Cuba is very much wealthier than Haiti which the USA tries to keep as a sort of colony.
Cuba is very much safer than Jamaica which has its drugs gangs.
"Compared to neighboring Haiti, the favelas of Brazil or even post-Katrina New Orleans, for that matter, Cuba is Switzerland...
"I don't compare Cuba with Sweden, France, Lichtenstein or Canada. I compare it with Jamaica, Brazil and... Mississippi. It comes off quite well in comparison with other territories in the 'arc of slavery'". - Fidel CastroDavid Seaton's News Links
Cubans have high life expectancy and literacy. Cubans do not use much oil.
A study of 93 nations has found that only one nation - Cuba - is developing sustainably.
Cuba is the only nation which: (1) provides a decent standard of living for its people and (2) does not consume more than its fair share of the world's resources.
"An international team led by Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network looked at how the living conditions and ecological footprints of 93 nations have changed in the last 30 years.
"They used the ecological footprint (EF) index, a tool devised in 1993 by Wackernagel and William Rees, his PhD supervisor at the University of British Columbia, Canada. EF quantifies the area of land required to provide the infrastructure used by a person or a nation, the food and goods they consume, and to reabsorb the waste they produce, using available technology."