Cuban TV Airs First Footage of Castro

[Say_What]

Great photo essay Fidel through the Years to right of article.

<clips>

HAVANA -- Cuban state television on Monday aired the first video of Fidel Castro since he stepped down as president to recover from surgery, showing the bedridden Cuban leader joking with his brother and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Castro appeared tired and pale, yet alert in the videotaped encounter, speaking quietly but clearly enjoying himself as he chatted with Chavez, his close friend and political ally. Acting president Raul Castro was also present for the encounter on his brother's 80th birthday.

As the men bantered back and forth, Castro's voice was inaudible. He was later shown in animated conversation with Chavez, but music played over his words.

Chavez told Castro he sat down to pray when he learned of the Cuban leader's illness and operation, and said "that was a horrible day." But the Venezuelan leader also was optimistic, saying, "Your capacity to recover is impressive."

The videotape showed the friends sharing a snack and looking at an album of photographs showing them together -- including one from a trip Castro took to Venezuela during an earlier birthday. Sentimental music accompanied the footage, which lasted about 10 minutes.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sns-ap-cuba-castro,0,2810331.story


Fidel Castro in his 1945 high school yearbook. The caption reads: "Distinguished student and a fine athlete. Very popular. Will study law and we have no doubt he will have a brilliant future."
(AP)


Fidel Castro talks with TV show host and N.Y. Daily News columnist Ed Sullivan on Jan. 6, 1959.
(AP/Harold Valentine)


Cuban President Fidel Castro hugs an unidentified child during a visit to The Riverside Church in New York City.
(Jose Goitia/AP)

[Say_What]

1. Return Democracy to Cuba? It was never there

El Exilie unmasked again. What the article fails to mention is that those banana republic dictators that ruled Cuba so brutally were US-approved and supported.

<clips>
With every fluctuation in the status quo between this country and Fidel Castro’s regime, Cuban exiles in South Florida take to the streets and pandering politicians in Washington climb atop their soapboxes.

...That idea is born of the belief that the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 chased democracy from the island nation. And so, not surprisingly, the illness that led Castro to turn the reins of government over to his younger brother, Raul, is seen by many as an opening for democracy’s return.

But that idea is rooted in fiction, not fact.

There was no democracy in Cuba before Castro seized power. Castro’s left-wing dictatorship replaced the right-wing dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. A former army sergeant, Batista was a banana republic dictator straight out of central casting.

...For decades before Castro’s revolution, Cuba was a criminal oligarchy in which a select group of Cubans benefited from a succession of corrupt governments and the American gangsters who were allowed to run casinos and prostitution rings on the island.

Not many Americans know this bit of Cuban history. That’s because it isn’t in the interest of Cuban exiles to debunk the myth of Cuba’s “democratic” past. After all, how much political support could they muster in this country if they said they wanted to take Cuba back to the good old days of el presidentes Batista, Prio and Grau San Martin?

Instead, they hope that most of us will believe they want to install a form of government that mirrors the best of ours. But the truth, I suspect, would be much harder for most Americans to swallow.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/OPINION/60811037/1049


Cuban, Venezuelan and Bolivian medical students hold placards hailing Cuban President Fidel Castro during a concert commemorating his 80th birthday at the Anti-imperialist Square in Havana. Raul Castro, newly at the helm of communist Cuba as his brother recovers from surgery, welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Cuba to celebrate Fidel Castro's 80th birthday.(AFP/Adalberto Roque)

[killbotfactory]

15. Castro was running for parlaiment when Batista took over with a coup

“Those who make peaceful change impossible. will make violent revolution inevitable.”

[Mika]

16. Oh please. Cuba initiated a parliamentary system in 1976.

More anti Cuba mewling. More lies stacked upon myth. DeWayne Wickham should go to Cuba and see for himself what is there NOW.

While I agree with his assessment on Cuba's historical lack of democracy, he makes no mention of the revolutionary change that occurred in Cuba in 1976.

Democratic processes evolve in all countries that initiate democratic processes, and none are perfect or utopian. Cuba's democratic process is evolving and improving, but, by and large, Cuba is currently a democracy. Now I know that this raises the ire of the Cubaphobes/Castro-fixated (the DU Cuba "experts" who mewl about Castro did this and Castro did that, and who have never been there), but, generally speaking, these "experts" are uninformed on the subject and know about as much about Cuba NOW as would fit on the head of a very small pin. Their obsession with Castro gets in the way of much rational reasoning.


I recommend this book for all who are really interested in this subject.

Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections
Arnold August
1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

[leesa]

55. Thank you. I hope Cuba can keep on the path they've started.

They have come such a long way with their universities and health care systems. It's such a fragile process and the US is just salivating to screw it up with their out-of-control raptor capitalism. Why do we always insist on pushing OUR form of "democracy". It doesn't even work HERE, much less imposed onto a different culture.

[Mika]

2. Last night on local Miami TV..

.. the stations were getting reactions from the gusanos at the Versailles (on SW 8th st, Miami). Every single person that they showed said that the pictures and videos were most likely faked, just like Elian's post rescue pics.
:rofl:


Then local Ch 7 cut to a response to the Castro pics & vids by Jeb Bush who said 'there's a lot of things that can be done to doctor pictures and videos these days so I don't know if they are of Castro or not'.


