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Castro and the Colossus
The resignation of Fidel Castro is more promising for the burnishing of his legacy than the mostly septuagenarian Cuban hard-liners in Miami and their fawning allies in the Bush administration would like to believe. After all, Mao Tse-tung is still honored in communist China, the fastest-growing capitalist power in the world, and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin is, at least for now, a very popular elected Russian leader.
Those hoping for a "freedom flotilla" of Cuban exiles returning to remake Havana in the image of 1959, threatening the very future of Las Vegas with legalized prostitution as well as gambling, are likely to be disappointed. Odds are that Castro's successors, beginning with his rhetoric-weary brother, are likely to finally get serious, after decades of fitful starts and reversals, about ending the grip of a moribund statist economy. Reform leading significantly down the path of the Chinese model, or more appropriately that of Venezuela, which has thrown a lifeline to the ailing Cuban economy, is more likely than sudden upheaval.
But those changes will come too late to justify the suffering of the Cuban people for half a century at the hands of a revolutionary, as arrogant as he is idealistic, who witnessed his vision flounder on the rocks of an incredibly cynical U.S. policy. Prime responsibility for that suffering does go to the Colossus of the North, which in the pursuit of economic exploitation and Cold War paranoia consistently preferred Latin American dictatorships to serious experiments in popular rule and strangled the Cuban economy with an embargo in place for the almost five decades since Castro dared move against the U.S. corporations that claimed to own much of the island.
If Castro had attempted to listen to the better angels of his fervid imagination and pursued the path of democratic socialism rather than communist dictatorship, his effort most likely would have been subverted by the CIA, as was the case throughout the world, but it would have been an effort worth making. That was the promise of Castro's famous Moncada speech, offered when he was a jailed young revolutionary dreaming of genuine populist power, and even he must have doubts as to whether, as he predicted back then, "history will absolve me" for the price paid in individual freedom for the revolution's survival in power.
Not that the United States was likely to easily accommodate any populist challenge, as has been shown by the hysterical reaction to Venezuela's finally sharing some of the oil loot with the poor. The failure of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution to provide a democratic socialist alternative was sealed by the decision of John F. Kennedy, that inexplicable hero of American liberalism, to invade an island that posed no threat to the United States. The U.S. had backed the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and the Kennedy administration even enlisted U.S. Mafia thugs, who had the run of Havana under Batista, in a failed attempt to assassinate Castro.
Only months into his presidency, Kennedy ramped up the Cold War-which Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower had done his best to tamp down-by committing the United States to military confrontation on opposite ends of the world. In a subversion of Eisenhower's decision not to send U.S. troops to Vietnam, Kennedy lied to the American public about the purpose of his decision to send "flood control" advisers to Saigon as well as the U.S. complicity in the death of Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. puppet once proclaimed the George Washington of Vietnam and then summarily murdered in a hit job overseen by Kennedy's CIA operatives. And after Eisenhower resisted calls to overthrow Castro in reprisal for his nationalizing American-owned power grids, nickel mines and sugar plantations in Cuba, Kennedy, in the first months of his administration, ordered the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Yes, the dumbest moves of the Cold War were authorized by a lionized Democratic president and accelerated by his successor, another grand Democrat, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Both, as the record of memoirs, academic research and, in Johnson's case, White House tapes has proved, were motivated by a fear of appearing weaker on national security than their Republican rivals. It provides a cautionary tale in considering the current presidential sweepstakes.
How easy it is to claim to champion universal human rights when you exempt your own country from judgment. When did the U.S. ever care about human rights in Cuba, or anywhere else in Latin America before Castro, if those rights conflicted with the rape of the region's resources? And what a mockery we have made of the cause of democratic rule when our president, twice elected by the people, has created one of the world's most fearsome symbols of torture on the U.S. "liberated" territory of Guantanamo, Cuba.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2008 TruthDig.com
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119 Comments so far
Show Alllizard ... I AM A CUBAN. YOU ARE NOT A CUBAN AND WILL SERVE YOURSELF WELL NOT TO SPEAK FOR CUBANS. You're a lizard as your name suggests.
Brain dead?
"I find this interesting, especially in the light of rcarrace's comments. It seems to me it's quite a paradox that so many wealthy Americans should find Cuba such a good vacation spot if it's as much of a hellhole as rcarrace claims it is."
The tourist section is good, duh!
lizard ... You are just so "F"ing stupid. You really are. In Cuba ... you imbecil ... a baker, a doctor, a nurse, a street sweeper .... everone gets the same crap ... a little cupon book so that they can stand on line to eat what ever crap Catro has rationed for them at any given time. I know this because I hear it everyday from people who live and live it.
cubans want to come here becuase with all of its faults in the US we do have freedom and opportunity. The more time passes I admit the tougher it is but ... there is still hope here.
Lizard,
You said ...
