Next Door Numbers

In Florida, where they were dancing in the streets at the death of Fidel Castro, the anti-sodomy law is still on the Statute Book.

But it was repealed in Cuba as long ago as 1979, before its repeal in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The American-backed coup in Honduras has led to an explosion of violence, including murder, against homosexuals.

More broadly, compare and contrast Cuba and her next door neighbour, the de facto American plantation in Haiti.

Haiti has had American-backed governments for almost the whole of the period since the Cuban Revolution, and it has one now.

Cuba and Haiti are both guilty of human rights abuses. Both have poverty, although it is Haiti that is the poorest country in the world.

Here, however, are the numbers:

Population

Cuba: 11.4 million Haiti: 10.7 million

So, very much comparable, then.

GDP

Cuba: $77.1 billion - 67th in the world 

Haiti: $8.88 billion - 142nd in the world

Infant mortality rate

Cuba: 4 per 1000 live births

Haiti: 52.2 per 1000 live births

Adult literacy

Cuba: 99.7%

Haiti: 60.69% 

Food deficit

Cuba: 9 kilocalories per person per day

Haiti: 523 kilocalories per person per day

Life expectancy 

Cuba: 79 

Haiti: 63 

Male survival rate to age 65 

Cuba: 83%

Haiti: 57.9% 

Female survival rate to age 65 

Cuba: 88.3%

Haiti: 65.8%

Percentage of women in seats in Parliament

Cuba: 48.86%

Haiti: 4.21%

AIDS deaths

Cuba: 100

Haiti: 7100

HIV/AIDS adult rate

Cuba: 0.1%

Haiti: 1.9%

Intentional homicides

Cuba: 4.7 per 100,000

Haiti: 10 per 100,000