• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Surprise, surprise: Castro re-elected....

Cuba has the best health-care system in the world, a higher rate of literacy than the US and if it werent for the US embargo would probably be rich and prosperous too.

So just as long as he keeps making the yanks look daft Ill keep singing

Aluta continua!! Viva Fidel!!
 
Jon_in_london said:
Cuba has the best health-care system in the world, a higher rate of literacy than the US and if it werent for the US embargo would probably be rich and prosperous too.

So just as long as he keeps making the yanks look daft Ill keep singing

Aluta continua!! Viva Fidel!!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, only hard currnecy paying foreigners and elite bureaucrats see the best of the health system.

And you're right. who needs food when we got literacy.
 
Don't you think its about time we dropped the whole Cuba grudge. I mean the whole communism v democracy thing is soooooo 1983.

Just think of the untapped baseball talent being wasted! Why Havanna could be the new home to the Expos!! For the benefit of Major League Baseball, we should kiss and make up.

Where's the harm.
 
I agree. The embargo is completely counterproductive and does real harm to Cubans.
 
If there were no embargo, there'd be no Castro. The embargo and the power that he reaps from it is the only thing sustaining that police state. THe embargo is one of the stupidest policies that the US has followed in recent years. The end of the embargo, Cuban-Americans visiting home, American tourists crowding the beaches, and the opening up of trade with Cuba would culminate in mass dis-satisfaction with Castro, it would also ease the way to a peaceful transition to a post-Castro Cuba.

Having said that, Jon, I'm glade that you are willing to cheer for a police state. I am sure that Castro would let you do so in Havana, unlike the million or so who fled the country because of a lack of freedom, and unlike the political prisoners who, for example, are doing time because they wanted their fellow citizens to use their literacy to be able to read economic reports and true economic information about their government...or, the petitioners for political change who are harassed and jailed by trying to exersize their "Legal" rights to petition the government...
 
Fidel Castro has the support of the population. That's why he has lasted for so long.

Thanks to the effort of people who believed in his political ideas, Cuba has achieved incredible goals. It has the lowest analphabetic level in Latin America for example. The best heath system, which is free by the way, the best sport team, etc.


headscratcher4 said:

Having said that, Jon, I'm glade that you are willing to cheer for a police state. I am sure that Castro would let you do so in Havana, unlike the million or so who fled the country because of a lack of freedom, and unlike the political prisoners who, for example, are doing time because they wanted their fellow citizens to use their literacy to be able to read economic reports and true economic information about their government...or, the petitioners for political change who are harassed and jailed by trying to exersize their "Legal" rights to petition the government...
Click to expand...

Yeah :rolleyes:

Thousands of Mexicans cross the border to the USA every year.

They are hungry, they don't find jobs in Mexico. What do they need freedom of speech for?

What do they need the best economic reports if they cannot read, or they cannot buy newspapers?

Do you think that the reasons of Cubans to leave their country are more justifiable than the reasons of Mexicans or any other migrants?

Q-S
 
I'd bet the embargo will be dropped shortly after Castro dies. When that happens, there "will be no shortage of leadership to fill the void". Can't remember who said that; maybe Dave Barry or Carl Hiassen.
 
Q-Source said:
Fidel Castro has the support of the population. That's why he has lasted for so long.

Click to expand...


Yeah, they either support him or die. :rolleyes:
 
Do you think that the reasons of Cuban to leave their country are more justifiable than the reasons of Mexicans or any other migrants?
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. I believe that Mexican migrants are treated unfarily by the US, especially in comparison to Cubans -- who by virtue of their political clout have won special priviledges.

As to your larger point:
Fidel Castro has the support of the population.
Click to expand...

It is a meaningless assertion. How could you possibly tell? Has he had to run for election? Has he had to answer questions regarding his and his party's management of the government? Has he ever had to face public criticism, humor, oposition without the bully-boys of the neighborhood watch and the secret police to back him up?

You may be right, but how would anyone tell?

