"but the Hollywood left says they have free health care!"
You get what you pay for - sometimes!
Health facility for elderly Cubans
Posted on 07/26/2005 3:01:26 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
For the first time in 46 years there was not going to be an outside mass rally to celebrate the 26 of July, the date in 1953 when Castro and a group of his followers attacked the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. And now the rumors have been officially confirmed. It seems that Castro is afraid to hold a mass rally under the present conditions in the island, where there have been many protests taking place during the last few days. He feels more secure inside a theatre, where no one can get in without an official invitation.
Record heat and power cuts of 12 hours or more a day led to scattered protests, vandalism and rare anti-Castro graffiti this summer, veteran human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said. Authorities have responded by mobilising rapid deployment brigades of militant supporters to disperse pockets of protest with batons, he and other dissidents said. "I have not seen such widespread discontent in four decades," said Mr Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at therealcuba.com ...
Discontent among the masses in Cuba!!!??? Why that must be a vile Imperialist-Yankee lie!! The geniuses on DU have assured us that everyone in Cuba loves Castro (smirk). Actually I've learned that a great percentage of Cubans listen to anti-Castro Radio Marti and in fact it might be the favorite station in Cuba. Highly illegal of course, but listened by just about everyone...including the few remaining Castro lovers.
But everyone knows they are powered by hamsters.
"but the Hollywood left says they have free health care!"
You get what you pay for - sometimes!
Health facility for elderly Cubans
Bill would send in Jane Fonda to straighten out those proletarians...
[full text] Hugo and Fidel bring the newsThe concept of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez teaming up to create a regional television news network in Latin America takes some getting used to and maybe a stiff drink.
Cuba hasn't seen any semblance of freedom of the press or freedom of expression since the early 1960s, and Castro last year rounded up a group of 75 independent journalists and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 28 years.
Chavez hasn't gone that far but has enacted ominous laws that penalize media outlets that "offend or show disrespect for the president" or propagate information that might "cause panic or anxiety" among the people. More recently he decreed that half the music aired on radio must be of Venezuelan origin. Ciao, Britney Spears.
Yet, on Sunday, Telesur, a new regional Latin American television network modeled after the wildly successful al-Jazeera makes its debut from studios in Caracas. Venezuela, flush with money from the boom in oil prices, will bankroll 51 percent of the initial $20 million investment. The governments of Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina will provide other funding.
For those wondering about the editorial independence of Telesur, suffice it to say Venezuela's minister of communications will do double duty as the station's president. According to the BBC Monitoring World Media, some of Telesur's trial programming on June 3 included segments of the "International Forum against Terrorism and for Peace and Truth" from the Havana Convention Center. Ratings were not available, but that sounds about as riveting as vintage Soviet TV serials about tractor manufacturing.
Telesur, Spanish for "TeleSouth," may yet prove skeptics wrong and become a reputable and independent regional news outlet. That would be good for Latin America, which relies on foreign networks for its news, including CNN, from Atlanta, and a chain based in Spain.
There is a need for a network with an indigenous Latin focus. Telesur takes that mission literally: One correspondent will be Ati Kiwa, an Arahuaco Indian from Colombia, who will appear dressed in the tribe's regalia. Her visage will be a sharp departure from many of the Caucasian, blond news readers on Latin TV, who look like they were FedExed from Idaho.
"Today we know much more about Chechnya than what's happening on the corner, in Colombia or in Central America, because all the information that the North generates comes into focus about subjects that interest the North," Aram Aharonian, Telesur's director general, told the Los Angeles Times.
Some signs don't bode well. One Chilean contributor defined Telesur as an "anti-neoliberal medium ... critical of the First World's efforts to impose conservatism throughout the continent." Balance and objectivity will have to wait.
Whatever his politics, Aharonian understands one thing: People will vote with their fingers against bad TV. "The only censorship will be by the viewers," he told Newsweek. "If they are not satisfied they'll simply click the remote and change channels." [end]
It would be so nice to see this island finally freed . . .
I get the feeling this isn't just thin air. News rarely leaks out of Cuba. If this isn't exactly the truth, I bet something's stirring out there.
