Ken H. writes The system also achieved an educational system > which despite being ideologically blinkered was reasonably open and a > university system that didn't charge an arm and a leg in fees but gave > allowances to students. It also had a health care system that was arguably > much more equitable than that of the US for example and produced results > comparable to that of the most advanced capitalist countries in terms of > life expectancy, etc. Why was this not a form of socialism albeit > a deformed form? This argument makes me nervous. I have detected a certain rhetoric coming from Cuba which defines the central achievements of the revolution as free education and the quality free health care system. My fear is that this kind of talk is preparing the way for the abandonment of the totality of the socialist system. Terry McDonough
