I could never live in a communist country as I value my freedoms too much. However, after visiting my family in Cuba over the Easter holidays and seeing in general how the Cubans live, I am convinced that the poor there have much better living conditions than the poor in either Jamaica or Haiti.
To begin with, there is no vulgar gap between the rich and the poor there as most people are poor but most importantly, they are not starving and their health needs are looked after.
My cousin there lost her home in 1963 to hurricane Flora and was given a two bedroom flat in a two storey building and she has never had to pay a cent for living there. Granted because they do not own it, they do not paint it or look after it but it is solid and comfortable.
Further she has all the lifestyle diseases that most of us get with old age, eg. diabetes etc and she gets total free health care and pays very little for medication. In addition, she gets a extra half liter of milk every other day to ensure that she is getting good nutrition.
In Cuba too, education up to university level is free and the only thing the parents have to pay is the a small fee for the uniforms. Granted a doctor only starts at about Can $30 per month when he graduates, but at least he has a great education and therefore possibly a good future because he is educated.
In Jamaica and Haiti if you are sick and poor, by the time you get medical attention you are dead after living a life of constant pain and no one cares whether you starve or not and getting medical attention or even the simplest operation is as hard as winning the lottery.
Yes there are beggars in Cuba but few and far between and in the general, the people look far healthier than our poor do. Yes wages are low but basics including transportation and food is subsidized so people eat well.
Cuban adults and teens are very responsible too as you do not see them walking around with a string of uncared for children as you see here and in most Latin American countries. While the government does not restrict the number of children people can have, they offer free contraceptives and abortion and because the people recognise that they do not have much, they do not breed indiscriminately but have only one child or two at the most two and because they do not have a slew of kids stressing them out, they really cherish them.
I was felt so warm all over as I watched the parents drop off kids at a kindergarten near us and the fathers hugged and kissed their kids, even the boys as they watched until they were safely in the school yard. Of course they dropped them off on bicycles or walked, but they were there for them all the way and you could feel the love and see how much they cherished their kids.
Yes poverty is all over the country there as it is here and in Haiti but at least in Cuba, poverty is not a sentence to perpetual suffering and I suspect, that having grown up not knowing what freedom is, when they migrate it is for the same reason that out people migrate and that is to try and get by better, economically.
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| My little cousin Brian |
To begin with, there is no vulgar gap between the rich and the poor there as most people are poor but most importantly, they are not starving and their health needs are looked after.
My cousin there lost her home in 1963 to hurricane Flora and was given a two bedroom flat in a two storey building and she has never had to pay a cent for living there. Granted because they do not own it, they do not paint it or look after it but it is solid and comfortable.
Further she has all the lifestyle diseases that most of us get with old age, eg. diabetes etc and she gets total free health care and pays very little for medication. In addition, she gets a extra half liter of milk every other day to ensure that she is getting good nutrition.
In Cuba too, education up to university level is free and the only thing the parents have to pay is the a small fee for the uniforms. Granted a doctor only starts at about Can $30 per month when he graduates, but at least he has a great education and therefore possibly a good future because he is educated.
In Jamaica and Haiti if you are sick and poor, by the time you get medical attention you are dead after living a life of constant pain and no one cares whether you starve or not and getting medical attention or even the simplest operation is as hard as winning the lottery.
Yes there are beggars in Cuba but few and far between and in the general, the people look far healthier than our poor do. Yes wages are low but basics including transportation and food is subsidized so people eat well.Cuban adults and teens are very responsible too as you do not see them walking around with a string of uncared for children as you see here and in most Latin American countries. While the government does not restrict the number of children people can have, they offer free contraceptives and abortion and because the people recognise that they do not have much, they do not breed indiscriminately but have only one child or two at the most two and because they do not have a slew of kids stressing them out, they really cherish them.
I was felt so warm all over as I watched the parents drop off kids at a kindergarten near us and the fathers hugged and kissed their kids, even the boys as they watched until they were safely in the school yard. Of course they dropped them off on bicycles or walked, but they were there for them all the way and you could feel the love and see how much they cherished their kids.Yes poverty is all over the country there as it is here and in Haiti but at least in Cuba, poverty is not a sentence to perpetual suffering and I suspect, that having grown up not knowing what freedom is, when they migrate it is for the same reason that out people migrate and that is to try and get by better, economically.
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