Fidel Castro Resigns as President of Cuba

[Southover Street Seagull]

And I find it odd that Castro is held up as a loveable little guy fighting the nasty American Imperial forces. His track record on human rights abuses is very well known, has been continuous throughout his dictatorship and persists to this day. Still....as long as he's anti-American that's okay then.

Buzzer both sides in the Cuban conflict have poor human rights records, not just Fidel.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Scumbag dictator. Good riddance.

 

[Dandyman]

not saying that it is spotless. It's just that Castro gets an easy ride on his abuses and gets the dubious honour of having people like the Manics lauding him on the grounds that he's anti-American.

I've seen people with "iconic" pictures of Mao on their t-shirts yet the same people would never wear pictures of Hitler. They criticise Pinochet yet can't bring themselves to speak out against Hugo Chavez.

It's always been that way though. I remember at Uni asking one bloke who was campaigning to release the Guildford 4 whether he was also fighting for unionists wrongly imprisoned too. You can guess the response.

Well...Chavez is a democraticaly elected leader (more than once) who survived a US sponsored coup against him. Pinochet was a traitor who overthrew a democratic government and presided over mass torture, rape and murder.

Castro attracts support because he overthrew an obnoxious dictatorship and freed Cuba from being a plaything of the Mafia and the United Fruit Company.

I don't support his human rights abuses (although they are mild by the standards of our good friends in Saudi or Pakistan). I do support the right of the Cuban people to national self-determination free of almost 50 years of US backed armed and economic terrorism.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

How long before the death announcement then?

Sounds like they're just preparing the country for the moment, thus minimising "Cuba in crisis" headlines when the inevitable happens.

 

[The Large One]

Is NSC's KNOWN racist bully going over there to head up a coup?

It's not as though his Hispanic surname will raise too many eyebrows - perhaps it's his fate...

 

[Man of Harveys]

I've seen people with "iconic" pictures of Mao on their t-shirts yet the same people would never wear pictures of Hitler. They criticise Pinochet yet can't bring themselves to speak out against Hugo Chavez.

I couldn't agree with you more. I don't think they'd sell too many Marxist chic t-shirts to anyone who's read the Great Terror by Robert Conquest. There is no grimmer, more depressing book in existence, IMHO.

I guess it's to do with the danger posed by the different forms of extremism: really, few places are much under any great threat from Marxist-Leninism any more, thankfully, not even Venezuela, where Chavez is unlikely to stick around for quite as long as Fidel Castro has. So one can probably afford to let it descend into a harmless nostalgia - I quite fancy getting a "DDR" football shirt, for example, mainly because they're pretty rare and mainly because that era already seems so alien and weird to us.

Whereas you don't need to read NSC for five minutes to see the ongoing threat posed by the far right to the limited brains of simpletons.

 

[Lokki 7]

There is no grimmer, more depressing book in existence, IMHO.

You obviously haven't read 'Gullhanger' by Mike Ward.

 

[Mendoza]

Is NSC's KNOWN racist bully going over there to head up a coup?

It's not as though his Hispanic surname will raise too many eyebrows - perhaps it's his fate...

my plan is coming together. I am leading my 16 strong troup onto the island, armed with only bicycles and a cricket stump to end the castro reign, and make sure that any American wise enough to own a passport and realise there is a world outside of their own country will be allowed to have a cigar and mojito!!


I wonder what the country will be like if he dies in the next 2 weeks......

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

You obviously haven't read 'Gullhanger' by Mike Ward.

I've read Güllhanger. Twice. In the original German. Now THAT's depressing.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

my plan is coming together. I am leading my 16 strong troup onto the island, armed with only bicycles and a cricket stump to end the castro reign, and make sure that any American wise enough to own a passport and realise there is a world outside of their own country will be allowed to have a cigar and mojito!!


I wonder what the country will be like if he dies in the next 2 weeks......

Well whatever the state of the country, the Cuban people have been fed the Castro myth for years, so when he eventually croaks, it'll be a huge deal. I'd have thought massive State funerals, all the usual communist propaganda and grand gestures etc.

