Maybe you should look at the literacy levels in Cuba and also the life expectancy before making ill informed comments about the place. Also, the biggest prison on Cuba is Guantanamo.
Can you not read - I said he did well in education and health - the two things he achieved. But his people were in the prison that is Cuba - a far bigger prison than Guantanamo. There are none so blind as cannot see. Do you live in Germany? Where would that be without post war American rebuilding. Easy to sit safe in a nice warm bed and forget who helped make it. Enough from me - you believe Castro and Cuba are great if you like. How many people chose to go and live there eh? None? Still no response on NATO eh? Sweet dreams. Just thank the Americans for allowing the world to have people like you able to think and speak freely
Castro's Cuba is one of Cologne's mythical communist projects that appear reasonable on the surface but is underpinned by a violent nasty dictator and his chosen cronies. Whatever we deemed democracy to be, this is the opposite.
Yes I can read - you placed a question mark after health and education which was why I focused on that. With regard to Germany we are talking about a completely different period - America did not have the apparent mission to shape the politics of the entire World in the immediate post war period. You say 'freedom to live and think freely', yet do the Americans accept it when countries go their own way, if that way is different to what the Americans want ? Did they accept the democratic election which brought the Sandanistas to power in Nicaragua ? Did they think anything about free speech when they propped up dictators such as Pinochet or, Saddam Hussain - who was a friend as long as he was using American chemical weapons against Iran. The Americans love free speech - as long as you say the right things.
I have said that I have a respect for what was achieved in Cuba re. Health and Education, and that it was an improvement on what had gone before - but it was not a Communist state (nor was the USSR) so do not put words into my mouth.
You must be one of the very few people in the world that would not describe the USSR and Cuba as communist states. Where did you get that information from Groucho Marx?
You must have read enough of my texts by now to know that I do not hold the USSR or its satellite states as being Communist ones - nor would Marx himself had he been alive to see them. Nor did Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci, Kropotkin or a thousand others. They were 'state capitalist' if anything. The aim of Communism is the disappearance of the state - where all decision making processes have devolved to the base of the pyramid and the state (if it exists at all) assumes only an administrative function. Marx himself saw the disintegration of the state as being the end goal of Communism. The state does not own the means of production in Communism - the workers themselves do. I have never held any other angle than this, and have never claimed the USSR or its allies as being on the same path as myself. They were no more Communist than the Spanish Inquisition was Christian. You need to realize that the idea of Communism is far older than Marx - elements of it come into Thomas More's Utopia, and Plato's Republic, even the Bible describes communalism as being the way Christians should live together. You also need to find ways of making sure that your attempts at humour do not always fall on stony ground.
Okay, okay, I fully accept the whole world would describe Cuba and the USSR as communist states except you.
Been out all day and missed this. So. Lived in Cuba. Amongst Cubans. Real Cubans. Anyone else here?? I'm not going to get into a big argument here - but what I said about the UK being a 'banana republic' because of how people believe their state-controlled media..? QED. Questions about poor old America having nuclear weapons aimed it... Britain had nuclear weapons pointed at Moscow when Batista was in power - where's the talk about that putting us on the brink? Oh, only when States had them pointing at them? So, we had nukes pointing at Moscow - before the revolution. Before the Bay of Pigs. Before the multiple attempts to kill Castro and return Cuba to an American colony. Before the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'. But that doesn't count??? And despite this, Castro, as Cologne rightly contests, raised the life expectancy and literacy levels of this exceptionally poor country to higher than the USA - all the while being attacked by the United States. Castro was adored by the Cubans I lived and worked with. Those suggesting people should read history - try this: living it. The Not606 board does it again.
