The final gift for an old comrade: Fidel Castro is presented with a portrait of himself as a young revolutionary by Vietnam's leader in last picture taken of him just 10 days before his death aged 90 Castro died at 10.29pm on Friday night, his brother Raul Castro announced on Cuban state TV The controversial leader led Cuba for nearly half a century as both prime minister and president Vladimir Putin has branded him the 'symbol of an era' and a 'distinguished statesman' French President Francois Hollande branded him a 'towering figure', but voiced concerns about human rights abuses in Cuba Castro made his last official appearance before the country's Communist party in April and predicted that his death was near He claimed in the past to have survived 634 assassination attempts Castro was 32 when he overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista's government in 1959, becoming Cuba's prime minister The US severed diplomatic ties in 1961, banning all exports to Cuba except for food and medicine Castro's brother Raul and President Obama moved to restore diplomatic ties in December 2014 As large crowds of Cuban exiles gathered in Miami to celebrate his death US Congress representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American Republican from Miami, described Castro as a 'tyrant'
Mena: RIP Cuban ex president Fidel Castro. Many in the developing consider Fidel Castro as one of the greatest leader of the 20 century because he improve the life of the Cuban people and help fight Western imperialism in the world.
I think The Cuban president Fidel Castro was a good chief of state who had good accomplishments and bad accomplishments in his political career. The good accomplishments are is social policies. Fidel Castro gave the Cuban people free education, healthcare and housing. Almost everybody in Cuba know how to read and write and have access to free healthcare. that accomplishment is unmatched in the developing world even in some developing country.
The bad accomplishments or policies of Fidel Castro was the lack of freedom and repression. The Cuban people didnt have freedom of speech, assembly, freedom of the press, freedom to travel, freedom to vote. In the beginning of the revolution facing the threat of destruction by the USA government I understand the lack of freedom but after twenty years in power he should had given the Cuban people their freedom. I couldnt live in Cuba because of the lack of freedom specially freedom of speech.
Castro was just 32 when he paid an unheralded visit to the Capitol in 1959
Castro (center) is pictured with his brother Raul (left) and Camilo Cienfuegos (right) while operating in the Mountains of Eastern Cuba
Castro (right) with revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in Havana's famous '1830' restaurant four years after they led the revolution that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista
Fidel Castro is shown above in this photograph with civil rights leader Malcolm X in August 1959
Castro, pictured with former South African leader Nelson Mandela in 2001, was an important supporter in the fight against apartheid, current president Jacob Zuma said in a statement
Fidel Castro, left, is pictured with former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the Lenin mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square on May Day in Moscow, Russia in May 1963
Castro greets former Pope John Paul II at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana in 1998
Castro holds hands with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as he recuperates from surgery in Havana in 2003. Castro's health forced him to relinquish power to his brother in 2008
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
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Another great achievement by Fidel Castro in the social welfare area is the elimination of hunger and famine in Cuba. Fidel Castro increased the food production in Cuba and make sure that every Cubans eat everyday. No country in the developed world has eliminated hunger like Cuba except Kaddafi Libya. It is ironic that the country with the greatest welfare system in the world Cuba and Libya were run by progressist dictators like Fidel Castro and Muammar Kaddafi. It require a chief of state to have great power to impose his social welfare policy on the rich, business and political classes. The Cuban and Libyan people had free food, free education, free healthcare and low price housing. I think Castro was better then Kaddafi in the way that he had to run the Cuban economy and run his social wefare program under USA economic embargo. Kaddafi had the freeedom to sale the Libyan oil in international market and use the money to govern Libya.
Fidel Castro was a great anti imperialist leader. He helped leftist guerilla in Latin America fight right wing pro Western dictatorship. He sent Cuban troop to Angola, Mozambique and Namibia to help fight South African racist Apartheid army who were invading those African countries and killing the villagers and farmers.One fatal defeat inflicted by the Cuban and Angolan armies to the South African army in South Angola convinced the South African to negociate with the ANC and release Nelson Mandela the president of the ANC that was in Prison for 25 years. Cuba even had troop in Ethiopia helping the Ethiopian fight the Ogaden warfare.
Cuba was and is under USA embargo for 50 years during the entire time Fidel Castro was running the country. It started with the USA government wanting to overthrow Fidel Castro governement because he wasnt a puppet. There was a bay of pig CIA and Cuban exile failed attempt to deposed Castro by invading Cuba. Castro allow the USSR to station nuclear weapons in Cuba. The USA decided to blocked Cuba with their navy forcing the USSR to withdraw their nuclear weapons from Cuba. That is when the USA economic Embargo started on Cuba. After the fall of the USSR in the 1990 there was no need for the USA to have an embargo on Cuba but still the USA unfair embargo is on Cuba.
