With Cubans now able to buy microwaves, cellphones and hotel room stays (never mind they barely make enough to buy their next meals), what will Raul Castro "let" Cubans buy next?
Apr 052008
Attention, Castromart shoppers
Cuba's Economy, Funnies, Raul Castro
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Apr 022008
Feb 242008
…being reported as news? Yep, when it has to do with Castro’s Cuba, right is wrong, yes is no, left is right and the obvious is newsworthy:
Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president on Sunday, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel but leaving the island’s communist system unshaken.
In a surprise move, officials bypassed younger candidates to name a 77-year-old revolutionary leader, Jose Ramon Machado, to Cuba’s No. 2 spot—apparently assuring the old guard that no significant political changes will be made soon.
Raul also proposed he would consult with the ailing, 81-year-old Fidel on all major decisions of state, and parliament approved the proposal.
“(N)o significant political changes will be made soon,” huh? Is that what we’re getting from Raul, the candidate of “change?” What a rare admission from the AP.
The only consolation I can see in all this is that at a doddering 76 years old himself, Raul won’t be dictator for long.
File this one in the “a half century late, a few billion dollars, thousands executed and imprisoned and millions of Cubans tormented short” category: Fidel Castro has resigned as dictator of Cuba:
An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba’s president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.
The end of Castro’s rule—the longest in the world for a head of government—frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.
“My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath,” Castro wrote in a letter published Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, “it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer.”
For those who think this means change and freedom in Cuba, it doesn’t. Not until the entire Castro cabal is out. Sure, there will be some so-called “reforms” under Raul, but they will be nothing but meaningless window dressing, as they have been since Fidel “temporarily” handed power to his brother.
Some blog reactions:
UPDATED: More blogs react
Awww, poor little baby, no time to read…
Miscellaneous, Raul Castro
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Feb 162008
…since your big brother took ill. Break my freakin’ heart:
I’ve got little time to read books. I’ll die with hundreds of books I’ve got waiting there for me to read some day … but for now, lots of (official) papers” to handle, Raul said on opening the International Book Fair in Havana.
Lots of other Cubans have too little time to read books, Raul. Because they spend every waking moment looking for basic necessities like food and clothing, thanks to your and your brother’s corrupt regime.
Here, I’ll play the world’s smallest violin for you:
To the rest of us, those with common sense and brains,
Castro Is Dead, Politics, Raul Castro
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Dec 302007
Cuba’s ailing leader Fidel Castro has defended naming his brother Raul to stand in for him last year, saying no one in the communist country’s national assembly saw it as nepotism.
Of course no one in Cuba’s national disassembly sees Raul Castro taking over for brother Fidel as nepotism. Fidel himself told them it isn’t nepotism so it’s not! Boy am I ever so glad THAT’s settled!
At least the cadaver-in-chief makes a rare admission in that Yahoo! News/AFP article quoted above:
“There was a stage when I thought I knew what had to be done and I wanted the power to do it,” he admitted, saying it was due to “an excess of youthfulness and deficit of conscience.”
Memo to the Castro brothers: you and the rest of your cabal have been suffering from a “deficit of conscience” since at least 1959.
No, scratch that. You have been enjoying this “deficit of conscience.” The only ones suffering from your “deficit of conscience” are the Cuban people.
Oct 022007
And, how does a communist government spell “appearing tolerant?”
P-r-e-t-e-n-d t-o a-l-l-o-w c-r-i-t-i-c-i-s-m:
Interim President Raúl Castro has called publicly for criticism, saying that the only way to fix the country’s many problems is to air them.
But, but, but…
…skeptics say such a debate was held before, and was cut off when the onslaught of grievances was more than the government wished to discuss.
And despite Castro’s cracking open the door long shut to public criticism, there seems to be one topic that is strictly out of bounds: ending the island’s communist system.
“This is going to be public venting, not serious change,” said Alcibiades Hidalgo, a former Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and personal secretary to Castro.
“Rather than being a real inventory of problems — which they already know and don’t need — this is an exercise in political propaganda in order to put on a new, more understanding face.”
You can put lipstick on a pig…
11 Million Cubans still in limbo
Castro Is Dead, Cuba's Economy, Raul Castro
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Sep 062007
As long as Fidel Castro remains “officially” (if not clinically) alive:
Cuba watchers and some dissidents question whether Raúl Castro will be able to implement his reforms as long as his older brother is alive. Fidel Castro’s presence would likely deter even modest economic reforms, they said.
“In a sense, the Raulista project, if you can call it that, has been placed on hold,” said Frank Mora, a Cuba expert at the National War College in Washington, D.C.
In Cuba, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, a state-trained economist who was one of 75 dissidents arrested in a roundup of government critics in 2003, was more succinct: “Raúl Castro gives the impression of a man trapped inside a corset and unable to move.”
And, given what we know about Raul, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to actually see him trapped inside a corset!
