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Originally Posted by Ustwo
They are subsisting as best they can in a poorly run socialist economy while surviving on tourist dollars and a thriving black market.
Being I don't buy into the Peak Oil scare, living in a pre-industrial economy doesn't impress me.
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It might be true that Cuba has some problems in regards to technology and social policy (which country doesn't?), but I'm a bit impressed with what this island nation has been able to do given their circumstances (post-Soviet collapse) and resources (an island nation; trade embargoes, etc).
From "Revolution vs globalization - Cuba"Indeed Cubans appear healthy and adequately nourished. The State still provides milk to children under five and liberal maternity leave. The infant-mortality rate is equal to that of the US. By any basic living-standard or quality-of-life measurement, Cuba is leagues ahead of most developing nations. Recently UNESCO cited Cuba for some of the highest achievements on international tests administered to school-age children. In mathematics and language achievement many Cuban elementary students scored higher than their counterparts in the US, Europe and Japan. From CBC Television's In Cuba: The Accidental Revolution[...] the country has been blockaded since 1961, but today Cuba has the highest quality of life in the region, the highest life expectancy, and one of the highest literacy rates in all of Latin America.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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