IClast@jps.net wrote:
> SlipperySlope said:
> > the american people . . . re-elected god's choice for presidente in
> > god's chosen land: the united states of america......
> Of all the stupid statements you've made, those two have far surpassed
> your previous efforts.
I have no previous knowledge of slope's posting style as I only come in here
sporadically these days, but it sure sounded like irony to me.
If it wasn't irony, then I find his remarks primitive and over the top. It Is
true however that for instance:
"1968: Castro nationalizes 55,000 small Cuban businesses. The state now
controls nearly all trades and services."
( http://www.ianchadwick.com/essays/cubahistory.html - that's over and above
all he's already nationalized. Chadwick is a virulent supporter of Cuba and
calls the US a 'rogue state' so I tend to believe it when he says anything
negative about Cuba)
In discussions about Cuba I'm always hearing Cuba's defenders speak of United
Fruit and all the big bad corps, but Nothing about the above. In my view,
Castro is a mixture of good and bad, but on balance, the bad weighs more
heavily because in my view:
1) A country doesn't need to take all freedom away from its citizens to gain
universal medical care and total literacy.
- isn't one of the most important gains of literacy the ability to inform
oneself of differing views in order to vote? To see who's lying, to
decide whose view of history one agrees with?
- in 1968 Castro kills whatever little is left of the middle class, the very
class that forms the basis of a vibrant, educated, free and democratic
society. Of course Communist doctrine considers the middle class its enemy.
2) Having installed universal social services, why keep freedom a distant
dream for so many decades if not to keep the dictator in power?
- justifications abound, but in the end, Castro's still there and nobody gets
to vote him out.
This thread is so Unbalanced, I figured it needed the bitch-slap of reality.
Nex
|