February 19, 2008

• See? The embargo worked.
• Will he retire to Florida?
• mct ftw!
• Cigars for everyone!
• Is it me, or are these articles reworking a lot of his obit material?
• By way of tribute, the Castro speech database. "The fact is when you invited me, to meetings, you did not perhaps invite a monkey." - Valparaiso, 30 November 1971
• Mi deseo fue siempre cumplir el deber hasta el último aliento. 'Mi wish was always to serve until the last breath'. And it seems he almost managed it... hold power right to his deathbed, that is. But surely the transition won't be smooth. Many interests all around that island. Hoping the long suffering cuban people finally get a chance at a brighter future. But the short term prospects are grim.
• I dunno, Flag. I think Fidel’s done little else but work on his transition for a long time now. I don’t expect that much will change while he’s still alive – he'd have a lot of backroom control, like Deng Xiaoping. When he does die, depending on how the succession works through, and how craftily Fidel's arranged it, there would be internal party debates which may in time produce open one-party elections. Once that happens, that would devolve into multi-party elections in fairly short order. I doubt much would change for the people of Cuba until well after those multi-party elections. The embargo isn’t going to end until the expat community says that it can, meaning, as soon as they have guarantees that they’ll be getting “their” stuff back – land, factories, compensation therefor, etc. Given that the end of the embargo effectively means the suicide of the expat community through their sacrifice of political power, there’d be no willingness to give it up without a big cash payout. Which would depend on the Cubans selling out to those demands – and giving up the meagre but substantive advances they’ve made in the socialist system. So nothing’s going to change for a few years yet. Even after Fidel dies – assuming no direct intervention – things would take a few years to change. Canadians will have a few winters yet of American-free resorts. IMHO. YMMV.
• Actually, Capt. I think you've summed it up nicely there. Reading Hemingway makes me sad because he talks of a Cuba that doesn't exist any more, mostly because of stupid international moves almost 50 years ago. I kept hoping we'd finally see a US president who had the courage to drop the stupidity and accept that Cuba may be communist, but Cuba is also our neighbor, and end the idiocy. Of course, we then elected an idiot, so... that didn't work out. Also, and worth noting, this FPP was an excuse for me to (a) post more and (b) tell y'all that it's my birthday. So hooray.
• Happy birfday, frogs! I think Carter's proposal was entirely reasonable (though I'm not convinced on the involvement of the expats), but it seems that the U.S. is waiting for Cuba to 'make the first move', meaning capitulation to parts of its position, rather than taking the high road and giving them an incentive. If the U.S. could do something like haul in Cubana-bomber Orlando Bosch, it would go a long way as a show of good faith, that the U.S. actually cares about the Cuban people and shares some of their values. It would show that a bilateral working relationship is indeed possible, rather than that the States wants nothing less than total victory (i.e. a return to the Batista client-state days). But then again, what do I know?
• Nothing valuable to add, except my own wishes that TPTB would get the f*** over it and open relations with Cuba. I'd love to see the sugar trade resume, and more of the U.S. corn crop going into better uses than HFCS. But that's just me. Happy birthday, Mr. Frogs!
• Rats. I wanted to post this, under the link headline Top Canadian Tourist Destination Likely Ruined Forever.
• MCT--teh funny! Hoppy Burthday, Froggy! I'll just bet with his last dying breath he'll be trying to pull the strings.
• The Cuba of my imagination just won't be the same without him. And happy birthday frogs!
• Oh, Capt. - you know American politicians only care about Cubans when it's election time in Florida! How silly of you to think that anyone would do anything to actually help them. "How can I be of lip service?" is what most of the wanna-be elected officials ask... and thanks, all!
• Viva Fidel!
• Fidel Don't Surf
• The Cuban Revolution, and Cuban Timeline 1960-2008. Two photo essays with sound.
• Watched the new Che film and very much enjoyed it; more politics/history and less of the romantic hero figure though I'm not that well-informed on the Cuban revolution and it could have been bad-mouthing some of the Fidelista's allies.
• Not seen that yet, but looking forward to it. Interesting that a film about him is coming out of Hollywood.