Associated Press is back to shilling for the charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Cubanstm through a lie, not that they ever stopped:
Castro, 80, is a leading example of Cuba’s healthy life expectancy
Fidel Castro may be ailing, but he’s a living example of something Cubans take pride in — an average life expectancy roughly similar to that of the United States.
Living?
Depends how badly:
Homes that were luxurious before Castro’s 1959 revolution are now falling apart and many cramped apartments contain three generations of family members. Food, water and medicine shortages are chronic.
But most prescription drugs and visits to the doctor are free and physicians encourage preventive care.
Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that. I also know that people who travel to Cuba to see their relatives (who are not allowed to leave Cuba) have to get them the most basic supplies, such as sanitary napkins, aspirin, Tylenol, band-aids, and first-aid ointments like Betadine and iodine. Ask my sister’s next-door neighbor, who works at a pharmacy that provides ready-made “care packages” of first-aid items to take to Cuba.
Of course Will Weisert, the AP reporter, hasn’t been told that Cubans treated in Cuban hospitals have to bring their own bed linens because the hospitals don’t have any. The linens are available in Cuban hospitals only to foreigners paying in dollars.
The article continues,
Cuba’s average life expectancy is 77.08 years — second in Latin America after Puerto Rico and more than 11 years above the world average, according to the 2007 CIA World Fact Book.
It says Cuban life expectancy averages 74.85 years for men and 79.43 years for women, compared with 75.15 and 80.97 respectively for Americans.
Here’s the CIA Factbook info on Cuban life expectancy:
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.08 years
male: 74.85 years
female: 79.43 years (2007 est.)
For Puerto Rico
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.54 years
male: 74.6 years
female: 82.67 years (2007 est.)
And the USA (by which they mean the 50 states, since Puerto Ricans are Americans from birth)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78 years
male: 75.15 years
female: 80.97 years (2007 est.)
But back to the AP article,
A relaxed lifestyle, which prizes time spent with family over careers, helps keep Cubans healthy, Tache said.
Just ask these Ladies about their relaxed lifestyle:
Just another day of Associated Press Deficit Disorder (APDD)
Update Via Irwin, The Big White Lie
Don’t Worry, Be A Commie
Update 2: A Shredding, at Opinion Journal
If an old American lady told a reporter, “Sometimes you have all you want to eat and sometimes you don’t,” is there any doubt he would write a story bewailing our country’s shocking neglect of the elderly, poor and hungry? Why are American journalists more favorably disposed toward an America-hating communist personality cult than their own country?
APDD – classic. I have to remember that! You have to wonder what useful idiot school of journalism they graduated from, the endless lies are maddening.
Yeah sure, what is the life expectancy for anybody who dares to practice their freedom of speech in Cuba?? Que estupides! Before the Castro regime and after they are gone, Cubans have and will have a high life expectancy because of the favorable climate that exists their. That again does not apply to political prisoners. Also, one thing the terrorist regime in Cuba always fails to mention when they praise their “great” health care system is that we, here in America and around the world, who have family in Cuba are constantly sending medicine to them and have been sending them medicine for the last 48 years. Can they answer why that occurs and can they dispute that “Fact”??? I’m telling you, anyway, Jose (Cubanology.com)
There is something inherently creepy about that picture (actually you included with your 4/21 post). He looks like one of those laminated stand-up Wookies you see in the music stores. You’d think if he really wanted to make a statement that he was hale and hearty, he’d lose the track suit.
But I digress…A few years ago, I did some contract work for a large Miami bank (which will remain nameless) that Castro himself hated. The people I worked with were smart and gracious and despised Castro with such a passion that it left a mark on me. Most were children of those long-ago immigrants, born here, educated here, American through and through.
They hated Castro not only for what he’d done in the past but also for the legacy he promised for the future. Their dearest prayer is that that man, that monster, would die and their relatives would be free.
My lead on that project also had a heart for Cubanos. Each year, her church sponsored a mission trip to Cuba. The last trip they took, the Cuban customs confiscated all their medical supplies before they entered the country. They haven’t been allowed back the last couple of years.