After reading some of the comments here, my fath in the human race is not enhanced.
Castro was a genuine hero and a great man; indeed among the top 10 greatest individuals of the 20th century. He believed in freedom and dignity. He saw the US government as the enemy of progress everywhere in the world; he wanted people to be free and he devoted his life to that ideal.
How many people can you say that of?
> He was also an evil dictator...
Lol @ evil dictator. Fidel Castro never killed as many people as Nixon, Reagan, Bush or Blair. He did not go half way around the world as Thatcher did to claim an Island 4,000 km away from home (Falklands).
>...who silenced any and all opposition
What opposition? Imperialists and mafia members who wished to turn Cuba into an enclave for gambling? CIA operatives who tried to return Cuba to its occupied past?
> just look at Cuba today
Just look at Iraq, Libya,Syria today. And while you are at it; look also at Iran, China, Russia (which evaded western occupation). Indeed, look at Mexico which is friendly terms and has not been invaded yet by the US and tell me how much they have gained from that relationship.
I detest the hypocrisy I see in many (not all) western commentators. The spin and one sided arguments, the glossing over historical truths. Cuba is behind in development because of the American embargo.Simple. Not because the regime had no plan for economic development. In healthcare, this small nation with a health care budget 0.001% of the US beats the USA hands down in universal coverage and access to health. Who knows what would have happened if previous administrations had left them alone.
Finally, Castro sent troops to Africa to fight against colonial occupiers. He sent armies to harass the apartheid regime at the Angolan/ Namibian border. This counts as a plus in my book.
Rest on Fidel. You have fought the fight and lived like a man. I will pray for you. May heaven receive your soul.
> Maybe Americans value their rights more than anything else
I certainly do, but sadly not every American agrees. There are many "law and order" types who would have that person arrested and beaten if they could. Fortunately our rights are still intact, even after all this time. People can do such things without fear. Far from being "laughable and disrespectful", I consider it a sign of a healthy, functioning society. "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism", as the saying goes.
The true issue is not the "rights" of American citizens in their own country (thats of no concern to most people around the world) but how the US government systematically and perennially denies other people these same "rights" or "rights" of their choosing. That is the point.
Leave other people alone to determine their own fate and destiny that's what the world asks
I do not know about a specific instance of someone holding up a sign like the one in the photo I linked to, but I also sincerely doubt anyone in their right mind would attempt such a thing.
The closest recent example I can find is someone painting the names of the Castro brothers on a pair of pigs and being thrown in prison for it (in 2015):
Far worse things happened during the early days of the revolution. I was going to link them but I changed my mind because I don't want to weaken my point. Freedom of speech is far stronger in a place like the US than in a place like Castro's Cuba.
>"In the USA, you can stand in front of the White House in Washington, DC, and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished. Equally, you can also stand in Red Square in Moscow and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished.
Look I don't think Fidel was as black and white as most Americans make him out to have been, but people trying to just say "American presidents are worse" are just hilariously obtuse.
Like comparing Nixon and Castro. Nixon's most famous scandal was when he tried to wiretap his political opponents. It ended with his resignation. Castro outright killed his political opponents, and had the rest thrown in prison. He continued to rule for decades. There is absolutely no comparison.
Yes, I understand that U.S. foreign policy played a huge role in shaping the revolution. But let Castro's legacy stand on what he actually did, not on trying to throw shade on everyone else.
Nixons most famous scandal was the illegal carpet bombing of Cambodia and Laos effectively bringing the Khmer Rouge to power [1]. Watergate was a drop in the ocean compared to this.
Nixon was a piece of shit masquerading as a man. His most famous scandal does not even begin to shed light on his psychopathic tendencies.
Apart from carpet bombing Laos And Cambodia as hackeboos has pointed out, he engaged the Vietcong leadership in secret discussions to prolong the war so that Democrats would lose the '74. Elections. Think on that. Killing your fellow soldier citizens for political power.
I'm actually quite surprised by the amount of people in this thread highlighting the nuances, the "50 shades of gray – elder statesmen edition" if you will.
There's a lot of positive things to be said about Castro. But your unqualified hymn isn't going to help your cause. Just the number of people making the rather dangerous journey to the US proves how misguided your comparisons are.
To be honest, if you're willing to make arguments that sending troops 4000km to protect your own citizens from Galtieri's invading military junta was a more dictatorial act than, say, rounding up homosexuals, hippies and clergy and incarcerating them in UMAP forced labour camps - something even Castro conceded was a "great injustice" - then there's literally no reasoning with you...
