• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Fidel Castro

teg916 said:
Did she leave the country when she was 5? I would imagine that if she did not experience the joy of living under an oppressive communist government first hand, she heard about personal experiences from friends and relatives.
Click to expand...

Correct, I completely understand why my MIL parents hate/d the man so much, they had actually family that were killed during the revolution. Why my MIL is so worked up about it I don't get though. She grew up in the USA practically, minus 5/6 years of her life. Let's be honest, how much do children that young remember or even understand at the time. Not trying to single her out, as I believe this is typical of Cuban Americans. Just find the whole thing kind of strange is all seeing how so many Cuban Americans have no direct or very minimal experience with post revolution Cuba.
 
JesasaurusRex said:
Correct, I completely understand why my MIL parents hate/d the man so much, they had actually family that were killed during the revolution. Why my MIL is so worked up about it I don't get though. She grew up in the USA practically, minus 5/6 years of her life. Let's be honest, how much do children that young remember or even understand at the time. Not trying to single her out, as I believe this is typical of Cuban Americans. Just find the whole thing kind of strange is all seeing how so many Cuban Americans have no direct or very minimal experience with post revolution Cuba.
Click to expand...

My thoughts are that it is not about the revolution. Think if a Joseph Stalin took over your home country by force, and you managed to escape with your 5 year old to another country. For your entire life your child grows up hearing stories from you about how all of your friends, and family that did not make it out are getting oppressed. People you know are at risk of disappearing in the middle of the night, and never being seen again if they dare to say something negative about the government. Likely they are killed, or placed in a political prison. Your own countrymen are not allowed to travel outside of their own country, and are not allowed to enjoy what we know as freedom.

How would your 5 year old feel about Joseph? Would she be indifferent because she didn't experience oppression first hand, or would she hate him for oppressing her countrymen, her parent's friends, and her distant relatives?
 
mrmarklin said:
Not slaves? They can't escape, or protest. They must be content on their rations and around $20 per month.

Just like slaves. Education? Yeah, indoctrinated by Castros to accept their lot. If emigration was possible, everyone would leave, just like in the old East Germany. Once the wall went down, the commie government there became irrelevant without its slaves.:wow

All commie governments are essentially like this. See also North Korea.:rofl

Except it's not really funny.:nchantr
Click to expand...

You're either ignorant or just stupid. You dont know what you're talking about. I have personal friends who left Cuba, with the governments blessing, and now live in the US and continue to visit their family there and their family visits them here. I'm not talking about the Mariel Boatlift. Regular Cuban citizens who were allowed to leave, and return at will. Your ignorance is embarrassing. Stop. On Dec 10th at Roccapulco on Mission St you can see the legendary Cuban band Los Van Van, on tour in the US.
 
Last edited:
elbacalao said:
You're either ignorant or just stupid. You dont know what you're talking about. I have personal friends who left Cuba, with the governments blessing, and now live in the US and continue to visit their family there and their family visits them here. I'm not talking about the Mariel Boatlift. Regular Cuban citizens who were allowed to leave, and return at will. Your ignorance is embarrassing. Stop. On Dec 10th at Roccapulco on Mission St you can see the legendary Cuban band Los Van Van, on tour in the US.
Click to expand...

Not everyone is so lucky.

https://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2006/01/18/cuba12207.htm
Travel Restrictions and Family Separations
The Cuban government forbids the country’s citizens from leaving or returning to Cuba without first obtaining official permission, which is often denied. Unauthorized travel can result in criminal prosecution. The government also frequently bars citizens engaged in authorized travel from taking their children with them overseas, essentially holding the children hostage to guarantee the parents’ return. Given the widespread fear of forced family separation, these travel restrictions provide the Cuban government with a powerful tool for punishing defectors and silencing critics.
Click to expand...
 
Meter Man said:
You are falling into the trap of simplification. I suppose we could walk down the crimes of Bautista.

You should be upset your government helped create Castro.
Click to expand...

