Fidel Castro - Dead at 90

[Dave Homewood]

www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38114953

[kiwithrottlejockey]

He outlasted John F Kennedy by quite a few decades.

[Dave Homewood]

Despite 600 assassination attempts apparently.

[nuuumannn]

A political giant. Rather astounding that Cuba has remained a communist state for so long and considering that it is the United States that began to ease tensions between the two nations is rather remarkable, all things considered.

[Dave Homewood]

They have remained that way because it works for them. Regarded as having the best education system and health system in the world.

[jonesy]

I've just been reading a site called The Real Cuba.com, it outlines the absolute atrocities carried out by Castro and his goons over the decades. As far as best medical facilities goes, Ive seen photos of their hospitals - I certainly wouldnt want to be treated, or work, there.

Yep, he did stand up to Imperialist American aggression, but his sheer hatred also took us to the brink of nuclear war. I'm staunchly right-wing, and do (mostly) try to keep politics out of here, but I hope Castro is currently enjoying some extreme temperatures right now with some of his fellow despots....

[kiwithrottlejockey]

If you're going to talk about atrocities commited by dictators, perhaps you should look at some of the dictators put into power and propped up by various American regimes.

The Americans are the last ones to have the moral standing to be able to talk about despot regimes.

Would you like me to post a list? It would be a long one.

[mumbles]

Nov 27, 2016 14:38:49 GMT 12 nuuumannn said:

Rather astounding that Cuba has remained a communist state for so long

Being a dictatorship helped somewhat

[mumbles]

Nov 29, 2016 12:27:39 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

If you're going to talk about atrocities commited by dictators, perhaps you should look at some of the dictators put into power and propped up by various American regimes.

The Americans are the last ones to have the moral standing to be able to talk about despot regimes.

Would you like me to post a list? It would be a long one.

Strawman argument. Whether or not the US supported other despots has no bearing on the fact that Castro was one too.

[mumbles]

Nov 29, 2016 12:02:44 GMT 12 jonesy said:

Yep, he did stand up to Imperialist American aggression, but his sheer hatred also took us to the brink of nuclear war.

And some of his statements during the crisis indicate he was quite willing to sacrifice Cuba and everyone in it rather than look bad or admit he was wrong.

[jonesy]

Nov 29, 2016 12:27:39 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

If you're going to talk about atrocities commited by dictators, perhaps you should look at some of the dictators put into power and propped up by various American regimes.

The Americans are the last ones to have the moral standing to be able to talk about despot regimes.

Would you like me to post a list? It would be a long one.

Oh absolutely, over the past 100 years or so there have been so many innocents on both sides of the spectrum sacrificed by political leaders who believed they knew best, and had backing (right or left) to support them. With more transparency available now its a little harder for the big boys to meddle in affairs that should not concern them (but they still do!).

Crazy world indeed....

[kiwithrottlejockey]

If you want to talk about Cuban regimes, then look no further than the brutal, corrupt Batista regime that Castro overthrew.

And that Batista regime was supported by the American government even as Batista and his henchmen brutally suppressed dissent in Cuba, throwing many of the dissenters into hell-hole jails while the Americans benignly looked the other way. Is it any wonder that so many Cubans turned against the United States of America and supported Castro?

It isn't too late for me to compile and post that long list of brutal dictatorship regimes propped up by the Americans over the decades. Just say the word.


However, equally interesting is the Florida to Havana route which was the beginning of Pan American Airways. Rich American folks from the northeast used to catch overnight trains from New York to Miami, then be flown across to the gambling dens of Cuba in Pan American flying-boats. In earlier times, the Forida East Coast Railway crossed the ocean to Key West (literally, hopping over bridges from island to island), then transferring passengers to steamers sailing to Havana. A hurricane in the 1930s destroyed that “over ocean” railway.

[Dave Homewood]

The way I understand it the Cuban healthcare system and education system were indeed highly regarded on the world stage as among the best - if not the very best - in the world, but after the USSR broke up and the subsidies that the Communist block in Europe stopped being sent to Cuba to keep their economy healthy, it all broke down to become failures.

[Peter Lewis]

Politics folks.

If you wish to discuss the effects that Castro had on airlines, or Cuban civil and military aircraft, that's fine.

If you just want to discuss his political life then please do that somewhere else.

[nuuumannn]

Deleted

[kiwithrottlejockey]

The route to Cuba when overnight trains from New York used to carry on beyond Miami to the bottom of the Florida Peninsula, then travel across the ocean on the Florida East Coast Railway's over seas railroad to Key West where passengers would transfer to a steamship to continue the journey to Havana.





















The over seas railroad was destroyed by a hurricane in September 1935 and after that, passengers on the overnight trains from New York had the option of either transferring to a steamship at Miami, or flying from Miami to Havana with Pan American Airways.

This was all naturally way before the days of the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista and the man who ultimately overthrew his regime, Fidel Castro.

[Dave Homewood]

How long was that railway bridge Bruce? That is a fantastic piece of engineering. When was it built?

[kiwithrottlejockey]

It was a series of multiple bridges, Dave. The Florida Keys is a chain of small islands which stretches out into the Carribean from the bottom of the Florida Peninsula with the furtherest-out island being Key West at a distance of 128 miles from the southern tip of mainland Florida.

The Florida East Coast Railway was owned by a hotel tycoon called Henry Flagler. He bought up most of the land along the east coast of Florida (it was mostly alligator-infested swamp) and drained the swamps and built resorts all the way down the coast from Jacksonville to Miami, connecting the resorts with his railway which was built as the development moved further south in stages. Miami was a tiny village until the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railway, after which it boomed, because wealthy people living in New York City and other places throughout the northeast could catch a train to Florida to escape the cold winters of the northeast. As Havana in Cuba eventually also became a popular resort for wealthy people, Flagler came up with the idea of building a railway south along the keys to Key West and running steamships from there. The railway literally island-hopped from key to key across bridges built across the ocean. In some places on the railway bridges, there were lift-spans which could be raised to allow ships to sail through; at other locations, there were swing spans. The railway was completed in 1912 with the first train arriving at Key West on 22nd January. When Pan American Airways first started, they operated from a flying-boat base at Key West, connecting with the trains to and from New York.

However, eventually the big hurricane of September 1935 destroyed the overseas railway and it was abandoned; and both the steamships and Pan American Airways shifted to Miami and operated from there. The railway company eventually sold the destroyed railway to the US Government and they used the still-standing bridge piers to support highway spans to Key West, and that highway is still there, crossing the ocean by hopping from island to island. It would have been an amazing experience though, travelling across the ocean like that by train.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks!