Latin America. Life expectancy is higher, and birth mortality rate is lower than in the US. So Cuba has actually surpassed the US in several areas. Source: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3284995.stm More: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=3193 By the way, why do you have Hitler in your signature? Are you a nazi?
Bad Cuban Medicine by Lawrence Solomon National Post January 18, 2003 Second in a series: Cuba's two-tiered health system. While tourists and government officials are taken care of, there's little left for general public Lawrence Solomon CREDIT: Kagan McLeod, National PostAn illustration of Fidel Castro running on a tread-mill. The shelves in the neighbourhood pharmacy, like those in the other neighbourhood pharmacies I had seen in Havana, were half empty and full of dust, the small selection of medicines on display arranged in lonely rows of old-fashioned little bottles. Customers were as scarce as the medicines. One bottle on a shelf contained a fungicide, another aloe ointment. A third countered diarrhea. The odds of finding a specific medicine to treat a particular malady were vanishingly small. "What is this bottle for?" I asked the woman behind the counter. "Memory," she said. "It's good for memory and for circulation." "Do you have Aspirin," I asked, wondering if average Cubans could obtain the world's most familiar pharmaceutical staple. The answer was no. Her pharmacy only stocked drugs manufactured in Cuba and available for purchase in pesos, the currency used by Cuba's poor. "For Aspirin, you must go there," she said, pointing to a nearby hotel that housed a pharmacy for customers able to pay in dollars. The "dollar pharmacy" did indeed have aspirin, along with other pain killers, cough medicines, syringes, Band-Aids, Alka-Seltzer and all the other common medicinal products familiar to Westerners. Its shelves were piled high -- literally to the ceiling -- with some 500 items, including tampons, disposable diapers, and other drug store items that were more conveniences than necessities. Pesos -- the national currency and all that most poor have access to -- bought nothing in this government-run establishment. The dollar pharmacy only welcomed dollars, and those who carried them. Earlier in the day, a Cuban had stopped me on the street, pulled out his asthmatic child's puffer, and asked for help in getting it refilled. He could not get the drug, he explained, but I, as a tourist, could. Begging for medicines is common in Havana -- next to begging for money to feed children, it is the most common plea -- because the government won't use its scarce foreign exchange to import basic drugs that the populace needs. Doctors won't even prescribe drugs for the poor that aren't available in the local pharmacies -- the state frowns upon that -- but many will write the name of the drug that's needed on a scrap of paper. "This is what you need," the doctors will tell desperate patients, in effect sending them out into the streets on a mission of what can amount to life or death for themselves or their children. Cubans with access to dollars -- typically those in the tourist industry who receive tips in dollars -- can obtain the drugs they need. Others have relatives in the United States who can ship them. The rest -- middle class Cubans included -- must resort to begging, the black market or, increasingly, to prostitution. Cuba is renowned for having a universal health-care system and, in fact, doctors are plentiful and doctor visits are free. But without access to antibiotics, insulin, heart drugs and other life-saving medicines, doctors cannot perform their duties. Too often, for lack of medicine, doctors have no choice but to amputate limbs, or to put patients through painful therapies without painkillers. In one celebrated case, Dr. Hilda Molina, the founder of Havana's International Center for Neurological Restoration, returned the medals that Fidel Castro had awarded her for her work and resigned in protest, outraged that Cubans were denied critical care in order to treat foreigners. Byron (not his real name) is a 30-year-old doctor in Cuba, a former medical student from Africa who came to Cuba on a Commonwealth country scholarship. Because he speaks fluent English and French, and understands three other European languages, the government assigns him to treating tourists whom, he confirms, lack for nothing in Cuba. The tourist hospitals are excellent, the quality of care delivered to a high standard, as high as any you will find in any Western country, he says. The hospital pharmacies provide whatever drugs tourists require. Care for top government officials and those in the military is also excellent. "They also lack for nothing," Byron said. But after providing for the needs of tourists and the top