Is Castro's Cuba next..

[Harleyman]

I'm not the one making the outrageous claim. All I did was to point out how outrageous it was.

 

So you think the Haitians would be better off continuing on the same downhill course as they have been for the past 90 years?

I suppose the fact that a Haitian is their leader must make them jump up and down with joy in between trying to sail across to Florida in leaky old boats.

 

Haiti like Somalia is a failed state and has been for a long time. Haitians however could be better off being administered by the UN instead of being kept in ignorance and poverty generation after generation. The people although poor and largely uneducated are friendly and very appreciative of any outside help given them. With the right aid and direction they could someday reach the same living standards as Barbados, Jamaica and other islands in that hemisphere.

[evildrneil]

The people although poor and largely uneducated

 

Largely uneducated!? Cuba is generally rated as having excellent schooling and has a literacy rate of 99.8% and is ranked number 2 in the world for that far outstripping the US which is ranked joint 21st with a raft of other countries including the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Finland et al.

[Tyranna]

Haiti like Somalia is a failed state. The people although poor and largely uneducated are friendly and very appreciative of any outside help given them. With the right aid and direction they could someday reach the same living standards as Barbados, Jamaica and other islands in that hemisphere.

 

That must give them a generous amount of hope... Look how much poverty (and crime) still exists in Jamaica and other such places in the Carribean; its nothing short of scandalous that Britain hasn't been able to offer the ordinary Jamaican islander a brighter future in half a century of independence, considering also the huge amount of achievement, enterprise and creativity of the Afro-Caribbean community over here.

 

Returning to the topic of Cuba, there is just one thing which I hope can outlast Communism as a positive legacy that even the USA can learn from: the Health Service, which is far superior even to some in certain former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

 

Whiel we're at it re. cuba, spare a thought for VENEZUELA, now, here's a country which has been truly trashed by a form of 'socialism' which is really a thinly veiled form of nazism concocted by the half-mad (or is it wholly mad) Chavez, trashing the reputation of any free democratic country, offering asylum to dictators such as it transpires , Gaddaffi, dreaming up crazy schemes such as money wasted on cablecars linking up mountainside slums, when it could be used to improve housing, tearing up the rainforests to dig more oil wells, doesen't this somehow sound familar???

[Harleyman]

Largely uneducated!? Cuba is generally rated as having excellent schooling and has a literacy rate of 99.8% and is ranked number 2 in the world for that far outstripping the US which is ranked joint 21st with a raft of other countries including the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Finland et al.

 

I think you misread my post. I was referring to the Haitians as being largely uneducated, not the Cubans who I agree have become very literate under Castro iin all fairness to him and his regime.

 

US school children get far too much time off from school. Almost 11 weeks off school in the summer, a week off for spring break, two weeks off for Christmas then all the one day public holdiays, parent-teacher conferences which mean schools are on short days then something called a "minimum day" once a week when classes finish 2 hours early.

Add all that up and it comes to an astonishing amount of class time lost

 

 

The California State Legislature also cut 4 days a year off schooling as a cost cutting measure to help balance the State's 23 billion dollar deficit.

 

Not surprising therefore that the US comes in 21st. Still, if American born people cant qualify for the skilled well paid jobs because of educational deficiences we can always import qualified candidates from Asia and China

[evildrneil]

I think you misread my post. I was referring to the Haitians as being largely uneducated, not the Cubans who I agree have become very literate under Castro iin all fairness to him and his regime.

 

Sorry - yes. My mistake.

