Re: Cuba imprisons journalist, calling him a `social danger'


"Dan Christensen" <dchris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1177215200.026245.111140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[snip and LIE]

Reporters on the island are paid $5 to $15 a story, and the government
has accused them of being ''mercenaries.'' Cubanet receives funding
from
a variety of sources, among them the U.S. Agency for International
Development and Reporters Without Borders.

$15 is a princely sum by Cuban standards for a crummy little
propaganda piece that the mainstream capitalist media won't touch with
a ten-foot pole. I don't know about this guy and his history, but it
must be a real temptation for unscrupulous social outcasts who want to
make a fast buck. Or who want to jump the emigration queue for the
US.

Amusing that $ 15 is a "princely sum" in the people's republic
worker's
paradise when many "workers" under Batista earned $150 a month or more
who
now ear $ 6.50 a month for the same job. How odd is that?

Not so odd when you compare social conditions under your beloved
Batista regime with Cuba today.

Social conditions Comrade? FAR better than what exists today. For
example there was no CDR (Neighborhood watch on steroids) spying on you and
denouncing you to authorities and you get jailed. You used to get to work in
clean offices and make a fairly decent rate of pay. Remember Danny, in 1957,
Cuba had the 3rd highest standard of living in thr Western Hemisphere. Today
ONLY HAITI has a lower one. Compare conditions? I'm all for it, you only
want to try to LIE about them.

From Britannica Online, about as mainstream a source as you can get:

"The income from sugar was augmented by vigorous tourism based on
hotels, casinos, and brothels; Havana became especially attractive
during the years of U.S. Prohibition (1919-33). Yet the prosperity of
the 1920s, '40s, and '50s enriched only a few Cubans. For the
majority, poverty (especially in the countryside) and lack of public
services were appalling."
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=127845&tocid=54423

Danny sure there was poverty in Cuba in 1957. There was in the U.S. and
Canada too. What you FAIL to understand is that while extreme poverty hit
about 15% of the Cuban population in 1957, it hits over 95% today! The
revolution didn't bring the poor UP, it brough everyone else DOWN. Yes, a
FEW Cubans were rich, BUT Danny there was a middle class. If you have ANY
reading ability at all, you might see that I can agree on the MANY flaws of
Cuba prior to the revolution, and my youthful hopes that the revlution would
set things straight. It made things worse. Batistia was a criminal and an
evil dictator, but that's pretty much all Cuba has ever known, whether the
brutal dictator was born in Spain or Cuba. Cuba's flirtation with good
democracy blew away in the wind.

From the US-dominated OAS in 1983:

"Foreign observers agree on the progress made in lowering the
incidence of malnutrition in Cuba. [Citing studies dated in the early
1980's...] It has been stated that "given the equity imposed by wage
policy and the rationing of food, there is no reason to doubt the
affirmation of the government that malnutrition in Cuba has fallen
from a pre-revolutionary level of 40% to a current level of less than
5%."
http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Cuba83eng/chap.12.htm

That LOWERING of hunger was floated on the RUSSIAN RUBLE that helped
bankrupt the USSR.

So much for "good old days," eh, Kennykins?

The claims of 40% malnutrition in Cuba was never accurate but a
propaganda claim of the Havana government.

And today, by the measure of the infant mortality rate -- the single
most reliable indicator of over all public health -- Cuba surpassed
its tormentors to the North years ago. Not bad for a small island
nation that has, for over four decades, been the subject of genocidal
US trade sanctions, sanctions about which even the UN Human Rights
Commission was forced to concede: "It is also impossible to ignore the
disastrous and lasting economic and social effects of the embargo
imposed on the Cuban population over 40 years ago." (SCC archives)
Makes you proud, don't it, Kennykins?

First of all infant mortality is the SINGLE most reliable indicator of
public health but NOT the only one and should never be used in isolation
from other indicators. Most everyone with a brain knows that the health
statistics from Cuba are a tool of propaganda and are NOT considered to be
reliable by anyone experts. And NO - Danny - some fat assed ACCOUNTANT at
the World BANK is NOT a medical expert. Neither the World Health
Organization not the Pan American Health Organization place a great deal of
confidence in the statistics form Havana, and a good cause for that is that
Cuba does not allow independent verification of their claims.

Danny it is amusing that you TRY to have it both ways. First you claim
the "BLOCKADE" (all those U.S. Navy ships off Havana Harbor) is causing
"GENOCIDE" in Cuba, but here you TRY to tell us that Cuba has the BEST
mortality rates ion WORLD HISTORY! You're a funny little Marxist Comrade,
you can't even write a paragraph without contradicting yourself. The SAD
part, Comrade, is you're not even smart enough to see the contradictions in
your arguments.






.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Question for Dan
    ... is NOT seeing the REAL healthcare system Danny., ... get to see the CUBAN health care system, they got to see the FOREIGN ... documentation anyone could want on the REAL state of healthcare in Cuba. ...     Your problem Christensen is that YOU label anyone, ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: One Kennykins Whopper to go... BURNT TO A CRISP!
    ... >>> Hey Danny STILL lying about the video I sent you? ... >> Nothing here about WHO reps being barred from Cuba, ... WHO Official Lauds Cuban Health System ... described the Cuban health system as exceptional. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Castro Bashes Bolton as "Gangster!"
    ... > COMRADE PROPAGANDA MINISTER CHRISTENSEN ... See how well your claims hold up Danny. ... "The importance of health in Cuba." ... > life is like for the CUBAN people. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Cuba at the height of its Tourist Season
    ... >>> 2,866 Cubans at sea and returned them to Cuba (recent posting from ... I think I sort of had that in mind Danny. ... Guantanamo is preferable to the THOUSANDS of Cubans who wind up there to ... >> It's simple Danny - the health stats are bullshit. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Chvez wins 80% of local seats
    ... Was OM carried out Danny? ... Makes you proud, don't it, Kenny? ... >> Government of genocide against the Cuban people and not external forces. ... >>> causing great suffering in Cuba. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)