It's good to have your opinions which can be added to Superhorns, Asimov. It redresses the balance a bit more against the usual liberal rhetoric. Oh now that's me down in everyone's opinion now.
Who's interested in being high in other people's opinions here, Scullion? I don't think I fare too well there, clearly.
I would not have added Castro to a guest list for a dinner party. It seems to me that anyone who achieves power uses it for his own gain, often at the expense of the people. I am afraid that he fell into the same trap of looking after himself first, and if there was anything left he would share it out with the poor. Yes he did some good, but on balance far more that was worse.
Castro was a very nasty human being. He was a much better human being than what went before but I can understand why the far right would disagree with that because he obviously curtailed freedom - the freedom to buy and sell women; the freedom to kill them when you had finished with them and bribe the police to turn a blind eyes; the freedom to do whatever drugs you wanted, but better still to ship them to the States ( typical loony lefty suppressing the free market). The freedom to suppress wages so that people starve. The freedom to restrict healthcare and education to those who could afford it. As I said, Castro was a very nasty human being. It says something that he was better than what went before.
Indeed I do make those judgements. Yes the Brits were sub human in their actions as were the arabs in Aden, in those war situations it pushes people to new lows. I don't envy the health or education systems in Cuba, I do envy a lot of cubans who are a resourceful beautiful people. I don't measure "life" expectancy in years as personally I want to die whilst still enjoying life even if thats this year. People existing on the planet for more years is nothing to be proud of as its a waste of oxygen and I consider it quite cruel in fact. There is no question that both the Castro and Batista regimes were evil, the real question is where would cuba be now if the revolution had resulted in a cleansing of the system and implementation of a just and fair governance. I am quite willing to condemn both the pinochets and the castros, none of these extremist self advancing folk are any use.
The problem is that most revolutions that take place to remove an evil government fail to introduce an equitable one. Many of the revolutionaries in Cuba became disillusioned with Castro's descent into dictatorship. How much of that descent was due to external pressures and how much was due to personality is not something that I feel qualified to answer. Governments are only prepared to relinquish power if they believe that that power can be regained at a later date. This is the strength of democracy. However, democracy is fragile, particularly in its early days. One only has to look at the experience of Wiemar Germany to see that. .
It's always very difficult to judge historical characters Aberdeen, they were as much a product of their age as they were creators of it. Had Castro been born in Chipping Norton in the 1970s he would probably have written a different history (if any at all). My own father served on a firing squad in World War 2, was he sub human - if so what am I ? Castro was a man of the gun, he used the gun to gain power, and people who do this normally also use the gun to maintain that power. Military figures do not normally make good 'democrats'. He believed that the end justified the means used, and was prepared to sacrifice anyone to achieve that end - was 'the end' achieved - I don't know, only history will judge. Cuba had never known anything remotely democratic in it's history - so how could it produce another Gandhi ? Yes there were summary executions, also torture, and I deplore both of those - but is there any police force anywhere in Latin America you would trust if under their power ? Who is the sub human ? Is it the one who gives the orders or the one who carries them out ? Is it the person who has, himself, become brutalized by war, or is it the tax payer who pays for those wars ? If the latter then there must be more sub humans around than humans.
There are not many politicians who I would add to my guest list Frenchie. You know that I am 'on the left', but I wouldn't even invite Jeremy Corbyn - he would spend the evening eating lentil soup and engaging in fundamentalist political discussions in the corner somewhere.
If you look at my comments they have been far more moderate than a lot of the comments on here. Aberdeen especially has voiced extreme views. I tried to make a few points and counter the ridiculous idea that a murderer and someone who nearly caused worldwide nuclear war should be regarded as a hero. I did not even touch on the allegations that he feathered his own nest while being a hero. Nice of you canary-dave to judge me - but looking at some of your posts on the Watford board you seem very close to the bunch on here who do nothing but slag off anyone to the right of Corbyn. Still that crew make 90% of the posts here so must be obeyed. I will make my comments anyway and if people don't like them they know what they can do. And I am aware that you used a smiley to show your little barb was only a joke so I must be pathetic not to like it - ever heard about cowards who hide behind so called humour? I also was not the one to start an aggressive direct attack on another poster. Andy seems to have a very short fuse and cannot bear others to have a different opinion -when they do he slags them off and gets officially bored. Shame some of you do not want posters who perhaps have a right wing bias - but most comments about SH prove that anyway
