Bernie defends Castro

[PeterAit]

So they're good with primary care and oncology.  Meanwhile the rest of the country is impoverished.  They have no freedom -  political, economic or personal.  The government is a dictatorship that kills their people if they object too much.  What good is good medical care if you're dead?

There have been no executions in Cuba since 2003.

[RSL]

There have been no executions in Cuba since 2003.

Wow, Peter. Well that makes it all right then. 

[JoeKitchen]

There have been no executions in Cuba since 2003.

Damn, that is something to look forward to.  Just make it though the first 44 years and you'll be fine. 

[JoeKitchen]

You can't separate the two.  Doctors don't have economic freedom. So the government pays them little.  That's how they can afford to have good medical care.  They have nothing else.  They work their butts off to get educated and then get paid nothing.  How do you copy that medically without losing your freedoms? 

In any case, how do you know just how good the care is?  Do you really think Castro is giving out honest statistics about health or anything else?  All dictatorships lie about things like that.

You know healthcare in Cuba was so great for doctors that when the Wet Foot Dry Foot policy was in place, they went out of their way to find USA embassies to stick their foot in. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

When it comes to medical education, Cuba's approach with a strong focus on primary care has been pretty good and quite effective. And they do it without students loans.

It is quite easy when people can't get obese even if they wanted

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

And they even manage to export them here to Mallorca: I have had a Cuban doctor once or twice, and she was perfectly good in her treatment of me. My wife had a Cuban oncologist once, too, but that was on private care.

Here is the truth behind it (bold mine):

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48214513

"The hidden world of the doctors Cuba sends overseas"

Cuba has long been renowned for its medical diplomacy - thousands of its doctors work in healthcare missions around the world, earning the country billions of dollars in cash. But according to a new report, some of the doctors themselves say conditions can be nightmarish - controlled by minders, subject to a curfew and posted to extremely dangerous places

Going from a doctor's salary on the island of just $15 a month in 2011, she says she was paid $125 monthly for the first six months in Venezuela, a figure that rose to $250 after six months and $325 during her third year. Her family in Cuba also received a bonus of $50 a month.

doctors on average receive between 10% and 25% of the salary paid by the host countries, with the rest being kept by Cuba's authorities.

It sounds more like human trafficking:

89% said they had no prior knowledge of where they would be posted within a particular country
41% said their passport was removed from them by a Cuban official on arrival in the host country
91% said they were watched over by Cuban security officials while on their mission, and the same percentage reported being asked to pass on information about colleagues to security officials
57% said they did not volunteer to join a mission, but felt obliged to do so, while 39% said they felt strongly pressured to serve abroad.

"I woke up one night, with someone holding my mouth shut. The doctor in the other room was screaming. There were two men in balaclavas, armed with guns." Julia says she was raped by both men.

[LesPalenik]

It is quite easy when people can't get obese even if they wanted

Very true. I've seen also in Cuba some obese persons, but not as many as in USA. OTOH, many Cubans are still smoking.

[JoeKitchen]

Defended Castro yesterday and criticizes AIPAC for being bigoted today. 

He must really be trying hard to loose Florida. 

[LesPalenik]

You can't separate the two.  Doctors don't have economic freedom. So the government pays them little.  That's how they can afford to have good medical care.  They have nothing else.  They work their butts off to get educated and then get paid nothing.  How do you copy that medically without losing your freedoms? 

In any case, how do you know just how good the care is?  Do you really think Castro is giving out honest statistics about health or anything else?  All dictatorships lie about things like that.

One Castro is dead, and the other is not giving out any statistics. There are all kinds of stories and articles about Cuban healthcare. Here is one from Canadian press about a lung cancer treatment.

A Regina woman who was diagnosed with lung cancer and given a year to live says she’s now in remission thanks to a vaccine she received in Cuba. Judy Bryden, who received the devastating diagnosis in 2016, travelled to Cuba last year to receive treatment and pick up several doses of the CIMAvax EGF vaccine.  The vaccine was developed for non-small cell lung cancer, which represents up to 85 per cent of all lung cancers. After taking the vaccine doses over several months, Bryden said a recent scan of her lungs found no cancer.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/lung-cancer-patient-says-she-s-now-in-remission-thanks-to-cuban-vaccine-1.3842678

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Given this is (still?) a photographic forum, a few vignettes from the good life in Cuba:

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

And a few more:

[Craig Lamson]

One Castro is dead, and the other is not giving out any statistics. There are all kinds of stories and articles about Cuban healthcare. Here is one from Canadian press about a lung cancer treatment.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/lung-cancer-patient-says-she-s-now-in-remission-thanks-to-cuban-vaccine-1.3842678

What?  The free Canadian Health care system needs to outsource to Cuba??? [/sarcasm]

[Craig Lamson]

Given this is (still?) a photographic forum, a few vignettes from the good life in Cuba:

Where are the photos of the '55 Chevys

[LesPalenik]

Where are the photos of the '55 Chevys

and the old wrinkled woman smoking a cigar?

[LesPalenik]

What?  The free Canadian Health care system needs to outsource to Cuba??? [/sarcasm]

Free is good, but good is better.

[Rob C]

When you think about that war, don't you find it amazing how those that lost were rebuilt by the winners. At great expense. Didn't happened all that much in the history of the world, prior to the Marshall Plan.
 
Peter

As I often say, those were the good old days. Not too much like that happens now; now, they invade, shoot rockets and dump bombs, and then walk away having replaced one system with nothing better, only introducing chaos in place of control. Cool.

Rob

[JoeKitchen]

Just saw that both Cuba and Costa Rica had similar literacy rates pre-Castro, and currently have similar (near 100%) literacy rates. 

Amazing how Costa Rica was able to get there without shooting 100,000s of political dissidents.  I mean after that interview yesterday, I just would have never have thought you could reach that high of a rate without killing off a large portion of the population. 

[Alan Klein]

There have been no executions in Cuba since 2003.

How do you know there have been no executions?  How many political prisoners are locked up?  Do you approve of Castro's methods and dictatorship?  Why would you be an apologist for the Castros?  Do you wish The Netherlands government was run like Cuba's?  Have you clearly thought out what you're supporting?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Where are the photos of the '55 Chevys

Here it is:

https://www.slobodanblagojevic.com/cuba-s-classic-cars

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

and the old wrinkled woman smoking a cigar?

If you insist