No viva Fidel! - Castro 1926 - 2016

[running_coach]

@Siam_Sam

That would not surprise me.

Say, maybe he died from residual effects from all those CIA attempts. How often does a 90-year-old man die anyway?

Once.

[Siam_Sam]

I read that Mao biography, the famous one by his ex-physician, and the author wrote that when Mao died, one of the top generals believed with all his heart that he’d been poisoned. He simply could not believe that a sick 82-year-old man could possibly die of natural causes.

[harmonicamoon]

Fidel’s priority was education. Cuba’s literacy rate is one of the highest in the world.

The sad part was Cubans were not allowed to read everything.

[Siam_Sam]

I believe they have also had better access to healthcare than many other Latin Americans.

[dougie_monty]

@harmonicamoon

Fidel’s priority was education. Cuba’s literacy rate is one of the highest in the world.

The sad part was Cubans were not allowed to read everything.

Sounds hypocritical.

[cochrane]

@TriPolar

Stupid US policy was Castro’s greatest asset. Strangely it’s the one conventional policy Trump has decided to continue. Or at least says he will. I can’t believe he hasn’t already made plans to build a hotel in Cuba.

I don’t like to travel anymore but I told my wife I’d like to go to Cuba. We both have know Cuban immigrants who weren’t the insane anti-Castro types who spoke glowingly of their beautiful country. I guess it was something I’ve wanted to do before I got tired of traveling. I really hope we can get over the stupid embargo policy that kept the Cuban people locked up in the Castro regime for most of my life.

Also, stupid NY Yankees, it’s all their fault.

Yeah, but if they’d had the designated hitter back then, he might have gotten picked up.

[ColdPhoenix]

Good to see the US propaganda engine works so well… I guess none of you have been to Cuba?

A man has died and you slate him. Well, despite the US hating him, he was much liked in a lot of the rest of the world.

[Northern_Piper]

On the contrary. I have been to Cuba and I’m not American.

I care about the rule of law and human rights. The Bautista regime was terrible on both fronts. Sadly, so was Castro’s regime. Health care and literacy are impressive accomplishments. Pity he couldn’t achieve that with free speech and free elections.

[Leaffan]

@ColdPhoenix

Good to see the US propaganda engine works so well… I guess none of you have been to Cuba?

A man has died and you slate him. Well, despite the US hating him, he was much liked in a lot of the rest of the world.

Try this on for size.

The truth is that Cuba today is the poorest country in the Americas, poorer than Haiti. Its per-capita income is less than that of Honduras, the small Central American country that has the world’s highest murder rate. Cubans today would be suffering from mass starvation if the country were not receiving upwards of US$7 billion per year from their allies in the Venezuelan government.

Cuba manufactures nothing and produces nothing, except cigars and small quantities of rum. Its once vaunted sugar industry, the world’s largest before the communist takeover, has been completely destroyed, to the extent that Cuba has become a net importer of sugar. There is not even enough sugar produced in Cuba for its own meager, and rationed, domestic consumption.

[Tom_Tildrum]

@GIGObuster

That is an important item to not forget, Castro replaced one of the right wing dictators that the US typically supported and nurtured back then.

Exactly. No matter how bad things look, they can always get worse.

[TriPolar]

@cochrane

Yeah, but if they’d had the designated hitter back then, he might have gotten picked up.

It’s a tough choice. DH or Castro? Turns out we lost on both counts. If the DH enacted earlier would have freed the Cuban people I’d grin and bear it. Trouble is it was really our fault for our whole fucked up policy that left Batista in power in the first place. Maybe if we tossed that bastard out we could have avoided two evils.

[dougie_monty]

@Tom_Tildrum

Exactly. No matter how bad things look, they can always get worse.

The Cuban Revolution that put Castro in power was a trip from the frying pan into the fire.

[voltaire]

@ColdPhoenix

he was much liked in a lot of the rest of the world.

