Casto's like those batteries...keeps going and going...

Chilenita wrote:

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bah....why bother....

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LOL

Exactly! The more complicated the problem, the more tempting it is to interpret data in terms of a favorite/better model. I think it's best to keep an open mind.

Dogo wrote:

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Lahtina wrote:

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Dogo wrote:

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Oh man! you're too NICE!
You're right though, she might've confused this thread with the other dozens of "Fidel Castro" threads

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A-ha! Who is queen biotch now, Daggo?

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Tu, querida. Tu

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TV Buff wrote:

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Chilenita wrote:

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bah....why bother....

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That's it????????

 

 

Motherhood has softened you, child.

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nah but no use in arguing with guys like Bistor

Chilenita wrote:

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bah....why bother....

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That's it????????

 

 

Motherhood has softened you, child.

TV Buff wrote:

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Marky Mark wrote:

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Why would I be loving it?? 

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Maybe he posted it when he thought you were Buffy?

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Cuban humour is so strange.

Chile's posting...

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Chile's posting? She's not even logged on!!!!

FIDEL/CUBA - HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!!!!

Marky Mark wrote:

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Why would I be loving it?? 

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Maybe he posted it when he thought you were Buffy?

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Cuban humour is so strange.

Chile's posting...

Motown Junkie wrote:

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LAB_ wrote:

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[img] MJ must be loving this soooo bad..... that, if she's even reading this thread anymore

-- Edited by LAB_ at 17:19, 2006-08-13

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Why would I be loving it?? 

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Maybe he posted it when he thought you were Buffy?

Just making it easier for Chile.

 

Uh-huh.

 

 

bistor wrote:

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  Because I have yet to meet a single one that has anything good to say about the regime. Not one. The only ones that speak of the marvels of Cuba are western leftists (the one's that wear "che" t-shirts, and spent a week in Varadero last christmas).

 

But frankly, the proof is in the pudding. Do you like Cuba? By all means, emigrate there. I'm told things are fantastic, and not like the bourgeois western democracies. Racism, much like homosexuality, has been erradicated from this worker's paradise (both "evils" being proper of decadent democratic societies, and not the vigorous marxist cuban state). Enjoy!

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You should refer to my lesson on anecdotal evidence versus empirical evidence in a previous a thread. In short, "The plural of anecdotal is not data"

Blindness caused by ideology can do that sometimes.

This coming from you? You repeatedly show myopic interpretations of events skewed by apparently "fascist antisemitism". I put this in quotes to indicate your technique of radicalizing any views not consistent with yours. You seem to be blissfully unaware of the nuances of politics, geopolitics, history etc. Perhaps a little remedial reading on your part is in order for greater clarity.

bistor wrote:

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Rex Murphy, as usual, telling it as it is.

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So nice of you to reference Rex to support your position. Anyone who knows Rex Murphy knows that he is long on style and short on substance (reread your article and see his adroit selectivity of Cuban successes). Rex is certainly a clever wordsmith who does indeed wax poetically, but an expert in Latin American history he is not.

-- Edited by neruda at 00:51, 2006-08-14

This is TOO funny! ROFLMAO!

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2359388147324052106&q=castro

 

Castro, now 80, warns of a long recovery

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago

Fidel Castro sent Cubans a sober greeting on his 80th birthday Sunday, saying he faces a long recovery from surgery — and warning they should be prepared for "adverse news." But he encouraged them to be optimistic, saying Cuba "will continue marching on perfectly well."

As a newspaper printed the first pictures of Castro since his illness, his younger brother, Raul, made his first public appearance as Cuba's acting president. State TV showed him at the airport greeting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his arrival to celebrate Fidel's birthday.

Castro, who underwent surgery for an unspecified intestinal ailment that forced him to step aside as president two weeks ago, said in a statement that his health had improved, but stressed he still faced risks.

"To affirm that the recovery period will take a short time and that there is no risk would be absolutely incorrect," said the statement in the Communist Youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. "I ask you all to be optimistic, and at the same time to be ready to face any adverse news."