Don't ask me to go live in Cuba, I am a professional, they don't need me there and I wouldn't be able to make a decent living compared to here. This is not due to Castro, but rather to the fact that I was lucky to be born as part of the priviliged class. If I were poor, and Cuba accepted me, I would definitely go.
OK ... shut up then
clarity,
People who blindly defend Tyrants such as Fidel Castro just because he is a Communist are as bad as those who continue to support our little Tyrant just because he's our President. No critical thought, just blind allegiance to some perceived ideology.
Well said. Finally someone who speaks the truth on here.
rcarrace:
Are you really waxing sentimental for the days before Castro when Cuba was ruled by Meyer Lansky and the "capo of capos," the founder of the US Mafia, Lucky Luciano? The tyrant Batista had the title, but the U.S. mob ran the country. I find it a bit sick that the anti-Castro Cubans always say they are "anticommunist" when they are really PRO-MAFIA. Well, maybe now that Castro has stepped down, your "family" can get your casino back for you.
What I find most interesting about your comments, carrace, is that even if you are correct about the state of Cuba, and everyone you're arguing with is wrong, you seem to have deliberately chosen the absolute worst way to prove your point.
I mean, calling people imbeciles, fv(cking stupid, brain dead, idiots, morons, lazy and so on is almost guaranteed to make anyone reading these posts think that you're the one who must be wrong.
It's almost as if you're a die-hard Castro supporter who has chosen a sort of reverse psychology way of making others think that Cuba's form of government is a great one.
Like Karlof1 I've been to Cuba and talked with lots of people. Some were critical of Castro personally, yet no-one I talked to doubted that the Cuban political process (which is explained in detail in Isaac Saney's *Cuba: A revolution in motion*) is in its way democratic. Quality of life (in spite of the longstanding economic blockade)? Well, some young people mused to me about flashy cars and life in shopping malls, but I didn't meet anyone who seriously believed that a capitalist-consumer lifestyle would benefit them more than good health care and education for their children.
bildad,
No not at all ... Cuba was Cuba before Batista. But Batista was somewhat better than Castro.
How old are you rcarrace? I suspect you are either old enough to be a hardcore proselytizing ideologue who somehow feels irrationally cheated by Castro, or you are just a youngster who is unable to think independently of your parents whom have indoctrinated you to their world view. Considering the juvenile and vulgar tone of your comments I suspect you need to move out of your parent's home.
RCARRACE: You are Cuban like Obama is black. You are the equivalent of an Oreo. Cuban on the inside but american inside. Most Cubans agree with me, not you. Americans agree with you, not with me. So how can you call yourself Cuban? Unlike you, Cubans know what is wrong with Fidel, but they also know what is right with Fidel. They know what is wrong with the system, but they know extremely, extremely well what is good about it, and they are not about to let a so called Cuban like you take it away from them anymore than Americans will ever let any one take away their universal one payer health care system IF THEY EVER GET ONE!
Hey CaRRace: Where is your answer in Spanish Mr. Cuban? Show me you even speak Spanish. You call me an idiot? Por eso te llamo pendejo, porque o eres un muchacho o un viejo que no aprende ya. Anda busca alguien que hable castellano para que puedas pretender que eres Cubano. Porque todo en Ingles? Gringo.
Waddaya say we call a truce and do what G. or C.did when the pope ( small case intended ) commanded either Copericus or Galileo to do : recant and admit that the sun goes around the earth . C.or G. declared loudly " the sun goes around the earth ,(while aside ) the earth goes around the sun."
After all , who wants to be burned at the steak ( pun intended )for defying the pope.
So all posters except rcarrace and clarity repeat loudly after me , " Cuba under Castro has been a living hell " and then quietly aside , " rcarrace and clarity , you're as nuts as Galileo's pope "
I am Cuban. I came to the US in 1961 after the revolution. I admit I don't really know Cuba because I was only 3 when we left. My father hated Castro but grew to admire him in his later years. What I admire about Castro is how he stood up to the US and kicked them out (except Guantanamo). I think Castro has done some positive things like improve health care, education, and eliminate prostitution etc. He and Che have been an inspiration to many.
My father became a progressive and hated Republicans. The rest of my family and most of the Cubans in Miami are Republicans and hate Castro bitterly. Castro took properties away from wealthy Cubans and that is one reason many hate him. He also killed his political opponents. My dad was jailed.
Miami Cubans claim to love freedom of speech. They always bring that up when bashing Cuba. Bu if I were crazy enough to go to Miami and exercised my freedom of speech by saying good things about Castro I would get beat up or killed. They all wish the US would invade Cuba and destroy it in order to save it. Miami Cubans don't want to hear anything good about Cuba. They get happy when Cuba has a natural calamity. They are rabid in their hate of Cuba and Castro.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. The Cuban Revolution has accomplished a lot but the people are impoverished. Castro became dictator and jailed or killed his opponents. I agree with Sheer, if Castro would've had free elections the CIA would have killed him off and installed a puppet government like they did in Iraq. I think the embargo against Cuba has also hurt her greatly.
