From: Erik Moeller (flagg@oberberg-online.de)
Date: Sun May 11 1997 - 13:43:17 MDT
Michael Lorrey wrote:
> > > If you can find some shred of objectivity that the
> > > socialism meme has not destroyed, ask yourself this question, why is the raft
> > > traffic 100% (and I don't mean 99%) from south to north rather than the
> > > reverse?
> >
> > Quite simple.
> >
> > 1) Media propaganda.
> WHose? The Cuban Government jams all US radio and television boradcasts,
> to the point of occasionally interfering in the southern Florida
> broadcast market area. Cubans get a banana version of the BBC: 3
> channels of government propaganda.
I do not only see TV and radio as media, but also people. Trained
demagogues who are supposed to infiltrate Cuba. Such operations have
always taken place, not only in Cuba, but in other countries, too. When
you see big demonstrations in the Tv, like in Bosnia, Bulgaria etc.,
this can only be the effect of media propaganda. The fact that such
demonstrations haven't taken place in Cuba shows that the US influence
is not strong enough to do this. Castro isn't a bum, he will keep this
influence as low as possible, not because he wants to keep his power but
because he knows that many people would suffer otherwise.
The US have always done everything possible to get rid of communist
countries. This little Cuba is, besides North Korea, one of
the last socialist regimes which doesn't privatize itself too much. The
effects on the people living there are bad, and maybe free markets would
make the standard of living better for many of them (making Cuba what it
was under Batista, the brothel and casino of the US) -- but if Cuba was
a free market country and isolated the way it is now, you can be sure
that it would be much worse there than in North Korea.
One can be sure: For a country under these conditions, Cuba is doing as
good as possible. If I would live there, I might try to get to the US,
too -- in the hope that things are better there. But it isn't very
likely that they'd be for me, with about 20 % poor children.
> > 2) Financial support by US secret services -- many exile Cubans indeed
> > have a better life in the US today. Cubans are among the least likely to
> > become poor.
> They are the least likely to become poor compared to who? Asian
> immigrants far outstrip all other immigrants in terms of educational
> attainment and per capita income. Cubans fare better than their Mexican
> ethnic cousins for one reason: Cuban refugees are fleeing a government
> that supresses their ability to succeed, while Mexicans are attracted to
> a welfare system that is much better than their own.
Compared to other Latin Americans. About 19.7 % of Cuban children in the
US are poor (Puerto Rican: 40.4 %).
Cuba doesn't supress any abilities, it just prevents people from
becoming richer than necessary.
> > I'm not for economic isolation. Nor is communism (see COMECON). And Cuba
> > is practically isolated today. Yet it has a child mortality of a level
> > comparable to that of industrialized free market economies (8, if I
> > remember correctly, and the US got about 7).
> That is the publicized rate. Never trust the propaganda of communist
> governments.
When you claim that they spread propaganda, you must prove it. It has
been proven for US media millions of times (see media during Vietnam &
Gulf War, presidential elections etc.). And the media in the US aren't
owned by gov't. Why do they support it? Because all big enterprises want
a *strong* gov't helping them to stay big and to collect money. They
could do without it, too -- and many of the big ones therefore try to
privatize the state.
> Nor is Cuba practically isolated today. This just goes to show how much
> you really know about current events. While the US, its largest and
> nearest neigbor has shut off trade, they have rebuilt trade with Mexico,
> most of South AMerica, as well as many European and African countries
> that don't need or want to kow tow to US gov't demands. Canada is a HUGE
> partner with Cuba, and is the biggest propagandizer of the campaign
> against Helms Burton, because Canadian companies are making major bank
> in the Cuban fire sales of seized properties. Canada is the big hypocrit
> here. People wonder why we dont pursue the same policies with regard to
> China, N. Korea, and Cuba. Its obvious that China and N Korea never
> seized anywhere near the same level of assets as the Cubans did.
Nonsense. With the US, a main trade partner is gone. Economic
impoverishment is a direct consequence of this.
I am no communist. I wouldn't want to live in Cuba, North Korea or even
China. I already said that my "dream-economy" is that of Japan,
partially because of state intervention, partially because of a kind of
"politics of consent". Big enterprise leaders there have realized that
operating the way US leaders do would lead their country back to the
Middle Age.
Erik Moeller
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