A large part of the Cuban diaspora in the USA and their politicians are fanatical vindictive hater of Fidel Castro. they lobby and ask the USA government to keep the embargo on Cuba as long the Castro government is in power despite the fact the Embargo is hurting the Cuban people and Cuba.
People in the developing world like Fidel Castro because he is a strong leader and a survivor not a puppet. Fidel Castro survived at least ten USA presidents and countless assassination attempt by the CIA, MI6. When the USSR fell in the 1990s during President Mkhael Gorbatchev perestroika reform all the puppet communist government of East Europe communist Warsaw pact fell one after the other. The world media was expecting Cuba to fall to because the Cuban economy was dependent of the USSR and Warsaw pact but to the surprise of everybody the Cuban government didnt fall and is still in power in 2016 because Fidel Castro wasnt a puppet of anybody.
Castro was a great philanthropist and humanitarian. Cuba have a great medical school system and the best healthcare system in the world. Fidel Castro sent Cuban doctors in many Latin American and African countries to cure and treat the poors. Cuba sent doctors to South Africa after Nelson Mandela came to power and sent doctors to Haiti after the Haitian earthquake of 2010.
Cuban people in the USA are the most respected minority in the USA because of Fidel Castro. I think Cuban people have more respect then Mexican and African American. Fidel Castro was so successful with his economic and social welfare communist program that the USA wanting to show that the capitalist system was superior gave many advantage to the Cuban diaspora in the USA. When a Cuban boat refugee set his feet in the USA he automatically become a political refugee and will receive his residence card soon. Haitian boat refugee that come in the same area when they reach the USA are put in Prison, deported and sometime their boat are sink by the USA coast guard and the British navy. Mexican migrants are also deported all the time when they reach the USA.
The USA government give the Cuban refugees welfare assistance and financial aid for school. The USA government have program to support Cuban small, medium and large businesses. Cuban Americans have many large businesses in Florida. Politically the Cuban are well represented the mayor of Miami is Cuban. Cubans have many state of Florida representatives. There are at least four Cubans in the USA congress. In the Republican presidential primary in 2016 there were two Cuban American candidates Congressmen Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. I think the first Latino USA president or vice president will be Cuban American.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
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Castro, center, and Oklahoma Creek Indian missionary W.A. Reiford, right, wear war bonnets as Cuban Capt. Antonio Nunez Jimenez looks on in this July 1959 photo. Reiford went to Havana to open an orphanage
Mena: Fidel Castro with hands behind back meeting Native American chiefs
U.S. President Barack Obama pictured with Cuban President Raul Castro during their first meeting in March during Obama's visit to Cuba
Mena: USA Pres Obama and Cuban Raoul Castro similar shoes while shaking hands
Castro welcomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev during the official ceremony for Gorbachev's arrival in Havana, on April 2, 1989
Castro shakes hands with Ernest Hemingway (left) and President Richard Nixon
Mena: USA Pres Richard Nixon and Ernest Hemingway hand shakes with Fidel. I think the name Fidel come from fidelity or loyal.
Castro smiles during a visit to the Cuban embassy in Algiers, Algeria in May 1972
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
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Castro is praised for his programs of health, education and human welfare for Cubans. Many claim that those benefits are free. Not really. The average monthly wage in Cuba is $20-$30--so obviously the health and education of Cubans is paid for by the levies on their real wages.
But the point is that according to the UNDP's Human Development Index ranks 67 in the world. This is lower than some other places in the neighborhood. Bahamas, Barbados, etc.
World wide, Cuba is much lower than places that have been colonized by the British and Japan. Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are more advanced in education and health services than Cuba. See the following:
posted
Slavery was abolished in Cuba in 1886. It was abolished in Brazil in 1888. It was abolished in South Africa in 1834--along with other British colonies.
Palmares of Brazil was first though in 1605 followed by Haiti in 1804. Zumbi of Palmares was a key anti-slavery fighter here.
The puzzle though is why several million people allowed just 2 brothers --Fidel and Raul Castro--to control their lives for 57 years? What are the mental mechanisms in play here?
