<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>In a recent post Ulhas tries to put down Cuba's achievements in its socio-economic development .To this effect a recent publication by the United Nations RISD states:</DIV> <DIV>"It is remarkable that in spite of the economic shocks of the early 1990s, Cuba continues to rank among the top 5 per cent of 125 developing countries on indicators of social development such as life expectancy, infant and maternal mortalities, adult literacy, primary and secondary school enrolments and many others. In fact, according to these social indicators, Cuba stood in 1996 among the top fifth of all countries — including the most highly developed."</DIV> <DIV>Even retiring WB President Paul Wolfenson  was compelled to say about Cuba:"If you judge the country by education and health achievements they've done a terrific job".</DIV> <DIV>He has in mind a rate of literacy of 97%, a powerful free Health System, a university medical program that produces a high number of MD's per capita, out of which 70 % are women,virtually no unemployment and an internationally acclaimed Biotech industry which actually exports already a variety of vaccines and heart drugs .I have my doubts that India, a much larger country, unimpeded by an economic blockade by the largest economy in the world, can match these Cuban stats.</DIV> <DIV>Crfistobal Senior</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>