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Fidel Castro has died

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Re: Fidel Castro has died

#321

Post by raverbashing »

duncanawoods wrote: post #245
rat87 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. My impression was then when America tried to force other countries to participate in the embargo they told them to shove it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms%E2%80%93Burton_Act Also yes Cuba has trade with the rest of the world http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/cub/ > Cuba is the 140th largest export economy in the world. In 2014, Cuba exported $1.74B and imported $5.91B, resulting in a negative t…

>> My impression was then when America tried to force other countries to participate in the embargo they told them to shove it. Your impression is wrong. An example knock-on effect relevant to HN is that as a UK company, we couldn't sell windows software to Cuba because things like windows run-time libraries would be covered by the US export embargo. In theory, they wouldn't even have a legal copy of any US operating…

This is naive

As even you said, Cuba was not supposed to have Windows copies, but I'm sure they had

Iran theoretically couldn't have access to Boeing parts (and this was a stricter embargo), but they had

There's always a way of solving things.

Most of Cuban problems were caused by themselves, not the embargo.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#322

Post by varjag »

duncanawoods wrote: post #245
rat87 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. My impression was then when America tried to force other countries to participate in the embargo they told them to shove it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms%E2%80%93Burton_Act Also yes Cuba has trade with the rest of the world http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/cub/ > Cuba is the 140th largest export economy in the world. In 2014, Cuba exported $1.74B and imported $5.91B, resulting in a negative t…

>> My impression was then when America tried to force other countries to participate in the embargo they told them to shove it. Your impression is wrong. An example knock-on effect relevant to HN is that as a UK company, we couldn't sell windows software to Cuba because things like windows run-time libraries would be covered by the US export embargo. In theory, they wouldn't even have a legal copy of any US operating…

You could write your software in another operating system, giving a middle finger to oppressive Uncle Sam. Not doing so shows you did not appreciate Cuban market enough.

Same goes for other products. Don't base them on U.S. technology if you plan to trade with America's enemies.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#323

Post by barsonme »

ifdefdebug wrote: post #238
edblarney wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The western view of Castro is painted with decades of terrible propaganda." + Fidel does not allow his people to leave, with the threat of punishment. + Fidel does not allow democracy + He does not allow any real internet access + Fidel puts political dissidents in jail + Fidel's private Army own's 85% of the economy + Cuban's live in relative poverty + Only the US 'embargos' Cuba, they are free to trade with 167 ot…

Here are some points of propaganda: > Fidel does not allow his people to leave, with the threat of punishment. Everybody is (now) free to leave Cuba. But OK, I think that's fairly recent. > Fidel's private Army own's 85% of the economy "Fidel's private Army" is just an ugly sound byte. It's the Cuban army and it's not going to be dissolved now that he's dead. > Cuban's live in relative poverty While poverty is a prob…

Is American and Cuban poverty the same?

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#324

Post by csomar »

iiiggglll wrote: post #249
Lordarminius wrote: post #91

After reading some of the comments here, my fath in the human race is not enhanced. Castro was a genuine hero and a great man; indeed among the top 10 greatest individuals of the 20th century. He believed in freedom and dignity. He saw the US government as the enemy of progress everywhere in the world; he wanted people to be free and he devoted his life to that ideal. How many people can you say that of? > He was als…

> He believed in freedom > I detest the hypocrisy I see in many (not all) western commentators. A counterexample: this photo was taken in NYC after the most recent US presidential election: http://i.imgur.com/DcVbqAm.jpg It's a picture of someone standing in front of Trump Tower holding a sign that says "You're not my president. Fuck you." Can you imagine someone getting away with that in Castro's Cuba?

Do you have palpable proof that holding such a sign in Cuba will lead you to trouble?

