[lbo-talk] Counterpunch on the Leo Casey Letter

[kjkhoo at softhome.net]

andie nachgeborenen wrote, responding to Ulhas:
>Bear in mind that wherever Cuba started out (and it helps if you 
>start out ahead!), it has maintained its position despite 40 years 
>of blockade and (now) more than a decade without Soviet support; it 
>is a small island nation with a fraction of the resources of Mexico, 
>Brazil, Maylasia, or Argentina, and is far more egalitarian than any 
>of these, as well as far safer than Columbia. Fonally, you have to 
>ask what would happen to Cuba were the revolution to be replaced bya 
>US proconsulate. There, you look not to Mexico but to Nicaragua or 
>Panama, two recent recipients of US regime change. jks

Point taken. But on the HDI, Panama comes out just below Cuba and 
ahead of Malaysia! Nicaragua is down there. And if some of the 
figures cited for Cuba GDP are accurate, then the way the HDI is 
calculated, Cuba might even come out below Panama except for the fact 
that the HDI uses the subregional Caribbean GDP/cap to calculate the 
index for Cuba!

But using only the index for life expectancy and for adult literacy 
and educational enrolment, Cuba comes out ahead of Mexico on both, 
and ahead of Argentina on the first.

BTW, the HDI published in 2002 refers to 1999/2000 data -- so 
Argentina's standing refers to 2000, before the recent crisis.

The more remarkable performance of Cuba comes out in the Human 
Poverty Index, although that is woefully incomplete in its coverage.