[baxodrom]

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.

[sam]

Gribbler, you're backpedaling so much you probably ride bikes facing backwards.

EDIT: Also, 11 million's not that small, why don't you compare it to the books published in the small state of Pennsylvania which has 12 million people?

[hexniks]

dp

[Wdlglivi]

To be fair, gribbler hasn't really raised any points in this thread.

[AsmViktor]

Is that supposed to be a defense? Either way you're intellectually bankrupt in this thread.

[Repwailia]

Is that supposed to be a defense? Either way you're intellectually bankrupt in this thread.

Right, nothing intellectually richer than "hey I've got some stories from my alleged cuban friends"

All I've done is point out their high life expectancy and literacy rate, and somehow I'm an intellectually bankrupt backpedaler who doesn't raise any points. Well sorry, I didn't know people are only allowed to say that Castro eats babies for breakfast.

[AlexClips]

Well sorry, I didn't know people are only allowed to say that Castro eats babies for breakfast.

I heard he ate babies for lunch.

Do you have a cite?

[andrekuper]

Now there's a high-protein diet. Is he into that old Atkins craze, or does he just like meat?