Have you thought of pimping yourself to Sky News as the intrepid man-on-the-street, roving reporter?!

 

[Clapham Old Mug]

One of the curious things about Fidel is that he shows no signs of profiting personally from his position. His children live quite playboyish lives but don't really go very far over the top. He's just carried on running/representing the country. You may not like his politics or methods, and it's very tough being a Cuban at the moment, but you do have to respect the fact that he remains totally commited to his original Revolutionary ideas and doesn't appear to have embezzled the country's wealth.
And (something for which he got minimal publicity) after Chernobyl he invited several thousand contaminated children to Cuba for treatment which had high levels of success. I think they're all back in the Ukraine now but, certainly until a couple of years ago, you could still see some of them in Tarara, the beach resort in which they were housed.
As for Chavez - yes, he's a pretty unattractive guy but (a) through his relationship with Fidel, he has imported 25/30,000 Cuban doctors to create a health service for Venezuela's poor and (b) he has paid quite significant compensation to people whose businesses he has confiscated.

 

[Scoffers]

I bet Steve McClaren gets the job

 

[bullshit detector]

And I find it odd that Castro is held up as a loveable little guy fighting the nasty American Imperial forces. His track record on human rights abuses is very well known, has been continuous throughout his dictatorship and persists to this day. Still....as long as he's anti-American that's okay then.

'FREEDOM OF SPEECH WONT FEED MY CHILDREN'

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Well...Chavez is a democraticaly elected leader (more than once) who survived a US sponsored coup against him. Pinochet was a traitor who overthrew a democratic government and presided over mass torture, rape and murder.

Castro attracts support because he overthrew an obnoxious dictatorship and freed Cuba from being a plaything of the Mafia and the United Fruit Company.

Problem is once Castro and the Communists go you can guarentee the exiles and any wealthy backers will back on the island claiming anything and everything they claimed was theirs 50 years ago which in turn will possibly destabilise the country again.

 

[glasfryn]

And I find it odd that Castro is held up as a loveable little guy fighting the nasty American Imperial forces. His track record on human rights abuses is very well known, has been continuous throughout his dictatorship and persists to this day. Still....as long as he's anti-American that's okay then.

all national states do this and why should Cuba become the 52nd/53th state of the US and one other thing Cuba has a national health that we in the "free" world could learn from.

 

[Captain Haddock]

I was staying in a small town, Baracoa, that was celebrating its 490th Birthday and Fidel was supposed to visit. They painted the whole town from top to bottom in a vast array of colours, but he didn't turn up in the end, as he was called away on urgent business. It would have been great to see him, but the party was cracking fun anyway.

Think I went there (amongst other places) during my trip. Is that the place deep in the corner of the island that makes chocolate from ingredients including flour ?

 

[Lethargic]

It really is not that simple though is it! I believe that Fidel actual thought he was doing the right thing for his people. He over threw a corrupt government backed by the mafia and US which was using Cuba as nothing more than a play ground for the rich and famous. Although some of his choices and policies were very questionable he has established the highest level of national literacy and a health service for everyone.

In addition the economy of Cuba has been opening up for over 10 years now however the US still try to block trade agreements with Cuba. I am not saying he is great and should be worshipped but he has been a thorn in the US's side for many years and they have created their own propaganda machine to discredit Castro.

 

[London Calling]

Biggest disapointment about Castro, is that originally he vowed the country would move to a democracy, it didn't!

Once prepared a speech in Cuba againgst the kidnapping by the US of Elian, the speech was read out to a cheering crowd, including the vice president and later appeared on state tellyvision.

But sorry liberals, the state system is onerous if you're gay, different and just want to vote.

If you just want to party, drink cheap rum, chill, chat up the opposite sex, party, smoke wicked cigars, pull foreigners, party and ooze sex, its a great place.

If you have to use newspaper as toilet paper pay 80% taxes on renting out your property, have crap tv, dream of America, get sent to countries to die of a cause you don't understand, then you love Cuba.