You are blind. Of course everybody gets the same amount. Doctors get 20 dollars a month plus their book of rations. Cubans don't live from that, silly person, they live from the underground economy. Guess what? Doctors are bright and talented and make good money in that underground economy by being painters, photographers or whatever the hell sells. Like anywhere. Cuba is a dream my friend. The people are nice and intelligent. You don't feel you are surrounded by half wits like in the US and most otherr countries. Whoever you encounter has a university degree. I rented a car and travelled at will without encountering any roadbocks, keep out signs, private property signs or wealth. I saw no wealth! Gardners are fountains of medical knowledge about plants. Crocodile handlers are expert and proud of their job. Dancers are fully supported by the government and entertain tourists very ably. The have art degrees! To top it off, you can sit with a great cigar and watch vintage American cars in mint condition. As an Amrican you should like that.
I saw my thunderbird 55 go by, the same bloody tan color. I saw an Edsel.They even have baseball. A paradise for Americans I'm telling you. Warts? For sure. Very controled but you don't see it at all. Secret police everywhere. Total penetration. Thanks to Fidel's intransigence. He is right. It is the only way to save the revolution from the gringos.
Not one of you had explained to me in my ignorance why Fidel kills and imprisons his own people simply for speaking out against him or trying to leave paradise, and this includes many of his fellow revoloutionaries who thought they were giving Cuba back to its people- not to Fidel. Ok I haven't traveled there. He has:
From PBS's Views on Cuba:
Historian and essayist Rafael Rojas is a professor and researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (C.I.D.E.) in Mexico City.
"Cubans of my generation either feel hatred or love for Fidel, or perhaps a mixture of both. We do not see him simply as a European or American head of state, questionable, sometimes ridiculous and always exposed to criticism. He is the living legend of a revolutionary era. A solemn and heroic presence with an almost familiar, intensely affectionate relationship with the people. Cubans like me, born a little before or a little after 1959, neither criticize nor judge Fidel: we adore him or despise him, loathe or idolize him. We were born in a country where a revolution, headed by him and personified by him, radically transformed the social order, presenting itself as a symbol of the rebirth of the Cuban nation.
Between 1985 and 1990, while studying philosophy at the University of Havana, I began to hear Fidel's words differently. I began to discover contradictions, to reject his posturing, to recognize his subterfuges. Above all I was bothered by his arrogance, disguised in demagogic exaltations of the "dignity" and the "courage" of the Cuban people.
Evidently, with time, my eyes have opened to the flaws in that soft and pink skin -- deceitful texture of a frenetic will to dominate, just as the consciousness of a free man opens to the vices and the cunning of a caudillo. When one begins to distinguish between a democratic and dictatorial regime, it is inevitable to associate Fidel Castro's image with the longest personal dictatorship in the history of Latin America."
Finally, Carrace, I never told you to shut up did I? I never insulted you. But you called me stupid and told me to shut up. Notice what kind of attitude you have?
You yourself, clarity, said that said that blindly supporting Castro because Cuba is a communist country is as bad as blindly supporting Bush because he's the American president. And, of course, you're right.
But even though I admit I've never been to Cuba, just as you have admitted the same thing, I can see a flaw in the argument posed by Rafael Rojas, despite the fact that he has been to Cuba, which is that nowhere in it did he say anything that was at all concrete about what was bad about Castro's actions. He spoke of the nuances of Castro's speech and mentioned that there were flaws in Castro's pink skin, and stated that he himself was able to detect contradictions in Castro's words. Of course, he said all that very well, but he really didn't say anything that would let your average person know exactly what was so bad about what Castro actually did or does.
That doesn't sound like a good enough argument to demonize either Castro or Cuba, and certainly not enough of an argument to justify imposing trade embargos against an entire country.
But you know something? If Americans were free to travel back and forth between the US and Cuba, maybe more of us would know what it was really like over there. Hey, this is just a guess, but maybe that's exactly why we're not free to travel back and forth between the US and Cuba.
Well, in the end, maybe the Cubans themselves can decide what kind of country that they want.
I would suspect that they will want to keep any advances in education and healthcare. They probably will also want to keep some sort of broad social net, as well as protect their island from uncontrolled development.
Probably will want to get rid of the controlled economy (the cause of the massive black market)The neighborhood spying commitees, state newspapers, duel currencies, one party rule ,food rationing ect.
