Tuesday - February 19, 2008

castro retires

He isn’t yet completely dead, but the old bearded bastard has finally stopped even pretending he can still run Cuba. He has passed the baton of tyranny to his brother Raul. Raul is said to be a reformer, but I suggest a serious wait-and-see approach before anyone changes their attitude towards Cuba. But we can allow ourselves one or two small grains of hope. Just one or two.

We take you now to our non-affiliate Free Cuba blog on the spot, Babalu Blog:

**BREAKING NEWS** fidel castro “retires”

To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

Read it in Granma, and below the fold, in Spanish, followed by the English version.

Right now, at this late hour, my emotions are in turmoil.

Prepárense

One would imagine that news of the official retirement of the beast who ruled an island nation ruthlessly for almost half a century would be announced with a little more ceremony. Instead, Granma slipped the announcement into their online edition in the wee hours of this morning as if it were filler. Ziva, who has the advantage of being on Pacific Time, caught it immediately, however.

Now will begin the new barrage of castro puff pieces—the wonderful, benevolent, tenacious freedom fighting bearded devil.

Prepare yourselves, my friends; it is going to be a love fest of epic proportions, which will be topped only by the orgy that will take place when the dictator finally kicks the bucket.

The news trucks have already lined up and raised their satellite thingies in front of Versailles. Local reporters are already shoving their microphones in front of mouths in search of opinions. The experts have been called and their take has been taken. The news is spreading like wildfire - all over the radio airwaves, on every TV station, scattered about the internet like spam.

fidel castro has “officially” stepped down.

I certainly dont want to rain on anyone’s parade, there is, after all, a little bit of happiness buried deep down inside because of the news, but, at the risk of sounding cliche, this is a tempest in a teacup.

We’re going to hear hopes that this is the beginning of change in Cuba. We’re going to hear arguments for the lifting of the embargo. We’re going to hear wishy washy eulogies and praise for the bearded bastard. We’re gonna hear a lot of crap today and in the next few days. Cuba experts will be coming out of the woodwork with their own particular theories and there will most certainly be editorials galore.

A commenter said it best in this post:

Much ado about nothing. What does this change? Nothing. Cubans are still oppressed, the island is still a hell hole and the man in command still bears the last name (c)astro. All this means nothing.

I wholeheartedly agree. This changes absolutely nada. For all intents and purposes, for the past year or two, fidel castro has been but a blurb in the book of Cuba’s political leadership. The man who held the world in terror in the sixties reduced to writing editorials for a mouthpiece “newspaper.”

There is very little that I can say about this news that Val Prieto over at Babalu can’t say better, and hasn’t said a million times before. But if you do see some useful idiot wearing a Che shirt today, feel free to give them a nice punch in the face. Stay tuned to Val’s blog for any and all updates.

Cuba is not going to turn into a free country overnight because of old Fidel stepping down. His little brother Raul has been with him since the beginning, and is just as much a repressive, murderous thug as he is. You will be able to play “spot the leftist” very easily for the next few days, as the MSM and various political candidates wax orgasmic over how wonderful Fidel was, how marvelous Cuban health care is, how all the little brown Cubans now know how to read, et cetera et cetera ad nausium. The raw truth is that Cuba is the shithole of the Caribbean soley because of nearly 50 years of marxist rule by a bloodthirsty dictator. The people have no freedom. The people have no rights. The people have no opportunity. The people lack damn near everything and the world has passed them by. Whoop-de-do, they can make some really nice cigars. Too bad smoking is about the worst politically incorrect activity going these days.

A free Cuba would be almost Edenic. It’s a great big island with good soil, a really nice climate, and a population eager to get ahead if they would be allowed to. Plenty of room for agriculture, plenty of room for industry. Given a free Cuba, I would like to see the USA’s Sugar Act disemboweled. Given a free Cuba, I would like to see a whole lot of industry currently sending zillions to communist China redirect to a much more local place, like this one. It is abhorent that so much of our goods are made by our enemies. Sure, Mexico could be a viable alternate, but the corruption there is just epidemic. A free and democratic Cuba could make trillions. But this is not going to happen under communism, nor under anyone named Castro.  Switching one Castro for another is not going to change much of anything. Raul needs to go too, along with the entire thugocracy that runs the place. Until that happens Cuba will remain a paradise in potentia.

The South African newspaper Pretoria News quotes the Prime Minister of Denmark, who has a realist view on the whole Fidel situation:

Copenhagen - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday hailed Fidel Castro’s decision to give up Cuba’s presidency, saying he would not miss him on the political stage.

“There is reason to hail with great satisfaction” Castro’s decision to renounce power in Cuba, which “can only be a step in the right direction,” the head of Denmark’s centre-right ruling coalition told reporters.

Rasmussen said he hoped Castro’s departure would lead to “the beginning of reforms in Cuban society and gradual liberalisation for the population.”

The former leader of the island nation “will not be missed politically,” he added.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Castro’s departure gives rise to the possibility that the island nation will shift towards democracy.

“Even if the switch to his brother Raul Castro probably won’t lead to any immediate large changes, we hope this will introduce a shift towards democracy,” Bildt said in a statement.

“Fidel Castro’s resignation marks the end of an era that began with huge hopes but ended with oppression,” he pointed out.

“The people of Cuba have the same right to freedom and democracy as all other people,” Bildt said, adding that “our great hope is that new possibilities to develop in this direction will also create new possibilities for cooperation between Cuba and the rest of the world.”

Alexis Gainza Solenzal, a Cuban exiled in Sweden who edits the magazine Miscelaneas de Cuba, said “I don’t expect any development towards democracy."”

sources
FoxNews
CNN
BBC
Associate Press
Rueters

Posted by Drew458     on 02/19/2008 at 12:14 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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