Fidel Castro Steps Aside - Comments Page 2

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• 26 - Bennett

  Mar 02, 2008 at 8:19 am

  Coming late to this article doesn't lessen its impact. It's an insightful and well written piece. Thank you!

• 27 - troll

  Mar 02, 2008 at 8:34 am

  hi Zedd - nicely put

• 28 - Bennett

  Mar 02, 2008 at 8:57 am

  I'll second troll's comment. I had pretty much stopped reading the comments, and had to dash off mine to address other household issues.
  
  Thanks troll, for redirecting me to the most important comment of all! Well said Zedd.

• 29 - Zedd

  Mar 02, 2008 at 9:14 am

  Gracias gents!

• 30 - alessandro

  Mar 02, 2008 at 9:28 am

  Thanks for the comments all.
  
  Zedd, yes well said. However, I do disagree in parts. Specifically, the part about the West starving Cuba. Canada continued to trade with Cuba - although sometimes in duplicitous fashion. Europe also continued as well as the Soviet Union. To me, this sounds like blaming U.S. sanctions on starving Iraqi children. Hussein starved his own "children." The sanctions didn't help but dictators are masters of turning such things into their PR favour.
  
  The west you allude to is the United States. The cold hard truth is that Castro did whatever it is did to Cuba by himself. No one forced the "revolution." The "west" (ie the U.S. under Kennedy merely reacted to it in a Cold War context. It was a course of action my country agreed in theory but felt it may have been impractical in practice.
  
  You may presume I went out "hunting" for what I was "looking" for. Rather, I became disillusioned by the "first world" BS and hypocrisy that surrounded me. I let things unfold from that point.
  
  I suppose if I had met a Castro attache as opposed to that guy in the hotel a different picture would have been painted. I doubt it though.
  
  I don't know if what I write was the "truth." Perceptions can and do lie. I do not live there. However, let's be frank Zedd, from what I have seen and heard (by both Cuban friends and Cubans I met) if given the choice I am sure Cubans would have selected a different path.
  
  That poverty exists everywhere is obvious but does not lessen the point here. Because there is povery in the U.S. doesn't mean we can't discuss poverty elsewhere. Yes, the "spirit" of Cuba is integral to me. It reminds me of how blacks dealt with slavery through spiritual music. It's a marvel how they survived it.
  
  In any event, I'm Canadian so it came from a Canadian perspective. Canadians have had a different historical relationship with Cuba.
  
  It was a personal experience. I do not hold it to be a finite lesson.
  
  

• 31 - Kay Abella

  Mar 03, 2008 at 11:36 am

  AS I have traveled around talking about my book, Fighting Castro: A Love Story, it has been both sad and satisfying to be able to talk with "average" people in the U.S. about Cuba. They know very little and their most frequent reaction to the book is "I had no idea these things had happened in Cuba." But people want to know more. The book is not political, it just introduces people to one family and how it was torn apart by the Castro regime. We can't all visit Cuba, but we can at least read all points of view. Too often, the press is pro-Castro and the real human cost of the Castro regime is under-reported.

• 32 - troll

  Mar 03, 2008 at 12:00 pm

  alessandro - wherever the US has been involved in sanctioning governments it has been complicit with those governments in 'starving' the people
  
  it is well known who in the population sanctions impact most severely
  
  using deprivations as pipe dream measures to spur revolt seems like the behavior of evil doers

• 33 - alessandro

  Mar 03, 2008 at 2:54 pm

  Troll, fair enough. Sanctions are not always the best solutions. The people end up paying the price.
  
  I know that during the Cold War the Canadian government was torn between maintaining ties with Cuba and the U.S. They felt the U.S. was correct but they (Diefenbaker, Pearson and their diplomats etc.) had reservations in the approach the U.S. employed. Diefenbaker dithered on the issue (surprise, surprise welcome to Canada), Pearson was far more friendly with the U.S. given his close friendship with Kennedy and Trudeau chose yet another route; this time outright closeness with Castro.
  
  Thank you Kay for letting us know about the book!