The Communist Party's newspaper, Granma, had offered a rosier picture of Castro's condition on Saturday, saying he was walking and talking again, and even working a bit. It compared him to a resistant tropical hardwood tree found in eastern Cuba, where he was born.

News of Castro's surgery had made Cubans uneasy about the future, but a series of upbeat statements from government officials had helped calm a public that is having to face up to the mortality of the island's longtime leader.

Juventud Rebelde also published four photographs of Castro, giving the first view of the leader since July 26, when he gave two speeches in eastern Cuba. He looked a bit tired, but sat up straight, his eyes alert.

Wearing a red and white Adidas warm-up suit, Castro posed in a close-up shot with his fist under his chin and talked on a telephone in two pictures.

The fourth photograph showed him in a chair sitting in front of a bed with a white spread in what appears to be a home. He holds up a special supplement of Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, which was published Saturday as an homage to him.

The photos were credited to Estudios Revolucion, a division of Castro's personal support group that collects historic documents and images. There was no reason to doubt they were real.

"What happiness I received!" exulted an elderly Margot Gomez after seeing the newspaper during a morning walk in Havana. "Long live Fidel and long live the revolution! He knows what to do to convert setbacks into victories!"

Dozens of children in the Old Havana neighborhood celebrated Castro's birthday with a blindfolded boxing match and other games, as well as with a cake that read "Always With You Fidel." The boys and girls cheered and shouted "Long live Fidel!" after singing "Happy Birthday" for the Cuban leader.

Raul Castro, the defense minister who is serving as provisional president during his brother's recovery, saluted and hugged Chavez when the Venezuelan leader arrived at midday for a meeting with the elder Castro, his friend and ally in opposing U.S. policies.

The state television broadcast was the first time the younger Castro had been seen publicly since becoming interim president July 31.

Neither man commented during the broadcast, but Chavez told reporters Saturday that he was going to visit Fidel Castro on his birthday. "I'll take him a nice gift, a good cake, and we'll be celebrating the 80 years of this great figure of America and our history," Chavez said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined those sending birthday greetings to the Cuban leader and wished him a speedy recovery.

Just outside the capital, the government's minister for the sugar industry, Gen. Ulises Rosales del Toro, reiterated his support for the Castro brothers.

"After Fidel, Raul is the man who is in the best condition to direct the destinies of this nation, either at Fidel's side or when he is no longer here," Rosales del Toro told reporters.

The sugar minister was directing a crew of Foreign Ministry officials working in the fields to show their support for Castro on his birthday.

In his statement, Castro said: "I feel very happy. For all those who care about my health, I promise to fight for it."

"To the people of Cuba, infinite gratitude for your loving support. The country is marching on and will continue marching on perfectly well," Castro said.

___

On the Net:

Juventud Rebelde: http://www.juventudrebelde.cu

//////////////////////////////////


Video reveals crude behavior by Castro's brother

By Nancy San Martin

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI - In one scene, Cuban Defense Minister and interim leader Raul Castro holds up a bar of soap in the shape of breasts and, after taking a sniff, remarks how good it would be if all women "had them like this."

In another, he pokes fun at former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. And in a third he ogles a uniformed female marine and then tells how, as a child, he was sexually aroused after peering at a girl through a window.

The crude behavior is no parody. They are snippets of a video shot in 1992 by an unidentified U.S. physician and broadcast by several Miami stations in the 1990s. It is currently being re-broadcast by Miami's Spanish-language WJAN-TV, America TeVe.

At one point in the video, when the physician tries to take on a more serious tone, Castro says, "If we didn't take things lightly, we would die of bitterness."

The unusual footage offers a peek into the private side of a 75-year-old revolutionary leader who has headed Cuba's military for 47 years and now temporarily controls the island's future as older brother Fidel Castro recuperates from gastrointestinal surgery.

"This is a side of him few people see," said Miguel Cossio, the station's news director. "He hardly ever comes out in public and speaks even less."

"People are discovering a Raul Castro they did not know - the real Raul," Cossio added.

