Fidel Castro Happy With Direction Cuba Is Moving

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Nov. 18, 2010
Fidel Castro Happy With Direction Cuba Is Moving
Fidel Castro Says He Is Happy With Direction Cuba Is Going Under Brother's Leadership

(AP) HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro says he is happy with the direction in which Cuba is moving under the leadership of his brother Raul, his most explicit remarks to date about the sweeping economic changes the country is undergoing.

"I'm content, because the country is moving forward despite all the challenges," the bearded revolutionary icon told Cuban students in comments carried by the official Communist Party-newspaper Granma on Thursday.

The elder Castro stepped down in 2006 due to a serious illness that almost killed him. He re-emerged from four years of seclusion in July, but has rarely spoken about Cuban current events, preferring to use his appearances to warn of what he fears is a looming nuclear war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran.

Castro, 84, remains head of the Communist Party, though in his remarks to the students he gave the impression he had delegated many of his official duties to others.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/18/ap/latinamerica/main7067604.shtml

[Paper Roses]

1. Lets do our share, lift the outdated and stupid embargo so

Cuba can join the world community without being hamstrung by a stubborn US.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I'll drink to that

:hi:

[awoke_in_2003]

5. And I would smoke to that...

if only we were allowed Cuban cigars.

[DesertFlower]

4. i agree. nt

[Mika]

7. Cuba is a big part of the world community!

While I totally agree with your sentiment on the US's extra territorial sanctions on Cuba, I do have to say that Cuba is a most welcome partner with most nations of the world, where the Cuban DRs and nurses, teachers, scientists, agronomists, etc etc are welcomed.

Cuban educators also created the "Yes I Can" international multilingual literacy program that has won several UN/UNESCO awards, and has taught millions to read and write.

The Cuban Ministry of Health doctors have created "Operation Miracle", a charitable program that has restored vision to millions around the world.

Cuba trains doctors and auxiliaries from all over the world at no cost to the students, under the condition that they serve in-need sectors of their homeland.

Cuba has even named its amazing Henry Reeve Brigade international emergency response team (consisting of over 25,000 health care and disaster recovery specialists) after an American Dr.

Plus, I should mention, that Cuba's infrastructure ranks as world class in social indices, rivaling some of the wealthiest nations.

Cuba is the only nation to achieve sustainability goals according to the WWF.

These things happen because Cuba IS a part of the world community.



It is the United States that has been condemned 19 years in a row by the world community in the United Nations for the unjust extra territorial sanctions upon Cuba.

Maybe its the USA that needs to join the world community.

:hi:


on edit: Anyone who thinks that Castro forces this on an unwilling population needs their head examined (or, actually, needs to go to Cuba to see for themselves).

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[flamingdem]

9. Kudos to Cuba for these achievements you list that we never hear about here nt

[Mika]

11. I forgot to mention Cuba's long term commitment to the people of Haiti.

Long before the Haitian earthquake Cuba has been there with teams of doctors and educators working to ameliorate the desperate conditions there, and even more now. The Cuban teams show up in Haiti without armed teams in military regalia, without tanks and troop carriers, without creating ammo depots for reloading weapons. They come only with medical equipment and medicines, numerous emergency stations, numerous clinics and schools all over Haiti, educators, construction crews for schools, even emergency evacuations to Cuba for intensive hospital treatments.

This isn't the work of Castro. This is undertaken by the kind and generous Cuban people and their true solidarity with their Caribbean neighbors - who have suffered much as Cubans had suffered under the prior US backed regimes.


Bravo Cuba! :applause:

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[dipsydoodle]

2. Nice article that

:thumbsup:

Laying off that number of people sounds harsh if taken out of context. The reason of course is help promote small private enterprises at which I would think the Cubans will be quite successful.

[Judi Lynn]

6. I'm pretty sure I've heard the government intends to put the newly unemployed Cubans

into job training for other kinds of work.

The workers have always been directly at the forefront of their vision, haven't they?

You might enjoy getting familiar with an African Cuban American, Dr. Alberto Jones, who has been an invaluable voice on his Cuban experience before coming to the U.S.

Here's something from one of his writings, as he refers to a big, big cheese in the Cuban "exile" world in South Florida, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart who has destroyed Democrats who have dared to cross him, like Colorado's David Skaggs who attempted to get the Cuban "exile" controlled TV Marti (propaganda tv to Cuba from the Florida "exiles" paid for by US taxpayers' money) eliminated as a stupid, stupid financial burden (pork), and off the US taxpayers' backs:

A Cuba in Diaz Balart's Image or that of Today's Miami
by Alberto Jones

On August 1, 1975 in Helsinki, Finland, 35 countries signed what became known as the Helsinki Human Rights Agreement. The Agreement declared, among other things, "the right to be free of governmental violations of the integrity of the person..."and "the right to enjoy civil and political liberties...." For myself and other Afro-Cubans and millions of human beings, understanding the scope and morality of this agreement was very easy.

I was born on a hot and humid day of August 1938 in La Guira, Banes, Cuba, a community of transplanted emigrants, mainly from the English speaking Caribbean Islands and Haiti, lured to Cuba to what was billed as the "Promised Land" by the United Fruit Company, Manati Sugar Company, and others.

In this community on the "other" side of the tracks, I learned early on, that the only homes we were allowed to build were the shack-type homes with thatched roofs that defined our living quarters. Sewer, running water, electricity, schools, jobs, hospital or medical services were limited to people living on the "other" side of town.

What we did have was a pervasive infant mortality due primarily to preventible diseases that touched the lives of every family. There were rampant pre and post partum deaths; hunger and malnutrition seen predominantly in children with their disproportionate heads and distended abdomens, overflowing with such a variety of intestinal parasites sufficient to produce our own Atlas of Parasitology. Another common landmark was the infamous gully with its putrid drainage winding through our neighborhood.

More:
http://afrocubaweb.com/albertojonesdiazbalart.htm

[robcon]

8. I think he's happy because he's established a monarchy.

His brother succeeds him: sounds like 17th century England.

Cuba is a thugocracy... see their response to the Nobel peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo.

[ProudDad]

12. bush, clinton, bush, clinton/obama

pot meet kettle...

In the USAmerikan Empire a few families rule mostly in secret...and that's better how?

[galileoreloaded]

10. Hooray for Capitalism!!! Transformative, wonderful, fuzzy capitalism! n/t

[ProudDad]

13. My major worry about dropping the "embargo"

is that the way the USAmerikan Empire would do it would be to force an opening in Cuba for ADM and Cargill and Coke and the rest of the phony-franken-food-substance industry to flood the island with "cheap" (subsidized/externalized) food substitutes and destroy their burgeoning organic food movement.

And if they pay off enough lower level functionaries (as they do here) they might be able to use the legal system to just jail anyone who would object to the destruction of the best example of what we're going to have to do for our own survival in the Long Emergency...