Signs?
The interior stairs of a building collapse on the same corner where the socialist character of the Revolution was declared. A desperate group of thirteen people occupy the Church of Charity in Central Havana and are taken out by force in the middle of the night. The television shows a report about the bridges vandalized by people who dismantle them to build houses. The Archbishop publishes a note in the Communist Party’s newspaper, with a tone that emulates its official editorials. Potatoes appear only sporadically on the stands at the farmers markets, and at higher prices in the black market. A hip-hop musician is arrested for protesting his son’s treatment at school and taking a photo of Camilo Cienfuegos from the entry of the high school. The Cardinal makes a speech on prime time TV, on the same date that 55 years earlier a young man forced his way into a radio station.
Hugo Chavez spends his postoperative time in Cuba surrounded by secrecy and rumors of a return to the Special Period. Fidel Castro’s book is presented to Latin American intellectuals, using up in its thousands of copies the paper destined for the entire annual production of a publisher. A doctor declares a hunger strike so they will restore his right to cure patients. The “cyberwar” rises to incredible paroxysms and manipulates the social networks as nothing but a weapon in the struggle, or an enemy to be defeated. A man with a mobile phone films a fire and later the police confiscate the gadget for showing “the ugly side of things.” In the midst of the information battle against secrecy, a journalist rails against those who buy enormous quantities of cookies and pastries to resell them. Winter says goodbye to Havana without our barely having taken out our coats. It was announced that an illegally exported crocodile will return to our Island from Italy in the same retinue as the Pope.
And I wonder: all these signs, these events, are they indications of the end or of the beginning? Are we all going crazy or is it only now that we’ve arrived at sanity?
Abril 9th, 2012 at 04:57
Moderator! Why are you doing this?
Abril 5th, 2012 at 19:00
I cannot miss the opportunity to show more of that anti-Cuban face here, for they really excell and excede in making me right. Like this “hero” of the “cause”, so brave he even alls himself analonimo:
“Analónimo
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 22:30
Who’s betting on mass protest againts Raul&comp this week ??”
No one took the bet. No one had the balls to do so for they ALL know the reality.
There were never going to be “mass protests” again raul. Between the old creep and a bunch of traitors, Cubans chose to stay away from the traitors. Not even the few usual self-declared “dissidents” managed to attract anything other than complete and utter repudiation from young and old Cubans.
And the fact that young Cubans came out EN MASSE to express their repudiation against the traitors is a schreecher…
Abril 2nd, 2012 at 17:40
As per the old recipe’, the losers from support brigade are still offering only personal attacks as their only contribution to debate.
The fact that they refuse to discuss the OBVIOUS lies served by cia nazists through their agents, local traitors the team “yoani” confirms they are not here to discuss the FACTS.
But then, when was the truth and the facts the objective for cia nazist gulag?
Never.
Marzo 26th, 2012 at 07:38
As I was saying An(al)omino Humberto, stick to selling t-shirts with I H8 the Revoution you get a better chance at being on the spot.. whatever spot that may be…! adn you can buy yourself a nice pair of trainers to get the guys you like interested!
Marzo 26th, 2012 at 07:10
Come on Mouse, tell people on this blog on how you bragged on other online blogs/forums about how you belong to MENSA, as your IQ is higher than a kite. There is so much IQ showing in your rants darling, you’re like in the four digits area.
Marzo 26th, 2012 at 04:58
Wow I see you had H8 Hour with An(al)omino… Any vodoo I should expect my way?? Considering his mateship with Humbertito ‘the media flood’ mamones I can only guess that the girl in question stole Darrrren from the man that loves Cuba so much that sees no conflic of interest and bias in being part of the nations that acutally screwed up Cuba so baaaad in the first place and last…. 4 An(al)omino I am sorry Darren like a women more than a male thug, maybe you deserved eachother.
So as I was saying: I guess you guys could make yourselves really useful by selling I H8 CASTRO t-shirts… At least you’d put some money into your half-baked half-personal cause…. I am sure An(al)omino can help you sell with his vast experience of hating people from Facebook…and again he is not very bright but just a thug!
For the rest on with H8 Idolatry of ‘Castro fascism’ you build here everyday!!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 22:58
Anonimo! THANKS FOR THE LINK! AND I WAS GOING INVITE UnHinged FOR TEA AND CUBAN CRUMPETS! NOT HAPPENING NOW! JE JE JE!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 22:31
Here is a link, an “article” wrote by UnSor ( aka Diana Brancoveanu on FB , aka Simona Thrussell ). She claims that she is a journalist ( LOL ) ; last year she claimed that she was a IT gurl making 300 pounds/ day. Read her rant and you will laugh your azz off. Back in my people with mental health problems were going to a mental health facility. Nowadays people with mental health problems like UnSor just rant on the internet.MOUSE, MY OFFER TO SEND YOU A ONEWAY TICKET TO CUBA IS STILL VALID DARLING. I HAVE THE MONEY AS I AM CAPITALIST PIG. I’LL EVEN VISIT YOU IN CUBA WITH MY ENTIRE FAMILY AS I CAN AFFORD IT. YOU CAN’T EVEN AFFORD TO VISIT YOUR MOTHER IN ROMANIA, AND YOU COULD NOT EVEN GO TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER’S FUNERAL.
copy/paste the link
steelandfire.org/en/metalwatch.php?subaction=showfull&id=1332580680&archive&start_from&ucat=4
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 22:30
Who’s betting on mass protest againts Raul&comp this week ??
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 16:17
TRYING TO KEEP YOU ALL INFORMED WITHOUT SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Cuba’s Ladies in White protest without incident- By VIVIAN SEQUERA,
HAVANA — A Cuban dissident group known as the Ladies in White held its customary weekly protest without incident Sunday on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island.
The lack of any arrests at the march outside a Havana church and the absence of the pro-government crowds that sometimes curse the women and yell revolutionary chants indicated an apparent unspoken temporary truce, after dozens of dissidents were briefly detained last weekend.
The Ladies in White also appeared to be in a compromising mood, saying they would try to attend Benedict’s Mass on Wednesday in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution but would not use it to advance their cause.
The group’s leader, Bertha Soler, said they will not shout slogans or wear T-shirts bearing the image of the group’s late co-founder, Laura Pollan.
“It is a sacred Mass,” Soler said.
“You have to be respectful. One goes to temples to pray … there will be no politics,” she added.
Dozens of government opponents, including Soler and her husband, were rounded up last weekend and held briefly. At the time, Soler said authorities warned her the main thoroughfare in western Havana where the Ladies march each week would be off-limits.
But there were no detentions at the march Sunday after the group went to Mass. Nor were they harassed by pro-government crowds. Cuba say the Ladies and other dissidents are mercenaries bent on undermining the government’s authority, and accuses them of taking U.S. money to engage in subversive acts.
The 30 or so protesters were outnumbered at least two-to-one by foreign journalists in town to cover Benedict’s visit as they walked along the median of Quinta Avenida.
Soler said they are still hoping to meet with Benedict even for a minute to deliver a list of 46 people they consider political prisoners in Cuba and ask him to intercede on their behalf.
Vatican officials have said the pope does not plan to meet dissidents.
Cuba last year released the last of 75 government opponents from a 2003 crackdown on dissent and says it does not hold any political prisoners.
Last week Amnesty International designated four Cuban inmates as “prisoners of conscience,” the only ones it recognizes on the island.
Soler also addressed the pontiff’s comment on Friday that Marxist ideology is increasingly irrelevant today.
“Really, he’s not wrong. … Communism does not work here in Cuba,” she said.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of a group that monitors detentions on the island, said 70 government opponents have been detained in the last four days, and at least 100 beggars were removed from the streets to keep them from being seen by foreign journalists and pilgrims coming for the pope.
The report could not be independently verified. Cuba’s International Press Center, which handles media requests, said it did not have any information about any such actions.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....4a8da732ae
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 15:48
EXCELLENT READ! BETTER THAN HAVING TO DIGEST ALL THAT SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
ALJAZEERA: ‘The Pope will visit Cuba - so what?’ - The pope’s visit to Cuba comes as its government strengthens diplomatic ties with the Vatican. - Manuel Barcia is Deputy Director at the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Leeds.
A visit for whom?
For the government of Raul Castro, currently immersed in implementating a series of economic and social reforms, this visit is perhaps perceived as an additional reform. It is certainly a way of showing renewed tolerance towards religious institutions and religion in general. Although the presence of the pope is not likely to accelerate or slow down any of the ongoing reforms - Castro’s government has a three-year consultation plan in place that is being rigorously followed - it is hoped that the moment can generate debate and open some public spaces for discussion.
Not surprisingly, everybody seems to want something from the pope. Berta Soler, the new leader of the Ladies in White, one of the best-known opposition groups in Cuba, has asked Benedict XVI to arrange a meeting with her group. Guillermo Farinas, another dissident leader who carried out a hunger strike in 2010, has requested the pope’s intervention in favour of those who are repressed on the island. Even the Jewish community has asked for a Vatican intercession to secure the release of US contractor Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since 2009 for alleged crimes against the Cuban state.
Granting some of these requests would certainly benefit both the Cuban government and the Catholic Church. It would be a surprise if Raul Castro’s government does not take advantage of the opportunity to make a gesture or two to complement its recently acquired image of change and reform. Even as various groups of dissidents occupied Catholic churches across the island last week, it was not the national police, but the Church that evicted the occupiers. These evictions were, in some cases, carried out using physical force, as in Holguin, where Bishop Emilio Aranguren was reportedly happy to push and shove while leading the expulsion of a small group of dissidents from the cathedral of San Isidoro. The bishop has since denied any violence was used against protesters.
While the government’s public image may be improved by the end of the visit, and some members of the opposition may be released, it is the Catholic Church that stands to win the most. As a matter of fact, it has already benefited more than anyone else, even before the pontiff’s arrival. Last week, Cardinal Ortega was given time on national TV to deliver a monologue running for almost 25 minutes, ridden with hollow personal anecdotes involving him and the pope.
The Catholic Church has also been quick to claim credit for the release of a large number of political prisoners over the past months. Public processions and religious posters have appeared across the island, signifying, if not a renewal of faith, at least the reappearance of the Catholic Church in the public sphere.
Of course, Cardinal Ortega and his entourage did not expect the occupation of churches by members of the opposition, but even this minor setback has been transformed into a sort of triumph by the cunning leaders of the Cuban Catholic Church, who took advantage of the event to place an article in Granma, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper, condemning the occupation in the strongest possible terms.
The circus that will arrive with the pope - cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns, TV and newspaper journalists, pilgrims, and all sort of pundits - will almost certainly be a breath of fresh air, but not much more than that. Make no mistake: Benedict XVI and Cardinal Ortega are trying to gain new spaces for the Catholic Church, not for the Cuban people.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.aljazeera.com/indep.....57206.html
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 15:23
HUFFINGTON POST: “The Pope, the Crocodile and Cuba” by YOANI SANCHEZ
Over the span of the last weeks, in all the workplaces of the country, meetings have been held to call Cubans to participate in the masses to be offered by the pope. “No one should be absent,” the authorities have said and, as is almost always the case, these calls have something of an imperious nature, of a command. The government wants to give — at all costs — an image of normality, it needs to show that Raul’s reforms are advancing without major obstacles. But the reality is more fickle.
For several weeks now, in anticipation of the great man’s arrival, the social temperature has been rising. On March 13 a group of 13 people entered the church in Havana dedicated to our patron saint, la Caridad del Cobre, and demanded that a list of their demands be given to Joseph Ratzinger. Two days later, around midnight, the religious hierarchy authorized an unarmed commando to enter the premises and remove the occupiers by force. The collusion between the political police and Cardinal Jaime Ortega disturbed many and raised the question of the social role of the clergy.
Even those who had applauded the 2010 conversations between the church and the government to affect the release of the political prisoners, were negatively affected by the actions in this conflict. Although several dissidents had expressed their disagreement with the occupation of the church for political purposes, the final outcome conflicted with the image of the Cuban church. To the point that many would argue that in this act the top Catholic leadership signaled its future role in our transition.
Parallel to these incidents, the repression has been growing. Arbitrary detentions, however brief, have become a common practice of the police authorities. They want to “clean” the island for when the Holy Father offers his homilies in the east and in the capital of the country. One way to achieve this calm is to threaten the regime’s opponents and order them not to leave their homes on these dates.
The latest raids on the Ladies in White — wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the political prisoners — have ended with their being detained at police stations. To top it off, the pope’s visit coincides, within a few days, of the ninth anniversary of the Black Spring of 2003, when 75 dissidents and independent journalists were arrested and condemned, in summary trials, to long prison terms.
Each year the commemoration of that sad event becomes at least a week of tension between state security and anti-government groups. But on this occasion the tyranny is more notable because it has been linked to requests from civic activists to be received by the pope.
The Ladies in White themselves have asked Benedict XVI for at least one minute of his time to tell him of the other Cuba he will never hear of in the official version. So far, there is no sign that His Holiness will receive them. Not them, nor any other personality from civil society not associated with the government.
This could be the biggest mistake of this papal visit. A visit that does not appear to have the same connotations as that of John Paul in 1998, when he spoke that famous phrase, “Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba.” Fourteen years later, many of us are still hoping that, at least, “Cuba will open itself to Cuba.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ESSAY!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....77797.html
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 15:07
MIAMI HERALD: Pope’s spiritual journey to Cuba a delicate balancing act- The pope pursues a mission of faith, but political realities can’t help but intrude - By MIMI WHITEFIELD
The Cuban government, which sees the papal visit as a way to demonstrate to the world that it is tolerant and open to religious expression, was diplomatic about the pontiff’s remarks. “We consider the exchange of ideas to be useful,’’ said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. “Our people have deep convictions developed over the course of our history.’’
But it is also in a position of defending itself from charges that it has become too friendly with the Cuban government and hasn’t come out strongly enough in defense of human rights.
Much of the criticism has centered on Cardinal Jaime Ortega, especially after his recent request for police assistance to remove a group of 13 dissidents who had occupied part of Our Lady of Charity Church in Havana. The dissidents, who weren’t well-known among traditional human-rights defenders on the island, had a list of political demands.
Human-rights monitors say the number of detentions of dissidents in the Santiago area has accelerated in recent days, and the government itself has raised the possibility of protests during the pope’s trip.
Benedict would be an unlikely champion for any action that seems overtly political. When he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was an ardent foe of liberation theology, the Marxist-tinged doctrine that has led some priests and nuns to advocate social or political activism to meet the needs of the poor and oppressed.
Rather, he sees the church’s role as one of giving the Cuban people hope to forge their own future.
Asked during the news conference if the pope would ask for the release of more political prisoners, García Ibáñez said freedom and better conditions for political prisoners is a “constant theme’’ of the Cuban church. Whether the pope touches on the topic of political prisoners or not, he said, the church would continue to seek their freedom.
García Ibáñez also said he didn’t know whether the pope would ask for the release of Alan Gross, a jailed American subcontractor who recently requested a two-week reprieve to visit his mother, who is dying of cancer in the United States. The archbishop wouldn’t say whether the pope would respond positively to requests by dissidents and defenders of human rights to meet.
The Vatican has said that Benedict would be open to meeting with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro if he asks. The pope also plans meetings with Raúl Castro and the Council of Ministers.
The Ladies in White, a group of wives and relatives of political prisoners rounded up during the so-called Black Spring of 2003, are among those who asked for a meeting.
In a statement, the group said: “We recognize the right of his holiness to express his desire to meet with Fidel Castro in spite of his [the pope’s] very tight schedule. By the same token, we think that marginalized Cubans, victims of repression, should equally have the possibility of meeting with the maximum representative of the church, even if just for a minute, because we believe in the concept of a ‘Church for everyone.’ ’’
http://www.miamiherald.com/201.....-cuba.html
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 14:43
Monarchs later called capitalists with their capitalism… and their slaves,peasants and workers who later created their communism…they both did created in history in the last 500 yeas big nightmares everywhere in the world…And the priests of all religions were between both of these opposite sides or systems which were nightmare. Now there will be a world globalism of what side; the capitalism,the communism or both of them running as united masters and their peasants,slaves in two systems!…
EU experiment did show their mixed nightmare..and so does North America’s union…
Let see how will be the rest of the world globalism and Cuba,what kind of look and fate will they have…but so far look to ugly their scenes…and to hot,boiling…
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 14:11
Cuba Libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & CASTROBOOTLICKER!) said: “Despicable parasites”, well said Mariela Castro. I couldn`t have found better words myself to describe the maggotts and leeches that crawl around in this blog. And who is better placed to describe the Cuban way of life but a true Cuban like Matiela Castro?”
SO C.L.! GIVES US A LITTLE HINT OF WHAT YOU WILL BE ASKING MARIELA CASTRO ON HER BLOG COMMENT SECTION!! I THINK YOU SUPPORT OF HER “INTERACTION” WITH YOANI MIGHT BE A GOOD ICE BREAKER! LOOKING FORWARD TO READING IT! JE JE JE!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 13:34
It looks like in the past 3 ages; Taurus,Aries and Pisces…show two opposite sides as a long path.In Taurus was Egypt with Pharaohs,priests and the slaves,in Aries the Romans.the priests and the slaves,in Pisces the Monarchs,priests and the slaves.
Moses was the one who lead to free the slaves…but he was opposed by the pharaoh and priests in Aries. Jesus was the one who try to free the slaves from the Romans and priests…in Pisces so there must be a new Leader to free the slaves from the monarchs and the priests…in the Aquarius. The New Age entered early with its influence…in Pisces like the morning light enters the night. It looks like the two opposites in the last 500 years were fighting even more violently as the two swords..but who hold both of them? Who run or control them? The same Creator…
Jesuits,Communism,Marx,Lenin,Stalin,Castro as many others leaders did fall and they created their own nightmares maybe as the others in the opposite side did. So now that the world is globalism…or one as NWO it is not clear how will look,a mix of both opposites or as one sword with two sharp sides..instead of two swords as before.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 12:47
Cuba experiment = communist reduction of the jesuits …may have been chosen as a system of the world,the NWO plan…So the whole world soon will gather and be like Cuba experiment or the jesuits communism in the reductions of the 17-18th century…It is possible that those experiments had the aprove of the Church inthe past,but we dont know who was behind the 20th century’s communism and who is behind the NWO’s future communism….Is the Church,EU’s monarchs or the jesuits…?!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 12:31
Cuba has experienced for 5 decades an experient which was used 300 yeas ago in South America in reductions,the first communist communities of the natives…run by the jesuits…which later did come in Europe’s communism,Asia,Africa and back in South America via Cuba.The question is are Castros…jesuits or lead by them?!…
Cuba is very similar with the system of the communism of the jesuits reductions 300 years ago.
A Jesuit Reduction was a type of settlement for indigenous people in Latin America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries…
In the 16th century, priests of different religious orders set out to evangelize the Americas, bringing Christianity to indigenous communities. The colonial governments and missionaries agreed on the strategy of gathering the often nomadic indigenous populations in larger communities called reductions in order to more effectively govern, tax, and Christianize them. Reductions generally were also construed as an instrument to make the Indians adopt European lifestyles and values, which was not the case in the Jesuit reductions, where the Jesuits allowed the Indians to retain many of their pre-colonial cultural practices
At the height of the reductions there were around 40 different communities that were home to as many as 150,000 Indians, most of whom were Guaraní, Tupi and Chiquitos. Reductions were laid out according to a standardised plan: the main buildings, like the church, college and churchyard were concentrated around a wide square, with houses facing the other three sides. Each village also provided a house for widows, a hospital, and several warehouses. In the centre of the square, there was a cross and a statue of the mission’s patron saint. The reductions were ruled by indigenous chiefs who served as the reduction’s governor, but were controlled by the Jesuits. There was a minimum of two Jesuits in a reduction, with more for larger ones. The social organization of the reductions has often been described as extremely efficient; most were self-supporting and even produced surpluses of goods, which they traded to outside communities, which laid the foundation of the belief that Jesuits were guarding immense riches acquired through Indian labour. The main traded produce was the hides of their cattle and yerba mate, leaves drunk somewhat like tea. Initially these were collected from the wild, but later cultivated. A number of trades and skills were taught to some Indians, including even printing, to produce mostly religious texts in indigenous languages, some illustrated by engravings by indigenous artists
The degree to which the Jesuits controlled the indigenous population for which they had responsibility and the degree to which they allowed indigenous culture to function is a matter of debate, and the social organization of the reductions have been variously described as jungle utopias or as theocratic regimes of terror…
They were laid out in a uniform plan. The buildings were grouped about a central square, the church and store-houses at one end, and the dwellings of the natives, in long barracks, forming the other three sides. Each family had its own separate apartment, but one veranda and one roof served for perhaps a hundred families. The churches were of stone or fine wood, with lofty towers, elaborate sculptures and richly adorned altars, with statuary imported from Italy and Spain. The priests’ quarters, the commissary, the stables, the armory, the workshop, and the hospital, also usually of stone, different from native’s homes
Aside from the main farm, each man typically had his own garden, pursuing agriculture, stock raising, and the cultivation of maté. Jesuits introduced many European trades and arts to their communities. Cotton weavers, tanneries
The goods that were produced at the missions, including cattle, were sold in Buenos Aires and other markets under the supervision of the priests. The proceeds earned were divided among a common fund, the workers, and dependents.
Much emphasis was placed on education, as early training was regarded as the key to future success..
Frequent festivals with sham battles, fireworks, concerts, and dances enlivened the community…
Cuba is proud for the schools,hospitals,salsa dance,gathering,marches,nationatism…
The main threat of theCuba’s 20th century ’s reduction is the rest of the capitalist world which is the modern despotism of the monarchies in their countries and their colonies. Question is where is the Church in these two opposing sides?!…
Has the Church the poper to stop the Cuba’s embargo and isolation which somehow was a desired isolation…not to be infected by the rest of the world evils…similar as the missions in the past jesuits reductions-communism.History repeat itself…but is the gathering of the world,the globalism a world despotism similar to feudalism,capitalism or communism? Wedont know this yet,but soon we will know
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 10:11
Uni Sorce, I’m afraid I have no idols either. But the truth is the Pope has no power over anyone, definitely not me. Anybody can leave and join the Church as often as they want.
When’s the last time the Church locked someone up for criticizing the Pope? I’ve met feminist Catholics and pinko Catholics who openly criticize the Pope, and they’re still members of the Church. And I know Catholics who have left the Church and written nasty letters to the Pope.
Contrast that with Castro and other fascist thugs.
If you’re looking for religious fundamentalism and inquisitions, look to all the communist parties of the last century. The Cuban inquisition is still officially on.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 10:08
Here a FB rant by UNsoricel
The more I sit and think, the more I try to understand mythology and one’s need for multiple deities. Monoteism is bizarre, absurd and painful, especially when it’s forced. Fuck Christianity and fuck official reality of any kind. Gather yourselves, find the gods that best suit you, find the reality that best suits you and go with it. Reality is perception, so why not take your perception and make it a reality? All you have to do is want it hard enough.
It must be magic, but the universe bends to your will, if your will is strong enough.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 10:08
“despicable parasites, maggots and leeches”?? Who are you Cuba Libre? Are you mentally retarded? Are you not a parasite enjoying the fruits of capitalism? Why would you think Mariela Castro would describe her regime in any other way but glowing? And what’s this “Cuban way of life” business? You make it sound like a lifestyle choice.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 10:05
Parasites, maggots, leeches, worms……… hehehehe…….. defeated agents with out nothing else to say!!!!!!
Look, learn, suffer:
As long the written history has existed there have existed only 2 political systems that sometimes have been competitor, sometimes have been allays and the most times have been in open antagonism. Democracy and Tyranny ….. there is no other political system though the history of mankind despite the effort of some “philosopher” for disguising new types of tyranny that dived up in the last centuries, such as communism, fascism and some kind “socialism”.
Democracy has always been in great disadvantage respect tyranny since it’s born in ancient Greece. It was a single tiny state surrounded of powerful theocratic and despotic states that constantly menaced the very existence of the new born democracy and the Greek state self. But Greek democracy has not only foreign enemies, the bigger menace were inside. At the end democracy gave up and took a break for reappear in ancient Rome only for finding it self fighting again for survival against same powerful enemies inside and outside the empire. One more time democracy had to go in hibernation mode. It were necessary take two steps in the evolution of the economical system mankind developed along its history, from slavery to feudalism and from feudalism to market economy, for having a renascence of democracy. This time seems democracy has a big chance of survival but very soon appeared the powerful enemies of always, theocratic and despotic states are again trying to suffocate the newborn democracy and dark forces inside the democratic states are working hard to destroy it. But this time the situation is different. Democracy has had time to grow, to develop and show the benefices it can bring to the mankind, this time democracy had time of showing the huge richness and welfare it is capable to create. This time democracy is here to stay despite the effort of those who wants the world for them self and see in democracy the biggest obstacle to their planes.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 10:00
I believe that ordinary Cubans would be much more suited to describe the Cuban way of life than someone who is part of the “aristocracy, the 1%, the tyrants, dictators, users, thieves, whores and liars” that make up the Castro family.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 09:51
“Despicable parasites”, well said Mariela Castro. I couldn`t have found better words myself to describe the maggotts and leeches that crawl around in this blog. And who is better placed to describe the Cuban way of life but a true Cuban like Matiela Castro?
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 09:39
To whom it way concern:
1. Communist found very early that Adam Smith were right when he affirmed that the only problem of the communism theory and practice were located in its economical utopia that make the whole system grounded on the tip of a needle. Since this the commies has spent most of the time and efforts looking for and improving survivals strategies that allows the “system” extend its durability. One of these strategies is the finding and conversion of followers. Most communist countries have special departments dedicated only to this task. They use the same recruiting tactics that the most intelligence agencies use but directed not only to find probable spies or collaborators but also political followers. Once they have identified a prospect they lose on him/her a sophisticated manipulation mechanism that always lead to the complete recruiting of the prospect or its complete destruction. It is no difficulty finding plenty of prospects in this world full of hate and confused people. There out are lots of Che-freaks, neo-communists, confused socialists that believe the castros has something to do with socialism, normal people that believe their problems are caused by USA and also believe castro is against USA and it make them believe castro is theirs friend. The list is very long, that’s why the commie’s intelligence agents have no problem to find prospect and convert them in militant collaborator. Of course, sometimes the normal intelligence procedure is not enough to convert a prospect, that’s why the agents run a parallel procedure just in case the main procedure fails. This plan B consists in spying the prospect closely to find its weaknesses, develop these weaknesses into a life episode and induce the prospect into a trap. This trap can be a criminal act, an immoral act, a treason act, etc. In the case the intelligence department takes notice of some weaknesses a public or semipublic person have develop, they will try to induce this person to commit an act related to its weaknesses and be involved in a possible scandal that only the agents can stop. In the most pure mafia style these strategies are used mainly on writers, famous artists, religious hierarchs, etc. Of course, you can find some enthusiastic follower that defends a tyranny for pure conviction but it will be only the exception that confirms the rule. The most of those “defenders” are recruited agents that do their job with more or less honesty. You can difference the firsts from the seconds after a round of debate. When they find trough the debate that their ideas was no sustainable they disappear. If the person is a true believer it will try to find the “light” trough acquiring more knowledge and will come back for more debate when she/ he feel ideologically stronger. After another round of debate and finding themselves more confused this person will disappear for ever or in rare cases will recognize its mistakes. But an agent, a recruited agent will never recognize its mistake, it can’t because is working, it will never accept a debate, it can’t afford a debate, the agent will always come back and post pamphlets and cut-paste articles from the internet or enunciate dogmas or slogans, it is their work, and finally will always attack you and the others in a personal basis trying to kill the messenger….. because they can’t kill the message!!!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 09:21
303Un Soricel
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:47
I guess you guys could make yourselves
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One thing is very evident……. in spite of what we do here is good or not you can’t do nothing to avoid it, you and castrofascism are impotent to fight the freedom of speech that offer a free internet…… when we present a crime of castrofascism you are uncapable to deny it because we have the proves, when we inform about industries destroyed by castrofascism and rebuild by Cubans in exile you are incapable to deny it because the fact is there, when we denounce a killing of castrofascism you can’t fight the evidence……. so you only can lie or like in your last comment make a personal attack showing in such way you have nothing to say or oppose to the message we delivery, you simply defeated as propaganda agent….. and castrofascism is surely now considering what to do with you……. be careful, castrofascism is very dangerous, think about that they have managed to stay in power half century just by killing and terror.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 09:02
Hating people on Facebook? WTF? Have NO idea what you are talking about.
And my little toe is brighter than your entire brain.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 09:00
Freud, re #294,
That is truly horrible, the evil at the heart of the Castro regime.
It’s nice to see how the police are getting everything nice and clean for the Pope. I hope he appreciates the special effort.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:59
.Here’s your answer Mouse. I certainly do not idolize the pope, he has no authority whatsoever as far as I am concerned, and his church has committed unspeakable evil. If his visit can be used to highlight the human rights abuses in Cuba, however, than more power to him.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:52
More jailed before Pope’s visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html
Meanwhaule casdenal Jaime Ortega says in interview there is no political prisoners in Cuba!!!!!……
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:48
Infantile abuse in Cuba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q0gWGnbXfI
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:47
I guess you guys could make yourselves really useful by selling I H8 CASTRO t-shirts… At least you’d put some money into your half-baked half-personal cause…. I am sure An(al)omino can help you sell with his vast experience of hating people from Facebook…and again he is not very bright but just a thug!
How does idolatry of the Pope sit with Castro idolatry??? Aren’t these similar if not the same?? The Pope is unelected and his word has to be carried as that lof a dictator, apparently he cnamake you burn in hell so he has power over one even after death … No oneescapes him … And after that howdoes that sit with the H8 Idolatry of ‘Castro fascism’ you build here everyday??? No answer thereI guess…
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:46
To Help, re#293,
Yes indeed, the official statistics from Cuba are BS. The figures have never been independently verified. The World Health Org reports on the Cuban medical system were based on statistics provided to WHO by the regime.
A friend of mine has met Cuban doctors in rural Ghana, operating clinics. They work abroad for 4 years and are not allowed to bring their family.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:41
Regime arrest Luis Felipe Rojas and Eliecer Palma to avoid them to follow Pope’s visit.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:34
News at Pope’s arrive eve:
- Pope says communism does not works any longer in Cuba
- Havana says they respect Pope’s opinion about Marxism
- More tan 50 jailed until today, HRW denounces repressive tactics before Pope’s visit
- Regimen uses rubber bullets to arrest opponents Sonia Garro and Ramón Muñoz
- A Diario de Cuba’s journalist (DDC) was arrested yesterday to avoid him to cover Papal visit.
