Maybe Cuba/Castro are or were not perfect, but consider for a moment this:

[Mike03]

Ernest Hemingway is about as Macho American as you can get, and he admired, respected and befriended Castro.

The fact of the matter is that this pointless demonization of Cuba and Castro is the biggest crock of shit we have been subjected to in a long time. If I am wrong, please correct me.

We should probably be so lucky as to have many of the assets of Cuba, and even if they are not up to par, these are aspects of their economy in which we can help them. It could be a mutual opportunity for growth and reparations. We have been nasty to Cuba for no good reason.

Hemingway is certainly spinning in his grave.

[Taverner]

1. Actually, they weren't that good of friends

They were acquaintances as they patrolled the Cuban harbors during WWII looking for U-Boats...

Don't get me wrong - Castro is a very maligned leader who brought Health Care, food and education to the average Cuban. But he wasn't exactly a friend of Hemmingway's.

[ixion]

4. Hemingway had an on-again/off-again affair with socialism

The main character in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is fighting the fascists on the communist side. He discusses (through internal dialog) how he is not a communist, but really loathes the fascists. How much of that was fiction and how much was not is arguable, of course, but Hemingway's characters were pretty much always Hemingway, in one form or another.

[Ano Genitus]

2. We should only emulate Hemingway so far. He blew his head off.

However, I agree with your main point. I have been to Cuba. People had the TVs on while he was doing his big long speeches, but they kept the sound turned down. That sort of encapsulates the attitude towards him there, as far as I was able to observe. He's no big demon, just a guy who's been around maybe a little past his sell-by date.

[malaise]

3. He retires leaving his country with the best health care and

education in the hemisphere. Viva Fidel!

[bbinacan]

9. Best health care?

Until you got AIDS. Then you were sent to a quarantined hospital. Basically exile.

[GirlinContempt]

15. Oh, except that doesn't happen anymore.

We all know other countries had such loving, caring beautiful AIDS programs before anyone knew anything about it, about controlling it, etc. It was a mistake. That was overblown by the US Media.

[angrycarpenter]

5. I have known some s fla cubans

To me it seems like he is the rich grandfather you fear and despise who has all the money and you have to be nice to him if you want to end up in the will.

[bellasgrams]

8. The FL Cubans are a large voing block and generally vote

repb. They do hate Castro, and blame the dems for the Bay of Pigs.

[Hardrada]

6. We got along really well with Franco in Spain

and he was a much worse tyrant than Fidel. I like it that some of the old loyalist veterans of the Spanish Civil War found a place in Castro's Cuba.

[robcon]

7. Not perfect!!!!

Gee, ya think?

[RainDog]

10. what's your comparison nation?

how do you weigh a nation's good or bad points?

If a neighhboring nation tried to overthrow your govt. over the course of decades, how would you react to keep the oligarchs from gaining power again and letting the Mafia run the country?

honestly.

is America better b/c we spout words about democracy while we incarcerate in such a way that it is obvious there is discrimination against Af. Am men? Or that we have a govt. that has consistently supported right wing fascists who have engaged in mass murder?

can ya give me a little context for your sarcasm?

[robcon]

13. My comparison is every country in the Caribbean.

He is the most despotic, most ruthless, richest, and he has made Cuba most anti-democratic country in the Caribbean - and there are several anti-democratic states in the Caribbean.

[GirlinContempt]

16. You want to cite some sources, please?

That is just over the top.

[RainDog]

11. Food for thought

so to speak

I remember reading this article when it came out. When the USSR fell, Cuba lost its one trading partner (who paid above mkt. prices for sugar), had no access to fuel...

anyway, this crisis led Cuba to develop sustainable farming practices across the island. Something we might be able to learn from, considering the costs for pesticides (in many diff. ways) and genetic mod...

not to say this makes Castro great... but it provides a blueprint for a nation in ecological/trade distress.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080501

[Occulus]

12. "If I am wrong, please correct me."

The criminalization of marijuana.

Discuss.

[madokie]

14. I'm old enough to remember the C & H brand sugar, Cuba and Hawaii

I went to their website and no mention of cuba at all in the history section but I swear I remember seeing the cuba and hawaii on the label

http://www.chsugar.com/Consumer/history.html

maybe I'm just full of bull