Pure insanity pushed by local Miami TV. As usual.

[Missy M]

3. I guess Jeb is as big an idiot as his brother.

[saigon68]

31. He's certainly as big a CRIMINAL as his brother

Although he doesn't look as much like a chimp, as his brother

[Say_What]

4. I can hear the hysterical Gusanos calling in to Radio Mambi now...

:rofl:

There's been quite a few good op/eds about Cuba in the past few weeks. Like this one by Max Castro, which you've probably alread read. I'll post it for anyone who's interested.

<clips>

From hating Castro to loving the Cuban people – it’s time for a transition in Cuban-American priorities

...For me, this unseemly spectacle, which will do nothing to improve the image of Miami Cubans already tarnished by the Elian affair and myriad expressions of intolerance over decades, raised this question: What will those who have made of hating Fidel not only their career and their livelihood but also their vocation, their obsession, even the main thing that gives meaning to their lives, do when the man finally dies?

For nearly half a century, Fidel Castro has played a role on the world’s stage wildly out of proportion with Cuba’s size and power. He has had an even larger impact on Cubans. Those on the island -- whether detractors or supporters -- have been most directly affected; arguably, Fidel looms even larger in the psyche of his fiercest opponents outside Cuba. This reality is reflected in an anecdote I heard several years ago. An elderly Cuban woman visiting relatives in Miami remarked that she couldn’t wait to return to the island because she was tired of hearing such incessant talk about Fidel.

The festive reaction in Miami contrasts with the attitude of Jaime Cardinal Ortega, who in his Sunday sermon asked for prayers for the ailing Fidel Castro. There is, as well, an irony involved in the Miami response. If Fidel were to die of natural causes after more than forty-seven years in power -- and having first handed off power to Raul -- this can hardly be seen as a victory by those who have spent a lifetime trying to kill or overthrow him. It is one thing to celebrate besting an opponent in the arena of politics or war. But there is no nobility in rejoicing at the adversary’s possible demise from an intestinal illness. If the nemesis dies under these circumstances, he is likely to be considered to have retired from the battle undefeated. Nature spares nobody, but its processes carry no political or ideological message.

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Max_Castro&otherweek=1155618000

[Judi Lynn]

8. There you have it, Say_What. You've captured one!

It's a reference by someone living in South Florida to a Cuban visiting the U.S., while people OUTSIDE South Florida continue, in most cases, to believe they are never allowed to leave the island.

People who start keeping their eyes open and reading Cuba-related material will start running across information which contradicts the propaganda over and over.

There's that defunct message board at Delphi in which an old gusana bat who came over in the first wave yammered on and on to her younger Cuban poster friend about her own sister visiting her in the states, too, and finally returning after a very long visit. They discussed it right in front of the ordinary American posters, yet were ready at the drop of a hat to resume their previous right-wing claptrap, repeating the standard lines until they were blue in the face.

(She's happy as a clam in the present, posting away on the Miami Herald Cuba news message board, surrounded by her peers, and still spews the same sour, obnoxious, condescending gibberish.)

With intelligent people, it only takes one or two cracks in the wall of propaganda before they suddenly see the light and start thinking for themselves. It's like learning to walk! You are never the same, and would never go back.

Also from your article:

Whatever the course of the Cuban president’s illness, this episode should mark the beginning of the end of an unhealthy obsession. For too many years, those who have led the Cuban community in the United States -- and a disturbingly large number of their followers as well -- have made hating Fidel a more important priority than loving the Cuban people. This sad reality has become embodied in policies aimed at punishing and isolating Cuba. Working to change this priority in order to begin in earnest the long transition from a psychology and a policy framework grounded in hatred and revenge to one based on communication and solidarity is the single most important thing we can do for Cuba in this moment of high drama.
(snip/)

[Say_What]

9. What will those Gusanos do without the anti-Cuba industry?

Who they gonna rail against after Fidel is gone? It'll be interesting to watch.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Well, they've got a long history of little respect for those among them

who don't agree with them, as in the murders, bombings, etc. of politically moderate Cubans in Florida, and elsewhere. They seem to see them as their worst enemies, too.

It's that old right-wing greed and hatred, racism, and selfishness that drives the regular right-wing here, and they've got a really bad dose of it! They love being the big fish in a very tiny pond, and running roughshod over others. Hard habit to give up, and god helps the man or woman who tries to help the downtrodden they want to bully.

[Say_What]

44. For your enjoyment from Progreso Weekly...

What happened to the concept of Cuba – the “Motherland”?

<clips>

By Alvaro F. Fernandez

Ding dong! The witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch. Ding dong! The wicked witch is dead.-- Song from the movie, The Wizard of Oz

People danced on the streets. Others stared at TV cameras, yelled, whooped it up for the world to see. Nobody had given them reason to believe, but in their minds, Fidel Castro was dead.

Monday night, July 31, turned out to be another one of those moments that becomes historical lore in what is the soap opera life of Miami. At around 9 p.m., Cuban TV had announced that Fidel Castro was ceding temporary power to his brother Raul. The Cuban leader was to have a delicate stomach operation and would be out of commission for a while. Fidel, the indestructible, would never cede power, people here said.

