Dancing in the streets?
Castro isn't dead yet!
He might just recovery and rule another decade.
If he did kick the can, his brother is to succeed him. I haven't heard anything that suggest he would be any better.

Plus, regardless of who rules Cuba, the US will not open it's borders to a flood of Cuban immigrants.

So what gives?

Hoping and dreaming I guess

Some of them may be hoping they'll be able to visit with their families and loved ones again.

the possible return of mob rule and capital tyranny.

littlemissG said:

I saw that and was wondering the same thing... he has an operation, gives his brother temporary rule and they start driving through the streets of Miami celebrating.

WTF?

dseann said:

Considering it is the first time in nearly 5 decades that he handed over the power to someone else, I'd say it is a pretty big deal.

lilgish said:

You're absolutely right of course.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

yeah, and as much as i want him out of power (don't care how) one has to worry that who ever takes over could be just as bad if not worst. but at least it would open the door to talks. not that they have anything to offer ....

Why would anyone with at least a little bit of good taste and manners be dancing in the streets because an old man has health problems ? I really don´t understand that...was he really that horrible to them ? What´s the big deal ?
And why do some of the participants see him as some sort of problem ? Dude is old, he´s not a threat , his political system is quasi obsolete.

KoolEaze said:

you have no idea what casto put his people through the last 30 years do you?

SlamGlam said:

You mean they should have something to offer? What about the FREEDOM you so often crow about?

shellyevon said:

As I remember from being a Florida resident, naturalized Cuban Americans are already allowed limited travel to the island to assist family members. I had friends who would go there and take goods and drop off wads of cash to various grannies, cousins, etc....

The level of blind irrationality that runs amuck in the Miami Cuban American community in terms of corruption and totalitarian control is America's best kept secret. Given that my time in S. Florida often made me feel like I was an alien citizen in a fascist dictatorship, I'm dropping the topic. This is a really heart searing, ugly issue to revisit for me.

SlamGlam said:

Admittably, I don't. I am however under the impression that the system he set up is not half as bad as many of the countries no one seems to have a problem with. So perhaps someone can explain to me the continuing US obsession over Cuba?

SlamGlam said:

So I guess that makes it alright for the US to support a terrorist who has:
- blown up a plane with 70+ people
- bombed hotels in Havana (killing one Italian tourist)
- been a gunrunner for the Nicaraguan contras (remember Iran-Contra-gate)
http://americas.irc-onlin...osada.html

Meanwhile, 5 Cubans who were monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist organisations are locked up in US prisons:
http://www.antiterrorista...y.tpl.html

I guess that "war on terror" only applies to some kinds of terror.
[Edited 8/2/06 4:42am]

BartVanHemelen said:

oh, I'm sure he's only a "Freedom Fighter", not a terrorist, so supporting him is perfectly OK...


fucking hypocrits


[Edited 8/2/06 5:05am]

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

oh... yeah i was not that clear. i meant they have nothing to offer the rest of the world... well maybe fishing and cigars... but yeah a new goverment could offer its people freedom.... and what is so wrong about crowing for freedom? hell you do it all the time too! HELL yes! freedom rules. too bad most of the people in the world do not even know what it is!

SpcMs said:[quote]

SlamGlam said:

it is close and communist... i am not sure why they are still under such harsh sanctions... like i said they have nothing much to offer the rest of the world and they certainly are not a threat. (i guess lack of something to offer keeps them on the 'bad list' while China is still a MFN... they have lots to offer so we take that and ignore Cuba.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Whatever.....

great another unstable country the world has to deal with.

sinisterpentatonic said:

it was already a problem... but you know it is tiny and not a threat. what is it going to do? send its fleet and invade key west?

SlamGlam said:

whatever it's gonna do it will cost us money in the end.

What are you people bitching about? Communism is not some disease like malignant cancer that will spread and kill us all

Castro got rid of the greedy corrupt bastard Batista and all the rich folks fled to the U.S. Castro helped the poor and erased illiteracy. They also have some of then best healthcare

BlackBuddy said:

Castro's economic policies were misguided and he's perpetrated some of the worst human rights abuses by a leader in the last 100 years. One or both of those are Seems common traits among communist regimes. It's why communism is a failed political philosophy.

