Castro dying, gives up power

theotherguy

theotherguy

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Fidel castro may be in grave medical condition, he just gave up his power temporarily to his brother.
houston chronicle said:
It was the first time in his decades-long tenure that Castro has given up power, though he had been affected in the recent past with occasional health problems. The calm delivery of the announcement appeared to signal that there would be an orderly succession to Raul should Fidel become permanently incapacitated.

The announcement drew cheering crowds in the streets in Miami. People waved Cuban flags on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouting "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba," hoping that the end is near for the man most of them consider to be a ruthless dictator. Many of them fled the communist island or have parents and grandparents who did.
Click to expand...

We may see the end of old fidel yet.
 
Awesome. There really aren't enough guys named Raul in the news these days.
 
in the words of a fellow Miami Cuban that was being asked what he thought about the situation

"I hope he lives, at least till december. So that he can suffer."
 
Fidel just had internal bleeding in his lower intestine, which isn't lethal: it's likely that he'll live which, in my opinion, is good :) It'd be a shame to loose a great speaker like Fidel, though he has lived a long and very productive 80 years.

-DaMaN
 
The transfer of power from a bloody tyrant to his brother doesn't really seem to be progress.
 
DaMaN said:
I personally feel that virtually eliminating literacy, having free post-secondary education, and having free healthcare, all while under a rediculous blockade from the U.S., is progress.

http://www.cubagob.cu/ingles/default.htm
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba

-DaMaN
Click to expand...


Yeah, real GRAND healthcare for the real cubans, huh.
http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm


Castro is a ****ing tyrant with the blood of opressed Cubans on his hands. I dare you to go to Miama and tell any of the Cubans there you think highly of the things Castro's done.
 
Castro's an arse, but he's not dead yet. I'd like him out of power, but not dead. The man's interesting, and honestly, I think the US blockade is ridiculously counter-productive.
 
RakuraiTenjin said:
Yeah, real GRAND healthcare for the real cubans, huh.
http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm


Castro is a ****ing tyrant with the blood of opressed Cubans on his hands. I dare you to go to Miama and tell any of the Cubans there you think highly of the things Castro's done.
Click to expand...

First, Cuba is a democracy.
http://www.cubaminrex.cu/English/Focus_On/Democracy in Cuba.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Cuba

Second, I dare you to go to Cuba and tell any of the Cubans there that you think highly of the things Miami groups have done.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=1027
http://www.americas.org/item_24943
http://www.freethefive.org/
http://www.antiterroristas.cu/


As for "The Real Cuba", the website you located is one of the only ones I have been able to find that does not praise Cuba's healthcare.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1469.shtml
http://www.ucdadvocate.com/media/st...200608020527&sourcedomain=www.ucdadvocate.com
http://www.culturalorientation.net/cubans/health.htm
http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/Documents/health.shtml
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/inhealth.html

Sure, conditions in Cuba aren't as good as they could be, but considering the blockade Cuba is under, they're doing one hell of a good job:
Based on the CIA World Factbook and comparing Cuba to the U.S.:
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html

Cuba has a similar median age to the U.S., both are 35-36 years.
Cuba has a similar life expectancy to the U.S., both are 77 years.
Cuba's infant mortality rate is similar with 6.22 deaths / 1,000 live births, to the U.S.'s infant mortality rate with 6.43 deaths / 1,000 live births.
Cuba's HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate is less than 0.1%, while the U.S.'s is 0.6%


I'm not really sure where you get the "blood of oppressed Cubans" on Fidel's hands - the only thing oppressing the Cuban people is the U.S. blockade.

Kangy said:
Castro's an arse, but he's not dead yet. I'd like him out of power, but not dead. The man's interesting, and honestly, I think the US blockade is ridiculously counter-productive.
Click to expand...
While I don't completely agree about him being an arse or getting him out of power (though it'd probably do him some good - he is 80 years old), I totally agree with you that the blockade is ridiculously counter-productive.

-DaMaN
 
Saying Cuba is a democracy is like saying that North Korea is a democracy.

Sure, they're both Democracys in title, but in reality, they're not.


Besides, when has a one-party-state, especially one ruled by a communist party, been a democracy? And why are people escaping cuba in rowboats if it's such a paradise?
 
I think the problem is with such regimes, kind of like the Soviet or North Korean one, technology advance sucks so much that ordinary life quality starts to "decay".
Kapitalism has its pro's :p

Fidel was great though, i remember last year when he fell down in public and broke his arm. Then emediatly shows on camera telling people he's fine!
What a guy :D :p
 
RakuraiTenjin said:
The transfer of power from a bloody tyrant to his brother doesn't really seem to be progress.
Click to expand...



lol "bloody tyrant" that's rich, didnt you send assassins to kill that tyrant? for what exactly? simply being communist and not playing ball? oh wait I guess assassinations of head of state are ok so long as they're sanctioned by the US
 
Thank you for the links daman. If only others took notice of them. I don't know where you people get fed your shit from, but cuba's socialism has brought peace, freedom, security and prosperity to its people. And Fidel Castro has been largely responsible for it.