BTW, I am not an apologist for US policy. THe embargo is wrong. US policy is wrong. HOwever, Cuba is a police state, and you demonstrate that you are willing to be an apologist for the most naked kind of political opression. Bottom line is that you are suggesting that literacy and good healthcare can only come at the expense of freedom of thought, speech, academic endeavor? That basic individual liberty that you express here on these boards may be sacrificed to some vauge notion of public good -- a public good that the public itself never can discuss, amend, ratify or reject? A determination of public good that is controlled by one party and the whims of one man.

In the end, as I said above, Castro has the US embargo to thank for his position, for without the Devil to the north to justify his police state, it would have fallen years ago.
 
headscratcher4 said:

It is a meaningless assertion. How could you possibly tell? Has he had to run for election?
Click to expand...

Yes, he did. He won a presidential election few years ago.


You may be right, but how would anyone tell?
Click to expand...

Go to Cuba and listen to the people. There are many who support Castro's Cuba, maybe they are indoctrinated but they adore him. They are the majority of people who will never lift a finger against him.


HOwever, Cuba is a police state, and you demonstrate that you are willing to be an apologist for the most naked kind of political opression. Bottom line is that you are suggesting that literacy and good healthcare can only come at the expense of freedom of thought, speech, academic endeavor? That basic individual liberty that you express here on these boards may be sacrificed to some vauge notion of public good -- a public good that the public itself never can discuss, amend, ratify or reject? A determination of public good that is controlled by one party and the whims of one man.
Click to expand...

You know, I have been in Cuba many times, I have spoken with people there, especially with people who are against Castro.

I always ask them, why instead of complaining you people don't join together and protest against the government. I tell them that they would have the support of their relative$$$ in Miami and the $upport of the USA. But, they always say that there is no organisation among them, there is not a leader, there is apathy, rather than fear.

We know that Revolutions occur when oppresion is not tolerated, when people cannot stand anymore a dictatorship. Revolution is inevitable.

So I really wonder why in all these years, if there are so many disidents inside the Island, why they haven't done anything.

Why those hypocrites Cuban Americans whine from their comfortable houses in Miami?

Q-S
 
Just curious, does Castro still have dissidents 86'ed in the middle of the night? I wasn't sure whether or not this practice still goes on in Cuba.
 
Q-Source said:

Why those hypocrites Cuban Americans whine from their comfortable houses in Miami?
Q-S
Click to expand...
Wait until Castro dies, then you will see Miami Vice spill over onto Fantasy Island.
 
arcticpenguin said:

Wait until Castro dies, then you will see Miami Vice spill over onto Fantasy Island.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know that Cuba is going to be another little US Island. :(
 
I sure the Cubans long for the pre-Castro days when there island was a bastion of freedom and prosperity!!! After Iraq, are we going to invade Cuba and free the oppressed people? Whos around to stop us.

Is there a good reason to not dump the embargo?
 
Tmy said:

Is there a good reason to not dump the embargo?
Click to expand...
You can judge for yourself how "good" these reasons are, but

1) Castro is still in charge

2) Cuba is still communist

3) Ending the embargo would hurt sugar-growing economies in Hawaii and North Dakota.
 
arcticpenguin said:

3) Ending the embargo would hurt sugar-growing economies in Hawaii and North Dakota.
Click to expand...


We need cheap cuban sugar! I am sick of fructose. Look at every soda in the supermarket. All of them use fructose. It leaves a nasty film on your teeth and crap in the back of your throat.
 
headscratcher4:

I think the title of this thread shoulda been: "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" a la Gomer Pyle.

:D
 
I know Castro has had a grudge against Costa Rica since 1968. It was over the very debate here. Castro made a speech saying that too much emphasis was put on freedom of speech and other things because there are other "rights" like health care, etc.

The President of Costa Rica asked him why Costa Rica was able to have both. Castro has not spoken to leaders from that country since then...

If people want to admire the Cuban economic system that is one thing, but why support dictatorship? Isn't that kind of like saying Mussolini wasn't so bad, he made the trains run on time?

It has been argued that Chile is one of the richer countries in Latin America because of Pinochet's brutal style of capitalism. Would people admire him? or is it only left wing dictators that are folk heros and freedom fighters?

(Oh yeah, and I think the embargo needs to go...darn politicans really like that Florida vote...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom