posted on June 4, 2002 07:03:14 AM new
In answering the threats and demands made by Bush recently Fidel Castro shows some of the class that has made him such a widely loved figure in Cuba for over 40 years:
``Don't be a fool, Mr. W,'' Castro said. ``Show some respect for
the minds of people who are capable of thinking...Show some
respect for others and for yourself.''
Castro's early morning address is part of Cuba's answer to
Bush's May 20 speeches in Washington and Miami, promising
trade sanctions against Cuba would not be lifted until all political
prisoners are freed, independently monitored elections are
allowed and a series of other conditions are accepted for a ``new
government that is fully democratic.''
A week ago, Castro made a similar speech answering Bush's
declarations, telling the American people that they should never
fear an attack by Cuba and can always count on this communist
country's support in the war against terrorism.
Saturday's speech in this eastern provincial capital 500 miles
east of Havana was aimed directly at Bush.
``None of our leaders is a millionaire like the President of the
United States, whose monthly wage is almost twice that of all
the members of the (Cuban) Council of State and the Council of
Ministers in a year,'' Castro told several hundred thousand
people from across rural Holguin province and neighboring Las
Tunas and Granma provinces.
``None can be included in the long list of Mr. W's neoliberal
friends in Latin America who are Olympic champions of
misappropriation and theft since the few who do not steal from
the public coffers and state taxes steal from the poor and the
hungry,'' he said.
``The criminal blockade he has promised to tighten will only
multiply the honor and glory of our people,'' Castro declared of
Bush's stated intention to not only maintain but tighten U.S.
restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba.
Castro contrasted Bush with the late American President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
``It was a long time ago when a man spoke from his wheelchair
with a soft voice and a persuasive accent. He spoke as a
president of the United States of America and he inspired
respect ... He did not speak like a showoff or a thug,'' Castro
said.
posted on June 4, 2002 07:21:48 AM new
Right.....millions of American's just can't wait to move to Cuba and live under Castro's 'much better' system. LOL LOL LOL
Some data of what they had before and what they have after the triumph of the Revolution:
Infant mortality rate: before, over 100 per one thousand live births; today, 5.9, well below the United States. Life expectancy at birth: before, 57 years; today, 76. Number of doctors: before, 344; today, 10, 334. Health units: before, 46; today, 4,006. Hospital beds: before, 1,470; today, over 12,000. Schoolteachers: before, 1,682; today, 77,479. Universities: before, 0; today, 12. Illiteracy rate: before, 40.3%; today, 0.2%. Grammar school graduates: before, 10% of only 34 percent of children in school age who attended public school; today, one hundred percent of children attend grammar school and 99.9% graduate. TV sets for audiovisual education: before, 0; today, 13,394. PCs for computer science education from kindergarten to sixth grade: 5,563 that benefit 237,510 children.
Over 27,000 youths between the ages of 17 and 29, who had no jobs, are studying middle and higher education in recently established Schools for the Comprehensive Education of the Youth, for which they receive remuneration.
These three provinces have 62 museums, 62 cultural centers, 21 art galleries and 72 libraries.
Every child in Cuba, regardless of his parents' income and the color of his skin, has high quality health care services ensured from his birth until the end of his life. The same applies to education, from kindergarten up until graduation as a PhD, and that absolutely free of charge.
No other country in Latin America gets even remotely close to Cuba in any of these indicators. In Cuba, there is not one single child begging in the streets or working to make a living instead of attending school. Nor are there narcotics that poison and destroy teenagers and young people.
This is not a tyranny, as Mr. W. has claimed. It is justice, it is true equality among human beings, it is general learning and culture without which there is not, there cannot be nor will there ever be true independence, freedom and democracy anywhere on Earth.
Mr. W. should be ashamed to call those societies where corruption, inequality and injustice prevail, and which are being destroyed by the neoliberal model, examples of independence, freedom and democracy!
For Mr. W. democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000 a plate dinner --an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world-- are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world, the same that will determine the fate of a great nation like the United States, and the rest of the planet.
Don't you be a fool, Mr. W. Show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking. Read some of the 100 thousand letters sent to you by our children. Do not insult Jose Marti. Do not invoke his sacred name in vain. Stop using his phrases out of context in your speeches. Show some respect for others and for yourself.
The criminal blockade he has promised to tighten will only multiply the honor and glory of our people against which their wicked plans will smash, I assure you.
Compatriots: In the face of dangers and threats, long live today more than ever the Socialist Revolution!
posted on June 4, 2002 07:38:53 AM new
And this dopey "Right.....millions of American's just can't wait to move to Cuba and live under Castro's 'much better' system. LOL LOL LOL" has what to do with the speech? Nothing. It's just lame.
posted on June 4, 2002 07:47:22 AM new
So Cuba is better off under Communism than the Batistas? Very probably. It still has no room for individual freedom, and the ability to have wealth is still an important right for most people you talk to. Very few people will choose an existance with the safety of basics guaranteed but no freedom to reap the rewards of their work if they are willing to put forth exceptional effort. Selfishness is a great motivator - and if it is not the nobelist of human qualities neither is it the basest.
I would be happy to go to Cuba instead of Florida for vacation and judge for myself but I am not FREE to do so.
So even between the US and Cuba freedom is relative.
posted on June 4, 2002 07:48:08 AM new
Helen - Start a collection....I'll donate. I'd love to hear you spout off your views/opinions to Castro once you've lived there for a short while.
posted on June 4, 2002 04:44:19 PM new
>>I would be happy to go to Cuba instead of Florida for vacation and judge for myself but I am not FREE to do so.<<
I have an American Caucasian aquaintence who has a house there. She is a social worker who recently did a documentary on the Cuban "Drag Queen" culture.
posted on June 7, 2002 12:19:53 AM new
Helen, it is easy to make comparisons between Castro's Cuba and it's previous landlords. Between the dictators before who crushed everyone into poverty with their greed opened the doors up to the Mafia and the American Elite. The peasants were little better off than slaves then and now, with decades of aid from Russia and new open ties to the west, Cuba has never been better for the Cubans. Communism is like the Luck of the Irish: "You may always be Poor, but the basics will be taken care of." Just to have the basics taken care of was such a tremendous relief to impoverished Cubans. It is only because the Rich and Powerful got kicked out that the West turned against them (and all other places where they got kicked out.) It is very easy and often sudden that one goes from a position of great wealth to poverty and I for one am grateful for the security blanket that we have.