Castro is an old man from the 50,s. Like most revolutionaries, he is combative. While he is intelligent enough to be an atheist, he is very conservative. He has problems with homosexuals, prostitutes and drugs. If the Castro government were truly progressive, there would be gay marriages, legalized prostitution and legalized drugs in Cuba. He has many flaws, but greed and corruption are not part of them. He genuinely cares for his people and they know it. He is dedicated to the welfare of Cubans. Yes, he is old and behind the times, but he is right to be worried that the US could steal Cuba again. Once upon a time the US promised Cubans their help against the Spanish and promised they would leave after independance was achieved. The Cubans, warily accepted. The US didn't leave, and took everything, until Fidel kicked them out. He has a lot of good Karma going for him.
But he is an old man from the 50,s.
Here's a link to a socialist perspective on Castro:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/cast-f20.shtml
He will leave office far more popular among Cubans than George W. Bush is among Americans.
ticonderoga
My apologies- I only posted some of it so it wouldn't be too long here is the link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/sfeature/sf_views_rojas.html
He is actually Cuban and emigrated later in life- the piece is interestingly sentimental.
I'm afraid my loathing of all things totalitarian might have led me to misrepresent myself. Of course Castro did many things to help the average Cuban; and many of them continue to this day. I believe he started out with the best of intentions, a true patriot- but like many before him (in history) the idealist metastasized into the Tyrant.
While again I have not worked in Cuba I have worked for thirty years in Asia and Europe. It reminds me somewhat of many of the Chinese I work with in Shanghai or Beijing who, while condemning Mao's excesses and admitting his slaughter of millions, can't help but feel a strong emotional attachment to the person who defeated the Japanese (surprise to Macarthur!), liberated the homeland and fed the people for the first time in its long history. Even older Germans I have gotten to know will explain, they are careful not to "excuse", the rise of Hitler by letting you know that they were damn hungry before Hitler brought some order to the country.
And before you jump on me I by no means want to compare Castro to the above mentioned- but I do mean to show that often things are complex and there are layers of understanding that have to be considered in a rational and objective manor if one is to have an informed judgment on something.
My strong belief- the people must be sovereign- HERE or in Cuba, all else is BS...
Clarity, there's no need to apologize. And I have absolutely no intention of jumping on you. Also, I appreciate the link. The full article was both interesting and informative, in a sort of symbolic and psychological way. Your post was very interesting, too, and I appreciate very much being able to hear about this kind of thing from someone who has traveled so much more than I have. Thank you.
And I think I get it:
Castro appears to have created something larger than himself, and also to have become a larger-than-life symbol of what he created to the people of Cuba. For those who were already wealthy before Castro restructured Cuba he became a demonic symbol of theft and betrayal, for those who were impoverished he became an almost Christ-like symbol of freedom and defiance. But he was just a man, and men are fallible and power is an alluring thing, so Castro could never quite live up to the symbol that he evolved into, which caused others to feel betrayed with the realization that he was a flawed human being, just like they were.
It seems to me that the United States' actions against Cuba have backfired, causing the Cubans who revere Castro to continue to see him as a heroic symbol of defiance, and the ones who hate him to continue to see him as a thief. If the US didn't spend so much time and effort trying to demonize (and kill) Castro, Cubans might have, over time, realized that Castro was simply a man, and not a symbol. And Cuba might have, as a consequence, evolved into a country that identified itself with itself, instead of with Castro.
It's funny, but after reading the link you posted and pondering about this a bit, it seems to me that had the US NOT tried to kill Castro and NOT imposed trade embargos on Cuba, Cuba might have evolved into a country that was less of a threat, whether real or imagined, than the US thinks it is. So, once again, overreaction has created yet another self-fulfilling prophecy, in a strange and unintentional way.
To make two parallel analogies, the US took a genuinely bad man, Saddam Hussein, and demonized him and murdered him, after first supporting him, and did what no other country could have done, which is turn him into a hero and a martyr.
And it took a genuinely decent man, Castro, and demonized him (and the country he created), and created two entirely polarized images of him, a monster and a saint, but neither image is quite accurate.
* * *
Maybe the US should try to mind its own business, at least once in a while, especially when the business it's trying to mind is that of its big corporations.
Castro threw the Americn Mafia out of Cuba and the corrupt dictaor Batista, who was owned by the Mafia. That's what he didn't want and why should he or any Cubans want them back, running their drug and gambling trade.
After Castro overthrew a totally corrupt govenment, who cared not at all for the people, and was as almost as bad as Saddam's Iraq, Castro was shunned by our govenrment from that day on. He had ruined the neo-cons pre-Las Vegas playground.
He requested our assistance and we shit on him, and so he asked the Soviet Union and they helped the Cubans rebuild the country's infastructures and traded with them. Because of that, we ended up with The Bay of Pigs fiasco and then the Cuban Missile Crisis, and that almost ended most of mankind on this planet.
Some heated exchanges on this article. For the common people, which are the overwhelming majority, Castro has been a hero, compared to Batista, as KEM stated above. For the small minority of Cubans who were wealthy and owned almost everything in Cuba, Castro was bad. Overall, he has a good record after struggling with U.S. imperialism and trade sanctions to this day.
