Oliver Stone fined for filming...
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- OSFA0
yeah, but a lot of cubans living in Miami helped Castro's revolution, they welcomed him like a God when he came down from the mnountains. And these same cubans are the ones that go vacation in Cuba because they know the good clubs, good underground and public places and the where the best girls are....
- mpfree0
Our own citizens are not interested in building an empire, so hire foreigners to fight it like the french foreign legion.
mrdobolina
(Dec 26 06, 09:08)Most are just too well off already to want or have the need to join the military and run the risk of getting shot or they never enjoyed the thought of being in it in the first place. It's all about choices. Most countries make it compulsory to join the military. If the US made it compulsory you'd have a huge ass army at any given time, much like the bravado-driven lines in China.
"Hey looooooook at us with our rockets. Yay! We can kick high in the air."
- mrdobolina0
I'm just seriously tired of the US telling the rest of the world how to live.
- OSFA0
I'm just seriously tired of the US telling the rest of the world how to live.
mrdobolina
(Dec 26 06, 09:18)
- mpfree0
Money, dude. Money.
Russia did it to most of Eastern Europe and Eurasia for how long? What about the 'Great Colonizers'?
ehhh, every dog has his day.
- mrdobolina0
look what happened to the soviet union.
- lemmys_wart0
Now who lives in a culture of fear?
Phileas_Blog
(Dec 26 06, 08:36)I love Fidel Castro and his beard but...
You gotta be mental retarded to not understand that Cuba is an inferior civilization.
No free speech.
- rafalski0
and last but not least talking about being fucked by your government, check the transparency international corruption index and find that people in for example poland and croatia are more likely to become a victim of their own government in that respect
bolus
(Dec 26 06, 04:21)Good point, bolus. I have spent most of my life in Poland, bureaucracy and corruption remains an issue over there. But it's a country on its way to what westerners call normalcy, and even f it has a fucked up government now, the rulers were freely elected by the people.
Today's Poland is heaven compared to communist hell it was 16 years ago, and yet our communism was never as repressive as Cuban still is. Saying Poland is more repressive now than Cuba sounds more than unfair to me.
My Cuban Spanish teacher in Poland, who had escaped Cuba was regularly being approached by Cuban spies who kept inviting him to Cuban embassy. Obviously, by going there he'd automatically put himself at risk of being transported to Cuba and being tortured.
Since communism was gone, I had freedom to leave Poland, which I actually made use of. I didn't escape, I left. Cubans don't have that choice.IMO situation in Haiti, USA, Iraq, Poland, Croatia or wherever cannot be used to justify what's going on in Cuba.
Then, our dream of a place without mcdonalds cannot justify keeping those people living in a beautiful romantic shithole.
BTW, Cubans you talk to in Cuba would risk their lives by telling you what they really think - they live in a totalitarian country, you're just passing by. My friends who had been there said they were followed by secret police - everyone had one assigned.Too often America's leaders going in scary directions make people think by contrast that what Fidel does is right. Those are two wrongs, and Fidel's idea of a society is the one that scares me way more.
- bolus0
BTW, Cubans you talk to in Cuba would risk their lives by telling you what they really think - they live in a totalitarian country, you're just passing by. My friends who had been there said they were followed by secret police - everyone had one assigned.
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i really suggest you go there sometime soon rafalski, It's not like you think it is. My spanish teacher in havana was strongly opposed to castro and praised bush everytime he had the chance. I've met people in the streets shouting 'castro muerto' and getting away with it, that's difficult even in the netherlands. Anyway there's lots of things wrong with cuba, but it's not as bad as you think
- rafalski0
Obviously, bolus, the tyranny is dying, we could get away with a lot when communism was about to fall in Poland. The police smelt change in the air and feared revenge. They were right, soon each of them was about to be screened by the new government. I bet Castro's buddies will be sweating during Saddam's execution.
You're right, I should go there. Funny, my first thought was "will I get the US tourist visa and be allowed in with a Cuban stamp in my passport?";)
- bolus0
that's why you won't get a stamp in your passport :)
I understand you have 'some' experience with communist countries, I'm just a bit tired with the cuba bashing. My grandfather visited cuba just after the revolution and a year ago i decided to follow in his footsteps. I was quite sceptical, which i still am, because I wrote some essays and did some research on cuba before I went. To my surprise the country seemed to be much less restricting than i had expected. My dad on the other hand visited both Cuba and the former sovietunion (not sure which countries, could make a difference of course) and hise was even more surprised, he told me the difference in atmosphere was like black and white.
I think Castro and the rovolution actually did a lot of good things for Cuba, but maybe it's time to move on, I'm just scared for the cuban people, i have a feeling they might lose a lot when castro dies and more foreign companies and governments are going to influence the country
BUT GO TO CUBA, beautiful country, friendliest people on earth (funny enough the second friendliest people I've met were texans :)
I noticed you take pictures, another reason to visit cuba. to bad it's so damn hot.
and you'll get a chance to rethink all your political beliefs (at least i did)
- ********0
lol at the way that article is written. there's some serious independent journalism going on there. ;)
- k0na_an0k0
lol at the way that article is written. there's some serious independent journalism going on there. ;)
Crouwel
(Dec 27 06, 06:47)I was just about to say the same thing.
- CALLES0
pay up you fat bastard
- lemmys_wart0
wow, now i thought stone was filming a feature?
something with actors you'd see in people magazine....
but a documantary? tagging him for that is straight fucked.
you know there are dissidents that have filmed portions of anti-castro docs in cuba?
have they been fined (harrased)?
maybe it's not such a big deal...
but this, along with the legal errosions of posse comitatus and habeas corpus...
along with zero accountability wire taps...
it's just not a wise road for a (free) nation be walking down.
- rafalski0
"I think Castro and the rovolution actually did a lot of good things for Cuba, but maybe it's time to move on"
Let me guess what good he did.. torture? murder? work camps? slavery? lack of free speech? lack of personal freedom? generations living in poverty? lack of education (I know opinions on education vary)? castrated internet? (few can afford a computer there anyway).
Those are of course just sarcastic rhetorical questions of mine.What Castro did achieve, was to preserve the myth of socialismo among well fed westerners and poor South America. Healthcare is surprisingly good there (as it is meant as a show-off for the rest of the world), but at what price? Any country could have that if it turned all its citizens into slaves.
Those of course are just my opinions..As for different moods in various flavours of communism, Cubans are children of the sun, they enjoy life no matter what the obstacles are. My Cuban friend once told to me that even when Cuba had poverty unknown to Poland, they never were as sad as a bus of Poles on a Monday morning :))))
- k0na_an0k0
"It is legal for Americans to go to Cuba.
It is illegal for American to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba under most circumstances.
It is legal for American to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba if they have a "license", but the government is arbitrary about how it interprets its rule and who it issues licenses to.If you are a journalists, government officials, have relatives in Cuba, are a full-time professionals (including doctors, dental hygienists, environmentalists and actors) going to conferences or doing research, you might be able to go to Cuba, under a "General License" -- with no red tape."
If he didn't have or apply for a license then he broke the law. End of story. What's the big deal?
- k0na_an0k0
Oh man, if Ford is being remembered for pardoning Nixon, is Clinton (when his time comes) going to be remembered for pardongate or a blowjob?!? Scary.
George HW will for sure be his infamous "Read my lips" statement.
- k0na_an0k0
grr... wrong thread. Sorry.
- mpfree0
I was headed to Cuba in 2000, before that ridiculous Elian Gonzales BS. Now he's a so-called 'Brother' of Castro. Feel sorry for him.
Had to settle for deep Mexico instead.