Although your comments would certainly apply to some of the young kids we met in Cuba, I am finding it hard to reconcile them with what I know of the medical schools and scientific research in Cuba, including the surplus of medical doctors and their export to other Caribbean and Latin American countries. Any comment on that?
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I do not doubt that there are great scholars in Cuba. It's just that the people I have met do not reflect any degree of scholarship or intellectual curiosity at all. If they hear that some guy shot three people in a restaurant in Hialeah (as happened a week ago), they are afraid to go to Hialeah, even though the reporter indicated that the guy shot himself dead after his murderous spree.
Telenovelas seem to have about 90% of the Cuban women (as well as other Latin women) in thrall. These things are written for a third grade mentality, but with a degree of sex that perhaps is unfit for third graders. Santeria spells and cures for ailments are actually taken seriously.