If Cuba can make lemons out of lemonade

[Horse with no Name]

and provide education, healthcare, AND protect its citizens from hurricanes during an embargo...then why can't WE in the United States make 10# hamburger out of 50# of filet mignon and a grinder?

[Mika]

1. Because the Cuban people work hard with their representational government.

The Cuban people wanted universal health care for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, and organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a fair and complete h-c system.

The people of Cuba wanted universal education for all Cubans, and they have it. They pushed for government that represented their ideals, organized and formed infrastructure that enabled Cubans to create a complete and world class ed system, and they have it.

Cubans want to assist the world's poor with doctors and educators, instead of gun ship diplomacy.. and that is what they have done WITH their government, not at odds with their government. Because their government is them.


http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

Or a long and detailed version here,

Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections
Arnold August
1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

[mvccd1000]

2. Amazing what you can do...

... when your average salary is less than $20 a month, you're not allowed to own a cell phone, not allowed to own a computer, not allowed to stay in hotels.

Seems like the Cuban people are a lot more excited about their new freedoms than they are about health care. I know the ones we picked up out of the water in '94 were willing to risk their lives to come to a country that doesn't have health care, so that must not have been their #1 concern.

[robcon]

3. Cuban health care is like running the railroads on time was to Mussolini.

When a dictatorship like Cuba decides on its priorities (and freedom of expression, free elections, and producing enough food for the country are definitely not among the priorities) it can achieve one or two of those priorities.

[midnight]

5. It is still an amazing accomplishment. A government that

won't provide basic services like cell phones, will provide universal health care. That is the point. If a Country so poor in so many other accommodations will provide it's citizens this basic life sustaining right, we can and should too. A cell phone is a luxury. Access to health care treatment should not just be for the connected, or the elite.

[Mika]

12. Health care & housing is a constitutional right in Cuba.

Rents are capped at 10% of income.


Been there. Seen it.


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[Mika]

7. Still trotting out that old Mussolini canard I see.

UN praises Cuba's ability to feed people
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7329

Havana - A U.N. food expert hailed Cuba as a world model in feeding its population, some 18 years after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc ravaged the island's economy and sparked widespread hunger.

Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations' independent investigator on "the right to food" since 2000, spent 11 days in Cuba on a fact-finding mission, meeting with top officials and chatting up farmers, state managers and ordinary Cubans waiting in line for food allotted by ration cards.

"We haven't seen even one malnourished person" - a rare feat in much of poverty-stricken Latin America, Ziegler said Tuesday. "The right to being fed is the priority, without a doubt."

Cuba is one of 32 countries that include the "right to food" in their constitutions, and fewer still - including Brazil, Latin America's largest economy - meet pledges to provide food to all their citizens, he said.

Yeah, right. Just like Mussolini. :crazy:

Maybe you should concern yourself with the US's inability to provide freedom of expression, free elections, and producing enough food for the country.

Oh yeah, and health care too.


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[AlphaCentauri]

9. we have so many freedoms but we are not free

we do not own our homes the mortgage company does at least for the next 40 years, that is half of the live of a human.

we can become homeless in a day going to the emergency room, we know poverty is part of our freedom.

We have to pay taxes if not we can go to jail, that is part of our freedom too.

We can't afford college education for our kids, that's going to make them free.

We can't elect our president by popular vote, thats another part of our freedom.

We have to elect our representatives on tuesday so the lower working class don't have a change to vote. Freedom freedom freeedom...

yep! here in America we can only achieve 1 or 2 priorities what about the rest..

[blindpig]

4. some additional links

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=331619&sid=ENV&ssid=26

http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=14789

http://tlent.home.igc.org/renewable%20energy%20in%20cuba.html

http://tlent.home.igc.org/renewable%20energy%20in%20cuba.html

[midnight]

6. I've looked at the first two links that you have provided.

and must say that we could take a great deal of information and grow a more sustainable country ourselves. First we have to weed the greed.

[blindpig]

11. It's easier than that

It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. -Karl Marx's 1859 Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

It ain't a matter of changing the people(good luck with that!), just change the society, the rest will follow.

[AlphaCentauri]

8. Cubans think like they are a big family not a bunch of individuals leaving in a country

[Javaman]

10. ahh but since moron* turned everything into shit...

I'm not really up for some shit tea today.

read my tag line. ;)