- Castrofascism makes Cuba up so the Pope and other visitors can’t see the real Cuba.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 08:22
290Griffin
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:55
Re: Freud in #281,
The main reason Cuba can boast a low infant mortality rate is because the State forces all risky pregnancies to be terminated. Abortions are performed in the 9th month and even later if the doctors suspect a birth defect or complication. By eliminating potential post-partum risks, the “infant mortality” rate is effectively lowered. This practice of pre-emptive murder is what Dr. Oscar Biscet protested against and which landed him in Castro’s prisons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a “pre-partum risk group” also that include fetuses with risk of become a potential member in “post-partum risk. I had a neighbor who worked as doctor in the maternal hospital Gonzales-Coro that told me histories that seems gotten out the series “Tales of the Crypt”. The history that more impression caused me was the abortion practiced to a mother who’s fetus were included in the “pre-partum risk group”, the fetus was very advanced in his development (I don’t remember the time it had) and after abortion the mutilated fetus regret to die soon and lasted long time making noises in the disposal container they placed it together with other fetuses. The female workers of the sale had to ask the personal in charge the disposals to get ride the container in order to stop suffering together with the fetus.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 07:55
Something else, for all I hear about Cuban medical aid abroad, I still don’t know any volunteer who has run into a Cuban aid worker.
I know several volunteers who went to Haiti, and some are still there helping the poorest Haitians. Where are the Cubans? Isolated and guarded by the military so they don’t defect? Only treating the rich like they do in Cuba? Except for the occasional propaganda photo shoot? I don’t want to insult any of the ones who are really helping Haiti’s poor, I just want to know the complete truth.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 07:47
Griffin, I don’t know what the main reason for the low infant mortality rate is, but I do know that Cuban doctors lie a lot and Cuban statisticians lie a lot.
In addition to Cuban doctors counting 4 year olds as 6 year olds when they die, Cuban bureaucrats just make things up. I find it completely ridiculous to discuss figures that nobody has verified, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the real rates are 2, 3, or 7 times higher than the propaganda figures.
Cuba’s ridiculous medical propaganda reminds me of China’s bumper crops during Mao’s Great Leap Forward, crops that only existed in communist newspapers and the minds of gullible westerners.
Remember, the main skill needed to survive in Cuba is to be a liar. As true for doctors there as for anybody else.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 07:32
Oh, look what happened in the UK. Doesn’t mouse droppings live in the capitalistic and oppressive UK?
http://www.rt.com/news/faceboo.....-sentence/
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 07:29
We dont kow who is the goat and who is the sheep…in Cuba and in the world,but there are left and right wing,east and west,etc and they are all mixed now….and all being watched what they are doing….
And why is the goat not part of the sheep family,called sheep?
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 06:27
http://www.rt.com/news/twitter.....-data-366/
Just a little victory on the sheep that post here and watch Castros on their periscope but do not watch their own police force doing the ugly..and showing us what capitalism is really up to…
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 05:39
Wow,if guys would have started by looking at your own shoes and then picked on Cuban shoes….you may have had an argument there…. You gotta love your mentality: everything in Cuba is dictated … Event child mortality …. Everything in the USA is democratically done ….even infant death….
The more I look at your one-sided flood of arguments the more one realises that one of the ’successes’ of present Cuba, for all other shortcomings, is to have managed to deal with the FLOOOD of BS opinion and bias from the USA, opinions you impose on other nations …Iran is a good example as well… in a desperate attempt to antagonise them.. To rewrite their present history with view to impose a version that suits your principles…
I suppose it is convenient not to look at your own shoes….they reveal too much incompetence and cowardice in facing up a new world where youshould have been at least in part held responsible for bankrupting other nations..
So in this respect Cuba is good for you….you have someone to pick on to divert from a closer look at your own shoes….
Maybe you should be honest and say that regardless of any achievement you HATEany name that ends with Castro… Cos this is what you do!
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 05:34
That’s just what I was going to say.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 05:26
it is time to separate the goats from the sheep now;
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 For I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 36 Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:55
Re: Freud in #281,
The main reason Cuba can boast a low infant mortality rate is because the State forces all risky pregnancies to be terminated. Abortions are performed in the 9th month and even later if the doctors suspect a birth defect or complication. By eliminating potential post-partum risks, the “infant mortality” rate is effectively lowered. This practice of pre-emptive murder is what Dr. Oscar Biscet protested against and which landed him in Castro’s prisons.
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:50
Humberto in #282 wrote
“Estimates suggest that military-connected enterprises account for 10% to 40% of the Egyptian economy.”
How about Cuba?
The armed forces has long been the most powerful institution in Cuba and high-ranking generals are believed to play crucial roles in all conceivable succession scenarios.[1] The military controls 60 percent of the economy through the management of hundreds of enterprises in key economic sectors.[2][3] The military is also Raúl Castro’s base.[3] In numerous speeches, Raúl Castro has emphasized the military’s role as a people’s partner.[4]
The Cuban army controlled holding company GAESA is the largest corporation in Cuba, involved in tourism, hotels, trucking, manufacturing and agriculture. The director of GAESA is Raul Castro’s son-in-law.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wi.....med_Forces
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:38
After pope leaves Cuba… the embargo may be lifted also…to show that pope can open the door of Cuba and than big business will start maybe this year
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:35
On March 26, the Pope will move onto Cuba, where the Catholic Church has been pushing for greater spiritual, economic and political freedoms.
Is is “evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality,” Benedict told reporters yesterday. Cubans must “find new models, with patience, and in a constructive way.”
He went on to say the church wants to promote dialogue on the communist island to “avoid trauma and to help bring about a just and fraternal society.”
Fine Line
The visit, the second by a pope in 14 years, is timed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, the patron of Cuba. State-run media have devoted full pages to the trip, citing various statements by former Cuban President Fidel Castro to show that difficulties with the Catholic Church have been overcome.
The pope “will be welcomed by believers and non-believers alike,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told a press conference in Havana yesterday. “Those who try to obstruct the event will fail.”
The church has had to tread a fine line in Cuba between the government and dissidents.
Catholic leaders called in the police to evict 13 demonstrators from a church in Havana on March 16, with a spokesman for the local Archdiocese, Orland Marquez, calling the protest “illegitimate and irresponsible.” The protesters had requested a meeting with the pope
Marzo 25th, 2012 at 00:33
THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING/WILL HAPPEN IN CUBA! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
L.A. TIMES: Egypt military looking to keep its grip at least on economy
The Egyptian military stamps itself as protector of the nation, but behind this carefully tended mythology the army controls a multibillion-dollar business empire that trades in products not normally associated with men in uniform: olive oil, fertilizer, televisions, laptops, cigarettes, mineral water, poultry, bread and underwear.
Estimates suggest that military-connected enterprises account for 10% to 40% of the Egyptian economy. It is an opaque realm of foreign investments, inside deals and privilege that has grown quietly for decades, employing thousands of workers and operating parallel to the army’s defense industries.
The coming weeks will reveal how the military will maneuver to protect its authority and financial holdings as it prepares to hand power to a new president and civilian government in June. The transition is a key test in the unfinished revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, a career military man, and led to the political ascension of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE, BUT USE DIFFERENT BROWSERS IF LIMITED VIEWS!
http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....9014.story
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:58
Cuba’s infant mortality rate of 32 per 1,000 live births in 1957 was the lowest in Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world, according to UN data. Cuba ranked ahead of France, Belgium, West Germany, Japan, Austria, Italy, and Spain.
Today Cuba ranks in the place 28 in the world what means castrofasc¬ism has spoiled the wonderful health system it inherited from democracy.¬….. even accounting this data that place actual Cuba in place 28 is true…. we all know totalitari¬an regimes controlling al informatio¬n in the country uses to fake and inflate statistics¬…. there are many “political¬” prisoners in Cuba that got jail just for dismantlin¬g regimes lies…. like Dr. Biscet or Dr. Darsis Ferrer.
http://ctp¬.iccas.mia¬mi.edu.....mb¬er.htm
08:50 PM on 10/07/2010
Of course Cuban doctors have a good reputation¬. Since the very beginning of our country as free nation in 1900 Cubans doctors became among the first in the world. In spite all money and efforts of world left wing to make true castrofasc¬ism propaganda about health and education achievemen¬ts, the truth is that Cuba has long before castrofasc¬ism same health and educationa¬l level than today. Casto regimen just has been capable to maintain Cuba in same levels we had in 1930.
I know you like proves, well, here is the UN attesting it.
http://ctp¬.iccas.mia¬mi.edu.....mb¬er.htm
Since the very beginning of our country as free nation in 1900 Cubans doctors became among the first in the world. In spite all money and efforts of world left wing to make true castrofascism propaganda about health and education achievements, the truth is that Cuba has long before castrofascism same health and educational level than today. Casto regimen just has been capable to maintain Cuba in same levels we had in 1930 and ultimately has been capable to destroy it. USA “blockade” does not have nothing to do with this destruction simply because this blockade does not exists and in any case medical supplies and medicines were always out of commercial restrictions imposed by USA.
I don’t know where have you been all this time but castro transformed Cuba from a bordello “for” Americans in to a bordello for the world and specially world’s pedophiles.
Tuberculosis and Malaria were eradicated by Cuban health system long before castro arrived to power. USA provides for free all medicines and medical supplies Cuba needs for AIDS patients in spite the inexistent and so much mentioned “embargo”…… so…… what for needs Cuba $4.207 million from a UN’s fond to fight Tuberculosis, Malaria and AIDS?????
Those huge amounts of money sure destination will be for more killing, more harassment and repression on Cuba’s people. What some ones calls here policy of USA to isolate Cuba is just the defense act of common Cubans in exile of their fellow landsman in the island implemented by some laws congressman and senators elected by the Cuban nation in exile worked to keep in place.
Cuba’s health system built under democracy before castro-batista regime and inherited by castrofascism has been destroyed in the last 50. What remains of this system survives thanks US donations and Cuban exiles huge money supplies. It’s demagogic to compare the chaotic situation of Cuban’s health with insurance disadvantage of some people in USA. I have no insurance and I have a critical medical condition. I pay $25/month in a small clinic where I have access to laboratory, consultation with physicians and some therapy. When I have a crisis due to my medical condition I go to any hospital near my home and get help with no cost via emergency service. I have visited almost all hospitals in Dade County in the last 10 years just to check if any of them reject me and no one did it. I have never visited one of Miami’s 14 free clinics. Similar health system can be found in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Ecuador just to name countries in America….. very different is the situation of Cubans as Yoani describes. I can’t afford a health insurance because I have to send money to several of my relatives in Cuba to help them to buy medicines in DOLLARS and help them to buy reactive and supplies in DOLLARS for therapies and treatments because regime only supplies with such items tourist’s and elite hospitals….so….. it is no needed a bloody and criminal tyranny in order to get a disastrouse health system.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:57
• According to UN, FAO and UNESCO Cuba in 1957 had lower infant mortality than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had doctors and nurses: as many doctors and nurses per capita as the Netherlands, and more than Britain or Finland. Cuba in 1957 had as many vehicles per capita as Uruguay, Italy, or Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had 45 TVs per 1000 people–fifth highest in the world. Cuba today has fewer telephones per capita than it had TVs in 1957.
