Interesting. So some stage magician makes a rabbit come out of a hat, and because it looks like magic then it is? What if the stage magician shows you how he does it? I am telling you that Fidel’s propaganda machinery is finely tuned and in the case of the Katrina offer I can almost guarantee you that the offer was made knowing it would be turned down. And if it hadn’t been turned down not a single doctor would have come to the US from Cuba, I know this because I watched Fidel do this over and over again.
Take for instance relations with the US. Back in the mid-70’s President Carter was conducting negotiations with Cuba to open relations. One caveat was that Cuba would have to stop openly supporting rebels in Africa. Once it looked like the US would grant every single wish of the Cubans Fidel ordered troops to Angola. In Cuba all we heard was that the US had stopped negotiations.
Or the Brothers to the Rescue plane shoot down. With President Clinton in the White House it looked like the US stance on Cuba would change. So what does Fidel do? Order the shoot down of planes that had been flying the same route for years. Fidel needs the US as an enemy, he will do whatever it takes to keep it so. It is no coincidence that this Posada posturing comes at a time when Democrats, seen as more friendly to Cuba, are in power.
And why would Castro or Chavez have any less reason to hold a grudge against one than the other? Posada just happens to be the one who grabbed the headlines. Certainly they’re exploiting the situation for political purposes, but do you really think they would react any differently if Congress still had a Pub majority? They’ve been protesting our failure to extradite Posada ever since he was arrested, and Congress had a Pub majority then. His release just gives the story new life. I can’t see the 2006 election results as a significant factor.
lalenin, I’m glad you signed up for a full membership. Your first-hand knowledge of life behind the iron curtain (so to speak - I know the classic term only referred to Communist East Europe) is quite eye-opening.
PR… It was still oil. It would help . But would piss off the oil companies and that can not be done.
How many Cubans are not able to get care. We know we have about 50 million outside our corporate healthcare system.
People are reporting impressions as fact. I do not know how many Cubans can’t get help. Nor do any other on this board. It may be few. We do know they can mobilize there populace and get them out of the way of a hurricane. They have developed a system to move their people out of harms way. How is America doing in that regard.?
You are right that we don’t know for sure what healthcare is like in Cuba. (Well, lalenin does, but the rest of us know only what we hear from the Cuban government, which may or may not be accurate information.) In my mind, though, it doesn’t matter if the Cuban health care system is the best in the world. I have my doubts that it’s anywhere close, but let’s say that it is, for argument’s sake. The fact is, the health care system, the educational system, and anything else provided to the people by the Cuban government has come at much, much too high a cost…the cost of human rights, of freedom and liberty. The rights that I have to move about freely, to question my government, to earn my own living and own my own property…these are worth more than all the free healthcare in the world to me. I would be thrilled if we could figure out a way to ensure that everyone could afford healthcare in this country, but holding up Cuba as an example does not convince me whatsoever that having healthcare provided by the government is the way to accomplish that.
Property rights are surprisingly insignificant to people who cannot afford decent health care for thier children. That the richest and most powerful nation in human history will not care for its own is not merely regretable, it is obscene.
So you are saying that there don’t exist people in the US who don’t have health insurance, but do own homes, cars, TV sets, etc? There are plenty of people in the US who put ownership ahead of healthcare for themselves and their children.
Hell, Sarah, there’s people would raise their kids as a crash crop, if we’d let them! Despite the entreprenuerial spirit shown, I doubt you would approve.
Well, of course not, but that’s not my point. My point was that your statement doesn’t hold water. I don’t believe people would trade property rights to get healthcare for their children. Clearly they wouldn’t, since as it is now, many don’t even trade property ownership to get healthcare for their children.
First, you claim that people want healthcare for their children more than they want basic human rights. When this statement is shown to be false, then you say that if parents don’t want healthcare for their children bad enough to get it, then the government should give it to them. I don’t necessarily agree with that opinion, but I do think it’s more intellectually honest than your first one.
Well, gee, Sarah, I guess just as soon as you prove that “many don’t even trade property ownership to get healthcare for their children”, you win! With all due awe, it sounds kinda like Reagan’s “welfare queens in Cadillacs”. You cannot be serioiusly suggesting that people who don’t own property don’t love their children as much as those that do?
Of interest to others in this conversation, but not directly relevent enough for inclusion, this article in Harper’s outlines the novel approaches and experiments in Cuban agriculture.