Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Cuba: Has Castro Educated His People??

Education and The Cuban Revolution, educational paradise? Fraud?

First of all, well before Castro, Cuba had one of the most educated populations in Latin America at all levels, with literacy numbers at 1st world levels.

So Castro was hardly starting w/a population of illiterates. And thanks to his exiling a sizeable percentage of the population he has had a smaller number of kids to educate, (think in terms of freeing up resources - #'s of classrooms, teachers, budget per pupil)

That being said, what credit he is due, is in improving the education of the small percentage of the rural and urban poor who traditionally had little access to education.
And in a larger sense, increasing the quality and intensity of the education available to most Cubans. Ideology aside, there is something worth studying about how Cuba has managed to produce the numbers of university grads in technical fields it has produced. Students whose preparation in key subjects like math, started well in elementary schools. Their soviet-style sports and arts programs are first rate: Miami's Junior College chess team is tops in the US thanks to its Cubans. Listen to how well spoken "El Duque" Hernandez or other Cuban pro's are compared to other latin ballplayers.
And in general, their primary and secondary schools seem to do a pretty good job. I talk a lot to everyday Cubans educated on the island, some very recent arrivals. From kids to professors, they all come out with a high level of education, extremely well spoken, impecable Spanish grammar.

Then again all these achievements are wasted, due to the inherently irrational and perverse nature of Socialism/Collectivism. Castro educates his population, produces a huge number of professionals in valuable professions. But then your system underpays this valuable human capital. To the point where women doctors would rather prostitute themselves, engineers drive cabs, and technicians take a flimsy raft to Florida. All this human capital, leaves or produces little on the island. Joins the millions of Cubans - valuable human capital - who have added Billions to the US economy.

That is called stupid.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boli- It's not stupid at all. It's part of standard communist operating procedure used to control the people. If the population is kept in poverty and forced to "resolver" just to eat and survive, they are unable to rebel.

Wiraqocha Yupanqui said...

Boli, being illiterate doesn’t mean being educated, it just mean you can read and write; if you take in account what the Cubans can read and what they are allowed to write, you will realize that unless in exile, most of them are very badly educated. Let’s not even talk about medicine and technology, Cuban doctors are in the Stone Age; they are famous because they are OK at curing the simple things. But try to much them to Americans, Europeans or Brazilians when the things get tuff and you will see most of them get going.

Boli-Nica said...

BL, I disagree. Like I said, Cuba already had a very educated population. Castro w/ a lot of Soviet rubles did manage to install something similar to what East Block countries like the Czechs and Poles had. Underneath all the indoctrination stupidity there still was a lot of emphasis on traditional European emphasis on teaching the basics in primary and secondary school. While Communist countries are notorious for fudging statistics UNESCO still found that average Cuban school children score higher in math and science than Latin American counterparts.

The Neither Party said...

Shhhhhh,,,
Keep pretending reality does not exist, and maybe it will go away.
Don't recognize or even pretend to consider the impacts of the US trade embargo/sanctions against Cuba or the effects they obviously have had, from a nation that was once Cuba's main trading partner.
Because if you did recognize them, the scapegoats you promote would vanish,,,and you would be left with nothing at all to say,,,got it?
With little regards,,,
John

Boli-Nica said...

^ hey genius last time I checked Cuba's government embargoed itself in the later part of 59 and 1960, when the Sierra clique around Fidel & Che sold out their allies. and began imposing socialist stupidity. Eventually forcing millions into exile, and ruining one of Latin America's richest countries. And the clincher by enthusiastically aligning with the "evil totalitarian" side of the Cold War. Any arguments about "suffering" by the embargo are nonsense, considering Cuba recieved one of the highest amounts of aid per capita in the world from the Soviets. but alas, Marxist economics itself contains the seeds of its own destruction, through its inherent inefficiency, irrationality and perverse incentives.

The Neither Party said...

B-N,,,
Perhaps the reason for your response is that you haven't checked lately.
Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba then get back to me about cause and effect in relation to embargoes and sanctions against Cuba.
Relative specifically to the topic, this quote might be illuminating: "A 1998 study by UNESCO reported that Cuban students showed a high level of educational achievement. Cuban third and fourth graders scored 350 points, 100 points above the regional average in tests of basic language and mathematics skills. The report indicated that the test achievement of the lower half of students in Cuba was significantly higher than the test achievement of the upper half of students in other Central and South American countries in the study group.[8][9]" (c&p'd from this Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cuba
Then get back to me with anything supportive of your derogatory claims.
I'll be waiting.
With lesser regards,,,John

Boli-Nica said...