The station would not reveal the name of the doctor or the circumstances surrounding his unusual access to Castro. But Cossio said Cuban officials have never challenged the video's authenticity.

"The video is real," he said.

Since the Castro brothers began plotting their revolution in the early 1950s, Raul has operated in his older brother's shadow. He has often been described as an avowed Communist and ruthless leader with the organizational skills of a perfectionist.

But he also has been described as an engaging and easy-going family man who loves to tell jokes, as well as a heavy drinker who sometimes goes over the line of good taste, especially when drunk. Cuban humor often can be crass, but rarely publicly displayed by high-level officials.

In the footage, dated Feb. 9, 1992 and filmed with a video camera that was not hidden, Raul Castro does not appear inebriated. But within about 25 minutes of film, there are at least eight instances of behavior befitting a comedian, not a statesman.

The film starts at an office and moves through a visit to several military installations, including an underground facility used to store tanks.

In one exchange, Castro opens a gift of a bar of soap in the shape of a heart with breasts. He smiles, holds the soap to his face and takes in a deep breath.

"If all women had them like this, it would be very good," he says with a chuckle, adding that he must keep the gift away from his grandson, otherwise the boy "would take it and start touching the little breasts."

Later in the video, Castro tells the American that he resembles former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

"But you are better than Gorbachev," Castro says. "You are capable of opening someone's chest, changing his heart and keep him living. Gorbachev made the heart of the Soviet Union change and killed it."

When the physician jokingly challenges Castro about the number of Cuban generals, saying that he had heard that if one drills for oil in Cuba a general pops up, Castro retorts with a joke of his own. "Or a mulatta," he says.

Shortly afterwards, as a unit of female troops marches past Castro in a formal ceremony, the defense minister chases after the unit and reaches over to tap her face from behind.

"Now, this is a good unit to be part of."

He goes on to tell a lengthy story about having to confess to a priest while he was a youngster studying in an all-boys Catholic school. Castro said that he told the priest that he had looked through a window, saw a girl and had "bad thoughts."

"What else?" Castro said the priest asked him. "Well father, that night, you know, I masturbated."

Castro doubled over in laughter at his own joke. Then he turned to one of the Cuban military officers around him and said the male members of the unit were lucky: "They have girls here. They don't have to masturbate."

Cuba experts said the crude behavior might raise questions about Raul Castro's ability to rule Cuba in the absence of his brother Fidel.

"Raul is the provisional leader of Cuba," said Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "Is he capable of handling that leadership? That's a big question."

////////////////////////////////

(don't ask me where the ^*((*^$ video is, cuz that's what most people reacting to postings like this are saying).

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Raúl and the unbearable shadow of Fidel

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Fidel Castro was taking great pains to prepare his 80th birthday celebration. It was set for Aug. 13. Some official note told of ''thousands of international invitees.'' It was to be his apotheosis. In the classic world, the word apotheosis was given to the ceremony that conferred the condition of gods upon a nation's heroes. But Castro couldn't turn into a god. His diverticula -- small ulcers that lacerate the intestine and sometimes cause profuse bleeding -- got in the way. The hemorrhage was so intense that they had to operate on him urgently. Given his age, the surgery was very risky, but failure to attempt it could become an inevitable death sentence.

From that point on, suspicious maneuvers began. After the operation, and on a provisional basis, as the official document stipulates half a dozen times, Fidel Castro transferred his powers and responsibilities to Raúl, his younger brother, an elderly general 75 years old, addicted to whiskey, cockfighting and bawdy jokes. Shortly thereafter, they declared that the Comandante was recovering quickly but decreed that his health was ``a state secret, so as not to give weapons to Yankee imperialism.''

Worse, they drifted into fantasy. Rumors shook Cuba from one end to the other. Some gave him up for dead. Others, probably the most accurate, said he was gravely ill and predicted a slow and painful convalescence from which he would emerge without the physical ability required to regain power. No photos or official medical reports were produced. They were concealing the image of a defenseless little old man, probably intubated, clad in a humiliating hospital gown and beset by an insolent pain in the rectum.