You take a look at the standard Human Development Indicator variables–GDP per capita, infant mortality, education–and you try to throw together an HDI for Cuba in the late 1950s, and you come out in the range of Japan, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Israel. Today? Today the UN puts Cuba’s HDI in the range of Lithuania, Trinidad, and Mexico. (And Carmelo Mesa-Lago thinks the UN’s calculations are seriously flawed: that Cuba’s right HDI peers today are places like China, Tunisia, Iran, and South Africa.)
Thus I don’t understand lefties who talk about the achievements of the Cuban Revolution: “…to have better health care, housing, education, and general social relations than virtually all other comparably developed countries.” Yes, Cuba today has a GDP per capita level roughly that of–is “comparably developed”–Bolivia or Honduras or Zimbabwe, but given where Cuba was in 1957 we ought to be talking about how it is as developed as Italy or Spain.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:53
Anonimo! YOU FLATTER ME WITH THE JE JE JE! JE JE JE!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:49
257Cuba Libre
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:27
When will the skeptics finally accept the well doing of Fidel Castro and his revolutionary government…………
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It is impossible when you have a mountain of historical fact that shows the murderous doing of castrofascism, it is impossible when you have a nation divided by a stupid egolatry of one single person, it is impossible when you have a country completely destroyed both economically and physically, a country in ruins, a country totally depending of the empire the tyrant simulates to fight…….. this is not matter of skepticism but reality, tryst and brutal reality anyone can see but ideological thugs and professional hiders like you.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:29
I especially like her prolific “comment section.” JE JE JE. I wonder what she is afraid of?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:14
Anonimo! YOU FORGOT TO PUT THE LINK FOR MARIELA’S BLOG!! HERE IT IS BELOW! AND SHE IS A “PROLIFIC” WRITER TOO! LAST POST WAS ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 23, 2011 (viernes 23 de diciembre de 2011)! BUT IM SURE SHE IS VERY BUSY! JE JE JE! LETS ALL TRY TO POST A WELCOME TO THE INTERNET & BLOGS SPHERE COMMENT! JE JE JE! COME ON C.L.! YOU GO FIRST! JE JE JE!
El blog de Mariela Castro- The blog of Mariela Castro!
http://elblogdemarielacastro.blogspot.com/
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 22:07
Cuba Libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & CASTROBOOTLICKER!) said: “Castro picked up the gauntlet minutes later, telling Sánchez in a tweet that “your understanding of tolerance reproduces the old mechanisms of power” — without an explanation. “To improve your ‘services’ you need to study.” Imagine that, Mariela Castro, a person whom the pin-up granny keeps citing to slander her government, totally tells her off and tells her how much she disapproves of her actions.
The truth will be heard.
YEAH! THAT MARIELA IS INTELLIGENT AND HAS A LOT OF CLASS! JE JE JE! SHE GOT KNOCKED OUT BY LA FLACA AND HER ARROGANCE GOT THE BEST OF HER! JE JE JE! THE REAL MARIELA WAS REVEALED, NOT THE ONE SHE WANTS TO PROJECT TO THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS! AND C.L., YOU FORGOT YOUR LINK AND THE ENTIRE STORY IN CONTEXT! WHY C.L.? YOU KNOW I WILL DEBUNK YOU EVERY TIME! JE JE JE!
THE GUARDIAN UK: Fidel Castro’s niece in Twitter row with Cuban dissident Yoani Sánchez- Mariela Castro – daughter of president Raúl – calls dissidents ‘despicable parasites’ hours after joining Twitter - Wednesday 9 November 2011
Within hours of signing up to Twitter, the daughter of the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, has got into the online equivalent of a shouting match with a prominent dissident blogger, Yoani Sánchez.
Mariela Castro called Sánchez and her supporters “despicable parasites” in a brief exchange that may have been the first direct confrontation, verbal or otherwise, between dissidents and a member of the Castro family after years of mutual animosity.
Sánchez, who regularly criticises the lack of freedoms in communist Cuba in her Generation Y blog, touched off the dispute by sending tweets that welcomed Mariela Castro to the “plurality of Twitter” where “no one can shut me up, deny me permission to travel or block entrance”.
“When will we Cubans be able to come out of other closets?” she asked, alluding to Mariela Castro’s championing of gay rights as head of Cuba’s national centre for sex education.
“Tolerance is total or is it not?” Sánchez tweeted.
Castro, 49, replied coolly: “Your focus of tolerance reproduces the old mechanisms of power. To improve your ’services’ you need to study.”
But later, after apparently receiving a number of tweets from other dissidents, Castro lashed out.
“Despicable parasites: did you receive the order from your employers to respond to me in unison and with the same predetermined script? Be creative,” she wrote, reflecting the contempt Cuban leaders have for dissidents.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....-dissident
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:59
The truth shall be heard.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:58
Cuba Libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & CASTROBOOTLICKER!) said: “Looks like even some people in the US are beginning to come to their senses, and admitting the harm the US blockade has done to Cuba and Cubans.”
C.L.! CAN YOU PUT SOME LINKS ON HOW THIS “BLOCKADE” HAS HARMED THE CUBAN PEOPLE! IF YOU NOTICED I ALWAYS PUT A LINK TO DEFEND MY INFORMATION! WHY CANT YOU??
LIFT THE CUBAN EMBARGO? By Humberto (Bert) Corzo* (ANOTHER INTELLIGENT CUBAN NAMED HUMBERTO! JE JE JE)
“It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. Fidel Castro
(Excerpt from the book “Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, Editora Política, Havana, Cuba, 1988)
In this article I analyze the arguments of lifting the Cuba embargo, which are more rhetorical than real, answering each one of the specific considerations of those that support the end of it.
“Fidel Castro and Human Rights”, book published by the “Editora Política” of the Cuban regime in 1988, states in the introduction that this reflected the philosophical thought of Fidel Castro. The book is without doubt an “I plead guilty”, where Castro affirms: “It is necessary to impose financial, economic and material restrictions to dictatorships, so that they will not take roots for long years….Diplomatic and morals measures do not work against dictatorships, because these make fun of the Governments and the population”. The international community must apply effective diplomatic and trade sanctions without more delays and subterfuges. What better justification of the embargo than his own words.
Effect of the Embargo
The United States Government has always exempted from the embargo medicine and humanitarian supplies to the Cuban people, as long as such aid is distributed by independent non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as the Catholic Church and international organizations such as Pastors for Peace.
Since 1992, the U.S. has approved 36 of 38 license requests for commercial sales of medicines and medical equipment to Cuba. During the period from 1993 to 1996, the U.S. has licensed over $150 million in humanitarian assistance, more than the total worldwide foreign aid received by Cuba in those years. This total does not include the millions of dollars in medicine and food sent to Cuba in the form of “care packages” from relatives living in the U.S. [1]
In the year 2000 the Department of Commerce approved the export to Cuba of approximately $550 million in medicines, medical equipment, cash remittances, gift parcels and food (cash remittances and gift parcels account for about 75% of the total amount).
The United States government’s embargo has had little effect on the Cuban economy, since it only represents 5 % of Cuba’s commerce with the rest of the world. The embargo only affects the American companies and their subsidiaries. The rest of the countries, 180 since the last count in 2007, are free to conduct business with Cuba and are doing so, as confirmed by imports surpassing $13.78 billions during 2007 [2]. In reality there is not such embargo since in the year 2000 the United States Congress lifted the prohibition of the sale of agricultural products and medicines to Cuba, thereby allowing Castro’s regime to buy everything it needs by paying in cash.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ESSAY! WITH FOOTNOTES AND EVERYTHING! JE JE JE!
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y.....9_O_3.html
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:55
From an interview with Mariela Castro? Oh look, Cubans robbing and harassing tourists and being called “the local scum” by Mariela. And I thought that everything was so happy and pristine in Cuba.
Q: Did they engage in prostitution?
“Some did, but not all of them. The police would take them away to silence the protests, but in fact there were other kinds of individuals there. In addition to transvestites and transsexuals, there were some people who were robbing and harassing the tourists. They had to curb those incidents, but not the way they did it, putting these transvestites and transsexuals on a level with the local scum. We thought it was the wrong treatment, requested to meet with the police and agreed to stop the isolated efforts in favor of a nationwide strategy to provide health, social, educational and employment services to transvestites and transsexuals. From it stemmed the guidelines for a Law on Gender Identity and amendments to our Family Code approved in 1975.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:50
Cuba Libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & CASTROBOOTLICKER!) said: “How strange that your link stops at 2007. You forgot the part where he was later sentenced to jail for he was convicted of fraud and tax evasion. Honestly raton, of all the people to quote, you chose the biggest con artist who ever existed in both Canada and US. You really disappoint me raton, you can do better then that. Maybe you can fool all your brown-nosers in here, but there are some of us who will unveil your lies and idiocies.”
C.L.! DID I STRIKE A RAW NERVE THERE? YOU ARE SOO AGITATED! JE JE JE! AND GO AHEAD, DEFAME THE MESSENGER, IN THIS CASE Conrad Black! TYPICAL CASTROFASCIST AGENT TACTIC! THE SAME TACTIC YOU KEEP TRYING TO PULL ON YOANI! BUT SHE IS MADE OF TEFLON BABY! TEFLON! ALL YOUR ATTEMPS AT DEFAMATION, INNUENDO AND OUTRIGHT CHISME SLIDES RIGHT OFF OF HER! JE JE JE!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:47
By the way, Cuba Libre, have you tried to post a comment on Mariela’s blog, LOL?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:45
“American policy hurts our businesses and workers by providing a rationale to continue the job-killing embargo on trade with Cuba,” said Adams, who also called that policy “counterproductive and hypocritical.”
The former military officer, who was removed from active duty in 2007 and who carries considerable weight in the upper echelons of the Pentagon, gave his opinion following a recent trip to Cuba, according to a report from the Café Fuerte website.”
The truth will be heard.
Explanation for the incredibly dense:
He’s worried about his business, and the businesses of others, doing well. Capitalism, I thought you hated the concept. Hyprocite!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:44
I suppose because her father is gay, no?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:33
#266 An(al)onimo,
I don`t think Humberto (aka El Ciber Rata) will agree with you on that one. Mariela Castro has done wonders for gay and lesbiam rights in Cuba and several other places in the world.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:29
Looks like even some people in the US are beginning to come to their senses, and admitting the harm the US blockade has done to Cuba and Cubans.
