[tritium]

Castro's brother has taken over the leadership. Do you really think there will be that many changes???

[RUEZ]

Aging_Redneck Aging_Redneck:

Jack Layton cried a tear for Fidel.

That made me laugh out loud.

[Brenda]

tritium tritium:

Castro's brother has taken over the leadership. Do you really think there will be that many changes???

He has been there ever since Castro got sick and refused to die, right?

No, there will be no changes.

[stemmer]

Step down? I was hoping he would have been overthrown ala Saddam...

[Joe_Stalin]

newfette newfette:

i know that being a suporter makes me part of a minority but its what i believe... i dont agree with everything he's done but i think hes gone some good stuff too

Read about your hero.
[quote]
Fidel's sorry legacy
National Post
Published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

After 49 years of ruling Cuba with an iron fist, 81-year-old Fidel Castro has formally stepped down as president and head of Cuba's armed forces. But there will not be any election to determine his successor. Power in the tropical tyranny is a family matter and Raul Castro, Fidel's 76-year-old brother, will take permanent control of a country he has run for 19 months while Fidel has endured a lengthy illness.

Little has changed during that time -- free speech is still suppressed, democracy is crushed, freedom of the press is forbidden, free enterprise is illegal, fair trails are the stuff of dreams, religious freedom is circumscribed, racism against blacks is rampant -- and there is no prospect for change in the days to come under brother Raul, who stood by Fidel even after their mother, Lina, could not and fled Cuba after their 1959 revolution.

Yet the departure of Fidel presents the opportunity for Stephen Harper's Conservative government to rethink Canada's policy toward Cuba, which is both opportunistic and unworthy of a country that pays great heed to human rights.

When Fidel came to Canada in April, 1959, Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker refused to meet him, but he did not refuse to do business with him. When it was clear Fidel was determined to turn Cuba into a communist dictatorship, and that the United States would impose a trade embargo on it, prime minister Diefenbaker beat the Canadian nationalist drum and used the opportunity to win political points at home by playing on anti-American sentiment while generating opportunities for Canadian businesses. This policy helped save the assets of Canadian banks operating in Cuba -- the assets of U.S. banks, by contrast, were confiscated--and gave Canadian companies the chance to supply Cuba with goods they could no longer buy from the U.S..

Lester Pearson maintained this policy, while his successor, Pierre Trudeau, lent credibility to Cuba's communists through his personal friendship with Fidel. While Canada was trading with Cuba during the early years of his Fidel's regime, however, roughly 500,000 Cubans -- nearly 8% of the total Cuban population--fled the island, more than 77,000 died trying, tens of thousands were unjustly imprisoned and roughly 30,000 were executed by revolutionary firing squads.

Canadian leaders have often defended our Cuba policy saying it constitutes "constructive engagement." Yet little that is constructive has emerged. In 1998, for example, then-prime minister Jean Chretien visited Cuba to make the case for four imprisoned Cuban human rights activists. Mr. Chretien left with a picture of himself with Castro, while the activists continued to languish in jail.

Prime Minister Harper now has the chance to change a historic wrong. No longer should Canada turn a blind eye to the tyranny in Cuba and pretend our policy has been a principled one. Instead, Canadian trade policy should be tied directly to improving human rights and monitoring progress. Moreover, the Canadian government would do the Cuban people a favour by making clear to Canadians that Cuba is, as Theo Caldwell argued in these pages yesterday, an "island prison" -- one they should think twice about visiting.

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/sto ... ?id=319826

===========

[Katz]

romanP romanP:

-Mario- -Mario-:

I wonder who his sucessor is gonna be. If it is his brother...at 76 -> How long could he do the job. Something is gonna give. I wonder if the CIA has been working to put one of their boys in power?

Fidel's brother is already set to be his successor. He's probably been taking care of most affairs since Fidel went to the hospital a while back. It's probably for the best if Raul is the successor for now, it sounds like he has some policies up his sleeve that will make things better for a lot of Cubans, including an increase in wages.

CNN yesterday, Raul had stated awhile ago that he would be willing to talk with the U.S. A few days later, Fidel retracted what had been said.

Have Hope

[fifeboy]

mtbr mtbr:

newfette newfette:

anyone else know that it's just the conservatives that are all over this and are happy to see him go..

nope I've heard it from some of my Liberal relatives as well.
Cuba is two worlds the one the tourists visit and the one Cuban's live in.

Yeah, like other islands in the sun are all one world

[fifeboy]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

ziggy ziggy:

Dont even start on health care untill you have been inside one of their (Cuba) hospitals.