Saul Landau, has been to Cuba many times and has written extensively on Castro and Cuba and even made a documentary about it. At one of the anti-war marches I took part in two years ago, two young fellas, both Americans, went to Cuba for several weeks to see first hand how it is. Yeah, there's still poverty, and some of the people would ask for money from the 'wealthy Americans', but overall they were friendly and the police didn't bother them at all. They traveled around the island without a problem.
Check out Saul Landau's work.
rcarrace:
You know my favorite part of Michael Moore's "Sicko?" When the discouraged fat-ass Americans went begging for help from the Cuban's exemplary health care system. They looked like some alien gang of pathetic waterbugs wandering into the light of day. You and your sick fat-ass brothers down their in Florida can stoke your hatred and pander to whatever right-wing demagogue you wish. We know better here at CD. We read a variety of resource material backed by facts and brave investigative research. Go back to your hole and turn on your am radio. You're not worthy of our time.
Say again!? Bush twice elected by the American people? Is this some kind of a sick joke? He wasn't elected twice, he STOLE THE PRESIDENCY twice. Another shining example of what US 'democracy' is all about: the power of money and influence.
ticonderoga wrote;
>reminds me somewhat of many of the Chinese I work with in Shanghai or Beijing who, while condemning Mao's excesses and admitting his slaughter of millions, can't help but feel a strong emotional attachment to the person]]
I don't know who your friends are, but those of us who'd lived there during the 50s and 60s didn't witness any of Mao's "slaughter of millions." Not during the Great Leap, nor during the Cultural Revolution. That, in the aftermath of the Communist victory, people were killed, that's true. But those were largely former landlords who'd oppressed the people, or who'd collaborated with the Japanese invaders. The French too killed their German collaborators or those working under Petain.
People died during the Great Leap, yes - famine wasn't a stranger to China for thousands of years. But the figures were deliberately exaggerated. And even then, a lot died because much of their lives began during the old pre-communist days - pre-1950 - when starvation was the rule, not the exception. My grandfather had a family of 16, and only two survived. Life expectancy was around 35 - 40. After Mao took over, the average lifespan increased to about 60 during the early 60s, and over 65 by the 70s. By late 1970s, Chinese population had increased so dramatically that the idea of a one-child family began to be discussed. As I said, there were deaths, but mostly of malnutrition, and it was caused largely by drought compounded by bad planning (the new government was very inexperienced during those early years). Further, the Great Leap was a committee decision, not the decision of one man. Even then, it was the last time this ever occured. Compare this with many other Third World nations and we can say that Mao's China had accomplished much.
Maoism is an ideology for the poor: even in China the better off didn't really embrace it. But they were a very small minority. The greatest accomplishment was the government's ability to feed a population of over 600 million, besides generating a steady industrial growth rate of about 7 percent. It was a growth without the pollution we're seeing today. Most of all, for the first time in history China had a leader who was able to protect its sovereignty. Shanghai was no longer divided into eleven international settlements, ruled by foreign countries and arrogant bastards who hung signs in their clubs saying "Dogs and Chinese not allowed" - in our own country!
Generally, under Mao, the people were poor but healthy because, around the time of the Cultural Revolution, he started basic healthcare with the famous "barefoot doctors" - people who knew some basic traditional Chinese medicine and simple hygiene and spread that knowledge to the millions of peasants in the countryside. Most rural Chinese were given elementary education, and used renewable energy such as bio-mass. In anticipation of even bigger population growth, China for the first time experimented successfully high-yield hybrid rice - years before the "green revolution" was known to the world. These were accomplishments that are often downplayed not only by the West, but by many better-off urban Chinese. Amartya Sen noted that the so-called opening up of China was successful partly because it had an educated workforce ready to work in factories with very low pay. He might also note that the "success" of agriculture was also because of the tens of thousands of small dams and irrigation canals built up during Mao's tenure.
lizard,
I did answer you in Spanish.
tailcap,
Castro didn't only take from the rich. There was also an upper and lower midle class. He stole from everybody.
Re: rcarrace
Since rcarrace claims to have been born in Cuba and claims to still have family and friends living there, I suspect he (or she?) probably has some good points to make.
Unfortunately, rcarrace's tendency to hurtle ad hominem attacks at others for their differing opinions makes it almost impossible to take him (or her?) seriously.
Friendly advice to rcarrace: Temper your speech, sir (or madam?). Eschew the ad hominem attack in favor of points in fact well made. Stick to the facts and leave the emotion out of it. Your message will find more receptive ears that way.
In other words, insult me and I'll dismiss what you say. Offer cogent reasoning backed by facts without emotion and I will listen to you.
And don't take the bait.