Suddenly, everyone had a theory. And the streets of Cuban Miami started filling with revelers celebrating the death of their wicked witch.

Many Miami Cuban exiles have an uncanny ability to look ridiculous at times. Theirs is a willingness to believe almost anything about Cuba and Fidel Castro while demonstrating an infirmed hatred that borders on mass paranoia.

Sadder still is the fact that the rest of the world, and many around the United States, have seen them act out a Caribbean tragedy here for nearly half a century. At critical moments, where there has been need for reflection, they’ve turned the situations to, what could have been used as, studies for new psychiatric drugs that seem to pop up daily nowadays.

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=lupalvaro&otherweek=1155790800

[Judi Lynn]

47. Oh, yeah! That's really good. So satisfying, especially this part:

The big losers in this Miami song and dance fest: the Cuban Miami exile community. Once more they looked like out of control wackos and greedy SOBs. What stood out in my mind, although there were some smart spin doctors trying to remedy the situation after a couple of days of the senseless jubilation, was the fact that Fidel’s death was celebrated, the return of lost properties on the island nation was debated, but Cuban Miami, a land full of paunchy, overfed Calle Ocho patriots, seemed to forget that foremost in everyone’s mind should have been the Motherland. It speaks plenty of fanatics that frequent the restaurants on Calle Ocho, and, over huge portions of pork, chicken and rice, and flan for dessert, with a Cuban coffee chaser, plan out the invasion of Cuba. Of course, leaving it for tomorrow – they’re just too full to take to the sea today.

They seem to forget that they tried that once, in 1961, and failed. They blamed the U.S. government for that one. And now men and women, some older than Fidel, still boast of invading some day. Of course, what they won’t admit is that they’re banking on the americanos to do the dirty work for them. “Send the marines,” they will solve all of our problems.
(snip)

You remember hearing, no doubt, that the late Cuban "exile" leader, loudmouth Jorge Mas Canosa participated in the Bay of Pigs, but he NEVER GOT OUT OF HIS BOAT. Amazing. He sat that one out.

Yep, they're all talk and no action. It's sad to think that this _Bush is so hot for blood letting, and the drunken feeling of boundless power he gets from being able to send people to their death, that he just might be more than happy to send American soldiers to invade, just for fun, and for the sake of his cancer-like ego.

[Judi Lynn]

12. By the way, gorgeous photo of Trinidad, Cuba.

I just found a 360 degree look at the town square. It says that Trinidad was a center for sugar and slave trading in during the Spanish colonial era:

http://www.urbansquares.com/cuba09.html

[Say_What]

22. Trinidad, I read recently, is also where Fidel's wife comes from

Dalia Soto del Valle, wife of Fidel Castro, attends May Day celebrations at Havana's Revolution Square, May 1, 2004. Most Cubans do not know the name of the Cuban leader's wife (it is not known if they are actually married). (Rafael Perez/Reuters)

[Akim]

18. They Will Continue to Beat the Old Horse, As Usual

Hopefully, they will not be confronted with that dilemma for some time.

Your question is analogous to what would the anti-communists do once communism imploded in Europe. The answer is that they will continue exactly the same.

New villains will present themselves, new usurpations will become viable, new struggles against the common good will be undertaken. And, of course, they will continue to beat the "old horse," so to speak.

[Say_What]

24. Ninoska Perez, Perez-Roura, Ditzy-Balistic brothers, Ros-Lehtinen,

etc, etc, etc, would be lost. For the MiamiGusanos there will never be another Fidel. Without him they're nothing. Today they still have enough power for a POTUS to come to Miami to pander to them as Bush did a few weeks ago when he visited Cafe Versailles and gave an radio interview to Radio Mambi's Armando Perez Roura and Ninoska Pérez-Castellón.

Dems and Repukes alike kowtow to the Gusanos for their vote. The history of this pandering is absolutely dispicable and it's been going on since JFKs administration. Unfortunately, most US sheeple are clueless to how much power this small group of rabid dogs have over US presidents--for more than 40 years they dictated US foreign policy to Cuba.

[lumpy]

36. The US invaded, occupied and took control

of Cuba for many years. Many people are unaware or choose to forget this fact. The US was complicit in supporting the cruel dictaorship of Baptista and financially gained under his rule.

[Akim]

21. The Gusano Hardliners Would Be Lost Without Fidel

The terrible irony is that if the gusano hardliners ever lost Fidel they would lose their bearings and probably give up the ghost themselves. It is impossible to define yourself in relation to another human being for 50 years without in effect surrendering your life and autonomy to him. Hence the scenes of wild panic that were witnessed in recent days at the prospect of Castro's demise. Imagine, if you will, the compass losing it arrow. At whom shall Cuban-American hardliners concentrate their negative energy once Castro is gone? Because negativity is all they know.

[Mika]

26. What a great analogy, Akim!

On the impact of the death of F. Castro on the hard line Miamicuban exiles --> "Imagine, if you will, the compass losing its arrow."

:thumbsup:

[mom cat]

5. He's dead Jim.

That was a picture of his ghost.
:sarcasm:

[Schema Thing]

6. Look at them flaunting their horrible redness!!!11!!!

[Judi Lynn]

19. It seems to rub some people the wrong way. They are leading charmed

lives, if that's all it takes to really get them wild!



