Castro calls for more sacrifice from Cubans
On Cuba’s Revolution Day, president Raoul Castro celebrated by telling Cubans that they need to be prepared for for more sacrifices. In a country where bicycles and horse-drawn carts are more often used than automobiles and where citizens make about $20/month, It’s difficult to imagine what more they might be able to sacrifice.
Castro already has implored Cubans for more time as he implements “structural changes” to a struggling economy controlled more than 90 percent by the state. He also has said he’d be willing to meet with U.S. leaders over any issue — including the country’s political prisoners and human rights record.
Of course, Al Jazeera doesn’t see Cuba the way the rest of us see it;
The Cuba that Fidel Castro took over in 1959 was a grossly unequal place, arguably in a near feudal state.
A small group of land-holding elite controlled most of the wealth. Illiteracy ran high, especially in rural areas, and health indicators were awful.
Correcting all of this via a socialist economic model was Fidel Castro’s goal.
In the ensuing decades, Castro’s governments did make huge strides.
Cuba’s literacy rates are among the highest in the world. Some health indicators surpass those in developed countries. And Cuba today is a much more egalitarian place than it ever was.
As significantly, Castro succeeded in consolidating what was already a strong strain of Cuban nationalism, dating back to the country’s independence struggle from Spain and US occupation at the beginning of the 20th century.
Yeah, the US occupied Cuba – I’d suggest that the Al Jazeera “google” the Platt Amendment. The Platt Amendment was added to Congress’ declaration of war against Spain in Cuba declared that the US would limit their actions in Cuba to liberating the island from Spain and forbade that the US would occupy the nation.
Don’t feel bad, though. I had to remind my Latin American History professor about the Platt Amendment during one of his tirades against US imperialism in Cuba, too.
Category: Foreign Policy, Media
Yep–Castro made all Cubans equal. Equally miserable, anyway. And that Al-Jazeera link reads like it could have been written by AP. Or Robert Gates. Take your pick.
I guess the Al Jazerra idiots are similar those whom Ray Walston, the teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, said of his students who failed a test on the subject.
“….Three weeks we’ve been talking about the Platt Amendment. What are you people, on dope?”
“Yep–Castro made all Cubans equal.” Not ‘zactly, how many Afro-Cubans are in positions of power? Can the ISO or other commie sphincter lickers provide the ahem, inconvienient data concerning the Cuban workers paradise???
Memo to Fidel, get the Makarov in the bedside table out & suck all the lead out of it, please. Mao & Stalin are waiting for you at the poker table in hell, bud.
“Cuba’s literacy rates are among the highest in the world”.
I’m not sure about that. Even if it’s true, with a totally government-controlled media and press, what would they read, anyway?
“Some health indicators surpass those in developed countries.” Ummm, yeah. Michael Moore (wash you mouth out with soap!) propaganda aside, please show me the details. And if that’s so, then why isn’t the rest of the world flocking to their doorstep for their “HealthCare”?
“And Cuba today is a much more egalitarian place than it ever was.”
I’m sure. Everyone’s equally poor and ignorant. The best still-continuing example of trickle up Communist poverty.
And those folks in the Florida Straits would be members of the Havana Yacht Club? The ones headed north? I keep waiting and hoping that the Fat Ass known as Moore is building his beach house overlooking Isla de Pinos. Or on the Isla de Pinos.
“A small group of land-holding elite controlled most of the wealth. Illiteracy ran high, especially in rural areas, and health indicators were awful.”
Castro and his cabal are the new land-holding elite, health indicators are not much better and the people are poor as dirt. What’s changed now?
“On Cuba’s Revolution Day, president Raoul Castro celebrated by telling Cubans that they need to be prepared for for more sacrifices. In a country where bicycles and horse-drawn carts are more often used than automobiles and where citizens make about $20/month, It’s difficult to imagine what more they might be able to sacrifice.”
That’s gonna be America by the time Obama gets through.