Not that I think this thread has been all that hostile, but besides the US, there are plenty of people in other places that have even more legitimate reasons to hate the guy.

[rbroome]

After surviving countless assassination attempts, not even Castro could survive 2016. It has been quite a year…
Just had to repeat a popular (kind of) meme that I have seen recently. 2016 is truly a bizarre time.

[Northern_Piper]

[QUOTE=Comrade Fidel]
“Revolutionary justice,” the failed lawyer famously said, “is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction”.
[/QUOTE]

Robespierre couldn’t have put it better.

[Northern_Piper]

And another:

[QUOTE=Comrade Fidel]
The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs.
[/QUOTE]

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

He outlived everybody who tried to assassinate him.
An achievement, of sorts.

[voltaire]

Cool, Collected Castro
In contrast to the cheerful confusion prevailing elsewhere in his party (his [train] car is loaded with bearded bodyguards and cleanshaven U.S. security agents mingling with Cuban cabinet officers and wives), Dr. Castro seems cool and collected in the privacy of his drawing room as he continues to expound on his economic beliefs. Casually flicking scraps of cigar onto the bed, he says he has no intention of confiscating Cuban Telephone Co., an affiliate of International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., which has been operated for the past couple of months by a government “intervenor” who is looking into the utility’s costs and rates. Does the government plan to buy the phone company? “We have not talked about it; we have more urgent uses for our money,” he says airily.

He claims further that people have misinterpreted a remark of his in a recent speech which indicated he intended to abolish both the lower and upper economic classes and put everyone into a level middle class. “We do hope to raise the standard of living of everyone to what the middle class now has,” he says. But he insists he has no thought of taking money away from any wealthy individual who invests in industry. “Industry owners will still make money,” he promises.

He is considerably less sympathetic, however, toward people who have invested in real estate and apartments. He defends vigorously his rent decree which slashed rents April 1 by 30% to 50%. He maintains Cuba does not need this type of “non-productive” investment. Asked if his rent reduction hasn’t frightened all investors, including those who might put up the industrial plants he wants so much, he concedes that many potential investors “are worried.” But he claims manufacturers in Cuba “are happy.” He says further that investors who are worried will change their mind as the Cuban economy is stimulated by increased consumer spending-the theory behind the cut in rents.

Of the frightened investors, he says “It’s all up here,” pointing to his curly black hair in one of the sudden, forceful gestures he habitually uses.

http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1959/19590422.html

[voltaire]

[QUOTE=Fidel Castro]
There is no more corrupt system of government than a dictatorship. (It is true that there are constitutional – governments that are as corrupt as they are constitutional; but while the constitutional governments have to watch their step, have to take care of themselves, because they must hold elections and might loose them, or the people might refuse to vote, there are things which act as brakes to slow down and even stop corruption, aided by the freedom of speech: the elections held every two years.) On the other hand, in the case of a dictatorship, the men in power steal the people’s money for ten, fifteen, twenty and even more years and make millions and – millions of dollars. Nobody dares to accuse them, nobody complains, nobody protests, simply because nobody can do any such thing; nobody holds them back, nobody can replace them… Consequently, simultaneously with the efforts toward our economic development, our peoples have to make special efforts of a moral character, and when such standards are definitely adopted, when the possibility to mobilize resources becomes more and more difficult to certain rulers because they do not – represent the interests of their peoples, do not represent the will of their peoples, such handicaps will operate to improve the political standards of the nations of our Continent simultaneously with, and in the measure that we improve our economic status. On the other hand, we must not run the risk of strengthening dictatorships by cooperating with them.
[/QUOTE]
http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1959/19590502.html

[rowrrbazzle]

Justin Trudeau’s remarks were even more clueless than anything I thought he was capable of. Breaking News, Headlines and Stories | National Post

Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.

While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante”.

Naturally Twitter is mocking him mercilessly.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/trudeaueulogies?src=hash

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyPEc5oUoAA2Uul.jpg:large