Quote: “HAVANA TIMES, March 23 — US Brigadier General John Adams and lobbyist David W. Jones requested that Washington remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in a recent article on The Hill website.
“American policy hurts our businesses and workers by providing a rationale to continue the job-killing embargo on trade with Cuba,” said Adams, who also called that policy “counterproductive and hypocritical.”
The former military officer, who was removed from active duty in 2007 and who carries considerable weight in the upper echelons of the Pentagon, gave his opinion following a recent trip to Cuba, according to a report from the Café Fuerte website.”
The truth will be heard.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:24
Um, maybe because Mariela Castro is an insane b*tch who has absolutely zero credibility?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 21:12
Well, well, well. I wonder why none of the liers and brown-nosers in here never posted this link where Mariela Castro denounces Yoani Sanchez`s views on her government.
Quote: “Castro picked up the gauntlet minutes later, telling Sánchez in a tweet that “your understanding of tolerance reproduces the old mechanisms of power” — without an explanation. “To improve your ‘services’ you need to study.”
Imagine that, Mariela Castro, a person whom the pin-up granny keeps citing to slander her government, totally tells her off and tells her how much she disapproves of her actions.
The truth will be heard.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 20:59
#257 Humberto (El Ciber Rata)
I don`t know who you are trying to fool, but of all people you picked to quote Conrad Black. How strange that your link stops at 2007. You forgot the part where he was later sentenced to jail for he was convicted of fraud and tax evasion. Honestly raton, of all the people to quote, you chose the biggest con artist who ever existed in both Canada and US. You really disappoint me raton, you can do better then that. Maybe you can fool all your brown-nosers in here, but there are some of us who will unveil your lies and idiocies.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 19:50
IS THIS THE END FOR CASTROFASCIST SUGAR DADDY CHAVEZ?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Chavez going to Cuba to begin radiation treatment
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he’s flying to Cuba to begin radiation therapy on Sunday, one month after undergoing surgery that removed a cancerous tumor.
The Venezuelan leader has been recovering after his Feb. 26 surgery in Cuba, which removed a tumor from the same spot in his pelvic region where another tumor was extracted eight months earlier.
“Tonight, I’m leaving for Havana,” Chavez said in a televised meeting with aides Saturday. “I’ve decided, on the recommendation of my medical team and also my government political team, to begin now, as we’re going to begin on Sunday, radiation therapy treatment.”
Chavez described it as a “complement to the surgery that I underwent” last month.
The 57-year-old president has not identified the type of cancer nor the location in his pelvic region where the tumors have been removed.
Chavez is running for re-election in October and vows that his illness will not get in the way of that political goal.
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....4890670e0a
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 17:04
Cuba must change now because this year will be a big flux of the Miami Cubans coming as refuge in Cuba because they will be hunted in USA for even sending an email…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ature=plcp
Not just Cubans of North America but many Americans may rush to come to Cuba as refuges, exiling…so Cuba must provide food ration for all of them…beans,rice
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 15:57
Cuba’s embargo will be lifted if the Cubans communists unite with pope,their Church.
HAVANA (Reuters) - For years at Havana’s historic Cristobal Colon cemetery, Communist Party members refused to enter the Roman Catholic chapel there for funeral services.
They stayed outside while others honored the dead because religious believers were banned from the party and being seen in a church, particularly a Catholic one, could bring trouble even for someone in mourning.
But those days are gone and the Church has taken a bigger role in Cuban society since the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998, said 68-year-old Erick Osio, who remembers standing outside the cemetery chapel.
“Things relaxed and that taboo ended. Everything has changed for religion in Cuba since then,” said the retired army colonel who now works as a parking attendant.
“John Paul began a different evolution here that opened things up for believers.”
Fourteen years after John Paul’s epochal trip to Cuba, Pope Benedict will come to the island on Monday after a three-day stop in Mexico, on a visit that was not predicted to be as groundbreaking, but has sparked hopes for more economic and political change among some Cubans.
He may have signaled more ambitious aspirations than expected, and jarred the Cuban government on Friday when he told reporters the Caribbean island needed a new economic model because communism had failed.
“Today it is evident that Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality,” the pope said on the flight to Mexico, where he landed on Friday afternoon.
“In this way we can no longer respond and build a society. New models must be found with patience and in a constructive way,” he said, extending the Church’s offer to help with a transition in one of the world’s last communist countries.
When asked about the comments at the opening on Friday of a press center for the papal visit in Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said only that Cuba would listen respectfully to the pontiff during his three-day visit and considered the exchange of ideas “useful.”
Benedict’s predecessor is a tough act to follow because, even though the Communist Party ended its ban on religious believers in 1991, Cubans generally view John Paul’s visit seven years later as the landmark moment that led to improved Church-state relations after decades of hostility that followed the island’s 1959 revolution.
This pope’s work will be to build on recent gains by the Church in its relations with the government and seeking a bigger role in a time of change under President Raul Castro.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the leader of the Cuban Church, has emphasized the spiritual side of the visit and the hope of re-energizing religion on the island that for 15 years under former leader Fidel Castro officially declared itself an atheist state.
A senior Vatican official, who requested anonymity, said recently the pope wanted to assure the Cuban government that its former enemy only wanted to be helpful, not threatening, as Raul Castro undertakes reforms to improve Cuba’s Soviet-style economy.
“The pope wants to help Catholic leaders convince the government that it has nothing to fear from the Church in Cuba,” the official told Reuters.
“The Church wants to help in education, in teaching moral values. That can only help all of Cuban society as it embarks on many changes in the political and social spheres.”
The Cuban rumor mill has been in full swing with speculation that as a gesture to the 84-year-old pope, the Cuban president might release more political prisoners, free jailed American contractor Alan Gross or finally unveil immigration reforms he promised last year.
Gross, 62, is serving a 15-year sentence for illegally setting up Internet networks in a case that has stalled U.S.-Cuba relations.
FRUSTRATIONS
Cubans said this week they believed the pope’s visit was a good thing for the country and that it could use the Church’s help on several fronts, particularly the economy.
“The pope comes at an opportune time because there is no work,” said 19-year-old Carlos Gonzalez as he waited in line for ice cream in Havana’s Vedado district. “I’ve looked for work for two years and I don’t find it, and the jobs here have low salaries.”
“Young people want to leave because we don’t have anything. The only thing we have is the beach and the Malecon,” the thin, clean-cut teenager said, referring to the city’s spectacular seawall.
“May the changes come very soon,” said his friend Yusniel Garcia Suarez, also 19 and jobless.
He smoked a cigarette, wore a faded gray T-shirt with the words “Power Hitter” on the front and, like several people interviewed, said he was religious but did not go to church.
His ambitions were not high, but they would require a lot more money than the average Cuban salary of $19 a month, and immigration reforms making it easier to come and go from his homeland.
“I don’t want to leave Cuba. I just want to be able to go to Cancun for a few days with my girlfriend,” Garcia said.
Communist Party member Laurent Barredo, 46, warned that no one should expect miracles from the pope’s visit because the Cuban government would only make changes at its own pace.
“Nothing is going to change because of the pope. The changes that have happened are going to continue because they are the only thing that will bring internal development to Cuba,” he said, adding he thought the trip would help the government.
“It will give prestige to the Cuban revolution. I think that the principles of the Church are the same principles as the revolution. You can believe that God exists and I can believe that he doesn’t, but if we are honest, work, produce and help each other, it’s the same,” he said.
Some anti-Castro groups complain that papal visits give Cuba’s communist rulers a legitimacy they do not deserve, although criticism before this trip has been more muted than in 1998, even in Miami, the home of many Cuban exiles.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s No. 2, said in a newspaper interview this week that the visit would help the process of developing democracy and open up new spaces for the presence and activity (of the Church).”
In Havana, retired school teacher and non-believer Galicia Cabrera, 68, said she did not want Benedict’s visit to bring a return to pre-revolution days when the Church was a bigger and more powerful part of Cuban society.
A Church survey in 1954 found that 72.5 percent of Cubans were Catholic and 24 percent of them were regular churchgoers. Today, Church officials say about 60 percent of Cubans are baptized, but only 5 percent always go to Mass.
“Everything is good the way it is. Don’t change because now is the only way we can live in Cuba - the Church in one part and the government in another part,” Cabrera said while looking up from reading Granma, the Communist Party newspaper.
Osio said he thought the pope would do something to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, which have been hostile since the revolution.
The United States has imposed a trade embargo on Cuba for 50 years, which the Cuban government and many Cubans blame for their country’s chronic economic woes.
“It looks to me like the pope is going to help tighten or redefine relations between the United States and Cuba. Remember that I said that,” he said, wagging his finger.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 14:20
Religion and faith can not be mixed with banks and business usually until the money is used for the payments of the building of the religious empires, the religion’s temples,priests,armies,intelligence,people….Than the religion = business…and when the business grow…there is no more religion. Cuba is an example…and the World soon also. So the world is now rebelled against the God…and there is no more faith and a real religion left but only the money changers and banks and business.A new Religion is needed,a World Religion to be day again because now is there only the darkness,evil,beasts who run everywhere and kill in the jungle…thirsty for blood.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 14:05
It looks like the Corporation called Cuba which has robbed,slaved,tortured and killed many Cubans will be transfered to the bankers as a big business to something new,with a name change or run by the new owners…but it is not known to whom…maybe U.N. and its world banks.UN and its bureaucracy will be the elite of the world corporation…
Now is time that all the old owners of all countries…will be replaced with the new owners who may be as the present E.U’s ELITES…the socialists who pay themselves half million euro per year each…and they order for seniors of EU to be paid only 3000 euro per year pensions…because now their money is stolen by the EU’s elite and the EU’s colossal bureaucracy.The old evil gods are replaced with new evil human gods.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 13:08
Cuba Libre (La MENTIROTA & HOMOPHOBE & CASTROBOOTLICKER!) said: “Did you get that I`ll repeat it “the older generation is more uncritically supportive of the revolution than the young – it knows what Cuba was like before.””
C.L.!! YOU LIKE THIS “VIRTUALLY SPANKING” DONT YOU !! FUACATA!!!!!!! AND WHERE IS YOUR LINK WITH ALL THESE PRE-CASTRO DIRE STATISTICS?? CAN YOU PUT ONE PLEASE! I CAN PUT THOSE SUPPORTING MY ARGUMENTS, CAN YOU?
