Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Infant mortality in Cuba declines again
It's a story I've written about before, but a story that doesn't get old, because it continues to demonstrate what can be accomplished, even in a poor country under the economic assault of the mightiest economic power on earth, when a government of the people and by the people really is also a government for the people and not the just the rich and the corporations. Reversing the usual saying, read it and smile:
As I have in the past, I note that, while the Cuban infant mortality rate is less than that of the United States (5.3 vs. 6.4), it is considerably less than the U.S. rate for the inner city population, and even more considerably less than what should be (could be, given a different social system) comparable countries - Mexico (20.3, nearly 4 times higher), Brazil (28.6, more than 5 times higher), etc. Even Costa Rica, hailed as the "Switzerland of Central America," is higher at 9.7. How about one of Cuba's close neighbors, that U.S. colony in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico? 9.1, 70% higher than in Cuba.
Capitalism kills. These aren't just numbers. They are lives. More specifically, lives cut tragically short.