Who should? I mean, the place was literally unoccupied at the point the distant ancestors of the Falklands population first turned up, sitting off a thinly populated part of Patagonia whose indigenous population was - decades later - subject to repeated invasion and eventual colonisation by the European-descended leadership of an expansionist Argentine Republic situated thousands of miles to the north.
Nice to see you put the territorial ambitions of a literal fascist like Galtieri on a higher pedestal than the right of the people that have lived there to self governance though...
I'm from an Argentine family, and I'll be blunt: the people of las Malvidas are Britons. Period. The people of Israel are Israelis, the people of the Gaza Strip and the west bank are Palestinian, the people of North Iraq are Kurds, etc.
Letting historical arguments about borders override the basic question if the culture of the people living there right now is stupid, 18th-century thinking.
I'm sympathetic to Argentina's arguments about resource rights to the water surrounding the island, but the nationality of the island itself is not in question, and Thatcher was right to protect British people.
> the people of las Malvidas are Britons. Period. The people of Israel are Israelis, the people of the Gaza Strip and the west bank are Palestinian, the people of North Iraq are Kurds, etc
Israel Gaza and Iraq are not thousands of miles from the original home countries.
But I am genuinely curious that you answer these:
1.How can the nationality of the Island not be in question and at the same time Argentina have valid claims to the resources? It must be one or the other else there is a contradiction there.
2.There were Britons living in enclaves in South Africa during the Thatcher era.Some of these dated back 400 years. Would the UK have been justified in sending troops to defend their land claims?
Its too late to edit my prior post so I'll just stick these Castro quotes in here:
" They talk about the failure of socialism, but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?"
" ...I began a revolution with 82 men.
If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15
and absolute faith.
It does not matter how small you are if you have faith
and a plan of action."
Fidel Castro 1926 - 2016
> ... where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?
When Castro asked that question in 1991, around 60% of people in East Asia were living in extreme poverty. Today it is 3.5% [1]. The change is mostly due to China switching from a socialist to capitalist economy.
Funny diagram in your source. They compare 1990 dollar with 2013 dollar directly without reference to purchasing power, adjusted to local market indexes. Classy example of propaganda. But you know, people over here generally can understand what they read.
Where is the success of capitalism? It's in the rapidly falling global extreme poverty rate, soon to be below 10% for the first time in human history. It's in the cell phone networks blanketing Africa and Asia, giving people access to easy communication and banking. It's in the rapidly rising standards of living throughout Asia and Africa and parts of Latin America not under the communist thumb. Capitalism is the greatest force for improving people's lives that has ever been, and likely to be the greatest that ever will be.
>Cuba is behind in development because of the American embargo.
American embargo was put in place because the US can't afford communist fools on its border. Simple. You swing at the big guy and you lose. That is war. Mistakes are unforgivable.
Castro was a genuine hero and a great man; indeed among the top 10 greatest individuals of the 20th century. He believed in freedom and dignity. He saw the US government as the enemy of progress everywhere in the world; he wanted people to be free and he devoted his life to that ideal.
How many people can you say that of?
> He was also an evil dictator...
Lol @ evil dictator. Fidel Castro never killed as many people as Nixon, Reagan, Bush or Blair. He did not go half way around the world as Thatcher did to claim an Island 4,000 km away from home (Falklands).
>...who silenced any and all opposition
What opposition? Imperialists and mafia members who wished to turn Cuba into an enclave for gambling? CIA operatives who tried to return Cuba to its occupied past?
> just look at Cuba today
Just look at Iraq, Libya,Syria today. And while you are at it; look also at Iran, China, Russia (which evaded western occupation). Indeed, look at Mexico which is friendly terms and has not been invaded yet by the US and tell me how much they have gained from that relationship.
I detest the hypocrisy I see in many (not all) western commentators. The spin and one sided arguments, the glossing over historical truths. Cuba is behind in development because of the American embargo.Simple. Not because the regime had no plan for economic development. In healthcare, this small nation with a health care budget 0.001% of the US beats the USA hands down in universal coverage and access to health. Who knows what would have happened if previous administrations had left them alone.
Finally, Castro sent troops to Africa to fight against colonial occupiers. He sent armies to harass the apartheid regime at the Angolan/ Namibian border. This counts as a plus in my book.
Rest on Fidel. You have fought the fight and lived like a man. I will pray for you. May heaven receive your soul.