AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Chat Area Rethinking Cuba

I thought Flor de Cana came from Nicaragua. Are we hurting for any of the other things? Hell, we can get Cuban cigars anywhere out of country, and they even come in little metal supposatories (I know I spelled it wrong, I don't use it much), so you can bring them home. Tell me more about the smoking hot women?

Face it, Fidel did some major bridge burning.

"true sir, but I'm talking less of capitalism and more of liberty. You can't be jailed in the U.S. for speaking out against government policy -- in Cuba, you disappear.

Economic systems aside, this is reason alone to take sides."

Pure propaganda...the facts are (circa 2005 it has probably gotten worse since then):

Incarcerations per 100,000

US 737 (number 1)
Russia 611 (number 2)
Belize 487 (tied for 6th)
Cuba 487 (tied for 6th)
Canada 107
Japan 62

When it comes to taking away freedom by locking people up, Cuba is bad (I agree 100%), but the US arguably worse by some metrics.

Also:
1 in 3 chance of being locked up in your life time in the US if you are a black male.
1 in 6 if you are hispanic male.
1 in 17 if you are a white male.

Given the above disparity and that we are number one in the world for locking people up and that a lot of people are being locked up for victimless crimes (ex. pot), a very good case can be made that the US does lock people up for political crimes (ex. pot combined with being the wrong color)...just not for speaking out against the government.

WHAT? We lock up people just for being Black, or Hispanic, or even White? I thought they were given trials, based on laws. Perhaps the statistics reveal something else may be afoot. Just my opinion of course. I might wonder if the stats for Russia, or even Cuba, might exclude those who just mysteriously or not, disappear.

Whatever, it's all our fault somehow.

Nice response, Bobber, but probably wasted breath!! An apt quote from Winston Churchill:

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

Propaganda? To call a pot arrest political is quite the stretch.

I am no fan of the war on drugs (more aptly named "war on black youth") but that doesn't excuse jailing someone because they disagree with government.

If you avoid illegal activity that is plainly codified in the U.S., your chance of incarceration is nearly zero. I would argue that persecution for free speech is in a whole different league than persecution for pot usage -- please!

And to paraphrase someone, somewhere: "Conservative thought strives for equal opportunity. Liberal thought strives for equal outcome." Just more pot stirring.

[quote=ChrisW}Also:
1 in 3 chance of being locked up in your life time in the US if you are a black male.
1 in 6 if you are hispanic male.
1 in 17 if you are a white male.
[/quote]

Man, I am sooooo glad I am Irish-American.... skipped out again!

How about me? Norwegian-American. I am sooooo white.

We have a 1 in 3 chance of being boring.

Bobber! If he didn't burn that bridge, the cubans wouldn't need innertubes today! Rascal Fidel!