Moron, please read my post and responses, am not disagreeing with you on educational level of primary and secondary students. I think Castro is a totalitarian dick who deserves to be suffocated with his own colostomy bag. But if the evil fuck, somehow managed to educate Latin American kids in math and science anything of value in the system is worth looking at. Even if it does come from an evil tyrant....we after all do benefit from jet technology - courtesy of Nazi Germany..

Boli-Nica said...

Re: embargos... Israel is the subject of a much more vicious embargo. Its neighbors stopped trading with it, after a long history of economic interdependence. Can't buy oil or do business w/oil rich countries. Foreign companies won't do business because of the Arab boycott. Some of the richest countries in the world - from the area - have spent billions trying to wipe the country and its population from the map (quite different from trying to depose a Communist tyrant)
it seems to do quite well...tho. Might be the fact it is not COMMUNIST....lol..

The Neither Party said...

B-N,,,
Surely you can't be serious, can you?
Israel has been consistently the largest recipient of US foreign aid for over 35 years, now totaling 100 billion US dollars, not counting who knows how many billions in private funding from US citizens.

Regarding trade with its neighbors, this ought to get you more up-to-date: http://www.techasiaconsulting.com
(add with no spaces) /articles/israeltrade.html

Trade has largely been resumed between Israel and her neighbors since 1993. There is no indication that trade has diminished as a result of a so-called Arab boycott.
Regarding your assertion that there is any significant difference between Israeli tyranny and Communist tyranny, I'd ask you to look at it from the point of view of the oppressed of both regimes--and see if there is any real difference. Israel has butchered Palestinians and Gazans alike, without recourse.
As to your last suggestion that Israel is doing well because it isn't Communist, you are correct--but not for the reasons you suggest. Israel is socialist; take a look at education funding and especially health care for Israelis--a government responsibility since 1995. In fact, it can be argued that the US supports Israeli socialism with its massive funding, as opposed to and instead of funding US social health care.
The real reason the USA supports Israel, is to provide a focal point for confrontation in the M.E.--the implementation of the tactic of divide and rule to better gain control of resources in the region.
Read up, my friend--get a clue-- and perhaps you won't write like a fascist tool--(Though I doubt it.)
Comfortable? Care to swap your mouth-feet? Want another spanking?
With even lesser regards,,,John

Boli-Nica said...

^^ You really need to get off the paranoid Anti-Americanism and the neo-Stalinism. Its not an excuse that you picked it up from other fellow travellers on the web and/or assorted luddites around the world. its still very, very stupid. Sorry you are a very ignorant person with delusions....this might be on point for you...

The Neither Party said...

B-N,,,
As I thought--when you have no reasoned, factual response--you turn to ridicule and name-calling--a sign of your maturity (or lack) no doubt.
I'll leave it to other readers to determine who is the "very ignorant person with delusions".
For not addressing any of the points, you slipped another notch, tool.
With no regards,,,John

Anonymous said...

Neither Party
You're the tool! you Moron

I hope the embargo continues... hypocritical or not.

Embargo or not... Castro is a totalitarian evil tyrant that has killed, and crushed the dreams and spirit of millions.



Embargo or not. Millions of Cubans have escaped the island where they were slaves of the Marxist state... and have thrived not just in the US.

Embargo or not.... you've a Shit Bag

Absolutely no regard for scumbags like you!
JP

Anonymous said...

neither party:
Israel has butchered Palestinians and Gazans alike, without recourse.

Such as the “massacre” at Jenin in 2002, where an invistigation showed that Israelis killed all of 53, nearly all of them combatants.

Black September 1970: who killed those 5000 Palestinians? King Husseins’s army, NOT the Israelis.

Fallaci interviewed Arafat once, where Arafat admitted that fellow Arabs had killed more Palestinians than the Israelis had.

When the Palis celbrate suicide bombings, including suicide bombings of children they lose moral authority for most people.

BTW, I thought that Gazans ARE Palestinians. But accuracy is not one of your strong suits, is it?