Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

RIP Fidel Castro

Options
1…1011121416

Comments

  • Options
    #392
    jimmy blevins
    Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭jimmy blevins


    Galway_Old_Man wrote: »
    I wonder do extremist leftie groups in college still show that Oliver Stone propaganda film he did on Chavez? I went to a screening of it back in the day during Socs week, bloody hell! The crowd started singing The Internationale at the end :)

    Castro would have must of those champagne socialists in the gulag, another positive of his regime you'll agree.


  • Options
    #393
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    Ezekiel Chubby Teapot wrote: »
    BoJack Horseman wrote: »
    Nowadays in polite society people tend to frown on torture & extrajudicial killing..... ditto for homosexual internment camps.

    You'd think this wouldn't need to be explained but there you go..... kids today.
    And of course the question is ridiculous, considering that there is no such thing as a dictatorship that is gentle & kind & just to all.

    Is it possible for you to answer a question or debate without being so condescending? Unfortunately, I do not hold all the knowledge in the universe, there's a couple of items on the list which have escaped me.

    So are the homosexual internment camps still open? Does torture and extrajudicial killings still take place, are they common?
    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Is this a serious question? He ruled the country for 50 years with no elections, people denied the right to vote.

    And that's your definition of a brutal dictator? Batista being left in power was the alternative. Castro seemed to have had good intentions for his country, but I guess not everybody agrees with that.
    What made him the dictator was not being allowed to challenge him, the denial of human rights, trade unions not being allowed. It beggars belief why people defend him, just because he was a bloody leftist.


  • Options
    #394
    Iwasfrozen
    Registered Users Posts: 16,250 ✭✭✭✭Iwasfrozen


    BalcombeSt4 wrote: »
    I think you've watched Scarface one two many times.
    I see fit to tell the truth as I see it. Tell me your feelings for American support for the Contras & brutal fascists like Pinochet who over threw democratic governments. Don't talk to me about dictators, Britain & America have supported the worst ones since the 2nd world war all over the world not just in Latin America.

    Actually I've never watched it all the way through once and I condemn all tyrants. Including Castro.


  • Options
    #395
    Gatling
    Registered Users Posts: 40,291 ✭✭✭✭Gatling


    I see some people on another thread are blaming america for the lack of democracy in Cuba
    360_F_102352090_ie3kLjDIvgrT1sxVDknWCUh8PxgMYzM7.jpg




  • Options
    #396
    Rumpy Pumpy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,048 ✭✭✭Rumpy Pumpy


    Castro firmly tugged his forelock to the Soviet Union from the off. The fall of that expansionist empire was a chance for the country to implement the sort of economic reforms that were needed. Much is made of the US trade embargo, but Cuba was free to trade with almost everywhere else in the world. The reality is that they didn't produce anything of value beyond rum and cigars. The reality is that this iteration of communism wasn't going to perform the economic miracles that every other doomed implementation of Marxist thinking had failed at.

    The Cuban people have had to live under generations of stagnation, one party government, suppression of human rights and gross corruption. Castro was a dictator. Left wing and right wing dictators are both equally repugnant. Having to jump through ideological hoops to justify his reign is something that I find very difficult to understand.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #397
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    Gatling wrote: »
    I see some people on another thread are blaming america for the lack of democracy in Cuba

    Yeah it is America's fault that Cuba has been denied a democratic system allowing one man one vote and giving the people a voice for 50 years under Castro rule. :unsure:


  • Options
    #398
    Depp
    Registered Users Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Depp


    Gatling wrote: »
    I see some people on another thread are blaming america for the lack of democracy in Cuba

    everythings always americas fault, obviously


  • Options
    #399
    Ol' Donie
    Registered Users Posts: 19,598 ✭✭✭✭Ol' Donie


    Depp wrote: »
    everythings always americas fault, obviously

    Sigh.


  • Options
    #400
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Gatling wrote: »
    I see some people on another thread are blaming america for the lack of democracy in Cuba

    How many countries run detention camps in other countries without that country's permission? Shockingly blinkered you 'Go USA' types are.


  • Options
    #401
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    Deleted User wrote: »
    How many countries run detention camps in other countries without that country's permission? Shockingly blinkered you 'Go USA' types are.

    No one is denying the US do that and no one is denying how utterly wrong it is.

    Does the fact they do it mean it was ok for Castro to imprison without trial tens of thousands over the years? Even today, I saw one estimate that suggested there were 8,600 detentions without trial in Cuba last year.

    And there's this from HRW.....
    The government continues to rely on arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate individuals who exercise their fundamental rights. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN)—an independent human rights group the government views as illegal—received over 7,188 reports of arbitrary detentions from January through August 2014, a sharp increase from approximately 2,900 in 2013 and 1,100 in 2010 during the same time period.