PBS AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: FIDEL CASTRO- Pre-Castro Cuba- Cuba’s capital, Havana, was a glittering and dynamic city. In the early part of the century the country’s economy, fueled by the sale of sugar to the United States, had grown dynamically. Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. The literacy rate, 76%, was the fourth highest in Latin America. Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita. Many private clinics and hospitals provided services for the poor. Cuba’s income distribution compared favorably with that of other Latin American societies. A thriving middle class held the promise of prosperity and social mobility.
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE REPORT, VIDEOS ETC.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/c.....astro.html
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 13:01
EXCELLENT ESSAY, LONG BUT WORTH THE READ! I HOPE EVERYONE HERE IS ENJOY SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
NATIONAL POST: “What the Pope must say in Cuba” - Conrad Black
According to Britain’s Catholic Herald, Raul Castro now lists his religion as Catholic. Even allowing that this would be the most improbable manifestation of the grace of conversion since the former communist leader of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, suggested that his country might wish to apply for statehood in the United States, it is conceivable that the ghastly, catastrophic Castro regime that has been riveted on the back of Cuba for 53 years, is, in the extreme winter of its baleful days, doing a rethink on militant secularism.
The Castros have become so idiosyncratic that trying to evaluate any public policy developments in Cuba could as well be done with a Ouija board as by normal scrutiny of official comments, as Fidel has effectively admitted that communism has been an almost complete failure in Cuba. In the circumstances, it would not be unseemly or unjustified if he and Raul checked into a monastery to sing their repentances for all they have inflicted on Cuba, for the balance of their golden years, from a genuflective or even prostrate position. But celebration of the triumph of any such redemptionist and expiatory impulse would be, to say the least, premature.
Yesterday, aboard the Papal plane, Pope Benedict declared plainly to reporters that “Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality,” and that “new models” must be found for Cuba. He added that “we want to help in a spirit of dialogue to avoid traumas and to help move forward a society which is fraternal and just.”
When asked about the subject of human rights in Cuba, the Pope said that “the Church is always on the side of freedom.” Yet the Pope has not agreed to meet any of the heroic crusaders for human rights in Cuba, who have borne on their necks and backs the hob-nailed jackboots of the Stalinist Castro regime. The leaders of the “Ladies in White,” a valiant group that has endured beatings, jail, and likely state-sponsored assassinations to protest political imprisonment for a decade, has beseeched the nuncio for an interview with the Pope “even for one minute,” and has been coldly informed by Ortega’s office that the pope’s schedule will not permit it, even though it has been made clear that the Pope is prepared to meet Fidel, should the ex-president desire it. The cardinal had the state police remove a group conducting a sit-in at the shrine of La Caridad seeking a papal audience. Cardinal Ortega did celebrate a mass for convalescing Marxist President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, but has so far declined to perform the same honour for the many political dissidents whom the Castros have murdered.
The Roman Catholic Church is both adept and notorious at balancing material and spiritual values. But there is no practical reason to engage in appeasement of this decrepit and abominable regime, which is in no position to emulate Stalin in his contemptuous inquiry of Pius XII, “How may divisions has the pope?” (Stalin was in no position to put the question either, as it turned out, but it took some time for that fact to become clear, after Stalin and Pius both had gone on to their rewards.)
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.financialpost.com/s.....2b4111258c
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 10:02
Cuban pesant or worker before Castro worked hard and his products,food and natural resources were sold out and most of the money went to the USA or EU bank,maybe in the same banks accounts,before and after Castros times,in capitalism and later in communism…So it did not change much in big busness of Cuba’s corporation… but more free labor spent maybe…the voluntary work…which means money, bigger wealth,more profits in the banks accounts.And banks did buy all world governments with that money and created the new world socialism…the future free labor camp of the world. That maybe the Plan…
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:34
@Help, if your knowledge of history is based on Fox newsand thesame daily span or the biased docs on History Channel …then yeah for sure it figures… Marxism baaaad Capitalism and theChurch good ….. Not sure where Islam fits but probably with Marxism…
I think I’d go with Tourist’s view that these days Capitalism and Socialism are openly one and the same in supporting the very rich … And that the Church has a stake in both… For this reason…meaning money and power!.. Reputation aside.
Obviously you’ve missed that article on a boy being not justabused but alsoCastrated by the ‘loving’ guys belonging totheCatholic church… I don’t see how someone presiding over such an institution has the courage to show his face in public - but then again some people have short memory spans to excuse their ignorance a thing so central to the church doctrine ….apparently to enquire is aSin you have to trust the guy and be part of the flock…A bit like in dictatorship .. And a bit more..or else you are aHeretic.
In my book anyone whose been in prison in Cuba wouldn’t spend time here for the very reason that they would know the fight is not here…. Here is just propaganda… And in many respect cheap propaganda.. The type that the baa baaa genius called Humberto is singing everyday..
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:31
Pope may ask Castros maybe to tell their sins and repent…but what about if Castros were put or hired to run Cuba and be a family of a big corporate-state-nation billioner? Cuba is a profitable corporation and the question is who will run its business after the Church’s (Castros) old boys are dead and there is to much oil,suger,rice,beans,cigars,etc…to be sold? Humberto must go to run Cuba corp…
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:30
@Help, if your knowledge of history is based on Fox newsand thesame daily span or the biased docs on History Channel …then yeah for sure it figures… Marxism baaaad Capitalism and theChurch good ….. Not sure where Islam fits but probably with Marxism…
I think I’d go with Tourist’s view that these days Capitalism and Socialism are openly one and the same in supporting the very rich … And that the Church has a stake in both… For this reason…meaning money and power!.. Reputation aside.
Obviously you’ve missed that article on a boy being not just abused but also castrated by the ‘loving’ guys belonging totheCatholic church… I don’t see how someone presiding over such an institution has the courage to show his face in public - but then again some people have short memory spans and use this to excuse their ignorance a thing so central to the church doctrine ….apparently to enquire is a sin you have to trust the guy and be part of the flock…A bit like in dictatorship .. And a bit more..or else you are a heretic..
In my book anyone whose been in prison in Cuba wouldn’t spend time here for the very reason that they would know the fight is not here…. Here is just propaganda… And in many respect cheap propaganda.. The type that the baa baaa genius called Humberto is singing everyday..
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:27
When will the skeptics finally accept the well doing of Fidel Castro and his revolutionary government. How mcuh more proof has to be slapped into the faces of the non-believers before they open their blind eyes? Here is yet more proof for the liars and blasphemers in here,
Quote: “Castro’s leadership was the key factor in rapidly rising living standards for the poorest. In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba’s children did not attend school. The literacy campaign begun by Castro in 1961 led, in 1970, to Unesco declaring Cuba the country with the highest primary and secondary school enrolment in Latin America. These development gains, among others, have continued to this day.”
Quote: “No other similar country adopted Cuba’s approach to development, although some tried, and the differences between poverty in Cuba and other Latin and Caribbean countries are stark. While average income has grown in Cuba at a similar speed to other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador, the poverty and social conflict still experienced in the mainland countries is very apparent. In Cuba, the extremes of opulence and misery are banished in favour of a generalised level of wealth.”
But here is the Quote that best describes the situation in Cuba today,
Quote: “But there have been two broad consequences. First, a generation of educated young people aspire to more in terms of living standards and life chances than their parents ever did. It is no coincidence that the older generation is more uncritically supportive of the revolution than the young – it knows what Cuba was like before.”
Did you get that I`ll repeat it “the older generation is more uncritically supportive of the revolution than the young – it knows what Cuba was like before.”
No more is needed to be said. The truth will be heard.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:21
Help…make some sense but to be closer to the Truth is needed to go not in the roots of the tree of life,but in its Seed maybe…to Christ…so a new Tree is needed to rot and be planted now that the old Tree has collapsed,is dead already…Or better to say; Let there be Light again…because it is dark…so the sun must rise and light the darknesss.Who is the pope’s role? Pope maybe is a symbol of star(sirius,venus,jupiter,mars etc)or maybe pope like to be like the white lighted moon(old symbol of semitics,moslyms),priests as the black darkness(dark sky,universe) and the cardinals and bishops as the watchers of the dawn maybe but who nows. Church only decided about its colors,fashion,symbols. What about Sun?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 09:11
I am almost certain history will repeat itself when the Pope goes to Cuba. Here is what the last Pontiff who visited Cuba had to say,
Qhote: “Fidel recalled the injustices being committed against the country. “Cuba, your Holiness, is currently standing up to the strongest power in history like a new David, a thousand times smaller, who in the same spirit of biblical times, is fighting to survive against a gigantic Goliath of the nuclear age who is trying to prevent our development by forcing us to surrender through sickness and hunger. If that story had not been written then, it would have had to have been written today. This monstrous crime cannot be ignored or excuses given for it.”
For that reason, it was gratifying to hear the leader of the Catholic Church condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba, describing it as “restrictive economic measures imposed from outside of the country, unjust and ethically unacceptable.”
At the same time he criticized neoliberalism, then in its apogee. “Economically unsustainable programs are being imposed on nations, as a condition of receiving more aid and the exaggerated enrichment of a few at the cost of the impoverishment of many can be confirmed.”
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/ne.....pablo.html
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:53
UniSorce, you talk silly.
Some people who post here spent most of their lives in Cuba. One poster spent years in a Cuban prison. I’ll let you figure it out, Mr Know-it-all-who-never-set-foot-in-Cuba-but-lectures-the-world-about-it
The church genocidal? Don’t be daft. It’s not the same Church as during the inquisition, it’s the exact opposite. The Church fights for the poor and against exploitation everywhere. The only thing they can be criticized for is being too soft on dictatorships like Castro’s. I don’t like their policies on a few other things too, but anyone is free to join or leave or criticize the Church as they please.
Compare that to the Marxist church. It is still oppressive, murderous, dictatorial, against freedom of speech and against democracy. Not one Marxist state has been anything else.
I think the difference between the two sects is that the Church of Christ was based on love so all the Church had to do was get back to its roots.
The Church of Marx was based on hatred, so it can’t evolve without abandoning everything Marx and Lenin stood for.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:49
People who comment here and critisise both communism and capitalism…should be careful….because these old systems were maybe both created and run by the Church. Pope is coming to Cuba and does not seems right to critise the dead systems;communism and capitalism. Pope may introduce a new system and he said that a new system is now needed…to replace the old dead systems now stinking,smelling
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:39
It is possible that both the worldwide capitalism and communism systems were maybe financed,created,directed,controlled by the Church direct and indirect…using its groups,people,elites,banks,business…The question is; What system will be NEXT?!…
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:28
10 Conditions For Transition To Communism (by Marx);
-Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
-A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
-Abolition of all right of inheritance.
-Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
-Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
-Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
-Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
-Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
-Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
-Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
According to the Communism in Cuba going now worldwide,like in S.U.,EU,NAU,SAU,the world is going to be a socialist corporation run maybe by the Church via Socialists.
So is the pope saying that communism did not work in Cuba and must be now socialism!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:15
Yes Marxism and his manifesto of communism is indeed a Jesuitical invention (it is told in history), crafted to perfection already during the 17th and 18th centuries in the Paraguayan Reductions. Keeping in mind the socialist credo being that the State is God, in the Reductions the Jesuits openly comprised the State and so the Jesuits could be regarded as God’s chosen elite by their,workers,the native Indian subjects, whereas in communism was an elite as to give the illusion of indeed a godless State. Apart from a no doubt colossal bureaucratic difference, this seems to be the only fundamental difference between the two brands of socialism with God or no God.Communism is outdated as capitalism is,but what will be the future sgstem?
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 08:04
Pope see communism as capitalism or similar in the end…Most socialists share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation (Cuba?), creates an unequal society, does not provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximise their potentialities and does not utilise technology and resources to their maximum potential nor in the interests of the public…It looks like USA=CUBA now…but Cuba is now a capitalist corporation run by Castros now that USA is becoming a socialist corporation.So they are equal but they both are like the Paraguai experimental communism=capitalism run by the Church 200 years ago.
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 07:55
Just in case you little western hypocrites havent noticed ..the Catholic church destroyed over the centuries the life of more people on Earth that any other ideology ..especially in Latin America where conversion to Catholicism was genocidial…. I suppose all communist know that and this is what they try … If you hang around too long you will be accepted as good … As the Pope is….
Loved the Economist ridulous article …about USA hooking up Cuba to the Internet …. Well why the USA ??? .when Spain is the biggest operator in Latin America and in America???? That is the bias Help and there publican cohort is insinuating is good for Cuba!!!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 07:47
Help as I was saying you are the best suited after Alan ‘the innocent not’Grossto try living in Cuba…
Truth can only bespoken by say Ladies in White and real dissidents not by USAnians from Miami and journalists like Y who use a western agenda to explain Cuba to the ‘world’…that clearly have a conflict of interest there, motto add that you don’t even speak Spanish properly… So your truth is a self-serving joke like most of the thingsyou do here…
Humberto…stop hyperventilating darling Pope’s ideology is as ‘dated’ and abusive as communism !!
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 00:42
Castro Party………must work against the evil, which is destructive of Cuba … of 11 million people
Marzo 24th, 2012 at 00:37
Benedict said,”It is evident today that Marxist ideology as it had been conceived no longer responds to reality,”
“New models must be found, though with patience,” the pontiff said.
He also responded to questions about the role of the church in combating Mexico’s drug trafficking violence.
“It is certainly a great responsibility for the Catholic church, in a country in which 80% of the people are Catholic. We must work against this evil, which is destructive of mankind and (especially) of our youth,” Benedict said, according to the Vatican.
“The church’s great responsibility, therefore, is to educate consciences, to educate in the moral responsibility and to unmask evil, to unmask this idolatry of money that enslaves men; to expose these false promises, lies, deceits, we must see that humanity needs the infinite,” the pope said.
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 22:25
The twin systems; communism and capitalism ended as corporation despotism where profit few and the rest starve…suffer…who were slaved,robed,raped,tortured,abused,killed by the few who run the corporation state and worldwide. Pope should know about this more and he should propose something new to save not just Cuba but all the destroyed world and planet.
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 22:18
It looks like the pope will suggest to Cuba a different system because communism and capitalism are both fallen now in and outside Cuba.I* hope the new system will not be just to pray all day…but it looks like pope has something new in mind and should tell what should Cuba do when he comes but first is to empty the jails,second to produce more beans and rice and third is to lift embargo in the same time when people will have a party each…11 milion new parties so there are more than one party,the Castro Party
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 22:11
How does a “democratic social project, genuinely chosen” work when no Cuban has a right to choose.
53 years without an election. 53 years of punishing any Cuban who criticizes Castro.
Amazing.
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 21:54
MY FAVOERITE QUOTE FROM MY PREVIOUS POSTED ARTICLE:
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez avoided any clash over the statement.
“We consider the exchange of ideas to be useful. Our people have deep convictions developed over the course of our history,” Rodriguez said at a news conference. “Cuba will listen with all respect to his holiness.”
He added that the Cuban system “is a democratic social project, genuinely chosen, which is constantly perfecting itself.”
REALLY BRUNO! SO HOW IS ALL THAT CONSTANT HARASSING, JAILING AND OUTRIGHT BULLYING OF THOSE WHO THINK DIFFERENTLY THAN THE CASTROFASCISTS IN CUBA DIFFER FROM THE POPE’S VIEW?? PLEASE EXPLAIN, OR EVEN BETTER, LET Damir, Cuba Libre & Spam Irrelevant Posters (IPS) ESPLAIN IT TO ALL OF US!
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 21:36
Post 229. I believe it. All of it. The truth will be heard.
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 21:34
THE WORLD IS WATCHING CUBA DURING THE POPE’S VISIT! THAT MEANS THOSE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF CUBA! JE JE JE! THANKS TWITTER, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE & ALL INTERNET SERVICES! WE ARE ALL CONNECTED! JE JE JE! AND IF THE CASTROFASCISTS CUT CELL PHONE SERVICES FOR THE DISSIDENTS INSIDE CUBA, THE WORLD WILL HEAR ABOUT IT! YOU BET YOUR CUBACEL CARD!! JE JE JE!
ASSOCIATED PRESS: After Pope criticizes Marxism, Cuba diplomatic- By PETER ORSI,
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba will listen with respect to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit next week even if he differs with island leaders, the country’s foreign minister said Friday after the pontiff described Marxism as out of step with the times.
Benedict made the comment to reporters during his long flight to Mexico, the first stop in his six-day tour. While it was in keeping with the Vatican’s position, it was an unexpectedly blunt statement to come just days before he will be on Cuban soil.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez avoided any clash over the statement.
“We consider the exchange of ideas to be useful. Our people have deep convictions developed over the course of our history,” Rodriguez said at a news conference. “Cuba will listen with all respect to his holiness.”
He added that the Cuban system “is a democratic social project, genuinely chosen, which is constantly perfecting itself.”
Benedict said it is “evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality,” and exhorted Cubans to “find new models, with patience, and in a constructive way.”
Asked about reports of harassment and detention of dissidents on the island, Benedict said the church wants “to help in the spirit of dialogue to avoid trauma and to help bring about a just and fraternal society.”
Benedict’s comments were as bold as any his predecessor, John Paul II, made during his historic 1998 tour of Cuba. But they stopped short of directly challenging the country’s single-party political model, which has been in place for five decades. Benedict arrives Monday in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.
Robert A. Pastor, a professor of international relations at American University and former national security adviser for Latin America during the Carter administration, said Benedict’s words seemed calculated to initiate a dialogue about political change while giving the Cubans space to maneuver by underscoring the importance of gradualism.
“He placed himself on the side of freedom, but not necessarily in a manner that would put the Cuban regime on the defensive,” Pastor said. “They will not be excited by this. They won’t be happy with it. But I think they have to be realistic enough to understand that the pope could say nothing less.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE!
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....f7aad4eb18
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 20:55
231Cuba Libre
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 19:18
……….Most are from Miami or other American states. And everyone knows that this blog is made in Spain, and not from Havana like the pin-up granny pretends……
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When I say the biggest asset we Cuban have in this blog are the trio dumbir-sorrycell-cubaliar I am not joking…….. let them write and they will back all we state about castrofascism…….. the trio spent a lot butt-hours sitting and writing Cubans have access to internet or Yoani has all freedom of the world to write this blog under castrofascism consent…….and now the retarded liar denies both lies in one single sentence hahahahahahahahahahaha……. our best asset!!!!!……… hahahahahahaha……… let them talk, with the time we will not have necessity to argument against them!!!!!!!………. hahahahahahahaha……… hey dummy…… be aware I am of those that keep records, so, think twice next time you say castrofascism allows Yoani write this blog in Cuba hahahahahaha…….
Marzo 23rd, 2012 at 19:58
A POIGNANT ESSAY BY OUR FLACA, WITH SOME HARD QUESTION FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!
FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE: “OF POPES & POTATOES” - Can Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Havana offer any hope for the Cuban people? - BY YOANI SÁNCHEZ - MARCH 23, 2012
But the life of a country, the existence of several generations of its children cannot be cast or built in periods of thousands of years, at the rhythm of an eternally oscillating censor. John Paul II said, “Man is the primary route that the Church must travel,” and the defense of human rights is the cornerstone of that premise. In Cuba, and faced with evidence that civil liberties are prohibited and demonized in other spaces, temples and seminaries need to assume a less cautious role.
The negotiations between the Cuban government and Cardinal Jaime Ortega over the release of political prisoners from the Black Spring crackdown in 2003 were expected to increase the Church’s prestige on the island, but they did not. Instead, they raised questions and criticisms, even among the families of those who were released. In part, this was because the Ladies in White, who had spent seven years exerting pressure in the streets to bring their husbands home, did not have a voice at the negotiating table. The Cuban government chose a less uncomfortable interlocutor to deliver the hostages, brushing aside the role of those who had managed to bring it to that point by the sheer weight of their denunciations.
The Pope will arrive in a country where the ecclesiastical hierarchy has expanded its facilities, opened a new seminary, and created a chair for the discussion — with very select guests — of social issues. He’ll greet a nation where no one is fired from his or her job or expelled from school for reciting the Lord’s Prayer, and where official television broadcasts Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and many other homilies.
But he will also find a cardinal who is past the age of retirement, a president who is 80, and a population with a shortage of young people because of emigration and a low birth rate. He will come at a time when the economy is becoming more flexible and the political discourse more radical, a time of commercial expectations and ideological disappointments.
His visit, undoubtedly, will not be preceded by the whirlwind of hope, curiosity, and humor that John Paul II inspired in us. But who knows. Perhaps not even that little Pepito of our jokes can anticipate the surprises Joseph Ratzinger will bring us. As for me, I dream that in the atheist and exclusionary Plaza of the Revolution, he will propose that “Cuba open itself to Cuba.”
CLICK LINK FOR ENTIRE ESSAY!
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/a.....d_the_pope