If anyone is interested in visiting Cuba or an in-depth unbiased portrait of daily life in Cuba please visit
http://www.iammyownreporter.com/
It is really packed with facts, surveys and experiences from someone that actually has visited the Island many times recently.
Do not miss the "misconceptions" section !
I, too, believe that Castro has been good for Cuba and that the United States has not been good for Cuba.
The US has a terrible record of supporting and sometimes even installing right-wing dictators and of overthrowing legitimately elected populists and socialists. Shame on us for subverting our own founding principles. And shame on us for wreaking economic and political havoc on the peoples of those countries who have not kowtowed to the US.
I second the words of rjhuntington. Vicious words turn me off.
-----
We will never know what Cuba could have turned into. The USA, by its behavior, forced Castro to be more extremist in order to save his people. Then the USA used that increased extremism to justify their own extremist behavior.
I find it similar to Iran. Elections there could be won by more moderate forces if only the USA didn't ratchet up the fear and hatred, further energizing the extremists on both sides.
locust
Regardless of what the US did, Castro is a dictator who would has denied his people the basic human rights that anybody deserves.
There is no perfect country and there never will be. Castro exploited this, knowlingly to fool countless of good Cuban people.
FREEDOM. He who denies this basic element is a thug a tyrant.
Castro murdered and tortured innocent people not just the unjust. Yes, some people that deserved it suffered but mostly good people suffered. Castro and Che are both as bad as the thugs they drove out of Cuba. Fidel knew he was at the right place and time. He knew that the public was sick of Batista'a rule (they were rightfully).
While the people of Cuba have been doing without for 40 years, Castro has lived like a king. Castro doesn't give a shit about his people and never has.
rcarrace, I understand the emotion involved on your behalf. I don't have relatives directly affected by the Cuban experience. However, you have to honestly look at what the US did to other countries in the region, and the rest of the world. If the US had a history of supporting leaders and systems that made people's lives better your points would have more relevance. The US has turned countries like Cuba into nightmares, and there was no healthcare or educational system to help people from falling into the depths of hell. Every bad thing you can think of regarding repression and torture and has happened in US backed client states (many times much, much worse) with nothing positive what so ever for the general public. No healthcare, no access to food, no educational system, nothing. You should read up about the situation in Haiti, see what groups the US has supported and what their effects have been. See what happened when a leader, Aristide, took power democratically and respected the rights and opinions of the opposition (who by the way murdered many more innocent people than Castro and destroyed the country for their rich Western backers). Or Chile, who's leader believed in representative democracy. Or Venezuela, who's ten times more democratic and empowering towards regular people than the US will ever be. There's never excusing Castro's excesses (gay people in Cuba weren't about to rise up as a group and ferment a coup) but there's also no excusing overlooking the effect that the US' policies, with its horrendous record elsewhere, had on Cuba and countless other countries across the world. Again, I understand why you are emotional, but your emotional attachment to this issue doesn't have any effect on the logic of the situation. I hope, from afar, that the Cuban people are given more freedoms but I also hope that the US doesn't respond to that by doing what they always do. Subverting those freedoms by funding anti-democratic groups who are just as ideologically rigid as Castro is and could in the end care less what the majority of Cubans want anyway. If the US does that, and accomplishes what they truly want, Cuba WILL go the way of the other countries in the region and Castro reign, however flawed, will look like a paradise in comparison.
Grant,
I see your point however, again, we are caught up in a dilema that no words or logic will resolve. All of you points are good and I am well aware of the corruption in our own country. To get back to the dilema ... human nature, good and bad people ... the history of the world! The solution is unfortunately, picking the best of both evils.
I know. It is sad but it is all we have. Come on ... let's grow up.
Larry D,
Thank you for an excellent posting about China under Mao. There is so much distorted information and propaganda in the United States against any government or system that helps the common people, that the vast majority of our citizens have no idea how people in other cultures and forms of governance around the world live.
Grant, Well said.
rcarrace, I agree that at times we have to pick between two (or more) "evils". The problem is that we sometimes will pick opposite evils for different reasons. Sometimes there is no middle ground to be had. In that situation the only thing people who disagree can do is state their case to others and see who can convince more people to come to their side of the argument. In this country, your side of the argument has an aid, the press, who is owned by the interests I'm critiquing here and who are aligned with the anti-Castro faction. They state your case to millions of Americans and they state it with no background or objectivity what so ever. See the situation in Venezuela with Chavez. He's democratic, he empowers regular people, gives them powers to form government policy off the charts here in the US, is backed by the vast majority of the country and doesn't repress the opposition. How has the US responded to this? By funding a group who in 2002 dissolved all the branches of government, nullified the constitution that was voted on by the people in a national referendum (with over 70% backing) and set up a military dictatorship. There's a clip of this happening you an watch on youtube. When the dictatorship was announced the crowd cheered, it was great obviously to subvert another democracy and set up another government by elite rule. All of it possible as a result of my tax dollars. These are the types of actions I'm talking about. Any rate, there's nowhere else to go with this, so good day.