Allegedly, Raúl carefully controls the military establishment. Maybe so, but he doesn't remotely have his brother's charisma and does not relate to the chiefs of staff in the same way. Traditionally, experts have divided the military ranks into Fidelistas and Raulistas, but there is a fundamental difference: the Fidelistas feel subordinated to the Maximum Leader by the implicit recognition of an almost superhuman leadership. Their loyalty is not to the motherland, or to the revolution, or to a mad ideology discredited by reality. Their loyalty is to the undefeatable caudillo -- no matter what he does. It's an animal link, not a rational one.

By contrast, the Raulistas know that the Comandante's younger brother is a small and fallible human being, a little man like any other, with dandruff and halitosis, lacking a grandiose vision of history and himself, without any exceptional attributes. Fidelismo is the glory of an epic deed. Raulismo is a system of bureaucratic and economic complexities, conceived to retain or acquire privileges.

But that's not the only difference. Fidel Castro has segregated a peculiar form of government based on his quarrelsome personality and his showmanship. Down the years, almost 50 now, he has quarreled (or reconciled) with everybody and has turned those squabbles into national crusades that usually culminate in never-ending processions where the Cubans, sweaty and tired, shout slogans in unison and wave little flags. To Fidel, who never got past the stage of college capers, governance is just that: a tumult, a deafening protest and a big show. During his first big speech after the revolution triumphed, a white dove landed docilely on his shoulder in what appeared to be a divine blessing.

Raúl is different. He is terse and rational, his speeches are brief. And if a dove flies over him, it will surely defecate on his head. Raúl, for example, would never stage the show with young Elián, or launch barrages of rafters toward the American coast, or call former Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde a ''boot-licker,'' or brand former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar ''a pocket-sized Führer.'' His vocation is order and efficiency. In the 1980s, he fell in love with the Chinese reformist model and instructed some of his officers to create enterprises within the Army that could be managed with capitalist criteria. Fidel, a stubborn collectivist, forced him to drop those plans. For sure, Raúl now dreams about reprising that old project.

The irony is that neither of them is governing today. Fidel can't do it because he's bound to a bed with catheters, sentenced to silence, a horrible punishment for a man who suffers from chronic oral incontinence. But Raúl can't govern either, because he cannot take any initiative that goes counter to the opinions of his brother. That paralyzes him. That's why he remains silent. That's why he dares not publicly assume command, much less begin giving orders or transmitting a personal vision of the conflicts or their solutions.

He does not fear the Yankees' reactions but that of Fidel, an implacable and irascible brother, ever dissatisfied, who has not stopped intimidating him for one minute of his life and now watches him through the fog of pain killers from a bed at the CIMEQ hospital in Havana. He knows that if he takes one false step and the Comandante manages to come back, Fidel will send him into retirement or punish him in some ostensible and humiliating manner.

We're not looking at a provisional government but at an impasse. Raúl prepares to assume command, but for that to happen he first has to read into the TV cameras his brother's death notice, and there's no way to predict when that will happen. Simultaneously he fears and desires Fidel's death. Today, he's the most daunted and saddest man in Cuba.

August 7, 2006

///////////////////////////////////////////

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, last but not least.... "the pictures aren't real".



MJ must be loving this soooo bad..... that, if she's even reading this thread anymore

-- Edited by LAB_ at 17:19, 2006-08-13

McOSIRIS wrote:

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Marky Mark wrote:

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McOSIRIS wrote:

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For some reason I see Bistor as the new Cuban president....

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Not when he calls Cubans 'stupid'.

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LOL

see how much I've read this thread????

 

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This is false, as anyone with a reading comprehension ability above that of your average grade 4 reader will be able to tell you.

More than anything because I have family in Cuba

 

 

 

by the way... is any1 else not able to lonk to pics and stuff in the threads?

 

-- Edited by LAB_ at 21:36, 2006-08-11

Dogo wrote:

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Que si le rompieron el hoyo! WEON! (vos seguro eras de la tribu de los WEONES, no de los CULIAOS )

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Errrr, well... I dunno about that. Sería más bien que si le rompieron la cara but judging from God's avatar, that was a rhetorical question. I already know the answer was Duh!

