Comment 53087

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted December 14, 2010 at 15:59:49

For the record, Cuba's medical system is actually known very widely as a success story. They train loads of foreign doctors, and send more doctors abroad than any other nation proportionally. And while it's certainly poor, it's not as if Latin American countries tend to be rich and democratic. Compared against countries in a similar situation, rather than the richest nation on earth, they actually favour quite well. And you can't just discount that because they're communists.

My point was not "Cuba good, America bad". I don't think Cuba's medial aid, it's organic farming policies or comparatively high standards of living justify any of its sins. But we can't have one set of morals for "the good guys" and another set for everyone else. America also does good things, but they, likewise, do not magically erase the consequences of the bad things they've done. While Cuba tends to have some of the higher living standards and social indicators in the developing world, and giving some of the most aid, America has some of the lowest living standards in the "developed" world and gives some of the least aid per capita. None of this makes torture chambers ok, inside or outside the boundaries of Guantanamo Bay.

I'm not going to move to Cuba, Russia or China. Pointing out the obvious gaping flaws in American foreign policy doesn't make me a Stalinist. These are 'straw man' arguments, used to avoid discussing the actual facts of the matter, which is that America has a hell of a lot to answer for.

I don't want to see a Soviet empire, a Muslim Empire, or an American Empire. Empires are the problem.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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