Tim Blair

...not to mention the lovely "sanitoriums" they have set up for homosexuals.

It is comforting to know that, seventy years after determining that Stalin was the future (and it worked), fifty years after Mao's "barefoot doctors" and "Great Leap Forward" marked a glorious new chapter in development, and forty years after decrying the failings of the likes of Chun Doo Hwan and Park Chung Hee, next to Kim Il-Sung, a REAL Korean patriot, that the fire still burns bright and that Marxism-Leninism, now under Castro, will light the way forward.

And if the pressure turns up on North Korea, look for some Lefty or another to not only decry American imperialism and wonder why we go after them and not Uzbekistan, but also that North Koreans are better off under Kim Jong-il than their oppressed brothers and sisters in the south, w/ an American (sorry, Amerikkkan) boot on their necks, their women turned into bar-maids and prostitutes, their culture sullied, and their whole nation exploited, unlike the worker's paradise just across the DMZ.

What about all the snappy Batista-era Buicks, Chevs, De Sotos and Plymouths cruising the streets of Havana (When they can get fuel)? At least Beardy-Boy didn't make his tropical hell-hole totally fun-free by filling it up with Wartburgs and Volgas.
(Then again, he probably couldn't afford them).

Is she SWP? Sure sounds like the SWP to me....

Hold on, they only have 3 television stations all state-run? I'm sure they don't have any nationalist propaganda and "Fidel = God" crap on it either.

Castro's going to die one day. Who is in line to replace him? Was he planning on living for ever so there is no succession plan?

I don't know (and cannot be bothered goggling) if Castro has kids or not but in usual dictator-style I would expect that Lil' Castro Junior would be the next in line.

Perhaps the Beard takes over when he is gone...good beard that.

What would they advertise? The one type of butter, produced by a state-run company, infrequently available and rationed to boot?
And Jake, I recall that one of Castro's own children has escaped as well.

What a glorious achievement for socialism, Cubans can learn to say, “I’m starving” in English, French and Spanish!

"imagine not having a landlord breathing down your neck"

It's called buying a house.

Have some idea that El Lider Maximo does have a daughter but she's anti-communist and has defected to the US. True, mate, true.

Does Castro's daughter follow the rule of dictator's daughters everywhere and appear to be very, very hot?

For reasonably current info on Castro's daughter including a creepy shot of her with dad on her wedding day, go here.

Come the counter-revolution, Cubans will be queueing for miles for the opportunity to pimp-slap some sense into the likes of this cloth-eared idiot. We can raise money screening it on pay-per-view... now THAT'S entertainment.

A little about Castro's daughter.

Fidel Castro's designated sucessor is his younger brother Raul, who was with him from the beginning of the Revolution. Other than his brother, Castro's pretty strongly avoided nepotism.

Fidel has seven sons (one from his first marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart, one from a another woman, and five from his current marriage). Fidel has taken great effort to keep his private life private. Only his eldest son, Fidel "Fidelito" Castro, has a government policy job (and not a very important one in the scheme of things). Only Fidelito has ever been mentioned in the Cuban media. The only pictures of Castro's sons ever published were of two sons, taken in secret by a man who later defected and provided the film to the Miami Herald.

Raul has a son and three daughters, and they've all been kept out of the Cuban media, too. None of them is in Cuban government, either, though the husband of one of his daughters is Luis Alberto Fernández, a lieutenant colonel who heads the umbrella agency that administers the Cuban military's businesses.

After Raul Castro and Luis Alberto Fernández, the only family members who are in government are Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, a couple of anti-Fidel U.S. Congressmen. Their aunt Mirta was the mother of Fidelito, so Fidel Castro tells Americans that visit him that he's got two nephews in Congress.

Workers World?! You're blogging on an article from the Communist Party's crackpot house organ? Come on Tim, don't bother with the low-hanging and overripe fruit.

What is it with Castro and Che' (Fidel's dead buddy) that so many young, hip Westerners are in love with? I don't get it...

A great book is "Whisper of the Blade" by Erik Durschmied, who actually met Castro.

A great passage follows:

"The prisons will overflow, not the prisons." (Che' to assembled journalists on the fate of political dissidents)
The room
fell into stunned silence. With a single phrase, Che, after Fidel Castro, the most influential man in the country, had condemned hundreds of political opponents to the firing squads.

and later in the same chapter

Castro:
"My revolution has not shrunk, and will not shrink from serious decisive measures if dictated by necessity. The proof of this is the shooting of military and political criminals"

Such remarks gave pause to those who still viewed Fidel Castro as a romantic, misunderstood figure.

Castro showed his true colours decades ago - why do people ignore the man's own words?

Because they want power, or at least, to be close to the most powerful alpha male they can find. They have rejected the gods, but still yearn to worship something, hence today's modern idols (Che, Fidel, Marx).

Also, studies reveal that the majority of the population has its first extramarital sexual encounter during adolescence.

Is this someone trying to put a spin on teenage prostitution?

La Riva's a paid Communist agent. The best thing she could do for the Cuban proletariat is to visit soon after Castro dies, and his politburo is overthrown. There, the Havanans could shave her head and harry her through the streets, in the traditional way of dealing with female collaborators.

I'm sure they'd find the experience enormously therapeutic.

Fish...Barrel...Gun

Don´t forget their famous healthcare! I actually visited in Cuba 2 years ago. In our group of German tourists was a doctor who had brought a bag full of drugs he wanted to donate, knowing that these are scarce in Cuba. So our bus driver stopped at a hospital in the country and when the doctor returned, I heard him muttering to his wife: "There´s nothing there. Appliances, drugs, they have nothing."

Beautiful country, very nice people, but desperate. No landlords? How about no roofs? The foreign commies who applaud Castro aren´t just fools, they are criminals. And I am sorry I went there because I´m sure most of my money ended up supporting the regime.

If you leave the low-hanging fruit, though, it will have a chance to fall and sprout more lies.

Hey, I think it's cool you can get the BBC in Cuba...

It would be appropriate to mention that the three men executed by Castro were Black.

I once asked a very pro-Castro Spanish professor why so many people had fled Cuba with such horrifying stories if the regime was as good as she said.

Those who want to leave are worms who want to live on the back of workers. They want to lead comfortable middle class lives while forcing others to do all their dirty work. Cuba is better off without them.

It's truly disgusting that people actually buy this. But, as I've now heard similar sentiments about almost every brutal government on earth (so long as it's anti-American and preferablly communist/socialist), I'm sad to say it no longer surprises me.

Castro rounded up gays and put them in forced labor camps.

Here's another show they don't air in Cuba: Queer Eye for the Totalitarian Guy.