In any event.

Those who are celebrating Castro's impending demise harbor delusions of a "restoration" whereby they will be able to reclaim their land and their wealth. They fail to consider:

a. That Castro's brother rules.

b. That Castro's brother controls the army.

c. That the governing document(s) provide for a transition to central leadership comprised of people in their 50's.

d. And perhaps most important of all, they will return to the same populace that Castro rode to power. Those folks didn't like the exiles then. And they likely will resent them for leaving them to rot for decades and then trying to swoop in again.

Castro was a bit iffy over homosexuality until relatively recently, but he seems to have mellowed these days. His niece, Mariela Castro, is championing gay rights.

My parents went on holiday to Cuba last year and although they said it was a poor country, they loved it.

BlackBuddy said:

Amen to that.
He also did something the American government refuses to do because they make so much money from it.....expelled the Mafia.
I live in Antigua and we are a part of CariCom(Caribbean Community) with Cuba who has offered hundreds of scholarships, free eye care in Cuba(free plane tickets included) and many other forms of aid.....I have no problems with the man.

dseann said:

so you have no porblem with all the people he mudered? let me guess you also think Che Guevara was also a great man?

SlamGlam said:

The Cuban Revolution began from the moment Columbus set foot in Cuba. It went through many stages...many slave rebellions...it picked up steam when Marti and Maceo kicked the Spanish out in 1890s, only to come under US domination. Only when the revolutionaries under the leadership of Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, ONLY THEN, for the 1st time in 450+ years, did Cuba actually belong to Cubans. The attitude of people in Cuba today, and I know because I have spent time there, is that Cuba may be poor, but at least it is THEIRS. Every single Cuban I met was ready to die if the Americans invaded. Every Cuban I met was united around the idea that the counter-revolutionaires can never, ever return to take possession of anything. The general Cuban attitude towards Cubans in Miami is that they are cowards, that if they believed so much in capitalism, they should have stayed in Cuba and died in Cuba in order to build capitalism in Cuba and that they took the cowards way out by leaving the country. "If they left it behind (houses, etc), than it's ours! They should have stayed and fought!" they say with a smile. The Cubans believe in fighting, and they don't respect those who won't fight for what they believe in - those who choose to run instead. They call those that leave for the US - their own family members in some cases - gusanos - "worms". There are no ideological disagreements in Cuba about socialism vs. capitalism. Nobody in Cuba, save a few nutjobs, wants capitalism, because EVERY cuban knows that under capitalism they will become a colony again overnight. Saying capitalism will benefit Cubans today is akin to saying that a return to slavery will improve the lives of African-Americans today - it's a completely irrantional, ignorant and totally backward train of thought. Despite their continued problems in present-day America, I don't know ANY black folks that would even entertain for one second a return to the slavery of yesteryear.

Cuba being poor has nothing to do with Castro. Cuba is poor, because it is a poor country and always has been. It was poor under Batista, it was poor hundreds of years prior to that. This economic siutation cannot be turned around overnight. The difference under Castro is that the wealth the country DOES possess is not allowed to be hoarded by 5-10% of the population - who live like kings and princesses, while everyone else is a starving illiterate. The return of capitalism to Cuba means a return to 90% of the population becoming starving illiterates. That is what anyone who makes an argument for capitalism in Cuba is actually arguing for, and I want everyone who reads this thread to understand this.

People such as SlamGlam are very small people, actually. They hate so deeply the revolutionaries who put it ALL on the line for the chance of a better, different world, because these revolutionaries remind the small of their smallness, something the small cannot bear. This is why the small lash out so strongly against the revolutionaries. Pay them no mind at all.

darkstranger521 said:

I want to clarify my post above.

My understanding is that the term "gusanos" is used by Cubans to refer to those who leave Cuba for ideological reasons as opposed to those who leave strictly for economic reasons, i.e. those opposed to socialism on priciple.

Cuba is poor mainly due to the 40+ years Economic Embargo Act the U.S. has put against them.