No books or journals to quote in response doctor? I figured you didn't have a clue as to what you were talking about...never been to Cuba, only read about it in medical journals. Same goes for you ktcmex, you're a fool too.
I have just recently read that book. Rather interesting and a good portion of sounds reasonalbe that it could have happenned. What made me doubt the extent of the authros claims was his continuous efforts to pity himself for doing what he did. It makes on wonder how much is really trught (which I am sure some of it is) and how much of it was just embellishment.
Well, yes, I think he did start writing the thing more to help himself work through things and then he decided it needed to be published. Usually books don't make it to the Non-Fiction-Best-Seller-List without some merit. That is all I have to go on regarding veracity of the author, that and the complaints about how the IMF money always screws things up for indigenous people.
To get clues one could check pictures from Cuba for clues of starvation. Starving people generate growth hormone and over time their noses/ears enlarge. I do not know how long the undernourishment has to go on or the severity of it though. I'm going to start looking at some pictures from Cuba. I used to listen to Radio Havana [once a radio addict always a radio addict, I have been glued to radios, shortwave, amateur, broadcast band, etc. since I was a little kid]. They were talking about alternate food sources in the 1970-80's. That was about sending people out into the countryside to forage, I am talking about turning rocks over and eating grubs!! Left wing ideologues absolutely amaze me. After their favored economic systems fail worldwide for 8 decades they still make excuses. I am embarrassed by my two left wing senators from California. Barbara Boxer's attacks on Condoleeza Rice are like something out of the Ku Klux Klan workbook, she had the lady visibly scared during the confirmation hearings and recently she pulled this out of her leftist ass "you can't appreciate the war because you don't have a family"!! On Larry King recently Senator Feinstein said that were she President she would negotiate peace between the Palestinians and Israelis!! How ignorant of history and full of bullshit can an idiot leftist be??
I'm not sure you could legitimately say that there is a humanitarian crisis in Cuba related to the quality of food the people eat, or even the quantity as it's not as if people are walking around with distended bellies. But their food consumption is clearly unhealthy and very little. Their rations include beans, rice, coffee, cigarettes, and I think bread. I should have purchased a rations book from a local when I visited as they sell them to tourists who find it a curiosity how little people are given. If you go into a store there where they have breads, foods(extremely limited and hardly food), etc., you can witness anti-communist propaganda type scenery....literally seeing wrinkled decrepid old women looking at candies and cookies like they are heavenly gates....no joke. Whatever...go there and see. It's an unfair place for a lot of people...Cuba is surrounded by incredible seas and island nations that capitalize on the ocean beauty and their agricultural capabilities...but instead the country is mostly relegated to idleness and uselessness because they are barely given anything...in the way of economy and food.
Lots of ignoramuses in this thread. You guys have to read up on the history of oil. Eventually ALL oilproducing countries nationalized their oilindustry. ALL the Arab countries. I don't hear you guys bitching about it. The steps went like this: 80 years ago foreigners mostly American and British/Dutch companies were getting the most of the profits. The oilproducers realized, that even the mother countries were getting more in taxes than the landowners, who actually had the oil. So they renegotiated the agreements and that was the famous 50/50 deal. Then later when new companies wanted new concessions, they broke the barrier and they went 30/70 and so on. Eventually the producers took complete controll and nationalized their oilindustry finishing the process... Read The Prize..... What Venezuela is doing is a natural process if you know history. Oh, but you don't....
Yeah. It looks like it's been going backwards for the Cubans. http://www.netforcuba.org/InfoCuba-EN/CubainPictures/CubainPictures.htm
This is why we hate them and their way of life, and seek to destabilize their countries: Jan. 8, 2007 16:10 A senior Iranian officer warned that if the West continues to threaten Iran's economy over its nuclear program, Teheran will discontinue the flow of oil via the Strait of Hormuz, Israel Radio reported Monday. According to the officer, 40% of the world's oil is transferred through the strait, and the world is dependent on Iran for a source of energy and a stable economy. Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, added that Iran cannot allow itself to give up the right to develop its nuclear technology program.