    Security officers virtually never present arrest orders to justify the detention of critics and threaten them with criminal sentences if they continue to participate in “counterrevolutionary” activities. In some cases, detainees are released after receiving official warnings, which prosecutors can then use in subsequent criminal trials to show a pattern of delinquent behavior. Dissidents said these warnings aim to discourage them from participating in activities seen as critical of the government.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #402
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,792 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL9bnTynWDk


  • Options
    #403
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

    Plenty of countries with a high number. Why do people keep mentioning this as if it outweighs his anti democratic oppressive regime?


  • Options
    #404
    Goya
    Closed Accounts Posts: 464 ✭✭Goya


    Ol' Donie wrote: »
    Sigh.
    It does seem like a fashion among some to blame America and capitalism for all the political wrongdoings in the developing world though. It often comes from people who enjoy the trappings of Western capitalism themselves (and won't be moving to a socialist utopia any time soon!)

    Now I know America has been involved in really terrible things (I can easily criticise both American wrongdoings and communist dictatorships - I'll never understand the way some think it can only be one or the other) but I would still rather live in America than in Cuba. I would prefer freedom of expression, diversity and to have the option to set up my own business.


  • Options
    #405
    nacho libre
    Registered Users Posts: 16,692 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    Ezekiel Chubby Teapot wrote: »
    Is it possible for you to answer a question or debate without being so condescending? Unfortunately, I do not hold all the knowledge in the universe, there's a couple of items on the list which have escaped me.

    So are the homosexual internment camps still open? Does torture and extrajudicial killings still take place, are they common?



    And that's your definition of a brutal dictator? Batista being left in power was the alternative. Castro seemed to have had good intentions for his country, but I guess not everybody agrees with that.

    So did Pinochet in his own mind. Incidentally Pinochet apparently admired Castro methods. Also to top it all off Castro far from living modestly enjoyed the good life. I wonder does
    Michael D know this. I just hope to see those condemning Castro, expressing similar sentiments when right wing leaders of the free world, who were in bed with dictators , , , ,pass on.


  • Options
    #406
    nacho libre
    Registered Users Posts: 16,692 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    Ezekiel Chubby Teapot wrote: »
    Is it possible for you to answer a question or debate without being so condescending? Unfortunately, I do not hold all the knowledge in the universe, there's a couple of items on the list which have escaped me.

    So are the homosexual internment camps still open? Does torture and extrajudicial killings still take place, are they common?



    And that's your definition of a brutal dictator? Batista being left in power was the alternative. Castro seemed to have had good intentions for his country, but I guess not everybody agrees with that.

    So did Pinochet in his own mind. Incidentally Pinochet apparently admired Castro methods. Also to top it all off Castro far from living modestly enjoyed the good life. I wonder does
    Michael D know this. I just hope to see those condemning Castro, expressing similar sentiments when right wing leaders of the free world, who were in bed with dictators , , , ,pass on.


  • Options
    #407
    Junkyard Tom
    Registered Users Posts: 10,117 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    Flimpson wrote: »
    It often comes from people who enjoy the trappings of Western capitalism

    At risk of being a bit nit-picky we don't actually live in Capitalist states we live in corporatist states whose skeletons are socialistic (public education, policing, prisons, courts, roads, rail, ports, energy grids, telecommunications infrastructure, public healthcare, social services, social welfare and so on).


  • Options
    #408
    nacho libre
    Registered Users Posts: 16,692 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    Depp wrote: »
    everythings always americas fault, obviously

    Not everything is, but somethings are. Unfortunately some people refuse to accept that- for them they can do no wrong.


  • Options
    #409
    screamer
    Registered Users Posts: 6,134 ✭✭✭screamer


    I don't get this whole he did good stuff forget about the people who suffered under him. Sure Hitler did good stuff for his Aryan Germans - full employment motorways leubenstraum cars for everyone etc..... no-one would count those things though given the unspeakable bad he did to the Jewish people......
    you cannot discount the bad things someone does in their life and my opinion of Michael D has really changed following his statement on Castro's death.


  • Options
    #410
    Gatling
    Registered Users Posts: 40,291 ✭✭✭✭Gatling


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    How many countries run detention camps in other countries without that country's permission? Shockingly blinkered you 'Go USA' types are.

    I'll just lol
    360_F_102352090_ie3kLjDIvgrT1sxVDknWCUh8PxgMYzM7.jpg




  • Options
    #411
    brickmauser
    Registered Users Posts: 403 ✭✭brickmauser


    It is truly depressing that we have got to 35 pages of this thread and we still have posters defending the indefensible.