The actual propaganda is US propaganda. The US don't want nations like cuba setting an example in the world for others so they circulate lies about them. They've done it to nicargua, they've done it to cuba, and they're doing the same shit with venezuela now aswell. I think we can all begin to agree, (especially with electoral fraud, it's election participation being below fifty percent, it's woeful handling of diplomatic issues and forigen policy) that the US is not the most democratic country in the world...and that it is infact far from it.
 
Alright whatever people. Continue to praise Castro and his government.


Just be glad you don't have to live under it.
 
Castro is far from perfect, but he is not the bloodulusting evil monster that many make him out to be.

IMO, the root of most problems lie in the ridiculous blockade against Cuba and animosity the US still shows to him. Most of his acts of oppression have been under the idea that the US could attempt to assassinate him or sabotage the country. Normalizing relations would probably go some way to debunking that, and if that excuse is no longer valid, the country would either loosen up or see Castro as a crook if his acts continued. Not to mention it would be healthy for the country.
 
I've never really understood where all the hatred for Castro comes from. My understanding as to why the US hates him is simply because of a grudge they've held after a failed attempt to assassinate Castro during the Kennedy administration.

Cuba doesn't seem to be doing that badly since Castro has been in charge, so I don't get why people are celebrating his impending demise. Maybe I'm just ignorant.
 
Watch the Buena Vista Social Club and you'll see how far Cuba (Havana in particular) has really come. Man, it looks like nothing has changed in 50 years--the cars, the buildings, the people! What a shame for such a once-beautiful city...;(

I don't hope he dies, but I hope he is out of power so that we Americans can freely travel to and from such a beautiful country without a major hassle! Hopefully US/Cuba relations will improve with the new leader...but I have pretty low expectations.

EDIT: Oh, and Cuba has less Democracy and Freedom of the Press and more Corruption than Iran, just in case anyone out there thought Cuba was doing really well under Castro. The only country with less Freedom of the Press is North Korea!
 
I reckon as soon as Castro goes we'll be seeing some kind of US backed coup/insurrection.
 
Castro is great. Those restrictions America have placed on Cuba is pathetic.
 
I fully agree with The Monkey. Period.
 
Yes. It's always best to resolutely and obstinately refuse to see any but the most pure, undiluted side of it, truth be damned. :rolleyes: Confining yourself to an opinion like that is silly.
 
Ennui said:
Yes. It's always best to resolutely and obstinately refuse to see any but the most pure, undiluted side of it, truth be damned. :rolleyes: Confining yourself to an opinion like that is silly.
Click to expand...

Yes, while I support an open debate, I really don't think it's fair to Castro's victims and their families to refer to him as "great".
 
Still's no reason to limit yourself from understanding the situation.
 
Its not a blockade, its a trade embargo. The only limitation is that the USA cannot trade directly with Cuba. There's nothing stopping the rest of the world from doing so. Furthermore the people that want the embargo to last the most is us, the Cuban Americans, to keep the pressure on Fidel's little regime.

As for all the "great" crap that he's done, i call bullshit and communist propaganda. Talk to some people after they arrive from there. Have them tell you about how the secret police have taken away relatives for 20 years for minor "counterrevolutionary" implied infractions. Or how some families have had to put their young daughters into prostitution just to eat.

Here's a little story that might put some context as to why Cuba's programs get lauded for being more than what they are.

Aparantly this happened to a guy my dad knew who was a dignitary. The man is going back to his hotel and is offered his pick of any of a line of young girls. Not wanting to seem rude he choses one and heads for his room. The girl arives later and he explains that he is a married man and kindly refuses her and she leaves. Thinking that was the end of that he goes to sleep. Until an hour or so later there is a knock at the door. Another of the girls. He refuses her. an hour later then another. This happens a few more times. Then they send a young boy thinking that he was gay, which he also refused. In the end after no sleep the dignitary put 2 and 2 together and it dawned on him that his room was very much covered in recording equipment to catch him in the act had he had sex with any of the prositutes. Basically having the intention of assuring his compliance through blackmail, so that when he left he'd have nothing but nice things to say about Cuba.

If you care one bit about the human rights and freedoms that you claim to defend so much, you would'nt praise
Cuba for its actions

Oh yeah, and if he was so great, why were the streets of miami filled with thousands of cheering Cuban-Americans the second his failing health condition was announced on the news? And as for his failing health, no, intestinal bleeding by itself is not deadly if treated, howevery the fact that Fidel is 80 years old, and that the proposed extensive surgery is pretty much a final option, plus a host of other health issues, is what is making everyone anticipate his demise to be at hand.
 
more importantly why werent the streets of Havana similiarly filled?
 
I dunno, maybe it has something to do with the armed forces?
 
Perhaps the fact that they aren't free to do so and they'll get arrested might have something to do with it. Also, you never know which of your neighbors is a secret police over there. So you never cheer against the authority over there.
 
OK, now i'm not sure whether or not I believe in all this stuff about Cuba having good healthcare or whatever, and frankly, I'm not even going to bother to find out. This is because it could have the best healthcare and public services in the world, and that still would not justify the fact that Cuba is a one party state and speaking out against the government could land you in jail with no hope of a trial. Also, during the first decade or so of Castro's dictatorship, he and Che Guevara set up dozens of labour camps for:

wikipedia said:
“people who have committed crimes against revolutionary morals” as well as Castro's concept of "social deviants," including homosexuals and AIDS victims
Click to expand...

No. ****ing. Excuse.
 
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