"The snarl is a window to the soul."

[Vidar]

7. Does my heart good.

[Say_What]

10. Cuba exports health (Hernando Calvo Ospina)

Cuba exports health (Hernando Calvo Ospina)

<clips>

Some 14,000 Cuban doctors now give free treatment to Venezuela‚s poor and 3,000 Cuban medical staff worked in the aftermath of last year‚s Kashmir earthquake. Cuba has plans to heal those poorer than itself.

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the southern United States in August 2005, the authorities were overwhelmed and the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, appealed to the international community for emergency medical aid. The Cuban government immediately offered assistance to New Orleans and to the states of Mississippi and Alabama, also affected by the storm, and promised that within 48 hours 1,600 doctors, trained to deal with such catastrophes, would arrive with all the necessary equipment plus 36 tonnes of medical supplies. This offer, and another made directly to President George Bush, went unanswered. In the catastrophe at least 1,800 people, most of them poor, died for lack of aid and treatment.

In October 2005, the Kashmir region of Pakistan experienced one of the most violent earthquakes in its history, with terrible consequences in the poorest and most isolated areas to the north. On 15 October an advance party of 200 emergency doctors arrived from Cuba with several tonnes of equipment. A few days later, Havana sent the necessary materials to erect and equip 30 field hospitals in mountain areas, most of which had never been previously visited by a doctor. Local people learned of Cuba‚s existence for the first time.

To avoid causing offence in this predominantly Muslim country, the women on the Cuban team, who represented 44% of some 3,000 medical staff sent to Pakistan in the next six months, dressed appropriately and wore headscarves. Good will was quickly established; many Pakistanis even allowed their wives and daughters to be treated by male doctors.

http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2006/08/15/620/

[Judi Lynn]

14. Wonderful report from Pakistan. Cubans have been going everywhere

to help in time of crisis, except to the U.S., when _Bush the "Decider" refused their help, feeling the victems of the hurricane would do far better without medical help.

From the article:

By the end of April 2006, shortly before their departure, the Cubans had treated 1.5 million patients, mostly women, and performed 13,000 surgical operations. Only a few severely injured patients had to be flown to Havana. Pakistan‚s President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally of the US and friend of Bush, officially thanked the Cuban authorities and acknowledged that this small nation in the Caribbean had sent more disaster aid than any other country.

First medical brigade

Cuba set up its first international medical brigade in 1963 and dispatched its 58 doctors and health workers to newly independent Algeria. In 1998 the Cuban government began to create the machinery to send large-scale medical assistance to poor populations affected by natural disasters. After hurricanes George and Mitch blew through Central America and the Caribbean, it offered its medical personnel as part of an integrated health programme. The Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti and Belize all accepted this aid.

Cuba offered massive medical assistance to Haiti, where healthcare was chronically inadequate. In 1998 Cuba even approached France, Haiti‚s former colonial power, with a proposal to establish a humanitarian association to help the people of Haiti. The French government did not respond (although, finally, in 2004, it sent troops). Since 1998 Cuba has sent 2,500 doctors and as much medicine as its fragile economy permits.
(snip)

This article is definitely something to save. Thank you.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Just spotted another famous revolutionary in that Ed Sullivan photo

I see Camilo Cienfuegos with a cigar. (I just learned in the last couple of weeks doing research that Che Guevara named one of his kids for him.) There must be some interesting story behind this photograph. Amazing.

[Akim]

17. The Rebel With the Afro?

Who is the rebel with the afro? That would be the earliest afro that I have ever seen (1959).

[Judi Lynn]

20. Yeah, I wondered about that, too! I'll keep my eye out for his image

in the future. It's got to be a first. He beat the U.S. fashion by several years!

[Say_What]

45. Cuban hero...

and some background for those interested in Cienfuegos from the History of Cuba website.

<clips>

Shortly before the defeat of Batista by revolutionary rebel forces in 1958, four men could be said to embody the spirit of the revolution to the Cuban population. Camilo Cienfuegos was one of those men. (The others were the Castro brothers, and Ernesto “Che” Guevara.)

As a young man of twenty-three years, Camilo joined a student demonstration in honor of Cuban folk hero Antonio Maceo. Marching through the street, the crowd was fired upon by Batista’s military police and was attacked by thugs with steel bars wrapped in newspapers.

Camilo was hit in the leg by a bullet, and he recalls his experience at the hospital, “they carried me to the student clinic,” he recalls, “where I experienced one of the greatest emotions of my life, when more than a hundred people gathered there in the entrance broke into cheers and applause when they carried me up, and I felt such an emotion, I felt about to cry, and I yelled out, ‘Viva Cuba!’ I was most sure then that, whatever the cost, Cuba had to be free.”

“In my way of thinking,” he wrote later, there is only one dignified road toward ending the present situation… to follow the cause of Fidel.”

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/camilo.htm

[pooja]

23. I wish they would open up Cuba, they are famous for their Dr.s

and a quick hop on a plane, cheap medical attention with a vacation would be awesome. I can't imagine what is going to happen when Castro dies... You can just see American prospectors rubbing their hands ready to greedily take over the country. They will be buying up the beaches and impovering the little country even more.

