Okay, let's talk Cuba. Bernie Sanders, currently the frontrunner for Democratic nominee for president, recently made a statement about Cuba that's been talked about a lot. We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did a lot of dissidents and prison didn't. That's right. And we condemn that. So what is Bernie saying in that clip exactly? He's saying that he thinks the Cuban government is authoritarian, but that it has made some achievements that shouldn't be forgotten about. Has Anabi made the terrific point that this view the Bernie has isn't unique to him, Barack Obama, shared pretty much exactly the same belief. He even tried to lift the embargo, or at least made a show of wanting to, and he was held as progressive and diplomatic. So about the embargo. Few people even know that Cuba has been under an embargo by the United States for the past 60 years, and few are still no exactly what that embargo does or how bad it is. Some people seem to think that all the embargo does is prevent American tourists from flying to Cuba, but it does a lot more than that. It is illegal for any American citizen or company or subsidiary of an American company to conduct business in or with Cuba, and the United States discourages all other countries, all of its allies, from trading with Cuba by threatening to withhold financial aid. The Cuban embargo is the most enduring trading bargo in modern history and almost like some kind of annual tradition. Every year since 1992, the United Nations tells the United States to stop the embargo with every country in the world agreeing, except the United States and Israel. As of today, Cuba is estimated to have lost over $28.6 billion in trade, and according to the United States Chamber of Commerce, it is estimated that the embargo costs the US $1.2 billion each year, every year since 1960, and why? Because Cuba is undemocratic and doesn't uphold human rights is the cited reason, but then why Saudi Arabia, one of the United States, is closed as trading partners. Why isn't Saudi Arabia under the same embargo? Why don't you take a wild guess? Let's talk about some of the things that Cuba has managed to do while still being under this embargo for the past 60 years, because Cuba has done some good things. Cuba invented a vaccine for lung cancer. The SimaVax EDF was developed by the center of molecular immunology in Habala and is used to treat non-small cell lung carcinoma. Cuba is fighting STIs. In 2015, Cuba ended mother-to-child HIV and syphilis, and last year 2019, Cuba started giving out pre-exposure prophylaxis or PREP, pills for free. PREP, according to the CDC, is one people at risk of HIV take daily medicine to prevent it. Cuba has also created vaccines for many 90s B, hepatitis B and dengue. Cuba was the first country to sign and ratify the Convention on the Illumination of all forms of discrimination against women, or CEDAW, which is a United Nations Treaty described as an international bill of rights for women. 189 countries around the world ratified the Convention, with the notable exception of the United States of America. Cuba has a lower unemployment rate and a lower child mortality rate than the US. Cuba has higher literacy rate than the US. Cuba has free education from elementary school to university, and there are actually a significant number of American citizens who seek to go to Cuban universities. Cuba is famous worldwide for sending aid in the forms of health workers to countries in need, as well as a Latin American literacy program that has taught more than 10 million children to read and write. Politico recently said that Cuba's literacy program did teach children to read about 700,000 of them, but that it also taught them propaganda. This is what we in the education system call schools. Seriously, you look at this image and think, yeah, America doesn't teach their kids propaganda, American schools don't try to instill any specific values in their kids. I made an entire video about the Cuban political system if you want to check that out, but despite popular belief, Cuba is not a totalitarian hellscape where if you don't praise the glorious leader, you're publicly executed. I imagine that there are going to be a bunch of comments like, what about the fact that tax drivers are paid more than doctors or doctors or literal slaves, or if you can't read your shot? I don't think it's genuine take. I guess on Twitter, by the way, someone cited the 99.7% or whatever it is, literacy rate in Cuba. And one of the replies was, yeah, it's easy to get 99.7% literacy if you shoot everyone that can't read. You can rest assured that that's a myth. So is it right to say that Cuba has done good things if they are, if Bernie Sanders is to be believed in authoritarian government? I personally disagree, I think Cuba is not as authoritarian as many Americans make it out to be. But if it's true that Cuba is authoritarian, is it right to praise them for things that they've done? Right. And I think it is. I think especially when it comes to their international programs where they send doctors and where they have an international literacy program, I mean, 10 million children know how to read because Cuba basically just spent a whole bunch of money to teach children in Latin America how to read. That's a pretty much objectively good thing to happen. And it doesn't even really have any kind of nefarious purpose other than possibly make the Cuban government look good in the eyes of the Latin American community. The embargo needs to be lifted because Cuba is having a very hard time providing its citizens with what they need and to develop their economy. Thank you for watching this video. If you appreciated it, please consider liking and subscribing and I would actually be really happy if you would follow me on Twitter and on Twitch as well. I haven't streamed a lot on Twitch yet, but it's something that I really want to do more of. So it would make me happy if some more people tuned in every now and then. So please follow me on there. Okay. Cheers. Thank you to my patrons, Joshua Chiesman, Dunk Junkfunk, OCC Bookitty, Roland Bayland, Emily, Nian Chanmin, Will M. Alphabridge Smith, L. Emel Segerbeck, Quaggram, John H.M. and