I'm genuinely asking. Not from the US and just today found out (by curiosity) where Cuba is.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#325

Post by kekimo »

pif wrote: post #297
jknoepfler wrote: post #119

I would encourage the commenters in this thread who see Fidel's legacy as a black-and-white matter of an "evil dictator who did bad things and was wrong about economics" to step back, bear witness to the objective facts about Fidel Castro's life ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro ), think sincerely about what could lead a highly intelligent and charismatic person to become or follow Fidel Castro (as many ha…

When you write "evil dictator", you mean that a dictator could not be evil. This is hugely wrong. Dictatorship contains evil. I appreciate your effort to invite people to learn from history instead of just rejecting a portion of it. But this is a black-and-white matter: he chose to be a dictator, and he was wrong. Subsequent crimes and economics theories are less important once you keep people from choosing their fat…

No, a dictator can be benevolent. What if a foreign government destroys your country, the populace is largely uneducated and you have the power to reinstitute order in to then transition to a government by and for the people? The US, under Obama, destroyed Libya, what if someone with genuine good intentions would have seized the opportunity in order to prevent what did become reality, that all the people got was a puppet government. This is partly hypothetical but my point is clear, I hope.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#326

Post by varjag »

IslaDeEncanta wrote: post #254
edblarney wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The western view of Castro is painted with decades of terrible propaganda." + Fidel does not allow his people to leave, with the threat of punishment. + Fidel does not allow democracy + He does not allow any real internet access + Fidel puts political dissidents in jail + Fidel's private Army own's 85% of the economy + Cuban's live in relative poverty + Only the US 'embargos' Cuba, they are free to trade with 167 ot…

You are ignorant of the reality of Cuban society. People have been able to leave Cuba freely since 1980. Cuba is a participatory democracy, with essentially every adult being involved. Internet access was not really a priority with the USSR collapsing and the recovery from that, but it is being quickly broadened. Only those who actively attempt to undermine the Cuban democracy are imprisoned, but people are free to v…

> Only those who actively attempt to undermine the Cuban democracy are imprisoned

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#327

Post by geezerjay »

sangnoir wrote: post #303
geezerjay wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He has executed thousands, has imprisoned thousands more, and has totally ruined a country that was once the most prosperous in Latin America. In Africa Fidel Castro also took part in one of the most murderous civil wars in the continent, the Angolan civil war, and fought to establish the continent's worse dictator and cleptocracy, José Eduardo dos Santos and his MPLA cronies.

And fighting against this communist evil were the righteous forces of Unita and apartheid South Africa.

Have you actually looked at the faction supported by Cuba? Not only are they responsible for launching global private military corporations, they are Africa's worse cleptocracy.

Then, oddly enough, MPLA also intervened in Namibia's civil war against the communists.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#328

Post by varjag »

crdoconnor wrote: post #320
gaius wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of that is true. I've been to Havana; I've seen the buildings where 3 families are crammed into an apartment meant for one, where the windows are covered with cardboard because there's no glass, the electricity is on a few hours a day, where the concrete is crumbling so badly you could break it off with your fingers. And I've seen just outside town the gorgeous villas with manicured gardens and water features, w…

Try working on minimum wage in London.

There are legal, efficient ways out of poverty in the UK. There are none on Cuba.

Re: Fidel Castro has died

#330

Post by apsec112 »

tmptmp wrote: post #311
jknoepfler wrote: post #119

I would encourage the commenters in this thread who see Fidel's legacy as a black-and-white matter of an "evil dictator who did bad things and was wrong about economics" to step back, bear witness to the objective facts about Fidel Castro's life ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro ), think sincerely about what could lead a highly intelligent and charismatic person to become or follow Fidel Castro (as many ha…

Charismatic? Yes, but so was Hitler and Osama bin Laden. Revolutionary? yes, but so was Hitler. So, let's get it clear that that doesn't make him humane and good for society. >>If you think you're better, then do better. Be better. Don't refuse to acknowledge the humanity of another person because you believe you can totalize their entire life under a cheap tagline. This is a disingenuous advice. Will you not critici…

I'm as anti-communist as they come, but comparing Castro to Hitler is ridiculous. Castro never set up camps for the sole purpose of mass murder. Castro didn't create special army units to machine gun hundreds of thousands of civilians. Castro didn't deliberately starve entire cities of people to death.
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