I have worked with peasant farmers all over Latin America and the Caribbean. They were often illiterate and poorly informed, but they knew who Fidel was and what he represented. Many understood that the few concessions they received from their ruling elites, including the poorly conceived and half-hearted land reform and agricultural assistance programs promoted and supported by the US, owed their existence to Fidel's successful resistance to the US Goliath. The Cuban people may have paid a price for Fidel's intransigence, but the poor of the hemisphere were inspired by their example, and occasionally even benefited.
It is kinda silly to pick on Fidel now that he is retired and pick on him when he and US Imperialism were at war...Cuba for its survival without US gangster control and the US at war with every progressive or socialist leaning system in South America and the World.
That is why Castro is the most admired politician in the world out side of Miami.
Someone here said as proof "if Castro is so good why aren''t people flocking to Cuba"?
Well here in Tampa the Cuban Community and most american tourists and educators and artists would be flocking to Cuba if the US government permitted it like a free country that was interested in spreading freedom would.
Phil Ochs from the song William Worthy:
William Worthy isn't worthy to enter our door, He went down to Cuba and is not american anymore, but somehow it is strange to hear the State Department say.. "YOU ARE LIVING IN THE FREE WORLD IN THE FREE WORLD YOU MUST STAY!
As for the thousands of Cubans who come here daily, Well maybe in the past and at one time during the boat lift when Castro wanted those who wanted out to leave....
I don't see that many Cubans coming to Florida anymore ... a few here and there and it is usually a story in the press.
But it looks like Canada and other countries are doin business with Cuba now and things are gettin better there and much worse here.... so keep up the hatred of Castro until you are dead and see how that hatred helps you live out the rest of your lives.
Really it is clear from comments that this old hatred from the old Cold War is makin some good folks very unhappy and may make them sick.
Over 25 years ago, living in India, where a so-called Marxist government began running the state of West Bengal since the mid-1970s- I had highly negative views of communism (especially the Indian versions of it- the type my father, who spent time in British prison as a fighter for India's freedom, absolutely abhorred), and, rather naively in retrospect, of socialism as well by association.
Looking back, I realize that the Anglo-American propaganda machine is one of Mankind's most spectacular inventions. People in colonized and formerly brutalized countries throughout the world, and throughout modern history, are fed a regular ration (an overdose, actually) of the benevolence and greatness of this "democratic" and value-based Western capitalist model. This relentless propaganda, in conjunction of the looted and misbegotten wealth accumulated in the hands of their propaganda overlords (at the expense of millions, if not billions, of poor and helpless people the world over)- penetrates and permeates the psyche of people everywhere, especially the young.
As a result, we find many Indians, much like the Miami-Cubans discussed here, exhibit relentless contempt for their land and their people- and cannot praise the bright and shiny Land of the Free, Home of the Brave enough. This is a lot like a mighty bully, say, invading the homes in an entire village, looting, plundering and killing at will- then, with all the accumulated spoils- building himself a fabulous castle somewhere- a fairytale abode where deer roam the woods, the ponds are stocked, and nightingales croon in your ears. Imagine, now, that the bully, years later, offers a few of the "impoverished" survivors of his rape and pillage (impoverished for obvious reasons)- some shiny pieces of silver, a giant LCD HDTV, and indeed, an opportunity to work on his palatial territory. Indeed, by human nature, many an "impoverished" and starry-eyed yokel will make a bee-line for the bully's heaven. This is the reality. But it does not make the bully's crimes any less; if anything, it makes the irony of human foibles deeper.
I have spent a long time in the U.S. now, and I must say that almost from the very beginning of my time here, my eyes were opened to the narrow, vicious bigotry of the capitalist world. I will never forget the racist and divisive efforts (led primarily by the R-party in the US Congress) in the early 1980s to not recognize MLK's birthday as a national holiday. So much more has since followed right before my eyes- the Anglo-American alliance, working in cohesion, doing its utmost to undermine popular movements in nation after nation; propping up bogus, genocidal dictators across the world; torpedoing efforts of poorer nations to break out of debt by foisting oligarchic tools of profit such as the IMF and the World Bank; and, worst of all, in virtually every single year I can recall, DROPPING BOMBS AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION UPON ONE HAPLESS NATION AFTER ANOTHER. Quite a shining record, this- this bully nation, this greater by far extension of the bully in my fable.
I have equally witnessed the entrenched fabulist culture in the U.S. mistreating its own people- enormous prisons; limitless guns and other weapons of violence; disenfranchisement of minorities; relentless shoddy treatment of blacks and the poor; and, most lately, in these glorious Dubya years (which, thankfully, have done ONE good thing- exposed the deep corruption and murderous capacity of the American propaganda machine)- the decimating of the middle and working classes.
