<html> At 12:27 PM 07/12/2002 -0400, Doug wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>Unambiguous dismissal isn't much better than unambiguous embrace. The Cuban revolution can claim some real achievements in education, health, and the provision of basic goods - their social stats are closer to those of the U.S. than those of the Dominican Republic. But it all comes at a high cost - political and cultural repression. I guess what I'd conclude from this is that as long as the U.S. remains fully fanged, this is the best a poor country can do. So we've got to get down to business & defang the U.S.!</blockquote> Thanks Doug.  I spent the happiest years of my life in a three room "house" with no indoor plumbing, a hole in the ground for a toilet, no refrigerator, no TV. (Bucharest, Romania, my grandparents' house.) There's a great deal to be said for refrigerators and washing machines. I know there are problems in Cuba, but I don't think the answer is capitalism and the "free market" -- I don't know enough about Cuba to know whether a more thorough going revolution from below is possible right now. But I think for us the battle ground is in the U.S. as Doug suggests. Joanna </html>