government officials, the health system has little left for the general public. I asked Byron about a man I had seen sitting on the pavement, wrapping raw lesions on his foot with filthy rags. The care with which he was tending his gaping holes made an impression on me, and made me wonder why he lacked proper care. Byron identified the man's malady -- a disease that slaves had brought to Cuba from Africa 400 years ago -- as one easily treated, but not with the medicines available in the peso pharmacies. "The government doesn't give a shit about the poor," he stated matter-of-factly. "The poor have no medicines, no painkillers, no nothing." Before Castro seized power in his 1959 Revolution, Cuba had one of the world's best medical systems, its ratio of one physician per 960 patients ranked 10th by the World Health Organization (England, in contrast, had one physician per 1,200 people, Mexico one physician per 2,400 people). Cuba had Latin America's lowest infant mortality rate, comparable to Canada's and better than France's, Japan's and Italy's. Its population was well fed, with a per capita food consumption that was the third highest in Latin America. Today, Cuba ranks last in Latin American per capita food consumption -- cereals and especially meat and milk consumption are down dramatically -- but it has not lost its medical capabilities. Instead, Cuba has reoriented its medical system to the task of earning foreign exchange. To do this, Cuba pioneered "health tourism" through agencies such as Servimed, which markets medical services abroad. Cuba is "the ideal destination for your health," it boasts, frankly admitting to being "a tourist subsystem." With an annual growth rate of 20% in health tourism, Servimed has done well in its task of marrying health and tourism. Many Italians now couple their annual vacations to Cuba with their annual dental work, while others come for cut-rate knee replacements or eye surgery. But perhaps Cuba's most popular medical service, and the one it heavily promotes to tourists abroad, is cosmetic surgery. Cuban doctors have become expert at breast implants, tummy tucks, liposuction and nose jobs, giving some doctors international reputations while letting them serve the Revolution as one of the country's best earners of foreign exchange. It's a "win" for the elite doctors and a "win" for privileged patients, who benefit from what has become the world's most extreme two-tiered medical system. It's also a "win" for the Cuban elite, from Castro on down, whom Byron describes as participating in a fitness culture. "When I treat tourists of 75 years of age, I am treating fit people with many healthy years ahead of them," he said. This is also the case with members of the Cuban elite. "Castro is fit, the others at the top in government, at age 75, are fit. They take care of themselves. "But an ordinary Cuban of 63 or 64 years is already feeble, an old man." For the poor, beaten down by the system and denied basic medical care, the medical system is all "lose."
"The government doesn't give a shit about the poor," he stated matter-of-factly. "The poor have no medicines, no painkillers, no nothing." Before Castro seized power in his 1959 Revolution, Cuba had one of the world's best medical systems, its ratio of one physician per 960 patients ranked 10th by the World Health Organization (England, in contrast, had one physician per 1,200 people, Mexico one physician per 2,400 people). Cuba had Latin America's lowest infant mortality rate, comparable to Canada's and better than France's, Japan's and Italy's. Its population was well fed, with a per capita food consumption that was the third highest in Latin America. Today, Cuba ranks last in Latin American per capita food consumption -- cereals and especially meat and milk consumption are down dramatically -- but it has not lost its medical capabilities. Instead, Cuba has reoriented its medical system to the task of earning foreign exchange. To do this, Cuba pioneered "health tourism" through agencies such as Servimed, which markets medical services abroad. Cuba is "the ideal destination for your health," it boasts, frankly admitting to being "a tourist subsystem." With an annual growth rate of 20% in health tourism, Servimed has done well in its task of marrying health and tourism. Many Italians now couple their annual vacations to Cuba with their annual dental work, while others come for cut-rate knee replacements or eye surgery. But perhaps Cuba's most popular medical service, and the one it heavily promotes to tourists abroad, is cosmetic surgery. Cuban doctors have become expert at breast implants, tummy tucks, liposuction and nose jobs, giving some doctors international reputations while letting them serve the Revolution as one of the country's best earners of foreign exchange.