"Chavez hasn't gone that far but has enacted ominous laws that penalize media outlets that "offend or show disrespect for the president" or propagate information that might "cause panic or anxiety" among the people."
Is Chavez related to Helmet Head Hillary?
Cuba had the third highest standard of living in the Americas before Castro. (I no longer have the source for that datum, but I thought at the time it was reliable.) As I recall, only the U.S. and Canada had a higher per-capita income.
OK, it had a tinhorn dictator in Fulgencio Battista. But Battista did not have an anti-economics and anti-American ideology. He welcomed the Yankee dollar and prosperity. Castro was ten times more heavy handed. From the outset he made himself a dictator on the totalitarian Soviet style, and was armed by the Soviets as well. The Cuban economy went straight down. No economy can survive if the government makes war on free enterprise.
When my relatives brought back those photos from Cuba, I was struck by the contrast to nearby Nassau, the Bahamas, which is teeming with traffic, and the cars are recent models. The Bahamas are rocky islands with practically no natural resources -- yet their economy is lively and the streets are full of vendors. Cuba, in contrast, is richly blessed by fertile soil and good climate. It ought to be rich. But the Cubans can't even drive to the next town unless they can fashion spare parts to keep a fifty-year-old car running.
Actually, where strength is being reported about the Union of the Two Towers [Chavez and Castro], I suspect that there's an equal weakness spurring them: the Information Age. There are too many media outlets to clamp down on now, especially being so close to the US, the way Cuba is. Excessive regulation could even lead to less influence. Just as Prohibition led to a counter-culture, so can a clampdown on information. What you reported is actually an Information War.
You have some good questions, I can answer at least some of the panama ones.
"Why has Panama become so Chinese there is Chinese language newspapers there?"
people Trafficking. they apparently even have their own mafia h ere, presumably for collections of people export payments, among other things. It is apparently a very lucrative business for the chinese govt/military.
"Stronghold for potential military interests in Carribean, Cuba etc., chokehold on Panama Canal. Sorry so random, but these are questions that go begging when thinking about Chinese activities 90 miles off our shore and on our former Canal Zone. Oh, yeah, and they bought up the land where our former Southern Command post was in Panama. Really, what do you think? I'm just a gal from CA."
Which land are you talking about, the place they are dumping containers across from balboa port?
I am not aware of them buying land on quarry heights (i.e. southcom), but even if they did, so what? They don't own the flight lines at howard or albrook, nor the rodman docks (afaik), which are the primary assets when you look at things from that perspective. As far as a bunch of run-down building on quarry heights, they are welcome to them, aside from the bunker, but I do not believe they own any of them.
can you provide a source/cite on southcom post land purchase?
Muerte-a-Castro-PING for later!
I remember the Spanish-refugee grafitti here when Spain's Franco died: "Franco ha muerto. Viva Guernica!"
How I long to see our Cuban brothers proclaim: "Castro ha muerto. Viva Reagan!"
Thanks. A great graphic art which shows the traitor Jimmy Carter and his beloved Fidel.
btw I don't disagree that the chinese are playing a macro-chess game, both economic and military. There has, however, been a fair amount of alarmist or simply inaccurate material posting on the web and FR regarding the chinese presence in Panama particularly regarding the ownership/management of the former Panama Canal Commission. I think the game here is primarily economic, though presumably they are playing more than one game.
In the end, with the US financing much of the chinese economic expansion, and china helping to finance our government debt, there isn't much that is going to be done on this front. I do think Panama is clearly still US military sphere of influence, all you have to do is see the number of GI's on the streets here to see that.
""Castro ha muerto! Viva Reagan! Viva Bush! Viva America!"
That's what communism can do to a charming Spanish colonial city.
Check out what the Imperialist American Capitalists did to Havana's sister city, Old San Juan:
http://images.google.com/images?q=old+san+juan+&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
Excellent Post.
The key is the Cuban military. Ceausescu's fate was sealed when the army turned against him. If Castro is to be overthrown, there must be a rebellion in the Army. I don't see any signs that it will occur.
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