Sunday, July 30, 2006

Cuba: "Hugely Successful"

The headline struck my eye.

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution: A look at the country's hugely successful...

Quiz Time:

Do you think this headline about Cuba's huge success came from

a) FOX News

b) the National Post

c) the CBC

d) the Toronto Star.

Hint: I don't read the Toronto Star.

Scroll down for the answer.











Answer: The CBC, of course. It's the Nature of Things. As a bonus, the show in question features Canada's own David Suzuki.

Here's more, taken from the CBC's website.

"Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. [organic good; non-organic bad] Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. [oxen good; machinery bad] Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. [trucking bad; growing in your back yard good] Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels."

Ah yes, oxen. Urban gardens. Can't wait. And what is it with this trendy "sustainable agriculture" thing? Haven't human beings been sustaining agriculture for millenia? And aren't western nations growing ever more food more efficiently than ever?

The blurb continues:

"In Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Part 2) we learn that the country has been blockaded since 1961"

[really? - Cuba good; blockade bad, USA bad]

"but today Cuba has the highest quality of life in the region, the highest life expectancy, and one of the highest literacy rates in all of Latin America." [dictatorship good; freedom bad]

Higher than Florida, just off the Cuban coastline?

And, does living in a dictatorship with political oppression and religious intolerance and persecution contribute to or maybe even be the source of this high quality of life?

And, if the quality of life is so great, why are Canadian churches engaged in relief and charity to Cuba?

Just wondering.

But, in the skewered way that the CBC thinks, Cuba is an enemy of the USA, so it's a friend of Canada and the CBC. Plus, it's completely socialist -- they probably have their own CBC. Maybe they could do news anchor exchanges. They wouldn't even have to change their CBC logos.

Someday, the whole world will be socialist, if the CBC gets its way. The ideal would be for us to hand over all our earnings to the government, so they could redistribute it and do all kinds of good things. Oh, if only Jack Layton ruled Canada. I've even got a motto he could use: "from each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need".

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"