Castro is dead. What next for Cuba?

[Guest]

On 2016-11-29 at 9:01 PM, -1=e^ipi said:

Bill Gates is also a billionaire. Does that mean Bill Gates is as bad as Castro?

Castro's Operating System sucks.  I can't imagine how he made billions off it.

Edited December 4, 2016 by bcsapper

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

Thank you, CBC and CTV news for your daily, non-stop coverage of Cuba over the past weeks, telling us where his ashes are every day, and sending their newsmen to Havana for daily updates. Just watched another 10 minute report. Well I shut the sound off. Like what the hell, are we full of commies now?

It's 9 days of mourning, millions of people are lining up to see the caravan pass, hundreds of thousands gathered in Revolution Square. That's news in any country regardless of why that many people have gathered.

[OftenWrong]

4 hours ago, Bryan said:

It's 9 days of mourning, millions of people are lining up to see the caravan pass, hundreds of thousands gathered in Revolution Square. That's news in any country regardless of why that many people have gathered.

Of course it is. The people are there to express their sorrow for 9 days, willingly. I mean, the man was a saint.

Doesn't mean anything to Canadians. Who the hell cares. I know I certainly don't.

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

Of course it is. The people are there to express their sorrow for 9 days, willingly. I mean, the man was a saint.

A saint? No. A hero to the people in Cuba? Definitely.

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

Doesn't mean anything to Canadians. Who the hell cares. I know I certainly don't.

You could say the same thing about most news cycles. 

[OftenWrong]

57 minutes ago, Bryan said:

A saint? No. A hero to the people in Cuba? Definitely.

Of course he was a hero to them. What other choice did they have.

[Bryan]

3 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Of course he was a hero to them. What other choice did they have.

As much choice as anyone has in who they revere.

[OftenWrong]

25 minutes ago, Bryan said:

As much choice as anyone has in who they revere.

Riight... dictatorship is choice.

[Bryan]

45 minutes ago, OftenWrong said:

Riight... dictatorship is choice.

Calling it a dictatorship shows a lack of understanding of their electoral system.

But even if it was, that's still not relevant to what I said. You can force people to abide, but you can't make them love you. Cubans love Fidel. He was not feared, he was revered. There is a difference.

[Moonlight Graham]

Castro did some good.  Education and health care of course.  His most impressive achievement may be successfully protecting Cuba from political and economic domination by the US.  The CIA orchestrated or supported coups and opposition movements throughout Latin America, especially during the Cold War.

Castro was also a hypocrite, "do as I say, not what I do".  He stole money and land from any Cuban with wealth, and redistributed it to the masses as per Leninist communism, but Castro was worth many hundreds of millions of dollars ($900 million according to Forbes) and lived in glorious luxury while his people had to sacrifice and give up their wealth.

[OftenWrong]

26 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

Castro did some good.  Education and health care of course.  His most impressive achievement may be successfully protecting Cuba from political and economic domination by the US.  The CIA orchestrated or supported coups and opposition movements throughout Latin America, especially during the Cold War.

Castro was also a hypocrite, "do as I say, not what I do".  He stole money and land from any Cuban with wealth, and redistributed it to the masses as per Leninist communism, but Castro was worth many hundreds of millions of dollars ($900 million according to Forbes) and lived in glorious luxury while his people had to sacrifice and give up their wealth.

Castro was an obsessed ideologue. Reality did not matter to him, only his ideas. He was a stubborn man who insisted on perpetuating an error.

What is so wrong with "political and economic domination" by the US, if it brings a better standard of living for the common people than what they endured for decades? How is it better to be "free" and independent, when the consequences of that freedom are abject poverty?

Even the Russians and Chinese abandoned communism as a failed initiative, but Castro refused to accept it. He was more interested in preserving his image as a revolutionary than being a true leader of men.

Edited December 5, 2016 by OftenWrong

[Bryan]

8 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

Castro was an obsessed ideologue. Reality did not matter to him, only his ideas. He was a stubborn man who insisted on perpetuating an error.

What is so wrong with "political and economic domination" by the US, if it brings a better standard of living for the common people than what they endured for decades? How is it better to be "free" and independent, when the consequences of that freedom are abject poverty?

Even the Russians and Chinese abandoned communism as a failed initiative, but Castro refused to accept it. He was more interested in preserving his image as a revolutionary than being a true leader of men.

Cuba was not in a the same position as either of those countries. They have a vindictive powerful nation deliberately oppressing their economy. Despite that, they turned away from Communism and towards state capitalism BEFORE China did. What they have been able to achieve while under the US' thumb is nothing short of remarkable. 

[Hudson Jones]

18 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

What is so wrong with "political and economic domination" by the US, if it brings a better standard of living for the common people than what they endured for decades? How is it better to be "free" and independent, when the consequences of that freedom are abject poverty?

What if this increased standard of living (which is now on the reverse for the middle class) is at the expense of others around the world? It doesn't have to be, but America's foreign adventures did the opposite to people around the world, as far as living standards.

[-TSS-]

It can be said that at least Castro has been more successful than Hugo Chavez whose version of socialism has Venezuela on its knees and more deeply than Cuba in a much shorter time. Now that Chavez is dead and his successor lacks Chavez's charisma the country is in turmoil.

None of this ever in Cuba.