Why the Cuban goverment hides figures?

[Karl Marx's Camel]

I've heard from several sources that the Cuban statistics on child mortality does not take into account the deaths happening the first 24 hours after birth.


If this is correct, why do they not take these into account? To make child mortality seem lower, than it actually is?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Who'd you hear that from? Cubanet? :lol:

Usually when people bring that up, they're talking about the abortions in Cuba and how they should be included in the infant mortality figures; which of course is sheer idiocy.

UNESCO backs Cuba's infant mortality statistics.

[redstar2000]

One of your first lessons in politics is to mostly disregard "official statistics".

Governments have many reasons to lie and few reasons to tell the truth.

Not to mention the fact that there are many methods to compile and interpret statistics...to make the numbers "look good". Or "look bad" if that's the result that's desired.

I don't think the Cubans are "covering up" a "huge" infant mortality rate...but it's probably not as low as they claim.

And that's probably true for nearly every country.

For example, I'm certain that the unemployment numbers in the U.S. have been "lowball" numbers for decades. A working-age adult without a job must meet a whole series of "statistical criteria" to actually be officially counted as "unemployed". Not to even mention the clever trick of "seasonal adjustment"...where the unemployment rate is arbitrarily lowered according to someone's estimate of what "it really is".

Whenever I see a "report" of the "official" U.S. unemployment rate, I just mentally double it to get a reasonable number.

So if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the "official numbers".

Everybody's lying. :)

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[Enragé]

point is you have to like think logically

if for example CIA-figures give a quite positive idea of a country which isnt america's best friend...that means that country is doing so well they cant ignore it ;)

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Regardless if the infant mortality rate is "as low as they claim", when you have a standard measure like the UN does, it can be used to make comparisons.

Even if they're all 2 lower than they say they are, we still know that Cuba is much lower than say Colombia.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25 2005, 01:54 PM
One of your first lessons in politics is to mostly disregard "official statistics".
....
So if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the "official numbers".

Everybody's lying. :)
One of the first lessons on this board is to mostly disregard anything Redstar says, especially about any factual question.

He almost always says that the facts are unknowable. This frees him from any need to justify his proclamations in terms of facts. It seems almost postmodernist - one shouldn't be surprised if someday he asks, like Baudrillard, how we even know there's a war in Iraq, since we can't trust the reports of the media.

Why did you even post in this thread about a specific factual question, Redstar?

Cuban government statistics are widely recognized to be reliable, including by its political enemies. I even have an article from the National Review acknowleding this (it's about AIDS in Cuba.)

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Severian
He almost always says that the facts are unknowable.

That was hardly the content of my post...but Severian has "his own take".

Anything I say must be "reactionary" since I stubbornly decline to prostrate myself before the ikons of either Lenin, Trotsky, or even Castro.

So desperate is he to "discredit" me that he will even "support" his case with a citation from the National Review.

If they say the Cuban numbers are accurate, well then, "they must be accurate".

Ok. :lol:

Severian's Law: all Cuban official statistics must henceforward be accepted as completely accurate.

Severian is a very "accepting" kind of guy...a great believer of "authoritative sources".

I think skepticism is a much more scientific attitude to adopt...but hey, what do I "know"? :lol:

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[MiniOswald]

Play nice girls

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25 2005, 03:15 PM
I've heard from several sources that the Cuban statistics on child mortality does not take into account the deaths happening the first 24 hours after birth.

If this is correct, why do they not take these into account? To make child mortality seem lower, than it actually is?
If you are not sure if they indeed "hide" figures, you should ask whether they hide them, or why would they do so. When you ask "Why do they hide" you are assuming that they do, in fact, hide them.

Luís Henrique