Fidel Castro dies aged 90
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Finally...
I guess he felt comfortable dying knowing that the US is properly screwed.
I guess he felt comfortable dying knowing that the US is properly screwed.Good to see he stuck around enough to see diplomatic relations restored.
Almost everyone else in the upper reaches of government is ancient so it'll be interesting to see the direction of the Cuban government going forward. Raul will likely feel more free to reform after some time.
They will go full on Democratic in a few years. Just need Raul to wind down and a new group of leaders to emerge. Once Western money and tourists come in and locals gain access to a higher standard of living, there will be no turning back.
Great revolutionary, morally dubious person, terrible ruler.
Finally...
Good point
It's interesting, I suppose many are even unaware that he remains quite revered by Cubans in the country.
Kudos to Castro who ousted a US backed dictator on their doorstep and inspired millions in Latin America to resist, yet lived to be 90
What did the Cuban people gain by all of it in the end beyond isolation, economic impoverishment, and 1950s American cars.
Little Havana in Miami currently celebrating on the streets.
What does anyone gain from resistance to an oppressive force, self respect & in the case of Cubans a joie de vivre. Americans, including those in Little Havana might learn a little something from that
Yeah, right....By that logic, whey did we even fight the Nazis....
What value was there to be gained by resisting Democracy and basic individual freedoms ? All it has done is keep generations of Cubans stuck in the 1950s.
Castro's Cuba however wasn't fighting the Nazis, they were "resisting" Democracy. And look how well it tuned out for them.
eh??.... Castro overthrew a dictator....
A seed of democracy that would've grown into a beautiful tree, given time.
That was a tiny sliver of his reign. What about the decades after ?
Maybe the Brits can send Jeremy C as replacement.
I am very bad at identifying sarcasm!
That was aimed at Castro's policies after the revolution, not the circumstances that led to his rise to power.
Don't you think the US played a part in this by applying the trade embargo and sanctions?
Partly, yes. Administrative directives modelled on Soviet economic policies were the main reason though.
20th century commies aren't known for their economic brilliance.
Definitely, but Castro's rigid adhereance to his revolutionary ways obviously didn't help much. The older generation of Cubans who fled Castro's regime by boat wound up living a life in Miami that all Cubans should've had access to since the beginning.
RIP Spoonez 
How exactly?.
It is interesting that on indexes of national happiness Cuba tends to rank higher than the USA and U.K. for example
It's been a while since I've dived into these topics about Cuba. But can you elaborate on this a bit more? Even with the Soviet economic model, surely Cuba could have faired much better if given the option to trade with its neighbors including the US. It almost seems we cut them off just to make a point to the Soviets.
Good point about Castro. For a while now, I've believed that someone who leads a violent revolution shouldn't lead the government of the people. Castro with Che was good for the former. But you have to wonder that with the all the sanctions, assassination attempts, and the enemy being on your geographical doorstep, how all of that may have prompted a more dictatorial rule more than it would have if the US didn't get involved in those ways?
The democracy of the US backed dictator that spurred the revolution to begin with? Can't rewrite history
And from first hand experience, it's a beautiful thing to be immersed in - one of the best things about visiting the beautiful country
I wonder how that was conducted in Cuba, and if fear of government backlash had any influence in how the Cubans answered. Just thinking out loud, though.
His comunist model doesn't apply nowadays and he couldn't adapt to the times,however the embargo was brutal,condemned 23 times in the United Nations.
Despite this he did quite well,from all the latin americans that I met I'd say that they have the higher educational level.
For what I heard from some families visiting relatives the situation of the country was chaotic at the end.
Now their country will be bought in pieces.
Despite this he did quite well,from all the latin americans that I met I'd say that they have the higher educational level.
For what I heard from some families visiting relatives the situation of the country was chaotic at the end.
Now their country will be bought in pieces.
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I've been to Havana and spoken to young people there who all had higher degrees (and education is free there, of course). Unfortunately, the pinnacle of ambition for them was working as a tour bus guide, where they could make decent tips in US dollars. I'll always remember one young woman, she was days away from giving birth but still had to do her tour guide duties. She told me she had to do that, there was no other option.
It's a place I've always remembered, a host of contradictions.
Universal health care, higher literacy rate than the US and university education for all - at least historians will note that was Cuba under Castro and decades of oppressive US/UN embargos rather than the richest & most powerful country
That's it in a nutshell. The regime he ousted was dreadful but the revolution instigated equally bad repression with, I think, around 10,000 executed after victory, Then he was trapped in the Marxist economic ideology of the times, which even Eric Hobsbawm said was a disaster.
Amazing too the widespread influence and interventions of his regime - Angola , where maybe he saved it from a South African takeover, and of course Latin America. A real thorn in the side of the US & co.
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Power to the people
Wolfy Smiff
Wolfy Smiff
Certainly you become a thorn in the side of those trying to ensure instability & propping up dictators - then feel the wrath of their inhumanity through decades of oppressive embargos that isolated them from the world. You step into Cuba and you have a sense of going back in time yet as mentioned, their happiness index is among the highest in the world.
There's a big reason why he's been so revered in Latin America, one of the few (Along with Che) who stood up to Imperial fascism - i.e., I suspect Chileans would have loved Castro over Pinochet
In the context of Latin America Castro was far from the worst. El Salvador, Guatemala were undoubtedly so, Chile and Argentina were dire.
Yes,I felt the same with the cubans that I've met,fruit sellers with a chemistry degree, waitresses with philology,etc.
A strange mix of satiety but defense of the revolution at the same time.
I've also met the other side of the coin, cubans in the exile wishing to see him dead,and something similar start to happen with the venezuelans.
Fidel was too stubborn but USA should have stopped all this in 1991
And all of them were rooted in the same evil, US/CIA coups