Lahtina wrote:

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God wrote:

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Got a questin for the cuban Lads....Why you are not able to take a picture of the cuban Police....When I was there I was aiming my camera to one and HOLY KRRAAAPPP why ?

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Te partieron tu mandarina en gajos?

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neta me hecharon monton....en dos por tres me hecharon toda la tira de a gacho...me temi como el que temio por tehuacanzos !

Lahtina wrote:

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Te partieron tu mandarina en gajos?

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me podria repetir la pregunta porfavor????

Got a questin for the cuban Lads....Why you are not able to take a picture of the cuban Police....When I was there I was aiming my camera to one and HOLY KRRAAAPPP

why ?

Marky Mark wrote:

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@Buffy: Ikea has free measuring tape at every aisle. I steal their pencils.

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But their pencils are so tiny...

 

 

 

 

Oooooh.... I get it. You need the pencils, not the measuring tape. I gotcha, buddy. Your secret's safe with me.

bistor wrote:

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Trucho, nobody has the solutions to all problems. Some solutions are manifestly BAD, and others, less so. Totalitarian regimes, both on the left and on the right have proven, time and time again to be, frankly, evil. I have no more sympathy for the regimes of Somoza and Franco than those of Castro and Ceaucescu. Some hispanics "become" "communist" here because, frankly, it's fashionable! Or perhaps daddy thought it was cool in the sixties, and so they think so too. Or perhaps, lets face it: Che Guevara looks much groovier on a t-shirt than Benito Mussolini. But they sure as hell haven't read 'Das Kapital' (that would take away precious time away from reading Oprah's picks). And they sure as hell won't want to implement a proletarian revolution here. Christ, what about their 905-area code bungalow!? Revolution is fine, but only for those stupid cubans, they will tell you. Democracy doesn't work in all countries! Sometimes communist dictatorship is the way to go. I happen to disagree. Did you know that in 1950, El Salvador had a higher GDP per capita than Spain? And Argentina, higher than that of France? That Chile's was only half that of Argentina? So! "What happened?", you might ask. In some countries, mismanagement happened. Civil war happened. Corrupt authorities happened. Dictatorship happened. Governors that ran off to Switzerland with hundreds of millions of dollars happened. Whereas Argentina has grown at an average rate of 1% per year for the last 50 years, France has grown at 3% a year. And so on. You can attribute the rest to the power of compounding. Chronic mismanagement will cripple a once prosperous country. Some countries have managed their economies better than others these past fifty years. But Cuba, I'm afraid, one of the poorest countries in latin america, is not part of the first group. It escapes me why, a country with a human development index comparable to that of Tonga and Latvia is a model for anybody. This is what the marxist marvel produces? And yes, I would agree Spain is definitely a good model to follow, but this post is probably long enough as it is. The facts above give some indication as to why though.

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Bistor, I am not, by any means, in favour of totalitarian regimes either, but I just want to point out that, in Chile's case, what greatly contributed to the economical growth and development was Pinochet's regime. Your affirmation that a totalitarian regime hinders the country's economical growth is not, IMO, 100% accurate.

Take Chile for example, very little country in the 50's and 60's, Then Allende gets elected in 1970, and imposes a (democratically elected) Socialist regime. The country's economy starts going down, partly because of mismanagement, partly because of boicots. Lineups to get bread were everyday things, deflation was huge, and farmland was beiing taken over by the goverment. Then in 1973 Pinochet takes over and the whole face of the country changes. He implements international commerce at a macroscale, and creates new economic models (thanks to the so-called Chicago Boys, who were Chilean economists educated in the US), and the whole country's economy starts booming.

My point is, a totalitarian regime is not necessary a synonym of economical failure. Maybe Chile is the exception to the rule, but i just wanted to point it out.

 

Oh, man! I wish somebody got a measuring tape and got this pendejada over with!!!

For some reason I see Bistor as the new Cuban president....