Cuba and Castro...

[murpho]

I prefer deep purple so to speak

[murpho]

Here, Here LA, I'll drink to that last post. The only way to tell what policies are for these days is to follow Neitche's question "quo beneficti" who benefits. Break most policy down to that and you'll find it's true intent. I also fail to understand the bully policy, your dead right, we treat our neighbors more as second class citizens than any other countries we deal with. damn shame

[Lostagain]

Now Washington is pissed off at Chavez for buying Spanish aircraft and Russian rifles. ...and with the money we gave him for our oil! That ingrate. He was supposed to buy that stuff from us. Next thing you know, he'll be selling oil to the Chinese for a higher price.

[murpho]

LA your probably dead on. While we should be worried about why Chavez needs 100K AK-47's our government is probably only concerned that their not M-16's.So we ramp up the dangerous latin dictator crap the same way Castro ramps up the impending us attack crap, more from self interest being ignored than true fear.

[Kalel21]

I've heard about Mr.Chavez. Cant really make head or tails of him though. I mean the elite(the lighter skinned half) seem to hate him because he is bringing up the poor yet the poor claim his existance is irrelavent. They lose wheather he is in power or not. I would like to get more involved in politics but it just seems boring .Well you have probably heard the old saying "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you"

[Tinto]

Although a little dated, I found this article an interesting read:

Cuba has 75% Divorce Rate, rampant cohabitation
"Cuba is suffering from an acute economic crisis. But many Cubans say there's a second one, the death of the idea of family. ...Over the years, Cuban socialism has taken a toll on the traditional
family. Husbands and wives sometimes have to live apart for months
because of work assignments in different parts of the country. Three of
every four marriages end in divorce. Common-law arrangements are more
the norm than formal marriage, government statistics show."
Published Thursday, January 22, 1998, in the Miami Herald

http://www.herald.com/americas/digdocs/052660.htm

[murpho]

Not surprising, I think that's a common theme in the old soviet republics. so many generations of decreasing the value of the individual/family for the benefit of the state takes its toll somewhere.

[Kalel21]

Good source of info Tinto, I'm a bit suprised at Cuba divorce rates. How good/bad are the divorce rates in Puerto rico?

[Lostagain]

Divorce rates are somewhat confusing because they are generally reported as a number per 1000 people, not as a percentage of marriage termination (i.e. death, divorce, annulment). Our divorce rate is even more difficult to pinpoint b/c some major states, including California, don't track it. Our hignest divorce rate has been around 5.3 per 1000 people in the mid 70's. Since then cohabitation has been increasing every year and the marriage rate has been falling. Also the cohort of eligible marriage candidates has been falling as the population ages, thus with a smaller pool of people marrying the rate of divorce per 1000 people is inevitably going to decline. I suppose the question is if we let queers marry, what will that do to our divorce statistics? Currently, there is about a 4.5 chance in 10 that a marriage will end in divorce.

As for Cuba, I do not know how the demographic data was gathered for the article Tinto quoted, and one would have to take close look at it to see how accurate the conclusions they drew are, but I am not surprised that they have a high divorce rate and a high separation rate for cohabitators with the horrible economic conditions which exist there, all of which is compounded by a "planned" economy.

That being said, the issue is really: Is the economy bad because of the 40+ years of embargo or is it due to the inherrent contradicitons of state "socialism"? Or, maybe it's some of each. For fanatic anti-Castro folks, it's easy; it's Castro and his brand of communism. For people who are blindly pro-Castro; it's those running dogs of Yankee imperialism and their embargo. For those of us who want to be more objective, it's both. Then for some; it's Satan. Speaking of which and getting a little off topic, where did our evangelest go?

[murpho]

Wow LA, damn good post you covered everything from gay marriage to the better dead than red philosophy. I really don't care to much about gay marriage, I want to see the first gay divorce!!!!Two queens catfightin on the courthouse steps, yeah baby with any luck one or both would be six foot transvestites all decked out in drag to look good for the judge, now that's some reality that will make jerry springer's show look tame. I think BRAVO would be all over the rights to that. The economic conditions of eastern europe, the soviet republics and russia give a good indication that a significant amount of the economic mess is a by product socialist economics. But the whole geographic region (the caribbean) has economic problems, not just Cuba, so some is living on an island with few natural resources.