April 30, 2007

Lies, damned lies, and Cuban statistics

Remember this godawful AP story?

In the spirit of Anita Snow, this AP story spoke of Cuba's sunshiny climate, easy carefree lifestyle, and most importantly, castro's 'free' health care - as reasons for Cubans' famed longevity.

In reality, Cuba has skewed life expectancy statistics which reflect a rapidly aging population and a terrifying death spiral originating in the high abortion rate. That's keeping new people from replacing the old - and the new are fleeing. What's worse, the Cuban life expectancy has actually declined on the year, according to the CIA factbook, something the AP forgot to note in its chirpy castro-touting story. Unlike AP, bona fide demographers knew right away what the problem was, because they've been studying this issue for years.

Investor's Business Daily has an editorial about it all here:

Cuba's Long Lie Expectancy
Media: Communist regimes are known to falsify and distort statistics, but they rarely get away with it unless Western media play along. They scored a big hit recently with data about Cuba's storied life expectancy.

In a widely distributed news story, the Associated Press last week explained why Cubans were living such long, healthy lives under their 47-year totalitarian dictatorship. Taking the word of Cuban officials, it credited the island's "mild climate," "free medical care" and "low-stress Caribbean lifestyle." Right on cue, CBS gave "thanks to the socialist island state's free health-care system" that's there so "fortunately."

But media claims that socialism lets Cubans live longer makes no sense. Cuba's living conditions portend anything but a long life. The media reports, moreover, often misinterpret the data. "The average Joe reading these stories doesn't have all the background, and can be fooled by propaganda," says Cuban author Humberto Fontova.

Read the rest here:

Hat tip: The Real Cuba

Posted by Mora at April 30, 2007 06:03 PM



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Comments

I always thought the long life was as a result of that amazing Calorie Restriction diet I keep reading about.

See, Cuba is so medically advanced, the doctors knew before anyone else that starving people was the best way keep keep them alive longer.

man, I'm totally flying down to florida and getting on a raft...

Posted by: pkrupa [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 1, 2007 07:58 PM

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