Maybe you should write a letter to the Cuban government, and ask them if they could give you a free visit to Cuba, where you could learn how to spell? But hey, what do you expect from Nazis. White pwer rockz dude! And could you stop spamming this thread with nonsense? And again, why do you have Hitler in your signature? Are you a nazi? Thanks
lisen you fucking idiot go back to your communist shit hole. Whats wrong with hitler? he was much nicer than Stalin. "dont take anything here serius im here to have fun only" my spelling gets really bad more when i lack sleep. sort of like a double vision state of mind. i try most of the time to correct as much "ass" i can. But dont hold your breath,
HAHA you have no idea my friend. ill give you a hint = De todos los anos que difrute la playa de Varadero y La casa o Mansion de Dupont incluido la picina nunca vi un Hombre de Guerra Portugues en las aguas. La ultima ves que estuve en esa Playa fue en el 1967.
In 1927, the American millionaire Irenee Dupond purchased 180 hectares of land on the Hicacos Peninsula for 90 000 pesos. In this land, over a rocky hill and by the sea shore, he built the house he had dreamed of. This master piece of architecture was designed by architects Covarrocas and Govantes, and features 11 bedrooms and bathrooms, three spacious terraces from where to have a unique view of the beach and gardens, seven balconies and a private dock. In 1932 Mr Dupont installed an organ in his property, and it’s been alleged ever since to be the largest privately owned organ throughout Latin America, worth 11 000 dollars. The American Millionaire used to visit the Mansion Xanadu a few months per year, and sometimes invited important guests and executives to discuss business and relax. The timber for the ceilings, stairs and columns was brought from Santiago de Cuba, while valuable pieces of marble from Cuba, Spain and Italy were used to build the floors and bathrooms. The final cost of the construction works was around 1 300 000 dollars and finished on December 30th, 1930. In the gardens you will find a lot of coconut trees, which make a perfect combination with the beach shore line bellow. Along with them you can see banana, avocado and papaya trees. To increase the enchanting of this paradisiacal place, parrots and cockatoos were imported from distant lands. The decoration is still untouched at this magnificent house, and the valuable pieces of china, the paintings and furniture, will amaze even the most experienced visitor. The natural environment surrounding the house, where the best and clearest Caribbean waters bath the very white sand at your feet, and the breeze whispers in the afternoons over the green gardened hill, makes this place the perfect spot to rest, relax and appreciate the immense blue. The Golf course with 9 holes, built in 1931, is still operational and works in association with the complex, giving this way an added value to the installation. Mr.Dupont visited Xanadu for the last time In March 1957. On December 12th, 1963, with Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova ( the first woman to conquer the out space ) as guest of honour, The Mansion Xanadu opened as "Las Americas" Restaurant. That same day, Irenee Dupont passed away at the age of 85 in the US
don't forget that habana was also a town run by the mob be4 castro took power. anyway, it's rather a poor example 2 hold up cuba as a model of socialism. despite the rosy picture painted by the canadian communist party there are no gay rights in cuba and castro is a terrible homophobe, no 2 ways about it. the situation in venezuela is imho far more instructive and points 2 what is possible and desirable. the contingent in this thread who argue the TINA position (there is no alternative to capitalism) need only look 2 their own system 4 proof of the flaws in their argument: the system of crony capitalism that actually operates in america 2day guarantees that the hard earned tax dollars of the middle and working classes goes straight into the pockets of the super-rich, and in return the ppl get what? no health system, substandard public education (no geography's been on the national curriculum since 1950) and a grotesque 'war on terrorism' that's costing a fortune and making the rich even richer. this is exactly the model of state welfarism (welfare 4 the super-rich) that the christian right rail against, and it's being practised in their own country on a scale no other country, socialist or capitalist, has ever dreamed possible. give me venezuela every time.
It's funny how people wouldn't say that to John Lennon who was a socialist himself! Communism & socialism is wide and the left wing has as many pigs as the right wing. It's ignorance and prejudice to define communism/socialism as something evil as the youth today in communism/socialism are very good willing people. There have always been but that's not really important when you concentrate on the injustice of this world and what matter is that the communist today exist and do make an import. "If you tremble indignation at the very injustice then you are a comrade of mine" -Ernesto Che Guevara
