Fidel Castro, Commander in Chief of Cuba, resigns
Here's his resignation statement in Spanish, here's a copy in English. But wait, is a livejournal on the way?
My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of ‘Reflections by comrade Fidel.’ It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.
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This is why I think Christopher Hitchens is full of crap. When Castro temporarily left office a few months back, Hitchens was shouting on high on slate.com about how this is a military coup. Well lookie here, it is not.
He is intellectual backwash.
I want Fidel Castro to have an LJ! He should include lots of personality quiz results and memes in with his communist manifestos. And he should definitely make a custom mood theme.
Maybe someone could do Fake Fidel, modeled on Fake Steve Jobs.
This is good news but it's only bound to amp up the crazy in our election. Not looking forward to that.
Here's hoping the second verse isn't the same as the first.
That's all you've got, Malcolm?
...Damn. It's a shame Stogie Castro got to resign with an announcement on his own volition rather than from the impact of a bullet.
Hitchens is usually spot on. But anyway, don't let the screen door hit you in the ass, Fidel.
@1 Not saying I agree with Hitchens, but he has for a couple years now been claiming that Castro's brother Raoul has engineered what is essentially a military coup in Cuba, and there is nothing in this announcement specifically that discredits that thesis. In fact, if anything, I imagine Hitchens will argue this just formalizes what has already been the case in Cuba -- Raoul and the military are in charge, not Fidel.
Maybe he actually did die a while back, and this resignation is just another front, tendered by his doppelganger.
he was born to be assassinated, this is a surprise. perhaps in retirement he can construct ghettos to imprison social deviants.
So Fidel is gone. Why does the embargo remain? Was he telling the truth all along about American intentions to Cuba?
@8 That's what I was thinking. This could simply be a positive-PR spin for a forced resignation. If Fidel could keep a public profile while retaining no actual power, that would be preferable for a new regime.
@1 Totally agree, Hitchens is a twat.
@7 Arse
The silly old bugger is a classic example of the fact that some people do not get wiser with age.
War of ideas? That sort of violent rhetoric is 50 years past it's use by date. You can't get anywhere by inflicting your ideas on this generation of worldly, net savvy people. Better to see yourself as a cook serving up a smörgåsbord of tasty and nutritious ideas.
Fidel - Loser and fool.
Gandhi - Winer and wise soul.
638 attempts on his life....
This afternoon on the radio, Georgie-boy was saying, with no perceptible embarrassment, that the embargo would remain in place until Cuba has free and open elections.
BTW, I've seen Hitchens be howlingly wrong.
ah, those would be the elections where the old Mafia comes back and re-starts their casinos?
While I'm not sure that I agree with the embargo, why would it be lifted just because Fidel "resigned?" If nothing changes and the Raoul takes over and continues to run the country in the same fashion, seems like nothing should change.
This is probably a good time to wait and see and not do anything until we figure out what's going to happen there.
If you speak as an American, you are not "doing nothing" The economic embargo and other measures pushed by the USA have done considerable harm and continue to do so to the Cuban people.
see
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/aawh.html
Many put the cost of the economic embargo against Iraq (before the invasion) at 500,000 Iraqi lives - many of them children. Embargoes have an effect.
Lately I have not actually seen much evidence that Fidel Castro is alive. I mean, he writes things, and I seem to recall he did a TV appearance that was generic enough it could have been pre-taped.
Am I missing something major that would offer proof the man really is still alive?
honestly, after an official announcement, it doesn't matter any more. Politically.
Takuan: "638 attempts on his life...."
50 Cent got nuthin on dis gangsta.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/0,,337484,00.html
I've never been able to fathom the US Americans reactions to Fidel Catro and Cuba.
They had a revolution to force out the corrupt overlords who treated the people like chattle.
So did the US.
They were never particularly soviet communists, until the US embargo forved them between the sheets with Kruschev.
The US has been openly scheming to assasinate their leader on and off for the last 40 years.
And before anyone jumps down my neck about how the Communists have killed their political enemies, so did the previous administration.
And truth be told if a government iss going to go about killing people if they do it from a political conviction that they are trying to help the people, surely that is less repugnant than killing people to protect Dole fruits share price or at the behest of the mafia?
If the US had not had an embargo with Cuba it would have fallen in 15 years.
Peole's avarice would have brought it down.
If you never get a "Happy Meal"*, you never miss one.
But if you have one it is pretty hard to take being told that you can't ever have another.
* obviously happy meal is short hand for all the western consumer crap that suddenly none of us could live without, despite it not existing 5 minutes ago.
Hehe Castro, an idiot. Does cuba matter? does the people of cuba matter? I could care less of cuba and its people.