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Mountains Magpie
Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Location: Somewhere between now and then
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Not sure what to think, Dictator who took over from a dictator, saved a nation or ruined a nation.....
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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^ a more benevolent dictator than the one he replaced, but pretty much the template communist dictator in the end, whose lack of strategic nous condemned Cuba to the poverty and political repression in which it stands today. That he still wore military fatigues and made four hour speeches in his eighties, and seems never to have revised his world view despite watching his country become a shabby museum across a lifetime of power, says much about his limitations. In the end, he cared about his own power more than his country. A waste, really, as I think he really did want to do some good, a long time ago.
Maybe the death of this rotting old man can help Cuba move on to a better future.
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Two more flags before I die! |
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swoop42 
Whatcha gonna do when he comes for you?
Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Location: The 18
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Roll him up, cremate and stand downwind.
The ultimate Cuban cigar.
Last edited by swoop42 on Sun Nov 27, 2016 3:38 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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Jezza 
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 06 Sep 2010
Location: Ponsford End
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He was a polarising figure depending on who you ask. Some see him as a hero of the Socialist cause and standing up to so-called "American Imperialism" that had infested Cuba and therefore he liberated his country during the Cuban Revolution.
Others rightfully see him as a Communist dictator who did not empower his people as he left them poverty-stricken and politically oppressed as he implemented a one-party state, essentially cracking down on political enemies.
I can't say I have any good words to say about him. Here's hoping the future is brighter for Cuba.
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| 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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sixpoints
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
Location: Lulie Street
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| Mugwump wrote: | ^ a more benevolent dictator than the one he replaced, but pretty much the template communist dictator in the end, whose lack of strategic nous condemned Cuba to the poverty and political repression in which it stands today. That he still wore military fatigues and made four hour speeches in his eighties, and seems never to have revised his world view despite watching his country become a shabby museum across a lifetime of power, says much about his limitations. In the end, he cared about his own power more than his country. A waste, really, as I think he really did want to do some good, a long time ago.
Maybe the death of this rotting old man can help Cuba move on to a better future. |
^
I reckon that's a pretty fair summation.
Nobody really cites just how horrible the regime was that Castro outed. He did the right thing in overthrowing Batista. But as is usually the way - the notion of some utopian state just could not materialise and coupled decades of US embargoes, Castro just sunk Cuba into hopeless isolationism. The poor Cuban people have done it tough for far too long - I hope the future brings them better. They deserve it. I'm heading over there in Jan, so I guess I'll see first hand how things initially go now that the old man's gone. |
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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Interestingly, I just finished watching a documentary about China called Shoot for the Contents, in which a Chinese-American woman was asked what she thought of Mao. The gist of her reply and I get the impression that many Chinese people feel this way was that, yes, he was responsible for atrocities, but he was also a moderniser who took over from an even worse system, where the vast majority of people lived in abject poverty.
That may well be a gobsmackingly rose-coloured view of his legacy, but I suspect there's more truth there than his contemporary Western portrayal as a mere pantomime monster even when you take into account the horrors of the Cultural Revolution and the mass dehumanisation inherent in any totalitarian project (one of the best lines in the documentary (paraphrased): "his goal was to turn a nation of 500 million into a classroom of chanting schoolchildren"). Nothing is black or white in this world.
I suspect you could say the same for Castro. Unlike some on the left, I have little love for his regime; to this day, Cuba has one of the worst press freedom indices in the world (and more imprisoned journalists per capita than almost anywhere else), and of course it remains a deeply impoverished, corrupt and oppressive society. And yet, I suspect that if you asked the average Cuban, their view of Castro would be a long way from wholly negative. Let us hope that, like Mao and Stalin in China and the USSR, his regime will remain the high watermark of authoritarianism in Cuba, and that the US treaty (hopefully not torn up by Trump!) is a sign of better things to come.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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swoop42
Whatcha gonna do when he comes for you?
Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Location: The 18
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| swoop42 wrote: | Roll him up, cremate and stand downwind.
The ultimate Cuban cigar. |
Yep he's going to be cremated.
Inhale away people. |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Morrigu 
Joined: 11 Aug 2001
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Mugabe next please!
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βThe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.β |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
Worse than Castro by a fair way IMHO. Took a prosperous country and absolutely fkn trashed it.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Culprit 
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Location: Port Melbourne
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| How many US Presidents has he seen throughout his life? It will be interesting what Trumps policies are towards Cuba? As it stands there will be Maccas at a corner near you soon enough. |
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Presti35
Dick Lee for Legend Status
Joined: 05 Oct 2001
Location: London, England
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| stui magpie wrote: | | Not sure what to think, Dictator who took over from a dictator, saved a nation or ruined a nation..... |
Me too.
Hero or villan?
_________________
A Goal Saved Is 2 Goals Earned! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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