[callippo]

there is just one thing which I hope can outlast Communism as a positive legacy that even the USA can learn from: the Health Service, which is far superior even to some in certain former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

 

millions of western Europeans believed the total twaddle that health services in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were something special during the cold war. The reality was that even basic medicines were only available if somebody was ready pay bribes, which meant that only the wealthy Party elite could get any decent treatment, usually in the only good hospitals that were reserved for them and them only. In ordinary hospitals for the plebs, even nurses and orderlies had to be bribed to change a patient’s bedpan or to provide ordinary attention. The privileged few had access not only to better locally produced drugs and medications but also to western medicines and equipment, which could never be within the reach of the ordinary “proletarian” patient. One of the greatest myths about communism is its supposed equality for all and this is some way extended to medicine. It did not, Cuba will be the same, and the full truth will only emerge like it did in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union when the Cuban regime finally falls.

[Harleyman]

That must give them a generous amount of hope... Look how much poverty (and crime) still exists in Jamaica and other such places in the Carribean; its nothing short of scandalous that Britain hasn't been able to offer the ordinary Jamaican islander a brighter future in half a century of independence, considering also the huge amount of achievement, enterprise and creativity of the Afro-Caribbean community over here.

 

Returning to the topic of Cuba, there is just one thing which I hope can outlast Communism as a positive legacy that even the USA can learn from: the Health Service, which is far superior even to some in certain former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

 

Whiel we're at it re. cuba, spare a thought for VENEZUELA, now, here's a country which has been truly trashed by a form of 'socialism' which is really a thinly veiled form of nazism concocted by the half-mad (or is it wholly mad) Chavez, trashing the reputation of any free democratic country, offering asylum to dictators such as it transpires , Gaddaffi, dreaming up crazy schemes such as money wasted on cablecars linking up mountainside slums, when it could be used to improve housing, tearing up the rainforests to dig more oil wells, doesen't this somehow sound familar???

 

Cant disagree with your comments in any way

As far as the US health service is concerned the sheer size of the population and the cost which would be involved in setting up a National Health System of some sort and implementing it would make it impossible to ever come about. Already Obama's health plan is in jeopardy of being scrapped and there is also the factor that a very great percentage of Americans dont want a national health system of any sort and are happy with the health plans they already have, which includes myself.

 

I hope Haiti can somehow move forward in the coming years but if it continues to be" governed" (if one can call it that) in the same way as in the past then the outlook isn't very bright

[T 42]

With a current population of 308 million that is understandable. Gangs and gang crime, murder, robbery and the drug trade being one of the main reasons. In China they shoot people for those crimes and many other crimes which greatly helps to keep the prison population at a lower level

 

Since the UK seems to be in dire economical straits (or according to many posters) perhaps Cameron could increase revenues by leasing out a few islands in the Outer Hebrides, currently inhabited by a few sheep and wild goats. Who knows in a few years the Crips and the Bloods and the Mexcian Mafia might take to wearing kilts and speaking with Scottish brogues Rap and Gangsta music in Gaelic. Now that's a thought

 

 

No it isn't understandable. Forget the 308 million population. 25% of all the people incarcerated in the entire world are incarcerated in the USA. The world includes Russia, Iran, Libya, India, China, North Korea etc etc. The whole 6 1/2 billion of us.

 

Of that world population of 6,500 million, 9.2 million are locked up in jails

In the USA of the 308 million. 2.4 million are locked up in jails.

 

Care to explain?

[callippo]

you think the Chinese actualy reveal how many people they imprison?

[Cavegirl]

No it isn't understandable. Forget the 308 million population. 25% of all the people incarcerated in the entire world are incarcerated in the USA. The world includes Russia, Iran, Libya, India, China, North Korea etc etc. The whole 6 1/2 billion of us.

 

Of that world population of 6,500 million, 9.2 million are locked up in jails

In the USA of the 308 million. 2.4 million are locked up in jails.

 

Care to explain?

 

I found an interesting chart today (bottom of the page linked) that seems to clearly illustrate your point. The US isn't doing too well (with regard to the IMF's list of advanced economies) overall:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/opinion/19blow.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general

 

743 prisoners per 100,000 people is really shocking when the next highest is Israel with less than half that at 325. Incidentally the UK is pretty poor too locking up 206 people per 100,000.