These are some amazing facts.  Hopefully, the Cuban government has not
doctored some of these statistics to make themselves look better.

However, I am convinced that there are some positive lessons to be taken out
of this.  In other words, the capitalist economic model might not be a 100%
suited for third world African countries in particular.



WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday
extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing "a
great job" in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people. His
remarks followed Sunday's publication of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World
Development Indicators' (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all
other poor countries in health and education statistics. It also showed that
Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the
continuation of the US trade embargo against it and the end of Soviet aid and
subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago."Cuba has done a
great job on education and health," Wolfensohn told reporters at the
conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). "They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me
to admit it." His remarks reflect a growing appreciation in the Bank for
Cuba's social record, despite recognition that Havana's economic policies are
virtually the antithesis of the "Washington Consensus", the neo-liberal
orthodoxy that has dominated the Bank's policy
advice and its controversial structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) for
most of the last 20 years.Some senior Bank officers, however, go so far as to
suggest that other developing countries should take a very close look at
Cuba's performance.
"It is in some sense almost an anti-model," according to Eric Swanson, the
programme manager for the Bank's Development Data Group, which compiled the
WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and
environmental indicators. Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the
Bank's dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives
of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong.The Bank has insisted for
the past decade that improving the lives of the poor was its core mission.
Besides North Korea, Cuba is the one developing country which, since 1960,
has never received the slightest assistance, either in advice or in aid, from
the Bank. It is not even a member, which means that Bank officers cannot
travel to the island on official business. The island's economy, which
suffered devastating losses in production after the Soviet Union withdrew its
aid, especially its oil supplies, a decade ago, has yet to fully recover.
Annual economic growth, fuelled in part by a growing tourism industry and
limited foreign investment, has been halting and, for the most part, anaemic.
Moreover, its economic policies are generally anathema to the Bank. The
government controls virtually the entire economy, permitting private
entrepreneurs the tiniest of spaces. It heavily subsidises virtually all
staples and commodities; its currency is not convertible to anything. It
retains tight control over all foreign investment, and often changes the
rules abruptly and for political reasons.At the same time, however, its
record of social achievement has not only been sustained; it's been enhanced,
according to the WDI. It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per
1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of
the western industrialised nations.
It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank's Vice President for
Development Policy who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for
himself. By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18
in 1999; Chile's was down to ten; and Costa Rica, 12. For the entire Latin
American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.
Similarly, the mortality rate for children under five in Cuba has fallen from
13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50 percent lower
than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba's
achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999. "Six for
every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just
unbelievable," according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the
Netherlands. "You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly
well in the human development area."Indeed, in Ritzen's own field the figures
tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys
reached 100 percent in 1997, up from 92 percent in 1990. That was as high as
most developed nations, higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90
percent rates achieved by the
most advanced Latin American countries. "Even in education performance,
Cuba's is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than
schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile."It is no wonder, in some ways.
Public spending on education in Cuba
amounts to about 6.7 percent of gross national income, twice the proportion
in other Latin America and Caribbean countries and even
Singapore. There were 12 primary pupils for every Cuban teacher in
1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other
developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was
twice as high at 25 to one. The average youth (ages 15-24) illiteracy rate in
Latin America and the Caribbean stands at seven percent. In Cuba, the rate is
zero. In Latin America, where the average is seven percent, only Uruguay
approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

"Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40 percent to zero within ten
years," said Ritzen. "If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the
burden of proof to those who say it's not possible."Similarly, Cuba devoted
9.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health
care, roughly equivalent to Canada's rate. Its
ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world. The
question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban
experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not. "What
does it is the incredible dedication," according to Wayne Smith, who was head
of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s
and has travelled to the island many times since. "Doctors in Cuba can make
more driving cabs and working in hotels, but they don't.
They're just very dedicated," he said. Ritzen agreed that the Cuban
experience probably cannot be applied wholesale to another poor
country, but insisted that developing countries can learn a great
deal by going to the island."Is the experience of Cuba useful in other
countries? The answer is clearly yes, and one is hopeful that political
barriers would not prevent the use
of the Cuban experience in other countries. "Here, I am pretty hopeful, in
that I see many developing countries taking the Cuban experience well into
account."

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