Opinions on Che Guevara (12/28/2010)

[Felch]

They have a high life expectancy and literacy rate, but why use statistics when you can tell anecdotes...

If education is all about literacy, that's fine. If it's about teaching people to think creatively and critically, then Cuba isn't so good. How many important inventions or intellectual contributions have come out of Cuba since the revolution?

The health care statistics are likely to be a result of juking the stats. Katherine Hirschfeld wrote:

My own research, however, suggests that the unequivocally positive descriptions of the Cuban health care system in the social science literature are somewhat misleading. In the late 1990s, I conducted over nine months of qualitative ethnographic and archival research in Cuba. During that time I shadowed physicians in family health clinics, conducted formal and informal interviews with a number of health professionals, lived in local communities, and sought to participate in everyday life as much as possible. Throughout the course of this research, I found a number of discrepancies between the way the Cuban health care system has been described in the scholarly literature, and the way it appears to be described and experienced by Cubans themselves. This paper will provide a brief overview of several of these issues, with the goal of offering a more balanced and ethnographically informed portrait of the Cuban health care system. A final section will discuss these issues in the context of the assumptions social scientists have historically made regarding the nature of health and health systems in socialist countries.

[giblets]

Did I say literacy was everything? If you'd like to offer an alternative measure, go ahead...

[Felch]

You don't say much of anything, but you do seem to love making snide comments and then backpeddling like a yellow bellied cunt as soon as you're proven wrong. You did it when you called PA a small state, and you did it here.

Cort mentioned Cuban health care and education, HC brought up anecdotal evidence that things weren't as good as they might seem, you countered with the insinuation that statistics trumped anecdotes, and I posted a link to a paper that highlights exactly why statistics in countries like Cuba can't be trusted.

As for me, I offered an alternative measure of an education system. Inventions and other intellectual achievements show that a society is teaching its children to think and prosper, instead of indoctrinating them in a failed revolution.

Now, do you want to clarify your comments, or just pretend like nobody here understands what you actually meant to say?

[Felch]

That was a bit harsh, and I'd like to apologize. I should smoke more weed, and be less belligerent.

[Al B. Sure!]

Now, do you want to clarify your comments, or just pretend like nobody here understands what you actually meant to say?

He's a Genius Clique wannabe so I suspect the latter.

[giblets]

You don't say much of anything, but you do seem to love making snide comments and then backpeddling like a yellow bellied cunt as soon as you're proven wrong. You did it when you called PA a small state, and you did it here.

If you couldn't tell that I was ****ing with Al B. Sure, that's you're problem.

Cort mentioned Cuban health care and education, HC brought up anecdotal evidence that things weren't as good as they might seem, you countered with the insinuation that statistics trumped anecdotes, and I posted a link to a paper that highlights exactly why statistics in countries like Cuba can't be trusted.

I'd say somewhat flawed statistics are still more trustworthy than anecdotes. And I might be mistaken, but your source didn't seem to say anything about the life expectancy, so the Cubans still have a good life expectancy to point to.

As for me, I offered an alternative measure of an education system. Inventions and other intellectual achievements show that a society is teaching its children to think and prosper, instead of indoctrinating them in a failed revolution.

Does a measure of a country's "inventions and other intellectual achievements" exist?

Now, do you want to clarify your comments, or just pretend like nobody here understands what you actually meant to say?

That was a bit harsh, and I'd like to apologize. I should smoke more weed, and be less belligerent.

You don't need to apologize for anything.

[N35t0r]

Oh, the country has gone halfway to hell already. As I mentioned though, the blockade has as much to do with it as the regime. They still have better healthcare than most Latin American countries.

[Wezil]

Yeah well they tell me the Nazi's had good highways. I wouldn't have wanted to live there either.

[Cort Haus]

Oh, top Godwinising, sir.

[Wezil]

It had to be done. Reading arguments about nice Uncle Fidel was hurting my brain.

[Felch]

If you couldn't tell that I was ****ing with Al B. Sure, that's you're problem.

I know you were ****ing with him. That's why you pissed me off.

I'd say somewhat flawed statistics are still more trustworthy than anecdotes. And I might be mistaken, but your source didn't seem to say anything about the life expectancy, so the Cubans still have a good life expectancy to point to.

If Americans subsisted on rice and beans, we'd probably live longer than Cubans. Oh, wait. We devour greasy, salty, sugary junk food, and we still live longer than they do. And we do that without cooking the books.

Does a measure of a country's "inventions and other intellectual achievements" exist?

Here's one for inventions.

It looks like Cuba had fewer patents than the U.S. Virgin Islands.

UNESCO tracks book publishing as a measure of education and standard of living.

UNESCO doesn't track Cuba for some reason, but this website says that they publish over 800 books per year. That would put them between Tunisia and Morocco on the UNESCO list. Congratulations.

As far as talk of blockades go, you need to understand that the United States Navy has not had a blockade around Cuba for nearly fifty years. Cuba is free to trade with most of the world, and it is even able to buy food and medicine from the United States. According to Wikipedia, we're the fifth largest exporter to Cuba. Maybe the reason that their country is a basketcase has less to do with America being evil than with horrible mismanagement by the Castro regime.

[Wezil]

But the beaches are fabulous.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

La Poderosa II.

[giblets]

If Americans subsisted on rice and beans, we'd probably live longer than Cubans. Oh, wait. We devour greasy, salty, sugary junk food, and we still live longer than they do. And we do that without cooking the books.

Sure, although they do relatively well for Latin America.

Here's one for inventions.

It looks like Cuba had fewer patents than the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Yeah, that looks pretty bad.

UNESCO tracks book publishing as a measure of education and standard of living.

UNESCO doesn't track Cuba for some reason, but this website says that they publish over 800 books per year. That would put them between Tunisia and Morocco on the UNESCO list. Congratulations.

For a country with only 11 million people that doesn't look quite so bad.

As far as talk of blockades go, you need to understand that the United States Navy has not had a blockade around Cuba for nearly fifty years. Cuba is free to trade with most of the world, and it is even able to buy food and medicine from the United States. According to Wikipedia, we're the fifth largest exporter to Cuba. Maybe the reason that their country is a basketcase has less to do with America being evil than with horrible mismanagement by the Castro regime.

Hey, I never blamed the US for their problems.

[Elok]

But the *****es are fabulous.

FTFY