[Say_What]

25. Cuba is open. Everyone on the planet can visit except US citizens

Spain, Canada, Venezuela, China, are heavily invested there and have been for many years. The US missed the boat because pols would rather pander to a small group of rabid dogs in Miami than try to resolve the differences.

When 9/11 happened, Cuba expressed solidarity with the American people, called for dialogue and offered to sign bilateral agreements for joint efforts against terrorism. The Bush Administration rebuffed even those overtures and instead began calling for Castro's downfall.

Here's a link to Cuba's government under Raul Castro. Much to the chagrin of the Bushistas, the transition was peaceful and none of the stuff the Gusanos always predicted has happened.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2438233#2438302

[Yupster]

30. Cuba made two major changes after

the Soviet Union fell and withdrew its annual subsidies to Cuba's economy. They are both controversial but were deemed necessary as the GDP was in free fall from 1989 to 1993 and dropped approx. 50 %.

1. They made US dollars legal currency. This allowed Cuban refugees living in Florida to send the precious hard currency to their relatives on the island was a much better help to the economy than Fidel's announcement that the government had bought 700,000 bicycles to replace the cars that had no fuel and the government had imported 100,000 oxen to replace the plows and had plans for 100,000 more. While the dollars have helped the economy tremendously, they've also led to problems.

Cuba now has two economies operating side by side. There are the people who have access to hard currency, and the other less fortunate ones who don't. Since black-Cubans are less likely to have relatives in the US than white ones, it is also opening a larger racial economic gap than Cuba had before.

2. The decision to allow for a great expansion of foreign tourism was another controversial decision that couldn't be avoided. While again the Europeans bring in much needed hard currency which keeps the economy afloat, it has also led to social and economic problems.

One problem that there are now large areas of beautiful places where Cubans are not allowed to go unless they are servants. Another problem is that any job dealing with tourists pays far better than jobs paying in Cuban currency. You make much more as a cab driver for tourists than as a professor or doctor. College attendance has decreased noticably.

Also, Raul's decision to put army generals over the major resorts and hotels is just made to order for corruption, though it does increase the army's loyalty to the regime should Fidel die as each general will have his supply of hard currency at stake should the regime change.

In all these cases, I think Fidel was well aware of the problems that he'd be creating by these changes, but he really didn't have much choice after Russia withdrew its subsidies. Perhaps Venezuela will step in and take Russia's place.

[Mika]

32. I was in Cuba in the early 90's

Several times. I remember Fidel giving many televised speeches detailing his concern over the proposed 'dollarization' of the Cuban economy. He argued against it ferverently. He said that it would promote the two tier economy that you mentioned.

Regardless of his opposition on the matter, the Cuban parliament went ahead and legalized the US dollar in Cuba. This really did amaze most of us (students) who were watching this take place. The parliament voted against Castro and his allies on this issue, and won.

That ended in 2004. Now the Cuban Peso is the only legal currency, and remittances must first be converted to the euro. No more 'dollar stores'. Those are now 'peso/euro stores'.

[Judi Lynn]

34. Thanks for explaining that, Mika. I could NOT understand why the poster

believed they are still using the dollar. Hmmmmm.

Also, thank you for mentioning Fidel Castro does not make the big decisions himself. How numb can one's brain be to imagine it? Another DU'er who also has gone to Cuba many times mentioned on another board a time when Fidel Castro had a project which was near and dear to him, and really wanted to see it go through, and he was really thumped, as it just didn't appeal to the legislators.

He said it wasn't an isolated case, either.

If the U.S. would drop the travel ban, just the way our own Congress has voted every year recently, just to have it stripped out in committee so _Bush won't have to admit publicly he vetoed it, enough other Americans could spread the truth about Cuba that the loud people spewing all the hot air wouldn't get an audience anywhere. People would simply look at them with the contempt they surely deserve.

[Yupster]

42. Whether it's the Euro or the dollar,

doesn't it create the same problem though of some people having access to hard currency and others not?

[Yupster]

41. The book I just read "After Fidel"

explained the early 90's changes differently. It said Fidel knew the two changes I mentioned would cause serious social problems to the country but he eventually agreed to do them with little other choice. Raul was actively behind them.

Either way, the legislature was immaterial as the decision was made by the chefe himself before the legislature was told to vote.

That's what the book said. It could very welll be wrong.

[Say_What]

43. WTF: Author is a CIA analyst and senior research associate

at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. In addition to being funded by the U.S. government, the Bacardi family also bankrolls many of their programs. Here's a quote from an article from 2003 when they tried to upstage groups interested in engaging with the island.

<clips>

The Cuba debate permeates South Florida every day, but it took an unusual turn last Saturday when the Bush Administration, having learned that a summit of pro-engagement groups would take place at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, convened its own meeting at the same time, in the same hotel.

In effect, the Administration was using an event staged by an interest group –one that it belittles, at that – to provide a platform for its own message.