No friend if free speech, no friend of democracy. I won't miss him. It is unfair to compare Cuba to the Middle East. And we all know what a pigs ear the West have made of the Middle East... from the the Bay of Pigs to a pigs ear....hmm haven't learned much... Gadaffi, Hussein, and Mubarak - they all knew what was required, dare I say the same applies to Assad? (**** that he is as was his dad) Nah, I will not mourn Castro. And there is no comparison between Cuba and the Middle East
Did not take long. I live in Germany so the rest of you have to bow to my knowledge as living in Cologne lets me know everything German. I lived in Cuba so you all know nothing because the few people I met think the same as me. Living in Edinburgh means you lot cannot argue with me about anything Scottish eh? Sorry mate but people know more than you and in a world of news and TV we can see wider than your narrow experience. USSR and Cuba not communist - by the definition of someone who believes in middle age communalism. For everyone else we accept normal speech. Nukes placed by Russia 50 miles from America are rather different to where British nukes were. Blimey anyone can tell that. Even Cologne who has failed to clarify whether NATO should have nukes on the Russian border. Where did we find people with such off the wall ideas?
You have still not answered the question of whether the sovereignty of Cuba would have been allowed had the Russian nukes not been there. The record of the USA in such matters suggests otherwise.
Yes it would - the Bay of Pigs was a disaster. USA fell back on economic and political isolation of Cuba. Now answer my question. Or can't you because either way you condemn your ideas.
That wouldn't surprise me though - presumably held by the 'anti-Castro' Cubans who chose to flee their homes? Try as I might, I can't find the link to the article I read claiming street parties were being held in Cuba - it now appears, from press reports, that the majority in Cuba are actually in mourning.
You are hideously ignorant on this. 50 miles would put them in the sea. Americans had/have nuclear missile closer than the UK to USSR. If you think USSR and Cuba were communist states... How much of a doughnut are you if you think the media you consume without question is unaffected by the state? It's apparent my experience is not as valuable as the **** you consume from UK press / ITN etc. All stalwarts of integrity! The BBC, too, plays the state's tune, do you really not understand that? Sorry for the belligerent tone, fellow Hornets, but this is too much... Officially bored by numbskulls. Signing off now.
It would appear from this post that Cologne is not a great fan of Castro. I cannot see how anyone could interpret this differently.
I will answer this question. The positioning of NATO forces in ex Soviet states is in direct contravention of promises previously given to Mikhael Gorbachov - promises which have not subsequently been rescinded. Second point - I have never claimed to be an expert on all things German. Point me to one post where this is the case, or explain why you think your comment is relevent. Thirdly - The equation the USSR/GDR/Cuba = Communism = proof that it doesn't work, is altogether too convenient. Not surprisingly this is most believed in the Capitalist West - most particularly in the UK. and USA (the 2 most neo liberal states on this Earth) - the rest of the World may see this differently. There was an awareness in the Warsaw Pact that the way those countries had gone had nothing to do with what Marx wanted. Gorbachov realized this - hence Glasnost - the main opposition in the GDR was along the same lines, this is why so many people in the ex GDR support a far left party now.
You just seem hideously ignorant , rude and aggressive - no wonder you bow to Castro Who talked about the distance between the UK and USSR - do you think the UK is the closest - go back and read Cologne's point. 50 miles was a figure of speech - like "on the doorstep" Oh dear - look it is actually about 100 miles. If you think they were not communist states ....... Rude boy - I don't consume media without question but you make that assumption in ignorance, Doughnut? So the handful of people you know make you able to correctly tell us about the whole of Cuba and its history under Castro eh? Don't suppose you even know their people feared the secret police. oh no - another media myth. Pathetic to suggest people cannot find a balance by using international media. Do you know about killings and earthquakes etc - I suppose you have to have friends there to tell you Officially bored !!!!! ????? At least Cologne makes proper points unlike you. Personal experience trumps everything does it? Fine way you have of discussing a point. Someone holds a different view and you just slag them off. Are you so rude and aggressive in real life or only hiding behind the keyboard?
So positioning forces - never mind nukes - so close is wrong - good glad we agree. Don't expand the subject - we did not discuss proof it does not work. Just that for most people those countries are /were viewed as communist - like China, North Korea and others. You like to have your own tight definitions on things like communism and democracy - fair enough but most of us work off "pub type" language.