Placed against this self-appointed "Colossus," as Mr. Sheer describes it (Goliath may be a slightly better description, however)- the valiant resistance offered by Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba, stands out as an exemplary model of human courage, determination and nobility. When the Machine does all it can to cripple you by embargoes and isolation- your failures cannot be judged at face value; your successes, on the other hand, are direct measures of your will to try and become a caring and fair-minded society. Until the world itself changes to one that cares for its poor and exploited, the odds will be stacked overwhelmingly against your success.
I have now reached the conclusion that all these so-called failures of socialism around the world (with a few exceptions), may not, after all, be attributed to the models themselves. I am rather convinced that their failure is largely due to the success of the Machine in destabilizing and eventually annihilating them in order to suit its purpose. Allende's Chile, Nasser's Egypt and Mossadegh's Iran are three simple examples that make the point.
Compared with the belligerent US Presidents (except, to a certain extent, for Jimmy Carter), aided and propped by the mighty Machine- Fidel will live on in history as a David of absolutely legendary proportions. It does not surprise me the least that Ernest Hemingway, among so many other luminaries, befriended Fidel even as he led his rag-tag band of revolutionaries against Anglo-American and Euro-American tyranny. In the hall of human affairs, flaws and all, Fidel stands truly tall.
Jim Glover,
Your quote ...
"As for the thousands of Cubans who come here daily, Well maybe in the past and at one time during the boat lift when Castro wanted those who wanted out to leave…."
No, everyday, today ... yesterday ... every single day fof the past 35 or 40 years ... the Cuban people have risked their lives to excape Communist Cuba. EVERYDAY ... on rafts, on the inner tubes of tires, in the tires of airplanes ... they have risked their lives to leave Cuba. You are wrong again ...
If Cuba is such a paradise, if Castro is so good ... Why do his people risk their lives to leave?
I tip my hat to Castro for shutting down the ultra-Zionist thug Meyer Lansky's operations in Cuba. I'm sure that's why the pro-Zionists in Washington DC really hate him. To say the US hates him because he is a "dictator" is bogus since the US has supported some of the most evil and pathetic dictators like Mobutu, Marcos, the Shah, Duvalier and son, Diem and a host of other clowns. Maybe with the passing of Castro, the Cuban exiles will go back to Cuba and stop hijacking US foreign policy for their selfish ends because I'm tired of their silly foolishness.
Castro oppresses his people. Castro did not want elections in his country. Castro locked up my uncle for 5 years when he was 19 because my uncle tried to leave Cuba. Castro is a thug, a criminal and a murderer. My mother saw the executions on live TV when he took over. By gunfire they (he and Che) murdered innocent people for everyone to watch. There is no food, no faith no FREEDOM in Cuba. In other words, there is nothing in Cuba because without liberty there is nothing.
Give me liberty or give me death. God Bless America!
First of all can you show me the thousands who have come here today or this week or this month?
rcarrace,
according to 1991 a big year from NYTimes http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD71E3EF934A15754C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all 1,378 Cuban rafters who have been officially admitted to the United States this year.
Maybe you can document how many rafters risked their lives this year?
I think they come first on rafts because they are poor and because they get special treatment if they make it to the Mainland and don't get caught by The US coast guard on the way.
We give them special treatment that no other country gets but they have to face the sharks to get that... this is an evil policy but Bush is evil.
How many Mexican immigrants risk their lives everyday To come here?
Does that mean we should make war on Mexico?
Here is one on folks goin to Cuba from countries where it is legal http://www.cubaheadlines.com/news/local/villaclaraindex.html
The USA Policy is a crime against the freedom to travel and to associate freely.
Would'nt you like to go to Cuba and spend your dollars as you wish and talk to Cubans about how we can improve the situation now that your boggy man Fidel has retired?
monish:
nice commentary. Just to name a few, you might have added Arbenz's Guatemala, and Sandinista Nicaragua. As for those deposed (some were less than perfect) there is a very long list just in Central America and the Caribbean. Often we "saved democracy" just for a banana company.
Jim Glover,
I wouldn't spend one dime in Cuba. It would only serve Fidel not his people like it has been for 40 years.
BTW: People come from Mexico because of unfair trade deals like NAFTA. Just because I hate Fidel does not mean I agree with everything my country has done. I know we have our problems here in the US. But Castro is a thug.
rcarrace,
It is sad about your uncle and others who were shot right after the revolution.
That was around 50 years ago .
Every bloody war has innocent victims. That is why we struggle for an end to War.
If you were free to go to Cuba you could find out more about your family.
I read a while back that Castro was willing to negotiate disputes with those like yourself who may have legitimate claims and Grievances for confiscated property.
But it is the USA that is stopping you from taking a lead for better relations and a better world not just in Cuba but Bush is destroying most international relations with the old racket of War that his family has been investing for around 60 years or more.