...A seminar organized by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, a center funded by the U.S. government to create studies and plans for the Cuban transition under authority of the Helms-Burton law, provided a setting for Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega to set forth the Administration’s Cuba policy.

http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/cuba/newsletter/031006cubareport.asp

[Judi Lynn]

46. Oh, CHRIST! Some one was going on and on and on about that

"book" here last week. I felt that man was someone who simply didn't know much, and felt there wasn't much which could be done to help him understand, considering what he had to work with mentally. He seemed so pleased to have read a whole book, and really wanted to tell people about it.

Now it comes back up, all over again, like a poorly prepared meal.

Thank you for pointing out what kind of agenda is at work here, as if it weren't completely clear to anyone with even the dimmest awareness.

This group of "scholars" at the University of Miami has been sucking up millions and millions of allocated US taxpayers' hard earned cash over the last few years, preparing their plans for dismantling the government which has been working so well for Cubans to bring them the highest level of medical treatment and education in Latin America. That's going to go right away, once our right-wing imbeciles find a way to overthrow the Cuban government.

[Mika]

48. The US 'Cuba transition program' = the US 'Iraq transition program'.

Turn 100% of Cuba's infrastructure to private corporations.

---

I'm sure Cubans in Cuba are just fondly looking forward to that. :sarcasm:

[Yupster]

51. My understanding was

the author was the top guy on the CIA's Cuba desk for something like 20 years. He followed the ins and outs of the Cuban government and economy every day and analyzed each of Castro's speeches which he says is more wordage than any other man in history has ever wrote (said).

You don't think there's any value in reading his book?

I learned more about the Castro brothers from that book than anything I've ever read. It was the guy's day to day job to keep track of them.

I don't see the benefit of ignoring information because you don't like the author's point of view, especially when the author is so well informed.

By the way his prediction is that the transition to Raul will go smoothly and Raul will be much more open to betterr relations with the USA than Fidel was.

[Say_What]

52. A US funded institution for transition in Cuba under Helms-Burton

I hardly think that he would be objective. Are you familiar Helms-Burton or the Bacardi family who both fund this institution? I'm just saying to take into consideration that the author is a senior reseacher at an institution whose agenda is the US takeover of Cuba.

Personally, I prefer someone like Wayne Smith, former American diplomat in Havana and for 25 years the State Depts Cuba expert, who I know doesn't have an anti-Cuba agenda. Here's a link to some of his articles:

Article by Wayne Smith

An investigative journalist, Ann Louise Bardach, who has interviewed Fidel numerous times and spent 10 years writing for Cuba for the NYTs, Vanity Fair, etc., is also an excellent writer without an anti-Cuba agenda. Her Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana offers much information from both sides of the Florida Straits. Stuff that's hard to find anywhere else--such as the negotiations between the two countries over the decades. Her Posada Files are particularly enlightening.

[Say_What]

53. Senator Mel Martínez accused of complicity with Bacardi company

Two related articles, one from Cuba the other from the Orlando Sentinel.

<clips>

Senator Mel Martínez accused of complicity with Bacardi company

THE decision by the discredited government of George W. Bush allowing the Bacardi company in the United States to take over the well-known Havana Club rum brand comes at the same time as accusations that the administration’s former housing secretary illegally accepted funds from that powerful company, owned by Cuban-born businessmen.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a U.S. political corruption watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) on August 7 against Bush’s former housing secretary and current Senator, Cuban-American Mel Martínez, of having illegally accepted more than $60,000 from the Bacardi beverage and rum company, which controls a good share of the world market for alcoholic beverages, for his 2004 Senate election campaign.

CREW fights against corruption in the U.S. government via creative litigation. It has recently stood out for exposing a corruption network in the U.S. Congress, created by Jack Abramoff, whose connections led to the resignation of Tom DeLay, majority leader in the House of Representatives and an ally of Cuban-American legislators who were also affected by the scandal.

The watchdog group is accusing Bacardi of violating FEC regulations by soliciting contributions from a list of the corporation’s distributors for Martínez’ Senate campaign, and for using corporate funds to pay for food and beverages at a May 11, 2004 campaign event.

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/agosto/juev17/34bacardi.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<clips>

Watchdog group targets Martinez

The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also alleges the Martinez camp masked donations from Bacardi executives by not properly disclosing their occupations on filings with the FEC.

"I don't see this blatant {a} misstep that often," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, referring to a political fundraiser held in a corporate office. She said the Martinez campaign raised more than $60,000 through the fundraiser, held May 11, 2004.

The FEC, which would review the complaint, does not comment on investigations until their conclusion.

Nancy Watkins, treasurer of the Martinez campaign, dismissed the accusations. "Anyone can write anything to the FEC," she said, saying the group has a liberal agenda. "When I look at something from CREW, I look at it as if it was something from the DNC {Democratic National Committee}."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-senate0806aug08,0,1625914.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

[Judi Lynn]

54. Really hoping this informtion on Mel Martinez goes somewhere.

He's also the one who paid for the very public trip to Disneyworld for Elián Gonzalez, and got his face into some of those shots, which undoubtedly enhanced his profile in the Miami Community.

He's also the one who, the very minute _Bush put him in charge of Housing, made a pilgrimage to Miami, to announce he had gotten a HUGE gift of many millions of dollars to be spent in Miami.

