Fidel Castro 1926 -2016

[pluralist]

Led the way in ecologically sustainable agriculture while the rest of the western world, including ourselves, pump hormones and chemicals into food production with the results being ecosystem collapse and a whole lot of **** food.

Can you explain what it is that you mean by 'ecologically sustainable agriculture'?

pump hormones and chemicals into food production with the results being ecosystem collapse and a whole lot of **** food.

Do you propose to live without chemicals?

[Count Bobulescu]

There's more to running a country than providing good healthcare.
In the 1950's prior to Fidel, Cuba had more doctors per capita than most of Europe. Fidel took a good base and piled it high to the exclusion almost all other sectors. Result today is that Cuban life expectancy is higher than similarly situated countries, but no higher that most of the west.
Question to be asked is many decades of deprivation of other aspects of life, worth 1, 2, or 3, years of extra life expectancy?

[MauriceColgan]

Reputations are often destroyed by the media .......... for a time.
I am reading a biography of Oscar Wilde in which the author points out how Wilde's standing today has never been higher.

Elvis Presley was lambasted in the late 70s by the media as he put on weight, and because of his body guard's treacherous 'tell all book' was published 1977.
After his much publicised death the media really went to town on him for many years.

Just last week An Elvis show hosted by his ex wife Priscilla has been a huge 'sold out' success in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. A CD Album featuring the orchestral backed songs is presently high in the album charts. Elvis is Back! :-) Kate Bush too!!!

Fidel was no saint, none of us are, but we need not worry. His best work will always be remembered with respect.

[C. Flower]

There's more to running a country than providing good healthcare.
In the 1950's prior to Fidel, Cuba had more doctors per capita than most of Europe. Fidel took a good base and piled it high to the exclusion almost all other sectors. Result today is that Cuban life expectancy is higher than similarly situated countries, but no higher that most of the west.
Question to be asked is many decades of deprivation of other aspects of life, worth 1, 2, or 3, years of extra life expectancy?

Try asking people in Haiti. Their life expectancy is 62, compared with Cuba's 78 years. That is 16 years more, not 1, 2 or 3.

http://countryeconomy.com/demography...port-au-prince

The "brutal dictatorship" meme being disseminated is revolting.

I don't usually favour 'whatabouter' but this is a justifiable attack on the gross hypocracy of US media, who crawl to every bloody regime that obliges US foreign policy.

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/01/fide...ely-mentioned/

The Atlantic here manage to insert the word "brutally" about Cuba sending 100s of doctors to fight Ebola !!! Please...

And that is in a supposedly favourable article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/ar...health/508859/

Castro is being buried today.

The western multi-millionaire owned media would like to bury the truth with him.

[C. Flower]

In the land of the free, anyone off-message is hounded relentlessly - but not always successfully.

The reporter, from the Miami Herald, pressed him further.

The reporter, from a family of Cuban exiles, then accused Kaepernick of diverting the conversation because it was "uncomfortable"to talk about (his) perceived support of Castro.
At that point, Kaepernick said, "One thing that Fidel Castro did do is they have the highest literacy rate because they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system, which we do not do here, even though we’re fully capable of doing that."
The reporter said Castro also broke up families, unlike what occurs in the United States.

"We do break up families here," Kaepernick said. "That’s what mass incarceration is. That was the foundation of slavery so our country has been based on that as well as the genocide of native Americans."
Kaepernick was asked if he was equating incarceration with breaking up families.
"I’m equating the breaking up of families with the breaking up of families," he said.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nfl/...id=mailsignout

[C. Flower]

The US and UK tried to asssassinate Castro 638 times.

http://firsttoknow.com/how-fidel-cas...tm_medium=3296

[Fraxinus]

Can you explain what it is that you mean by 'ecologically sustainable agriculture'?



Do you propose to live without chemicals?

Sorry about the delayed reply but this gives a summary to your first question
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...21800999001548

Basically its about resource use, how much is taken out of a system, we'll say a grassland ecosystem, and how much it can replenish itself. So a very simple example in that case is using chemical ferilisers and herbicides to maximise production, these cause soil degradation and destroy the natural components in a grassland that carry out nutrient recycling. The grassland becomes ever more relient on chemical inputs and the soil eventually becomes exhausted. (a very good docu to watch was shown on TG4 Fíorscéal about soil).

I dodn't think we can live without chemicals but there are far too many, far too untested being used far too much. A good read on the subject is Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

Once these pesticides entered the biosphere, Carson argued, they not only killed bugs but also made their way up the food chain to threaten bird and fish populations and could eventually sicken children. Much of the data and case studies that Carson drew from weren’t new; the scientific community had known of these findings for some time, but Carson was the first to put them all together for the general public and to draw stark and far-reaching conclusions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/ma...-movement.html

I think the part I highlight in bold is pertinent. Scientists have been warning of and researching ecological mismanagement of the planet for decades but are rarely heeded until it is nearly too late.

[Apjp]

I posted this elsewhere on this site a few years ago. Will have to dig out the book and read it again.

I read this.

Was a great book.

[Sam Lord]

His greatest impact on world history may well have been the defeat by the Cubans of the South African army in Angola in 1975/76 ... paving the way for the overthrow of the apartheid regime.

The people of South Africa will never forget the debt they owe Cuba.

[Apjp]

There's more to running a country than providing good healthcare.
In the 1950's prior to Fidel, Cuba had more doctors per capita than most of Europe. Fidel took a good base and piled it high to the exclusion almost all other sectors. Result today is that Cuban life expectancy is higher than similarly situated countries, but no higher that most of the west.
Question to be asked is many decades of deprivation of other aspects of life, worth 1, 2, or 3, years of extra life expectancy?

A quick Google shows me that Cuba's life expectancy is now 79.07 whereas America's is slightly lower at 78.74.

There is no doubt that Cuba is not a democracy, and that incomes are dreadfully low, but then given that America's drug company cartel is happy to price gouge the government of the day and let millions of Americans go without the medication they need and raise prices of the most crucial drugs by 100% plus I suppose we should be wondering why a democracy has such poor healthcare.

The question here in my view when assessing this man's legacy is also one of morality.

Justin Trudeau is hardly a communist but even he praised these notable achievements.

I recall reading maybe in Castro's book or somewhere else some years ago about American drug companies trying to include the Cuban Lung Cancer vaccine on the list of imported products under the terms of the Embargo. However I see it has now been federally approved which is a surprise and good news. We will see how Trump gets on with Raul Castro now.

Obama is to be praised for thawing things somewhat.