Hasn't our government help to create nearly every despot since the 30's?
 
wazzuFreddo said:
Dead

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/fidel-castro-en/article117186483.html
Click to expand...

Fucking Finally! :thumbup

giphy.gif
 
That's a funny caption. Fidel isn't really the brains or ruler it is Raul. One down, one to go. For all the comparison of Trump to Hitler, where does Fidel fit in. I think many leftist admire dictatorial regimes, only one avenue of thought is correct and all others just need a little "persuasion"
 
elbacalao said:
You're either ignorant or just stupid. You dont know what you're talking about. I have personal friends who left Cuba, with the governments blessing, and now live in the US and continue to visit their family there and their family visits them here. I'm not talking about the Mariel Boatlift. Regular Cuban citizens who were allowed to leave, and return at will. Your ignorance is embarrassing. Stop. On Dec 10th at Roccapulco on Mission St you can see the legendary Cuban band Los Van Van, on tour in the US.
Click to expand...

A few FOF are allowed to travel, but it's rare.
 
Some leftists by not the "left" like Castro, but by and large he was not reverred, except perhaps in his ability to stand up to the USA


He was not, for the most part, a good leader. But the history is far more complex than that and just breaking down to good/bad
 
Read some of these articles about him yesterday. A lot of his "good" times were before I was born or remember. I do very much remember the Elian Gonzalez issue though.

The thing that will always affect me the most is my time spent completing Alien Migrant Interdiction Operations or AMIO. Being in my mid twenties, living the life on my patrol boat during Caribbean patrols, I thought it was absolutely amazing, until we started actually catching people trying to come across from Cuba. Most of them I didn't mind catching but there are few I will never forget.
My worst two starts with the 75 old grandma with a broken forearm who just wanted to spend her last days with her family in FL. We found her in a very small boat with about 8 other people in it (too many for that boat). She broke her arm during the trip, trying to hang on.
Then there was the mother, on a different patrol, who was probably my age at the time (25-28) that had her 3 month old with her. They were soaked and cold, the mother looked desperate and my heart broke when she saw Cuba again and burst into tears. She just wanted better for her child. Things like this resonated with me every time we did migrant ops.

How bad did life need to be that you would take that chance? In my mind, pretty bad.
 
Last edited:
Watched a piece last night that was not on Castro per say, but about living under him now that Cuba was opened up.

This Bro and Sis owned a bakery. She was an engineer, he a dentist. Working for the government they made $1 a day. They got a license to open a bakery (1 of 200 things you are allowed to do) and make $35 a day. They have trained lawyers and doctors how to bake and they are making more per day doing that than their trained professions.

It was interesting. It showed a vibrant, pretty happy people and proclaimed a very low crime rate, free housing, free medical (if only we could pay doctors $2 a day.. :laughing).

They had their eye on a second location as the Sis held the license and he could apply for one, but that would be it. I wonder what the future holds. Beautiful place geographically.
 
I don't think it's correct to convert pesos to dollars and say they only make $1 a day, without considering the cost of living.
 
elbacalao said:
"The Cuban government forbids the country’s citizens from leaving or returning to Cuba without first obtaining official permission, which is often denied"

It's often NOT denied as well. Which is a far, far cry from "a plantation country full of slaves."

I was in Belize in August, who did I meet? 8 Cubans from Santiago.
Click to expand...

It is also a far cry from freedom if people are willing to get on an un-seaworthy vessel to try to cross the open water in hopes that they don't get caught. They are risking death, or prison time if they are caught in exchange their freedom.

Slavery comes in different forms. Some would say if they are not free, they are a slave.
 
Reli said:
I don't think it's correct to convert pesos to dollars and say they only make $1 a day, without considering the cost of living.
Click to expand...

They did touch on it... I did not. Avg. yearly income for a Dentist was $300 a year. Sorry I have no idea what the cost of living is nor the trade rate.

Obviously COL is way less that ours! The Government supplies almost everything. It was interesting that you could only buy milk and eggs at a government store.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top