If you look for the "Boycott Bacardi" site, it has changed to another address. From their new location:

THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK:
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BACARDI

Rock around the Blockade, which campaigns in solidarity with Cuba, has launched a Boycott Bacardi campaign to highlight the organised attempts by the Bacardi company to undermine the Cuban Revolution – a stance belied by its publicity for its apparently ‘Cuban’ rum.

In advertising its lead brand white rum, Bacardi plays on its Cuban roots, misleading drinkers into believing that Bacardi still has some links with the island. In fact the Bacardi empire is based in the Bahamas and the Bacardi company broke all ties with Cuba after the Revolution of 1959, when its cronies in the hated Batista dictatorship were overthrown by a popular guerrilla movement led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.

Since then the Bacardi company has backed illegal and violent attempts to undermine the Cuban Revolution, including funding the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), a virulently anti-Castro right-wing exile organisation based in Miami, which has been responsible for systematic acts of terrorism against Cuba. Bacardi’s lawyers also helped draft the US Helms-Burton Act, which extends the United States’ blockade of Cuba to third countries, in breach of international trade law. So central was the role of Bacardi’s lawyer, Ignacio E Sanchez (a CANF member) in establishing Helms-Burton that US Senator William Dengue said the law should be renamed the Helms-Bacardi Protection Act.

The Helms-Burton Act was designed to tighten still further the United States blockade of Cuba. The blockade prevents the sale of food, medicines and other essential supplies to Cuba and threatens other countries (including Britain) if they trade with Cuba. It has been estimated that the blockade has cost Cuba over $40 billion in lost production and trade. Every year the US blockade is overwhelmingly condemned by the United Nations.

The blockade is responsible for severe shortages and suffering among the Cuban people. For instance, the prestigious American Association for World Health (AAWH) reported in 1997 that the US blockade is contributing to malnutrition and poor water quality in Cuba and that Cuba is being denied access to drugs and medical equipment which is causing patients, including children, to suffer unnecessary pain and to die needlessly. The AAWH gave examples of a heart attack patient who died because the US government refused a licence for an implantable defibrillator, of Cuban children with leukaemia denied access to new life-prolonging drugs and of children undergoing chemotherapy who, lacking supplies of a nausea-preventing drug, were vomiting on average 28 times a day.
(snip/...)

http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ratb/boycott/wysk.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget major scum propagandist for the Reagan regime, and for _{George W. Bush's} State Department, Cuban "exile" Otto Reich, worked for Bacardi as a lobbyist.

Reich later moved into the corporate lobbying business to work on behalf of Bacardi rum, which has paid him $600,000, according to the New York Times. Bacardi has an enormous financial stake in the overthrow of Castro, as it would allow them to take over their old distilleries. Although Reich is no longer employed by Bacardi, you do not have to be a cynic to see a dangerous conflict of interest. He also participated in drawing up the Helms-Burton legislation which has fiercely tightened the US embargo on Cuba, a mean-spirited operation that strips Cuba of copyright protection and is opposed by almost every other country in the world.
(snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views02/0208-09.htm

[Say_What]

38. After El Mono put more restrictions on travel to Cuba, Cuba replaced

greenbacks with Euros.

<clips>

Cuba to stop accepting US dollars. Bring Euros!

From Reuters

Thursday October 28, 2004

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Tourists planning vacations to Cuba are advised to take euros or other currencies rather than U.S. dollars, which will be pulled from circulation on Nov. 8, said the government.

Shops, restaurants and other businesses will only accept Cuban pesos in all cash transactions as of then and dollars will have to be exchanged into pesos with a 10 percent penalty not applied to other currencies.

"It is advisable that visitors to the country do not carry U.S. dollars and instead bring euros, Canadian dollars, pounds sterling or Swiss francs, which will be more practical and cheaper," Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said.

Eleven years after legalizing use of the U.S. dollar in the depth of Cuba's a post-Soviet economic crisis, President Fidel Castro announced on Monday the greenback will no longer be accepted in cash transactions.

The decision was prompted by Bush administration measures to squeeze Castro's communist government financially with new restrictions on travel and cash flows to Cuba.

http://www.cubatravelusa.com/currency_cuba_Nov_2004.htm

[Mika]

27. Good to see such an informed post on Cuba. NOT!

Hoo boy. :crazy:

[Akim]

29. Cuban doctors are more famous now than ever. n/t

[Say_What]

28. Dreaming of occupation Cuba

<clips>

The Cuban revolution will not end simply because this charismatic leader ceases to serve as the standing
political leader. In fact, the theory that Cuba will succumb to capitalism simply because Castro no longer is leading the state assumes that the past few decades were merely the success of a powerful personality cult. This assumption denies the objective factors that led to Cuba's revolution.

The fact that Cuba was able to move past the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the harsh moment in history known as the Special Period, conveys that revolutionary sentiment is alive and strong. If Cubans were able to survive those times, they can certainly go on if they lose Castro.

The U.S. government has other plans. The July report reflects the ignorance within the state department regarding politics in other countries. The document assumes Castro is the crux of this movement. The Cuban revolution did not belong to Castro; it belongs to the Cuban people, and where they take the country is up to the citizens of that state. Cuban politics should not be the state of affairs of the U.S. government, especially given the track of failure this country has had in transporting "democracy."