Clearly Castro and his brother were not the most intelligent person in Cuba for all those years.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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We visited Cuba 8 years ago (all the west side of the Island):
- Cuba is a very safe country for tourism ( no agrressions, no robberies...) - People are generally not well fed, there was a deep increase of poverty (due to Soviet Union's collapse, hence Cuban sugar could not be sold anymore). Even in some hotels food was missing. We were staying at hotel Miramar (La Havana) which is a "four star" hotel...Not enough food...We stayed into a 3* Star hotel in Vinales (pinar del rio) for few days...Damn we were hungry...In Varadero , you have plenty of food lol... - Healthcare system was first class - Education system was first class ( best educated people I have seen in the west indies..., and found many books there (about African religion systems, slavery, history)...There are books everywhere in Cuba !!! - Too much Cubans ( black, white, mulattoes Cubans) were begin in the tourist areas - There was a problem of freedom of speech, some books, some talks against the regime was punished (secret police) - Some areas of La Havana looks like a bombarded city... - A huge state propaganda: slogans for the revolution are displayed everywhere - Best musicians of the Caribbean - People of African descent face more discrimination, there is surely lot of racism in Cuba (like in every former slave colony in the Caribbean) - Finally , I think that Cuban revolution was a good thing (Cuba was the brothel of the Caribbean under Batista, and exploited by some US multinationals). Castro did some good things for his people ( healthcare , education, social welfare etc), but not much freedom and food in that country... Castro himself was for sure a great resistant to colonialism and neocolonialism (sent Cuban troops in Africa to fight colonial powers) but was a billionaire, plus he and his family did not suffer much of the Yankee Embargo...Anyway RIP , nobody is perfect and he was smart and a great political analyst...
Posts: 70 | From: Paris / France | Registered: Dec 2009
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Little Tiny Cuba has improved the lives of it's citizens where the life expectancy of the average Cuban is equal to or exceeds that of a upper class US citizen. They accomplished this in the face of the world's longest and most harsh economic sanctions.
Cuba has just revealed that they have developed the world's first cure for lung cancer. How much does the treatment cost the average Cuban? $12!! If American imperialists get their hands on the formula and commercialize it, the cost to US citizens would probably be in the thousands.
The real reason the US has been so fearful of Cuba is because of the potential of Cuban revolutionaries infecting Black Americans with revolutionary spirit and over throwing the Albino murders.
Posts: 4693 | From: Saturn | Registered: Apr 2012
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quote:Originally posted by Narmerthoth: [QB] Little Tiny Cuba has improved the lives of it's citizens where the life expectancy of the average Cuban is equal to or exceeds that of a upper class US citizen.
-------------------- The wise man knows he knows nothing, the fool thinks he knows all Posts: 70 | From: Paris / France | Registered: Dec 2009
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quote:Originally posted by lamin: file:///C:/Users/USER/Desktop/CARLOS%20MOORE%20%20Putting%20context%20to%20Cuba's%20racial%20divide%20_%20McClatchy%20DC.htm
Cuba, as seen by black Cuban, Carlos Moore.
You can't copy past a URL from the C drive. You need another directory.
Posts: 22235 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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Fidel's final farewell: Cuba bids goodbye to Castro after nine days of mourning - as his brother Raul announces the nation will FORBID tributes to the late leader Fidel Castro's ashes were interred Sunday at 7 am inside Santiago De Cuba's Santa Ifigenia cemetery Cuban military fired a 21-gun salute and crowds at the entrance to the ceremony sang the national anthem Castro's remains were buried out of the public eye after nine days of near-adulation for the revolutionary Raul said his brother 'rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality' and asked for no named tributes
Mena: great post Lamin, I was watching the news on TV and I saw Cuban President Fidel Castro ashes being paraded in a small black box in Havana street. It looks very strange to me usually coffin are paraded in the street. Usually egotistical communist leader are never cremated, they are either mummified like USSR Pres Vladimir Lenin or Chinese president Mao Tse Tong or buried in a coffin like Soviet Pres Nikita Kroutschev. The dead body of the chief of state is usually expose in a government building for a week for people to visit them. Cremation is not also a tradition in Spain and Latin American Catholic culture country.
Maybe I am being to much a conspiracy theorist, I interpreted the little Black cube or rectangle box carrying the ashes of of Pres F Castro in the street of Havana as symbolizing the black cube of Saturn.This is my speculation.
Sunday's events ended more than a week of national mourning for Fidel Castro that reached near-religious peaks of adulation. Thousands of supporters watched as the urn containing Castro's ashes (pictured) traveled to the cemetery
Fidel Castro's ashes were interred Sunday morning at Santiago De Cuba's Santa Ifigenia cemetery during a private ceremony. The motorcade carrying the remains of the late Cuban leader is pictured on final journey to the ceremony
Thousands of people lined the short route from the Plaza Antonio Maceo to the cemetery waving Cuban flags and shouting 'I am Fidel!', on the last of nine days of official mourning for the late leader
A woman sobbed after watching Castro's ashes leave the Antonio Maceo plaza for the Santa Ifigenia cemetery on Sunday
A group wore T-shirts spelling out the name of the late leader, but President Raul Castro announced the previous day that Cuba would prohibit naming streets and monuments after his brother, as well as statues of the revolutionary icon
A guard of honor remained in place whilst workers fixed the plaque on Castro's tomb after he was buried near national heroes
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