Fidel Castro passed away at age 90.

[bluejays]

Any theories as to what will happen with Cuba now that Fidel is gone? I really wonder how Raul will handle it. I'm going to guess a guy like Trump will try and make it another American state to take advantage of the economic possibilities, but I'm not a very political guy (just a thought to me).

[Resolute 14]

Raul has been in charge for about a decade already. Why would you expect anything to be different today vs. two days ago?

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Raul has been in charge for about a decade already. Why would you expect anything to be different today vs. two days ago?

Because he's not a very political guy?

[Resolute 14]

And Fidel was rarely seen in public the last few years. Whoever the 'political guy' is in Cuba right now, it wasn't really Fidel anymore.

[habernac]

From a friend of mine who escaped Cuba when he was 21:

Take it from someone who lived under his boot for 21 years. Beyond the lack of food, clothes, liberties and basic needs, to take someone's right to speak and think differently is the worse crime of all.

He didn't do one thing right. His biggest accomplishment was that he taught us all to read and write only to forbid us to read and write.

I hope he rots in hell along with his ideology.

[zamler]

Tweet that to Trudeau.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by habernac

From a friend of mine who escaped Cuba when he was 21:

Take it from someone who lived under his boot for 21 years. Beyond the lack of food, clothes, liberties and basic needs, to take someone's right to speak and think differently is the worse crime of all.

He didn't do one thing right. His biggest accomplishment was that he taught us all to read and write only to forbid us to read and write.

I hope he rots in hell along with his ideology.

Originally Posted by zamler

Tweet that to Trudeau.

Trudeau's response:

[aaronck]

Posted by Brett Wilson today...

"My family & a business group we were travelling were technically kidnapped by #Castro post Xmas 2001 for half a day. Our tours and activities were cancelled by Castro - he sent our buses away - brought in military transport - and took us all to the #GreatHall - we were kept there against our will - security guards advising that our "visa" didn't allow travel in the city of Havana - Castro lectured us for 5 hours - before we managed to coordinate - as a group - having 100% of the group stand up and leave calling the bluff of the armed security guards. #Castro got another "last laugh" at our group - delaying our flights out until 3 and 4 in the morning - we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours plus - a total gong-show.

We spent time that evening with locals - people not allowed to travel - people who all worked tourism for tips - to augment the $300/month they made as professionals - people who believed that the US embargo was why their couldn't get meat (no clue why New Zealand lamb was off limits) and that drugs were controlled (not realizing that Canada would gladly ship drugs). No - the US was held out at the enemy as a tool for controlling the people.

As to healthcare - Castro bragged on stage that his country had the lowest rate of birth-defects in the world. One medical professional with us shared that it was common knowledge that forced abortions were in fact the reason for that awful fact. True or not - he was hardly someone to be admired for anything other than his longevity.

A great leader? No.

#Fidel was a dangerous frigging nut case."

https://twitter.com/wbrettwilson?lang=en

[CaptainCrunch]

I expect we'll see the same kind of gross ceremony and over weeping like we saw when North Korea buried Kim.

When your security forces are watching and prison waits you tend to get very sentimental about your departed leader.

Still in the good riddance category with this person.

Maybe him and Mao and Stalin can spend the afterlife with Hitler taking turns shoving pineapples up each others butts in hell.

[habernac]

More from my friend Robert:

Cuba's healthcare and education system is a joke. My father just passed in a hospital you wouldn't take your dog to. I had to buy everything with USD because there's nothing that Cubans can buy with the money they make. Is all a big scheme completely blown way out of proportions.

And his comment on whether or not things will improve:

Nothing will change. We are literally a nation of slaves. We have been so isolated from everything for so long we don't know any better than to either survive in Cuba or find a way to escape.

The few selected ones that could do something are either in jail or harassed by the same people that would love to see things change but are so afraid they act as if they are with the system.

We are our own worst enemy.

#### Castro.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by habernac

More from my friend Robert:

Cuba's healthcare and education system is a joke. My father just passed in a hospital you wouldn't take your dog to. I had to buy everything with USD because there's nothing that Cubans can buy with the money they make. Is all a big scheme completely blown way out of proportions.

And his comment on whether or not things will improve:

Nothing will change. We are literally a nation of slaves. We have been so isolated from everything for so long we don't know any better than to either survive in Cuba or find a way to escape.

The few selected ones that could do something are either in jail or harassed by the same people that would love to see things change but are so afraid they act as if they are with the system.

We are our own worst enemy.

#### Castro.

Ironically the effect of the US embargo has been to close Cuba off from outside influence and enable Castro to control the country, Cuba would have probably overthrown communism in the seventies if the US had not embargoed the country.

[CaptainCrunch]

More on Trudeau getting flack over his stupid statement about Castro

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada...9&ocid=UE12DHP

Whether or not Trudeau saw any of this coming, he didn’t appear to notice that he was delivering a speech to the Francophonie delegates in Madagascar that emphasized justice for lesbian, gay and transgendered people, while from the other side of his mouth he was praising the legacy of a caudillo who spent the first decade of his rule rounding up gay people for “re-education” in labour camps. Homosexuals were irredeemably bourgeois “maricones” and agents of imperialism, Castro once explained.

To be perfectly fair, Trudeau did allow that Castro was a “controversial figure,” and nothing in his remarks was as explicit as the minor classic in the genre of dictator-worship that his brother Alexandre composed for the Toronto Star 10 years ago. Alexandre described Castro as “something of a superman. . . an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion engines, on stock markets. On everything.” As for the Cuban people: “They do occasionally complain, often as an adolescent might complain about a too strict and demanding father.”
This kind of Disco Generation stupidity about Castro has been commonplace in establishment circles in Canada since Pierre’s time, and neither Alexandre’s gringo-splaining nor Justin’s aptitude for eulogy are sufficient to gloss over the many things Cubans have every right to complain about.

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Ironically the effect of the US embargo has been to close Cuba off from outside influence and enable Castro to control the country, Cuba would have probably overthrown communism in the seventies if the US had not embargoed the country.

I know they are very different situations but Spain couldn't get rid of Franco until he died in the mid 70's. Franco had US support during the cold war, so kind of equal but opposite of Cuba. Who knows?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Raul has been in charge for about a decade already. Why would you expect anything to be different today vs. two days ago?

Some people believe that even though Fidel Castro has been infirm for years, his presence is what keeps the regime going. Raul Castro has shown some willingness to open dialogue with the West in recent years, so maybe this will be the catalyst to keep going in that direction. Some feel that Fidel Castro's legacy was too heavy but now maybe that weight will be lifted.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that these types of systems tend to be a feedback loop until something disrupts it. Raul himself is 85 years old and has said he will step down in 2018.

[CaptainCrunch]

What they need is a purge now to let Raul quietly step down and for Castro's sons to be hung or shot or whatever.

Reading on the Castro power structure they're not that much different from North Korea's dynastic communism.

I would expect that one of Castro's sons will move from their powerful positions into the presidents office.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

What they need is a purge now to let Raul quietly step down and for Castro's sons to be hung or shot or whatever.

Reading on the Castro power structure they're not that much different from North Korea's dynastic communism.

I would expect that one of Castro's sons will move from their powerful positions into the presidents office.

Actually, I heard the Minister of Education (Bermudez?) is being groomed to take over. I expect there to be a power struggle though.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Actually, I heard the Minister of Education (Bermudez?) is being groomed to take over. I expect there to be a power struggle though.

Equal chance of him going up against the wall.

Castro's son's run the key military industries (60% of their economy), their intelligence services. I doubt they're going to give up their wealth and power without a fight.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I know they are very different situations but Spain couldn't get rid of Franco until he died in the mid 70's. Franco had US support during the cold war, so kind of equal but opposite of Cuba. Who knows?

Spain was a bit of a weird case though, it was a fascist dictatorship but most were making ok money, had all the trappings of their European neighbours, my parents took me there in '69 or '70, you'd never know it wasn't a democracy.

We tend to forget Spain, Greece and Portugal where all dictatorships through the sixties and seventies!!

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Spain was a bit of a weird case though, it was a fascist dictatorship but most were making ok money, had all the trappings of their European neighbours, my parents took me there in '69 or '70, you'd never know it wasn't a democracy.

We tend to forget Spain, Greece and Portugal where all dictatorships through the sixties and seventies!!

If you look at the world as a whole, not just now, but going back to the beginning of human civilization, democracy is not the norm. Most humans alive today and that have ever lived, have lived under some type of authoritarian system. Free democracy is the exception, not the norm. It's a really expensive and inefficient system and when you look at the countries that are free democracies, most are recent beneficiaries of unequal resource allocation from colonialism. Eventually that gravy train will end and things will probably regress back. Likely not in my lifetime though.

[nik-]

living much past the age of 35 wasn't the norm either