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/08/16/68712

[Judi Lynn]

33. Now THAT'S an editorial, isn't it? Too bad some journalist in Minnesota

grasps what seems to repeatedly elude a few posters here time after time after time. How hard IS it to recognize such simple truths?

At least we know there's one person in that state who can see past the hot air, and the propaganda fog to the reality. The last paragraph is surely worth repeating:

It is inappropriate that many in this country find the state of Castro's health a celebratory moment. There will be a heavy grieving period in Cuba if something should happen to Castro. Beyond the economic sanctions and shaky United States-Cuba relations, mocking another person's misfortune is offensive, especially when it's clear this man is loved by many in Cuba.
(snip)

Hallelujah! An accurate article got published!

[Say_What]

37. Forbes: Cuba Before Fidel

Gusanos will deny all of this...

<clips>

Last Sunday, as an aging and ailing but stubbornly un-killable Fidel Castro celebrated his 80th birthday, to sour faces in Miami but music and dancing in Havana, the news media plumbed what his legacy might be once the old rascal had rattled his last castanets, and wondered aloud how Cuba would look post-Castro.

I can only tell you what it was like before Fidel took over in January 1959.

During the mid-50s, the final years of the dictator Batista, Pete Oldham and I flew out of Key West (ten bucks to Havana in those days) on an old DC3 whose pilots were still wiping the margaritas from their mustachios as we taxied along the tarmac. In Havana, we were swiftly taken in hand by Henry, a cab driver who moonlighted as a guide and pimp, who saw in a couple of young Yanquis a likely pair of pigeons--a newspaper reporter and a Madison Avenue ad agency copywriter (Pete, being a Yale man, must have looked especially gullible).

It was October, the sun shone gloriously but the nights cool, the city and its dramatic waterfront with the surf crashing, men angling and boys swimming off the Malecon, lovely and beckoning the Morro Castle loomed splendid across the harbor, the people friendly and at least reasonably prosperous. Yuri Gagarin had just flown the first Sputnik a day or so before our arrival and all the headlines (the New York papers as well as the Havana) were about space and how the Soviet Union might own the future. Henry, by now our local expert on everything, confided to us that it wasn't the Russians at all--that Sputnik was a hoax.

[lumpy]

35. I remember when Castro was admired

and applauded by many Americans when he deposed Baptista. That admiration collapsed when US leadership/big business and the Mafia realized they had lost a golden goose.

[Say_What]

39. Came to New York to a hero's welcome... interesting interview

with Edward R. Murrow with an english-speaking Fidel in Havana with Fidelito who also spoke english.

After Tio Sam figured out that Castro wasn't gonna be their Banana Republic dictator ala Batista and predecessors, and instead reclaim what rightfully belonged to the Cubans, the party was over. Nikita Khrushev, seeing a great opportunity, stepped in to fill the void. Tio Sam has nobody to blame but himself.


CASTRO IN NEW YORK, APRIL 1959
Fidel stayed at the Statler Hilton, the old Hotel Pennsylvania, right across from Penn Station. He went out onto a balcony to wave to the cheering Cuban-American crowd assembled below. That balcony is still there and the flagpole is still there. He was 31, and he looks so young and enthusiastic. It makes you think how differently things might have turned out.

[Judi Lynn]

40. Here's a photo of a casino after revolutionaries got finished with it!

Before, in 1955:

[Judi Lynn]

49. Damned fine LTTE on Cuba from JEB's own state's Tallahassee

Democrat:

Originally published August 17, 2006
How can we condemn Cuba over liberties?

In the last 10 years, we have fallen victim to one domestic terrorist action. What has been our response? Ignoring our 300-year tradition of civil liberties, we have restricted our rights of privacy and speech. We have engaged in aggressive war. We have practiced torture. We have lied about this and more. We have abandoned our national honor. We claim justification by our need to stop terrorism.

Cuba has been the target of unremitting terror since it gained freedom from the corrupt Batista. The U.S. has waged a savage economic, military and propaganda war against it. We have attempted to assassinate its leader. We turn a blind eye as a small group of crypto-fascist expatriates conducts terror activities on the island.

It is hypocritical to condemn Cuba for failing to expand civil liberties when we are so ready to eliminate our own with so much less provocation.
(snip/)

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/OPINION02/608170339/1006/OPINION

[Judi Lynn]

50. Her dream leads her to Cuba

Her dream leads her to Cuba
Program will help her earn medical degree — for free
By JOEL DRESANG
[e-mail]
Posted: Aug. 16, 2006

As the world scrutinizes the health of Fidel Castro and speculates on Cuba's future, Mosley packs her bags, preparing to return to Havana next month to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.

"I am not worried," Mosley said on the porch swing of her mother's house on Milwaukee's north side.

Mosley plans to join about 95 U.S. citizens already studying at the Latin American School of Medical Sciences, which has been educating doctors from undeveloped countries and, more recently, from the United States. Tuition, housing, meals and books are free. Students have to be economically disadvantaged and committed to practicing medicine in underserved U.S. communities.

That commitment is part of the appeal to Mosley, who at 23 has a history of community service. She also welcomes being trained in Spanish. And then there's the price tag.
(snip/...)

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=484803