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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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 Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:35 am Post subject: George Galloway - Farewell comrade |
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| Quote: | Farewell comrade
GEORGE GALLOWAY gives a personal look at the unique achievements of retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"IT was my good fortune to have been a friend of Fidel Castro for more than 20 years. I knew him in dark days and fine, when he enjoyed the military and economic protection of his alliance with the Eastern bloc.
I was there when the lights went out with the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and during the flowering of the new Latin American and greener socialism which has reached new heights in the alliance with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Fidel has straddled the last half-century as a colossus.
Every media outfit in the world treated his retirement as the main story of the day.
Yet Cuba is a tiny island in the Caribbean which, before Castro, was an impoverished offshore haven for the US mafia where blacks faced apartheid, poor people died young and illiterate and children perished like flies in their infancy.
Today, Cuba is one of the coolest places on the planet.
It is a tourist destination for millions who come back wearing their T-shirts of Che Guevara and imbued with the spirit of the island.
Cuba's children live longer than those born in Washington DC thanks to a health system, as was vividly showcased in Michael Moore's film Sicko, comparable with Scandinavia's and a good deal better than our own.
Illiteracy is non-existent thanks to a free education system with unprecedented numbers of graduates and PhDs. Cuba is the only Third World country of which that can be said.
Cuba harvests gold medals in the Olympic Games, leaving countries like our own trailing in its wake, and ordinary workers thrill to the ballet, opera and a music scene which positively throbs.
None of this could have happened without the revolution which, in turn, would never have succeeded without Fidel.
He is the most charismatic man I have ever met, an inspirational orator, an oracle of politics in the second half of the 20th century and a listener too.
Once, when I was with him, he dug out a map of Britain and asked me to point out where the distinctive long-haired Highland cows were to be found. When I couldn't tell him the annual tonnage of British steel, he looked at me as if to say: "What kind of MP are you?"
He was, above all else, an internationalist leader, as were his comrades.
Che fought in Africa and was murdered in Bolivia.
Cuba played such a decisive role in the downfall of South African apartheid that, upon his release from prison, Nelson Mandela chose to visit Havana before anywhere else.
Holding Fidel's hand aloft, Mandela declared: "See how far we slaves have come!"
Of course, the bordello owners and casino kings who left the island in 1959 have maintained a steady drum beat of hostility to Castro ever since. They want their dirty businesses back.
And they have provided a base in Miami, just 90 miles from Cuba, for 50 years of subversion, invasion, blockade, failed assassination plots, terrorism and relentless propaganda.
One of the latest lies is the absurd claim that Fidel is a multimillionaire. In fact, he literally does not possess a single dollar.
Indeed, when this claim emerged in Forbes Magazine, he pledged on live television, with me sitting next to him, that, if anyone could show a single dollar in his hands, he would immediately tear off his insignia and retire in disgrace.
Equally false is the propaganda which claims that Cubans taking to the boats for Florida represent anything other than a small fraction of the country's population.
If an airplane landed tonight in Easterhouse offering green cards for entry into the US, I daresay that it would fill up rather rapidly.
Cuba decided long ago that anyone who wished to emigrate to the US could do so. It is the US which refused them visas, no doubt because they've got enough poor black people in the US already.
It's true that Cuba doesn't have elections like, say, those in Florida, where the younger brother ensures that the elder brother wins.
The losers are the very sections of the population which, in Cuba, have benefited the most from Fidel Castro.
When I was last with Fidel a week or so before his serious illness, I asked what he thought about the new breed of Latin American left-wing leaders such as Chavez who have ousted the juntas.
He told me: "If I had died 10 years ago, I would have died sadly. Now that the red flag has been passed on to a new generation, I can go full of hope and trust in the future."
Then he added with a chuckle: "The only way to get elected to office in Latin America nowadays is to profess friendship with Fidel Castro and total opposition to George W Bush."
Farewell, Fidel. You're a legend. We'll be really lucky if we look upon your like again."
Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow George Galloway is the author of the Fidel Castro Handbook, which is published by MQ Publications priced £14.99. He writes a monthly column for the Morning Star |
from the morning star |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:42 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | If an airplane landed tonight in Easterhouse offering green cards for entry into the US, I daresay that it would fill up rather rapidly. |
haha, spot on.
nice one Luke |
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DJJA
Joined: 23 Jun 2007
Location: Derby
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Brilliant, and added to all the above is the fact that out of the millions of children forced into labour in the world, not one of them will be found in Cuba. |
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Aja
Reggae Ambassador
Joined: 24 Jun 2006
Location: Lost Londoner ..Nr Philly. PA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 4:32 am Post subject: |
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my girlfriend in cuba 1992 oh what storys she has ...mostly good she was on a Caribbean study course for a year .....
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nekokate
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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One thing that got me thinking was that recent caller to GG's show who said he met a Cuban man with a Ph.D in English, but he was having to work as a holiday rep because that pays more money than any of the jobs he could apply for with his doctorate, so in that sense there was a problem in the country.
George's point that the man was richer in "other ways" and at least he could get a Ph.D education for free didn't really seem to do it for me. It's marvellous that Cubans can study for such high qualifications without charge, but what use is the Ph.D once you've done all the years of studying if you have to work as a hotel rep in order to put food on the table? |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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| I heard somewhere in the last few days that one of Cuba's main exports was doctors - they got the oil-deal from Chavez using doctors as their trade. This makes me think that they could probably become a very successful economy using education as their main product. Students from other countries could go there in large numbers, bringing money in from their own economies to support themselves. That could work very well for everyone - I know I wouldn't be too unhappy about the prospect of studying in the sun for a few years. |
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major.tom
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: BC, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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If I'm thinking of the correct call, GG also said there were probably other ways (such as prostitution) the man could earn more money than through his own vocation. So this shouldn't be taken as an argument against Fidel or the Revolution.
While I didn't liked his choice of alternative, his argument applies even here in Canada. People with degrees in the Arts often work in other jobs for a living. This man's case suggests only that tourism in Cuba is more lucrative than English education. The source of the funds might also be a factor. |
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