Cuba's Rank in the Human Development Index

the United Nations has released its Human Development Index for 2006, and Cuba lists 50th in the world (out of 177 countries ranked).

not too bad. however, Cuba could do better.

how so?

let's look at nations in the New World that are ahead of Cuba. they are:

31. Barbados
36. Argentina
38. Chile
48. Costa Rica

and right behind Cuba, at number 50,

51. St. Kitts and Nevis
52. Bahamas
53. Mexico
57. Trinidad and Tobago
58. Panama; and
59. Antigua and Barbuda

now, you will see that every other country listed, except Cuba, has a free market economy and has a currently functioning democracy. all but two of those countries managed development on par with Cuba without destroying civil society and engaging in repressive policing of its people (the exceptions are Argentina and Chile, whose 1970's and 1980's civil rights records are appalling; Mexico and Panama, while offenders also, never rose to those levels).

so what is my point? Cuba is not alone (as far as the New World goes) in that development range (say from 30 to 60). Cuba IS alone in that it continues to cling to communism and an outdated dictatorship. what a great price to pay to do just "average" in your region.

Cuba has achieved what it has not because of communism and dictatorship but rather in SPITE of communism and dictatorship.

free of both, Cuba could easily have been in the top 20 in the world, assuming the development of the 1950's had not been interrupted by the communist regime.

let me just give you two small example. back in 1959, the Cuban literacy rate was fourth in the region. King Castro has made a hullabaloo about improving literacy, and Cuba has, in fact, become first in the region.

but consider where Castro started form (fourth). Going from fourth to first is not that big a leap. Castro didn't have that far to go because the Cuba he hijacked was already a local leader in education.

second, consider the sugar cane harvest. in 1958, under Batista's regime and in the middle of a guerrilla war, Cuba's sugar harvest was 5.8 million tons. consider also the tobacco crop: in 1959, it was over 50,000 metric tons.

last year (2005), 47 years later, Cuba's sugar harvest is only 1 million tons. despite enormous efforts, tobacco production averages just above 40,000 metric tons. that's after 47 years of "progress."

what's going on here? hard earned success or squandered and wasted resources?

i believe Castro has squandered the lead Cuba enjoyed over its neighbors in 1959. rather than forge ahead, sadly, Cuba's revolution has been falling back while the rest of the New World catches up to it and surpasses it.

Cuba would have done better without King Fidel.

you know this in your gut when you see the decrepit buildings in Havana that the government can't manage to fix, and the disrupted lives of free men and women languishing in jail for daring to speak their minds.

communism and dictatorship haven't propelled Cuba forward. they are battleship chains around its neck as it struggles to move to the future.