Here you go:

http://freethoughts.wordpress.com/2007/ ... re-part-i/

$1:

Cuba for Cubans

By Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Director, “Juan Bruno Zayas” Center for Health and Human Rights
Havana, September 20, 2007

The official policy of APARTHEID imposed by the Cuban regime almost fifty years ago has harmful consequences for the health of the population. The few existing hospitals and polyclinics which have adequate conditions and resources are exclusively for the use of foreigners and members of the governing elite. For ordinary Cubans it is extremely difficult to receive medical attention.

Thousands of doctors and other health professionals, as well as essential medical resources, are diverted from public health and directed to political missions in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. To this end, thousands of tons of medicines, medical equipment and indispensible resources are donated. Missions carried out at the expense of increasing the deprivations suffered by Cubans.

The strategy of such a policy is centered on exporting Communist ideology to recipient countries, disguised as humanitarian actions. With the thousands of doctors and tons of resources expropriated from the Cuban population, consciences are manipulated, votes are assured in electoral campaigns and totalitarian systems are legitimated.

On the Island there is an alarming deficit of medicines, including essential medicines such as vitamins, antiacids and analgesics. Performing a simple medical exam or treatment is an Odyssean journey due to the lack of reagents and therapeutic or diagnostic equipment. This is the case with analyses of hemoglobin, glycemia, urine, or electrocardiograms, X-rays, ultrasounds, physiotherapy and other basic procedures.

It is time for the ignominy to end. CUBANS have every right to fully enjoy the capacities of the Nation. This is acknowledged in legislation presently in force. All marginalization is worthy of condemnation for the negative consequences it brings, and still worse when its genesis lies in the selfish interests of a small caste in power, and takes its condition from the origin of the nation.

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

You mean you wanted to go before we pour in the foreign aid to reconstruct their schools, hospitals, roads, industries, and etc?

Consider stats on how Cuba does in the world:
Education:Geographical Challange results, Library books (per capita), Literacy rates, Puple teacher ratio and Education spending (% of GDP)
Health: Drug access, Life expectancy at birth, Healthy life expectancy at birth, People living with HIV AIDS, Infant mortality rate, Intestinal diseases death rate
Respiratory disease child death rate, Tuberculosis cases > Per 100,000, Tuberculosis immunisation, % of population using adequate sanitation facilities
Hospital beds > per 1,000 people

These stats, can be found in http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics and do not show Cuba as some workers haven, but they show that Cuba has not been such a bad place to live, even compared to first world countries like Canada, the U.S.A and Europe. It also shows that Cuba has done very well indeed compared to what it should be compared to, third world countries. Fidel may not have been a democrate, but he appears to have had the well being of Cubans in mind. Especially when you consider the trade embargos they have had to endure.

And sorry Bart for combining several of your posts as I have been busy

[fifeboy]

westmanguy westmanguy:

I'm always stunned at the Canadians who have a love-affair with Cuba.

uck!

I find most pro-Castro Canadians are either:

a) Communists
b) Anti-American

I hope you live on a ranch westy, and have access to a shovel. What a crock. I was always pro-Castro and am not "a communist" nor am I "anti American"." Just because one opposes the policy of American governments, does not make them "anti-American" any more than you opposing the Liberals when they were in power --"anti-Canadian."

[fifeboy]

Johnny_Utah Johnny_Utah:

newfette newfette:

anyone else know that it's just the conservatives that are all over this and are happy to see him go..

ya'll are a bunch of whiney fuckers

Your a Communist Tard who wouldn't last 5 mins with Cubans who fled Cuba because of Castro..

Why would that be? Is it because they are violent idiots who would kill someone who oppose them. Call it Democracy eh!

[Joe_Stalin]

You can visit any place in the other Islands. Some good, some so-so and some rotten.

Cuba you cannot go anywhere you choose to.

Canadian's love affair with Castro is born out of their latent or overt anti Americanism. Propping up and trading with Castro is like poking Uncle Sam with a stick. It gives the farleftoid nutters that warm fuzzy wuzzy feeling.

[fifeboy]

Joe_Stalin Joe_Stalin:

You can visit any place in the other Islands. Some good, some so-so and some rotten.

Cuba you cannot go anywhere you choose to.

Canadian's love affair with Castro is born out of their latent or overt anti Americanism. Propping up and trading with Castro is like poking Uncle Sam with a stick. It gives the farleftoid nutters that warm fuzzy wuzzy feeling.

I agree, you for sure wouldn't be able to go to Guantanamo Bay

[Knoss]

$1:

I agree, you for sure wouldn't be able to go to Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay is US soil.

[fifeboy]

Knoss Knoss:

$1:

I agree, you for sure wouldn't be able to go to Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay is US soil.

Yeah, go figure I bet you thought you were the only one who knew.

[Knoss]

$1:

Yeah, go figure I bet you thought you were the only one who knew.

Are you incinuating something?