    Castro was a tyrant who ran a one party totalitarian state that brutally represses dissident and opposition and with crackpot economic policies that have created mass poverty.

    You cannot dispute this.

    Castro was a monster and the best thing he did in his life was die.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #412
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,365 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Flimpson wrote: »
    I would still rather live in America than in Cuba.

    So would a lot of Cubans. But they're not allowed leave, have no money and aren't allowed vote or express dissent, so who cares - not Michael D and his ilk, anyway.

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



  • Options
    #413
    jimmy blevins
    Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭jimmy blevins


    Just wait until Michael D's second term all dissent will be crushed.


  • Options
    #414
    Galway_Old_Man
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 249 ✭✭Galway_Old_Man


    I can't believe people are still defending Castro. He banned Santa and cancelled Christmas. Literally Mr Burns.
    In 1969, Castro cancelled Christmas altogether, so that celebrations wouldn’t get in the way of the sugar harvest. Cuba was officially an atheist nation and the Christmas ban lasted until December of 1997. In anticipation of a visit by Pope John Paul II that was planned for January of 1998, Castro declared that, for that year only, Christmas would be a national holiday. The change, however, stuck.

    http://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/


  • Options
    #415
    tomwaterford
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    Galway_Old_Man wrote: »
    I can't believe people are still defending Castro. He banned Santa and cancelled Christmas. Literally Mr Burns.



    http://time.com/3652532/cuba-epiphany-feast-christmas/

    Tbf xmas is shte unless your <12


    If he'd ban children in public it woulld be amother plus for him


  • Options
    #416
    Ol' Donie
    Registered Users Posts: 19,598 ✭✭✭✭Ol' Donie


    brickmauser wrote: »
    It is truly depressing that we have got to 35 pages of this thread and we still have posters defending the indefensible.

    Castro was a tyrant who ran a one party totalitarian state that brutally represses dissident and opposition and with crackpot economic policies that have created mass poverty.

    You cannot dispute this.

    Castro was a monster and the best thing he did in his life was die.

    To be fair, roughly 20 of those pages are just you trying to force your opinion down everyone's throat.

    And for what it's worth, i don't think anyone here has said his regime was perfect. Far from it. But it had certain undeniable positives, starting with being far better for ordinary people than the previous administration.


  • Options
    #417
    Iwasfrozen
    Registered Users Posts: 16,250 ✭✭✭✭Iwasfrozen


    Ol' Donie wrote: »
    To be fair, roughly 20 of those pages are just you trying to force your opinion down everyone's throat.

    And for what it's worth, i don't think anyone here has said his regime was perfect. Far from it. But it had certain undeniable positives, starting with being far better for ordinary people than the previous administration.

    İt was a dictatorship and no dictatorship should ever be praised.


  • Options
    #418
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,365 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Better for ordinary people - very debatable - but certainly not if they didn't keep their mouths shut, angered any officials, were religious, or gay.

    Just like East Germany. Grand place, free education, jobs for life and good travel opportunities if you liked going eastwards... :rolleyes:

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



  • Options
    #419
    blackwhite
    Registered Users Posts: 8,630 ✭✭✭blackwhite


    Tsipras wrote: »
    It's your lucky day so I'll answer - Castro did it to people who were being paid by the US try to depose him and set up a Pinochet eile in Cuba

    The LGBT community of Cuba was, en mass, being paid by the US to try and depose Castro?


  • Options
    #420
    brickmauser
    Registered Users Posts: 403 ✭✭brickmauser


    Ol' Donie wrote: »
    To be fair, roughly 20 of those pages are just you trying to force your opinion down everyone's throat.

    And for what it's worth, i don't think anyone here has said his regime was perfect. Far from it. But it had certain undeniable positives, starting with being far better for ordinary people than the previous administration.

    This comment is beyond parody.

    His regime wasn't perfect?

    Give me a break.

    Forced down your throat? You can't face facts and you don't want to know the truth.

    You know Castro was a dictator. You know the Cuban people live in tyranny and misery. You know this is true but your ideology prevents you from admitting it.

    When I speak to a person who claims the Bible is literal and they deny evolution I am dealing with the same codology. They know they believe in nonsense. They will argue all night that it is true because it's their ideology.

    You can give up the pretense. You know this is nonsense. It's ok to admit it.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #421
    BalcombeSt4
    Registered Users Posts: 1,792 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    Jawgap wrote: »
    .....and so that justifies Castro???

    Everyone else in the region was a right wing, imperial puppet dictator, therefore it was ok for Marxists to have their left wing puppet dictator?

    Equal opportunities repression?

    No, the Cuban people justify Castro, their the only people who need to justify anyone in Cuba, nobody else.

    He was nobodys puppet.


Advertisement