‘Sicko,’ Castro and the ‘120 Years Club’

[cal04]

CUBA works hard to jam American TV signals and keep out decadent Hollywood films. But it’s a good bet that Fidel Castro’s government will turn a blind eye to bootleg copies of “Sicko,” Michael Moore’s newest movie, if they show up on the streets of Havana.

“Sicko,” the talk of the Cannes Film Festival last week, savages the American health care system — and along the way extols Cuba’s system as the neatest thing since the white linen guayabera.

Mr. Moore transports a handful of sick Americans to Cuba for treatment in the course of the film, which is scheduled to open in the United States next month, and he is apparently dumbfounded that they could get there what they couldn’t get here.

“There’s a reason Cubans live on average longer than we do,” he told Time magazine. “I’m not trumpeting Castro or his regime. I just want to say to fellow Americans, ‘C’mon, we’re the United States. If they can do this, we can do it.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/weekinreview/27depalma.html?hp

[uberllama42]

1. lol: "I know Americans tend to be skeptical"

Americans tend to be skeptical of the Cuban government, because that is what they (we) have been taught from birth: Castro = evil. By and large we aren't skeptical of our own system, which is why a backwater hellhole like Cuba has health care comparable to our own.

Of course the human rights record of the Castro regime is deplorable, and I hope Moore at least throws a line in somewhere relating to that. But they have free clinics over there, providing preventative care to everyone. It makes simple economic sense, saving the Cuban economy vast amounts of medical expense later. Even the country operating under Marx's 'labor theory' of value understands that. Say what you will about Moore, but he makes a good point here. It's hard to judge his film sight-unseen, but from what I know the premise seems pretty solid.

[Billy Burnett]

2. Cuba is a backwater hellhole? LOL Right. No McDs and BKs on every corner.

By and large we aren't skeptical of our own system, which is why a backwater hellhole like Cuba has health care comparable to our own.


Why would it be that Americans not being skeptical of their own system make Cuba's so good?




Of course the human rights record of the Castro regime is deplorable, and I hope Moore at least throws a line in somewhere relating to that.


Maybe MM should mention (and stick to discussing) the deplorable human rights record of the USA. The doc is a critic of the US system. After all, it is the US that has no universal health care, has the highest percentage (and total #s) of its population in prison, is conduction torture and "rendering" at secret locations worldwide.

[uberllama42]

3. The people of Cuba are poor and oppressed

This results from decades of misrule by the Communist regime and the pointless embargo by America. They have practically no availabe resources and are forced to live by their ingenuity, which is really remarkable. Food shortages are frequent. The Cuban economy operates on a much more sustainable model than our own, in terms of their universal health care and in food production. They do not have hegemony over the world's resources; we have a lot to learn from them. But that does not make Cuba a desirable place to live.

My comment about Americans and skepticism viewed the American system as broken rather considering the Cuban system efficient. The American public's blind acceptance of our model has led to a system which consumes resources dozens of times faster but produces only comparable results to the Cuban system. A skeptical public would demand a better return for their health care dollars. If the Cubans can do so much despite their disadvantages, what should we be able to do with the resources available to us?

As for the rights record of the US, I agree that the whole movie is about the problems here in the US and I agree that we deserve better. But a full and honest consideration of how things work in Cuba should look at the way the government operates. It can only help us to understand their shortcomings so that in reforming our own system we do not make the same mistakes. I am completely behind Moore's efforts to expose what is wrong with our system and to push for change. If he can convince people to support univeral health care by talking about our inflate prison population or the erosion of the rule of law, by all means he should talk about those things in his documentary. If that won't contribute to his point about health care, then he can talk about those things in another movie.

[Joe Bacon]

4. ...and that doesn't happen here in the good old USA??????

Americans barely getting by on the minimum wage are in the same position as what you describe!