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Post by Golden_Boy™ on Feb 19, 2008 8:25:34 GMT -1
Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not return to the presidency, in a letter published by official Communist Party paper, Granma.Link
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Post by C@V on Feb 19, 2008 8:26:34 GMT -1
Will this affect the price of fish?
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Post by Mrs H on Feb 19, 2008 8:27:28 GMT -1
The end of Communist Cuba
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Post by HURLOCK on Feb 19, 2008 8:28:47 GMT -1
He must be quite unwell to do this, wonder who will replace him. For sure whoever it is will continue in his vain as he's still going to be about!
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Post by C@V on Feb 19, 2008 8:29:52 GMT -1
The end of Communist Cuba It's ok Red Laura North Korea still fly's your commie flag!
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Post by CHOPPER READ on Feb 19, 2008 8:35:20 GMT -1
Retirement from what? Just the presidency or the things he did to get and stay there?
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Post by Golden_Boy™ on Feb 19, 2008 8:36:13 GMT -1
He must be quite unwell to do this, wonder who will replace him. For sure whoever it is will continue in his vain as he's still going to be about! He'd never give up even nominal power if he wasn't very, very ill. I think the doctors knew he was on his way out and didn't want the power vacuum it'd cause if he died in power. Raul is the guy who's gonna replace him. You could say he's been the president for a while.
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Post by Mrs H on Feb 19, 2008 8:36:40 GMT -1
The end of Communist Cuba It's ok Red Laura North Korea still fly's your commie flag! Oh that's good then Facist Matt
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Post by C@V on Feb 19, 2008 8:57:38 GMT -1
It's ok Red Laura North Korea still fly's your commie flag! Oh that's good then Facist Matt How dare you I'm Zionist and the fascists killed many of my ancestors!
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Post by T C on Feb 19, 2008 9:25:09 GMT -1
Knowing Cuba, the next election results have already been decided anyway !
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Post by Mrs H on Feb 19, 2008 9:29:48 GMT -1
Oh that's good then Facist Matt How dare you I'm Zionist and the fascists killed many of my ancestors! Does that mean you worship electrical goods?
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Post by Neko Bazu on Feb 19, 2008 9:34:29 GMT -1
"If there ever was in the history of humanity an enemy who was truly universal, an enemy whose acts and moves trouble the entire world, threaten the entire world, attack the entire world in any way or another, that real and really universal enemy is precisely Yankee imperialism." --Fidel Castro
"History will absolve me." --Fidel Castro
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Post by officergroyman on Feb 19, 2008 14:27:27 GMT -1
Knowing Cuba, the next election results have already been decided anyway ! ;D The resignation opens the path for Raul Castro’s succession to the presidency, and the full autonomy he has lacked in leading a caretaker government. The younger Castro (76 yrs young ) has raised expectations among Cubans for modest economic and other reforms, stating last year that the country requires unspecified “structural changes” and acknowledging that government wages that average about $19 a month do not satisfy basic needs.
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Post by ovechkin8 on Feb 19, 2008 17:31:14 GMT -1
Good riddance in a way. The country has fallen into a state of stagnation as he has aged. That said he was right to usurp the scummy Fulgencio Batista a corrupt oligarch supported by the Americans who revelled in the poverty of the majority. I hope there isa sucessful match of limited capitalism witht he alreadyimpressive education & health services. No repeat of the disgusting debauchery in the wake of the collapse of Communism in Russia. PLus Cuba will become a cricketing nation something that the old Fidel abhorred in favour of (yuck) baseball.
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Post by GeoFox on Feb 19, 2008 17:45:54 GMT -1
I would have quite liked to visit Cuba whilst he was still in power, just to see what it was like.
But you have to hope that this is an opportunity for Cuba to move forwards, as Ovech said. Take the elements that are good in Cuba and match them with some form of limited capitalism, and importantly democracy and some form of accountability. Doubt it though!
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Post by GresleyRam©®™ on Feb 19, 2008 17:47:58 GMT -1
I would have quite liked to visit Cuba whilst he was still in power, just to see what it was like. But you have to hope that this is an opportunity for Cuba to move forwards, as Ovech said. Take the elements that are good in Cuba and match them with some form of limited capitalism, and importantly democracy and some form of accountability. Doubt it though! Cuba is an awesome place - almost nil crime rate, the people are happy, healthy & intelligent and the country is fucking stunning! Go before the yanks get there hands on it!
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Post by GeoFox on Feb 19, 2008 18:07:08 GMT -1
And good cigars too! ;D
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Post by GresleyRam©®™ on Feb 19, 2008 18:09:38 GMT -1
Yep...but more importantly: NECTAR!!
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Post by PASTIE on Feb 19, 2008 23:16:46 GMT -1
I would have quite liked to visit Cuba whilst he was still in power, just to see what it was like. But you have to hope that this is an opportunity for Cuba to move forwards, as Ovech said. Take the elements that are good in Cuba and match them with some form of limited capitalism, and importantly democracy and some form of accountability. Doubt it though! Cuba is an awesome place - almost nil crime rate, the people are happy, healthy & intelligent and the country is fucking stunning! Go before the yanks get there hands on it! I was lucky enough to go to Cuba whilst he (Castro, not Gres) was still in full swing too. I came home with all sorts of mixed feelings aboutthe regime and how it operated. The CDR banners (Committee for the Defence of the Revolution) that proclaimed a government spy on every corner were unsettling, as was the black market, the corruption and the poverty. On the other hand, like Gres says, I can rarely ever remember going anywhere, with the possible exception of Venezuela, where the people were so well educated, politicised, inspired and motivated. Fidel was spoken of with reverence and his picture, Che Guevara and Camillo Cienfuegos were everywhere, including in people's homes beyond the gaze of the eyes who might be there checking that they were in place. The oppression of opposition has clearly been harsh, but then the fuelling of that opposition with the sorts of underhand thuggery perpetrated by the CIA provoked it and nobody that I met seemed in any way to doubt that it was a forced necessity in order to ward off the Yankee plague that was desperate to take hold. I loved Cuba - possibly the most thought provoking and unsettling place I have ever been and I shall be profoundly saddened if the Florida Cuban right wing start staking their claim, waving fifty year old paperwork reclaiming that which the US will testify as being rightfully theirs. It is too beautiful a country and too positive a people to be able to bear being torn apart. Others will now demand democracy in Cuba. All I can recount is a conversation I had in a park with a man in Santa Clara who told me that he was the elected representative of his cigar factory. He was therefore expected to attend the meetings of all the other cigar factory commitees and they in turn elected representative to speak for all of the cigar factories at government level. He told me that he believed that he was a genuine part of a decision making process that affected the lives of people like himself. He contrasted this with the election of George W Bush (this was first time round) who became President of the World's Greatest Democracy with fewer votes than his opponent and where significant numbers of "undesirable" votes were simply ruled as inadmissable and thrown in the bin. "Which do you regard to be the better democracy?" he asked, and it always stuck with me. However we may criticise it, in a world that has allowed Haliburton to happen, Cuba has offered a crumb of comfort that the little man can hold out. Castro should not have his history rewritten by those who tried to stop him being there. Such small beginnings. If nothing else it is an incredible story.
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Post by Golden_Boy™ on Feb 20, 2008 16:51:27 GMT -1
That post is deserving of one of these bad boys...
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