WNU Editor: The tyrant is dead. His promise at the start of the revolution to destroy the corruption of the Batista regime, to end poverty and inequality and to give voice to the voiceless while charting an independent direction for the Cuban people .... became (in a very short period of time) the complete opposite .... and for millions of Cubans .... something far worse.
And while world leaders and the media are acknowledging the death of Fidel Castro today .... some are giving him praise .... some are critical .... many are neutral .... for the older generation who grew up with Castro .... an acceptance that an era has now come to an end.
As for how I will remember Castro .... tonight .... when I light my candle to remember his legacy .... my thoughts will primarily be on the many who died under his rule .... and for the millions whose lives were uprooted and destroyed by this man.
18 comments:
You do that Editor.
I'll light a candle to Quito Cuanavale!
and I'd be more concerned about the tyrant just elected next door. He's going to make Castro look like Jesus.
Hasta Siempre Commandante!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/fidel-castro-trudeau-condolences-1.3869280
Immortalized...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq6s8G5hwzE
"The tyrant is dead." Most are praising him today. It does take some degree of courage to criticize the Castros. As to whether or not "an era has come to an end," I wouldn't be so certain. Raul is still alive and I'm pretty sure when he passes the Castros have a hand picked successor in place to come after them who will continue their policies.
RRH,
I'm not sure to which "tyrant next door" you are referring to. Is this Hillary? Some reports indicate she is being encouraged to challenge the results. Are you suggesting these challenges will succeed and she will be POTUS after all?
¡Cuba Libre!
He always flunked the Gates Test. Folks wanted to get out of Cuba and risked their lives in flimsy rafts to do so. Rest in hell, comrade.
B.,
Respectfully to you.
You had a choice between two tyrants. You picked the worse.
Folks wanted to get out of the U.S. and risked their lives following the North Star.
They're better off for it. Especially given recent events.
Trump a tyrant?, time to travel people and understand the true meaning of the word.
Trump a tyrant?, time to travel people and understand the true meaning of the word.
I've travelled Faz.
He's a tyrant.
just ask folks who've been unlucky enough to be on the wrong side f dealings with him
https://www.google.ca/amp/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/474726/?client=ms-android-samsung
We came, we saw, he died...is that the line?
Fazman is correct. Some do not understand how things work in America. If someone has a beef with a business person, run to the mddia cameras, get fawned over, and worshipped as a hero. The same generally applies to the courts. At least the big buisness person can pay attorneys and other experts to try and make sure the wheels justice don't run over them. As for the rest, many flatter themselves into thinking the powers that be know who they are or care who they are.
With that said 75 or so kawsuits pending for DJT are likely a bit much even for a big business person. 5 to 10 might be expected. As POTUS elect, the distraction cannot be afforded. As such, warranted or not the other side in these cases figures to have lucrative settlements.
@RRH
The media is not fawning over Trump, nor are any established politicians saying anything positive about him.
Fidel Castro was a dictator who oppressed and impoverished Cuba for 60 years, Trump is the President-elect and no matter how tainted his character may be he has nothing whatsoever comparable to Castro.
@B.Poster
Ok, I agree with your points but I think you overestimate the damage they can do to the USA, and that the opposite is even TRUER. It is the USA which is in a position of strength, so why should it be so cautious when countries that are far weaker on the world stage are not afraid to pursue antagonistic policies?
Caecus,
The media is not monolithic.
The opinion you have expressed about Castro is as MSM as what we've supposedly been subjected to with Trump.
Millions around the world see Castro as someone who stood for the rights of the colonized, brutalized and repressed. They are not all wrong while your imperialist narrative is right. Castro was no monster; unless you cheered on apartheid, slavery, rank exploitation,occupation, and institutionalised racism...which, by the way, are just the reasons a good number -not all- of Trumps supporters voted for him.
Of course, I wouldnt expect the opinions of hundreds of millions of Africans, Asians and other indigenous peoples to count for much around here.
As for Trump's tyranny,
It takes many forms. Just ask the black folks who had the misfortune of trying to rent from him http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/27/hillary-clinton/true-hillary-clinton-says-federal-government-sued-/
or contractors who were stiffed by him.
The "mainstream" did not approve of Trump because they prefer to affect an aire of noblese oblige and upper class gentlemanly bourgeois behaviour while the proles are bring bent over and screwed.
Trump f-d that up. He's the rich gangster in Chez Whitey, getting familiar with the help while groping the "ladies" but he's one of them to where/when it counts.
@RRH
That millions saw Castro as a symbol of resistance against colonialism and oppression is not evidence that he actually was an agent for the disenfranchised. Millions of Germans supported the Nazis until they fell apart, and hundreds of millions believed in the Soviets or Chinese communist leaders. It's evidence that these totalitarian governments are very effective at propaganda.
Ok, I'll concede all of Trumps flaws and "tyrannies", so we have discriminating against African Americans 40 years ago, bad treatment of immigrant workers, vile comments on women, etc
vs.
actual tyranny, decades of oppression, systematic denial of basic human rights, executions, torture, harassment surveillance and imprisonment of detractors, censorship (average Cubans can't even get the internet) and all the typical abuses you get in socialist paradise.
Sorry Caucus
The training, arms and assistance given to the anti-apartheid struggle was material and very, very real. Just as the assistance given to the pro-apartheid gang was. It's not surprise at all that Castro's "evil deeds" are well "known" and oft repeated while the support for one of the worst crimes against a people EVER is given little or any attention.
Socialist paradise,
the people who use that term are anti socialists. The socialists I know well and truly understand that socialism, especially in a world order dominated by the worst kind of people, is hard, grueling work. And I don't know about you, but there is more than one hear that see having to do some of that the same way the Devil does holy water.
It's not easy to run an alternative political economic and social system in the face of powerful entrenched interests. "Westerners" who despise Castro have been too busy sucking up to those interests and lapping up scraps of privilege paid for by the immiseration of hundreds of millions of "others" to see what fighting for that difference really entails.
Declarations about "denial of basic human rights" by "the west" have been used to drive the most heinous crimes this century (never mind the previous), so you'll have to pardon my lack toe tapping to that tune.
We live in countries that to this day refuse basic human rights to millions of their citizens. Last I checked, 3 million Canadian kids go to bed hungry every single night. Whole communities do not have access to potable water or suitable shelter. There is not even a right to education up to and including post secondary; something that citizens in evil communist/socialist countries took/take for granted.
I am not interested in your basic negative human rights. Way I see it, we have "the right" to be homeless, hungry, sick, unemployed, insecure, un-educated, ignorant, surveilled, detained without charges, poor, and afraid.
We'd do well to stop throwing our dog shit over the fence and into our neighbours' yards and start taking ownership and responsibility for it.
Castro is dead.
Poverty, racism, unattended ill health, homelessness, unemployment, violence against women, hungry kids, ignorance and hell on earth in general are still alive and well. Time to stop pointing fingers. You're running out of "dictators" to blame.
Electing one didn't help.
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