Cuban Revolution: 47, USA: 0

[Algorem]

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={D155C7AA-83AC-49E1-9041-70AB7A6A35D4})&language=EN

Havana, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina) The arrival of year 2006, the 47th anniversary of revolutionary triumph, also represents, as difficult as it is for Washington to accept, the decades of US failure to overthrow the Cuban Revolution.

This decisive feat, built on the history of Cuban independence struggles, is a revolutionary odyssey led by President Fidel Castro based on the intransigence of a people combatant for liberty that easily steps over the obstacles set by successive US administrations.

The until-then invincible empire has used every trick and scheme to recuperate its colonial power over the Island and prevent continental proliferation of the "bad example" of sovereignty, all to no avail.

Cubans recall for example, the 72-hour failure of the US-supplied Playa Giron invasion (Bay of Pigs), the Crisis of October when the US brought the world to the edge of destruction and little Cuba wouldn´t give an inch on its principles, and of course when the Eastern European socialist bloc disappeared and Miami waited for Cuba to disappear as well, only to be thwarted again by Cuban resistance...

[sasha031]

1. it is a disgrace

the way the US has bullied that nation for so many years.

[Kipling]

2. Castro is really not that great, you know.

Better than what came before, but he still has a very bad record on gay rights and civil liberties. He doesn't have long left to live, and I'm not sure I'll be crying when he goes.

[sushi]

3. Definitely better

than the one he threw out!

[enigma000]

4. Not a popular message here Mr Kipling

but you are correct. The good that came out of the revolution has been eclipsed by nearly half a century of communist rule. I had hoped after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe 15 years ago, a transition to free-market social democracy would have taken place in Cuba. Alas, it will wait until Castro dies.

[sasha031]

5. don't think everyone sees and feels as you do

Cuba votes to entrench socialism

Almost 99% of Cuba's registered voters have signed a petition supporting President Fidel Castro's government, according to the authorities.

Over three and a half days, Cubans went to 130,000 polling stations across the country to support an amendment to the constitution that declares Cuba's socialist system to be untouchable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2053060.stm

[enigma000]

7. Wow 99%, really. I bet I could arrange 104%

What happened to the 1% who voted for Nader - I mean "no"? What mass grave did they wind up eventually in? ;)

Look, all joking aside, the Cuban revolution, progressed Cuba's social evolution a generation. Unfortunately, after half a century its fallen behind the times. It's time for Cuba to rejoin the world.

[Union Thug]

11. Rejoin the world?

It seems like Latin America is moving back to the Left and Castro is one of the old guard. I wonder if the sharp shift to the left in South America will help execute some political dialectic between Cuba and the new Left, fusing, inventing and emboldening a stronger, more organized political movement?

[TheBaldyMan]

9. that's a bit off the mark surely?

The US economic sanctions have been in place for donkeys' years with the sole purpose of subjugating Cuba to America's will. To blame all it's economic woes on the evils of communism could be described as less than honest. After the fall of the wall there was a lot less trade for this former client state but still the USA decided that shafting Castro was better than trade with a country that couldn't possibly present a military threat. Do you know where Guantanamo is?

American treatment of Cuba is symptomatic of all that is wrong with foreign policy. Imagining a threat where none exists and paying no heed to what it looks like to the rest of the world.

[Kipling]

13. I'm not blaming Castro for economic woes. Everywhere around there is poor.

Nor am I saying that sanctions are justified. I'm just saying that Castro is in fact not a pleasant person, and we shouldn't see him as some kind of hero.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. Cuba and Castro have remained true to the revolution,

but how post Castro Cuba will change isn't clear.

Yeah, it bums me out that Castro is both a personality cult and a dictator too.

On the other hand Castro has taken an impoverished mass of Cubans from illiterate peons to one of the highest social indexes in Latin America.

So in the long list of dictators, Kings, or Head Honchos in the world, I'd have to put Castro up there with some of my favorites. After he's gone, who knows?

My hope is the Neocons won't try to invade or anything stupid like that, but I wouldn't put anything past them. Their wars for freedom are shams and many.

The US could and should trade with Cuba now in an orderly manner and we and the Cubans would be the better for it.

We could and should engage Cuba at least as much as we do China. The trade and travel bans should be removed, in my opinion.

They haven't worked and in fact they have hindered the ability to achieve change in Cuba by forcing Cuba to respond in a like manner. I mean everyone else in our hemisphere and beyond deals with Cuba.

[Clara T]

6. Cuba has always been known to house

some of the world's best pitchers. Hence the shutout.

Latin-Island-South
America

Shifts are in the air and on the move. The people are awake.

[TheBaldyMan]

10. not to mention the boxers n/t

[bemildred]

8. Mr Castro, whatever flaws he may have,

has been much better for the Cuban people as a whole than what came before him, or than what the US Government would install in his place, and that is why he is still there after all these years. It will be interesting to see what follows him. It would be even more interesting to see what would follow him were the US government to butt out and allow Cubans to work out their own destiny, without US interference of any sort.