Posted on 08/01/2006 2:20:14 PM PDT by John David Powell
Fidel Castro: Cyber Deathwatch Begins on Internet
By John David Powell Aug. 1, 2006
The call from my friend Oscar came as I dozed in front of the television. “Are you watching Univision or Telemundo?” he asked.
I told him I was dozing, and asked him what was going on. He told me that the Spanish-language stations had just announced that Cuba’s Fidel Castro was undergoing surgery and had turned over power to his brother Raul.
“They’re already dancing in the streets in Miami. The old son-of-a-bitch may already be dead. Wasn’t Stalin dead for a week before they told anyone?”
Oscar and his family have been in this country for more than forty years, but his ties to Cuba remain strong, partly because he has family still in Havana. He remembers watching the Playa Girón, or Bay of Pigs, invasion from his apartment window. He retells stories of the installation of anti-aircraft guns on the top of his apartment building. On rare occasions, he shows the home movie he took as Castro and his band of thugs entered Havana.
He shares snippets of Cuba’s past, how Cuban women sold their jewelry to bail out a bankrupt Continental Army, how the Chinese played a major role in Cuban history and culture.
He has no patience for those he terms useful idiots who wear t-shirts bearing the face of Che Guevara, the cowardly murderer of children and the darling of the pretentious and ill-educated left. He ridicules those who speak in glowing terms about Cuba’s healthcare system, whose doctors are no more than paramedics or physician assistants. He politely endures stories from those who visit Cuba and boast about how much one can buy for a single Yankee dollar and ask if he ever went to the Buena Vista Social Club.
He longs for a return of the luster of the jewel of the Caribbean.
My friend Oscar is not alone. The Internet provides outlets for countless supporters of a free Cuba, millions of dreamers anxious in their wait to awake from their collective nightmare.
And today, the first day of August, just a week before Castro’s eightieth birthday, the blogosphere is afire with news and rumors, along with hope and speculation for Cuba’s next chapter. An Internet search narrowed for Cuba, Castro, and blogs returns 1.9 million hits.
The Blog for Cuba (http://blogforcuba.typepad.com) could be the blog of blogs, with links to more than sixty anti-Castro news and blog sites. Today’s entry, “While We Wait”, includes photographs of death, destruction, and despair.
Abajo Fidel (www.abajofidel.blogspot.com) provides Internet radio links and scatological steam letting, along with Drudge-like headlines:
“Medical advise from a reputable cuban gastro doctor from texas...Fidel castro may have had a gastric ulcer or bleeding through the colon area.. At at that age it is very difficult for him to survive but not impossible.. Even if he does survive he may have great additional complications......Developing......”
Oscar frequents the Babalu Blog (www.babalublog.com). Today’s posts provide no news but a lot of rumor:
“As you can imagine, rumors are rampant right now within circles of the Cuban-American community. Ive heard that there was one person who witnessed the bearded bastard die personally. Of course, I cant cofirm the validity of that report. Nor, I suspect, will we be able to confirm any report of any kind regarding this issue. the Cuban government is holding all the cards on this right now. Im getting emails from folks who have been in contact with family in Cuba, most of which saying that there's an eerie silence in the island and most family members are apprehensive about discussing the events via telephone with family abroad for fear of reprisals.”
The Real Cuba (www.therealcuba.com) takes a more traditional approach by providing video clips of the latest news and links to historic documents regarding Castro and the United States.
The Miami Herald is the defacto paper of record for news about Cuba. As expected from a professional news outlet, its blog (http://blogs.herald.com/cuban_connection) offers a journalistic approach to news and information, one that is not fueled by speculation, and therefore, much less entertaining, than, say Independent Sources (http://independentsources.com/2006/07/11/fidel-castro-dead/) that provides a picture of Daisy Fuentes laughing in the surf.
Such are Cubans as they live their lives while they wait for death.
John David Powell is a six-time winner of the Houston Press Club Lone Star Award for Internet Opinion Writing, a communication professional, and a contributor to the Christian History Project. His email address is johndavidpowell@yahoo.com
Within 5 years it will be like pre 1959 Cuba but with the internet. Good time to buy MGM, Harrah and Ventetian. They are going to build some real mega casinos there. Good time not to be involved with Sun Casinos.
No unions, no regs, very low taxes, this is the stuff that casino co's long for!
Cuba was NOT all that messed up before Castro. It was the wealthiest country in the Caribbean by far, and possibly the wealthiest of all Latin countries anywhere. They had a real middle class.
The education and health systems were excellent--Castro's just taken credit for what was in place long before the "glorious revolution." In 1958 Cuba imported more automobiles than any other Latin country. A quick look at the 1958 Havana phone book will show you thousands of businesses listed, large and small. Today there are NO businesses...no Yellow Pages in fact. Starting a business there is ILLEGAL and will land you in jail. You cannot even grow a sweet potato and sell it to your neighbor without going to jail if caught.
Today, there are MORE prostitutes in Havana than in the Batista days because there are no other places for women to work (and guys too) unless they're lucky enough to have a job at a hotel, which pays $7 per week. Castro collects $50 per week from the foreign hotel company per worker...pockets $43. Batista was NEVER that crazy or cruel.
And as for those gangsters....today every hotel in Havana claims to have been owned by those glamorous gangsters, and you can see photo exchibits on the walls of lobbies and bars featuring the gangsters and movie stars .....they're a big tourist attraction.
Once freed from oppression, the Cuban people will bounce back in a very big hurry. Count on it.
I want to go on record as having nothing to do with this.....although I think it's cool.
If this slimebag is finally dead, how is the US going to handle this? I read the press release today by the State dept, Sean McCormack, saying the majority of Cubans are for freedom (oh except for Elian) and that we "will help in anyway to support the Cuban people in their transition to democracy"... How though? First off we will have to deal with the Hollywood liberal cabal that will be shrieking like banshees at the demise of their God and cocaine connection, surely screaming that the ultimate insult to their God would be for Cuba to go the freedom route. Then we would have to deal with Fidels brother, Jimmy Carter, and that guy Raul Castro...Would it be another Bay of Pigs or send in a few Rangers? After all, there is no Khrushchev anymore, only Danny Glover.
What's Castro's brother like?
Raul is a ripe 75. His tenure as dictator thug will not be long.
Inigo Montoya:
He's dead. He can't talk.
Miracle Max:
Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya:
What's that?
Miracle Max:
Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
When this guy finally croaks, it will be interesting to see which heads-of-state attend the funeral (besides Jimmah, of course).
I never considered Jimmy Carter a head-of-state. He was more of a butt-of-state.
We all die, thats a fact, but when a monster like Castro goes down, thats a time for celebration!
Here's a great pic.
From everything I have heard thus far... Raul is far more radical than Fidel....and that Raul would be even WORSE than Fidel. But then again, could you expect any less from Fidel than to give power to someone AT LEAST as bad as himself (and in this case - worse)....?
I know the Miami Cubans (they all claim to really be from Spain). It's going to be a huge mess, and it will take them a nanosecond for them to blame the US for not throwing enough money their way.
How are those companies going to move in when it will take a bloody war to determine property ownership?
And our top story tonight...
Fidel Castro is still dead
Wonder how Fidel is look like with no beard, eyebrows or hair when he goes through chemotherapy?
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