Fidel Castro casts doubt on 'Cuban model'

reply to post by SLAYER69


From Wiki:

The United States had been embarrassed publicly by the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April, 1961, which had been launched by forces sponsored by the CIA under President John F. Kennedy. Afterward former President Eisenhower told Kennedy that "The failure of the Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets to do something that they would otherwise not do."[2]:10 The half-hearted invasion left Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and his advisers with the impression that Kennedy was indecisive and, as one Soviet adviser wrote, "too young, intellectual, not prepared well for decision making in crisis situations ... too intelligent and too weak."

I couldn't remember which happened first so there you have it. The Missile Crisis happened later and was resolved on Oct. 28 1962 when the Russians withdrew its missiles.

So apparently a couple of those missiles were nuclear acc to your Cronkite information.....

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi
It is exactly what happened to Russia, it was national survival in a global society. If Cuba wishes to become more powerful, it has to adopt new policies. However, I believe that the Cubans are smart enough to implement a new and successful political order based on socialism instead of some capitalist proxy country.

Question...

Is that how you see every and all capitalist countries?
As a "Capitalist Proxy"? If not then which countries are free?

Proxy countries and wars have been important ever since the cold war. It's part of the realization that humanity has taken over as much land as we can on the Earth, so in order for ideals to expand they need to take over pre-existing countries. I am refering to CIA operations in Central/South America that suppressed leftest revolutions and installed capitalist proxy leaders, who in turn controlled their nations with fear and torture, killing millions as long as it paid into the American machine.

"Which countries are free"? That's a subjective question, because what hostile "democratic" countries label as "freedom" is really security. Freedom means you have rights, and if your government can take away your rights for any reason then you're living in a country of privilege. I saw much more freedom if communist nations than in Western countries, where people are so dumbed down that they don't even know what it is like to be free but say they live in freedom anyway.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by VirginiaRisesYetAgain

 

What kind of Government will replace a dictatorship once it collapses? How will people who have only ran a Socialists country make the transition to a free market economy without taring itself apart?

Cuba has a rough road ahead of itself.
This isn't going to be a cake walk transition IMO.

Maybe not!

IMO Cuba as a small country could very well implement a Northen European Social Democratic system and a Scandinavian-esque system of the third way without to much problems, as the transistion to something else in the future?

By doing so, they could still keep the good social parts as their health and education system - but be totally capitalistic with 'more' free market principles and open up more for foreign investments as well.

And I think this could be a 'mild' humanist solution for the population of Cuba to take their society into a more modern Westernized system without to much social stress on their society and the 'older' citizens of their population.

Just think of their unique & old stunning architecture of Spanish/Cuban colonial houses in Havana - it's a treasure of culture just waiting for foreign capital to be renovated back to their former glory.

By doing so, they could easily make some beautiful beach locations around Cuba a tourist paradise with resorts and Hotels and use Havana as a historic and cultural attraction even more with art, different kinds of music and beautiful and cozy architecture with music clubs and restaurants and art-centers.

Well! Cuba also have some deposits of deep oil - maybe this also can help their transistion if they let foreign oil companies in to share the pie?

(Not BP though! LOL!)

I visited Cuba for a week once back in the days when I lived in Venezuela, and I can honestly say that I love most people of Cuba - most of them are well educated, creative, very friendly and funny people.

So I have no doubts that Cuba can actually succeed in doing this transistion without too much pain - I find them to be quite a resilient people.

The best the US can do to help them would be to take this transistion in different steps - without invading their beautiful island with the 100% full force of a hyper-capitalist shock doctrine from start.

If they use baby steps in stages to make this transistion - I'm totally convinced that Cuba can be a success!

I think it's also cool to see that the old fox Castro is making all these recent comments about the world and Cuba lately - I bet someone in his staff found ATS and now he is reading ATS as well!

(Considering some of the conspiracy theories he has spouted in articles this year alone) LOL!

It feels that Cuba is more ready to change some of their ways to fit in more with the Western system now than 10 years ago.

Baby-steps perhaps?

why do we give a rats ass what castro thinks .

I think the best thing normal people can do is stop worshiping 3rd world nations and live in the world they live in . castro does not give a crap about his people . Much like most 1st world nations do not . Its all about power , money , and love for there SELF!!!!!

Although both Raul and Fidel admit openly that their system has failed, that doesn't mean they want to institute major changes to help their people:

From a related news story by Yahoo today:

President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government. But the president has also made it clear he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.

Cubans have had to bare a heavy burden for their free health care, education, and social net:

Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.

The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.