In 2006, ill health forced Fidel Castro to hand power over to his younger brother, Raul. The new Cuban president has been encouraging a wide-ranging public debate on how to fix and reform the ailing economy, without abandoning some of the socialist ideals and principles that inspired the revolution. He has also exhorted citizens to engage in a national dialogue on the future of the country's socialism under the control of the ruling Communist party. International media usually reports that Raul Castro, suitably impressed by his visit to China and Vietnam where major economic reforms were introduced long ago, favours a similar acceptance of a market-based economy. However Mariela Castro, the president's daughter, does not believe Cubans want to adopt a foreign model. "Cuban people are asking for a much more sustainable socialism, not a return to capitalism," she explains. "They want a permanent system of consultation, better mechanisms of participation to work for a democratic socialism." http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/01/20101265710919727.html Its a good article but I wonder how balanced it really is. I say this only because I know the journalist and we call him 'red tom' for a reasonPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
concidering the glaring falures of capitalisium why shouldnt a modifided version of communisium (or rather socialisium) be given a try. What right has anyone to decided for another people what they can and cant do in there own country?
Well its not a matter of 'giving it a try' they have been doing so for a long time. They are looking for ways to enhance it based on a free market model implemented in places like China and Vietnam. As for your last question I don't know what you mean. The article doesn't suggest that they should or shouldn't do anything.
not so much the artical as your attitude. People on the right (especially yanks) here seem to take for granted that capitalisium is everything and its the ONLY way to do things and that anyone who doesnt do it that way needs to be bombed back to the stone age till they do. What gives them that right, its there country, if they want to hold a public debate and it comes out that with some tweaking they get a socilist model there happy with then fuck what other people think, its there right
Seizing on recent days seems cheap to me. There are histories to be taken into account, for example, and I will take the history of "capitalism" in the 20th century over the history of "socialism" in places like Cuba, China and Russia any day. China's economic explosion is due to many factors, but perhaps chief among them is the fact it has liberalized what was once an extremely closed and communistic system. In other words, more capitalism is what made China grow. Not more socialism.
What was my attitude? :bugeye: I said it was a good article but I wonder if its a balanced look at Cuba because I know the journalist. I didn't convey any 'attitude' save what I had to say about Tom who by the way is a very good friend of mine. So where did you pick up on me saying there was anything wrong with what they are doing in Cuba? Please go back and find the line where I showed 'attitude'. I am not a 'yank' nor have I given any indication that there was anything wrong in Cuba nor did I say they should be bombed. So what are you smoking? :shrug: Where do you see anyone posting that the Cubans shouldn't hold a public debate? Do me a favor and read the article and come back with something concrete. Like something that pertains to itPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
i don't know why anyone thinks communism would work, how is everyone entitled to an equal share when people have different skills/effort? that doesn't mean i don't recognise that some people are overpaid/underpaid. democratic socialism is my preference too.
Doesn't anyone in that fucked up island find it odd and strange that Raul is asking for a ...democratic process... in order to find a solution to a socialist/communist problem? What would Americans say if our president asked us to vote on how best to derail our democratic capitalist society and turn it into a communist/socialist society? Baron Max
though he already did barron, wasnt that what you thought about about introducing UHC?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I wish you'd learn to write in English!! You're almost as bad as cluelesshusband ..except he does his fucked up writing intentionally. Learn English, dammit. I think, maybe, that your post is supposed to be: "I thought the president did already, Baron? Wasn't that whey you thought about him introducing UHC?" In response: No, the president did NOT ask for a vote!! And even when they began to exprience some heavy resistance, they still went ahead with the UHC and never once suggested that they ask the American people for a vote. See? Socialism shoved down our throats once again ...and there's nothing we can do about it. At least Raul is trying to engage his people in some form of dialogue ...even if it does go against the very principles of communism/socialism. Our president isn't even thoughtful enough to ask us. Baron Max
really, i thought you were a democratic country. I belive he ran on a platform of UHC (i even herd his speaches on the subject). Didnt you get a vote Barron?
Asguard, you often come across like a blind man trying to describe a painting. Care to give us some solid examples of your so-called "glaring failures of capitalism?" (I didn't think so.)
you mean like the melt global melt down? the fact that there are poor people staving on the streets in the US? the fact that for every person living in luxury in the first world people are slaving away in some sweat shop to make the clothes, the books ect that we just throw away? the fact that the enviroment is being destroyed on a daily basis to feed our "need" for consumers? the fact that in the US people lose there homes to pay for medical bills? the fact that for every person in the first world living in luxury there is at least 1 more in africa staving because more food is being divirted to where it will make more money than where its need? the fact that there are resorce wars in the middle east? the fact that in the name of getting more oil (amongst other resorces) the first world is happy for the rest of the world to live under brutal dictators as long as they keep letting them take there resorces? the fact that when capitalisum fails its the ritch bankers rather than those losing there homes which get bailed out Take your pick
<sigh> I'll just take the first one for now - and I assume you meant to say "starving." The real fact is that the statement is untrue. Have you come over here to look around yet??
LOL. That is completely and utterly absurd. As the grandson of a Cuban immigrant let me tell you communism has turned Cuba into a time capsule hell hole where the people live in abject poverty. My grandfather went to Cuba to visit some relatives a few years ago and was so appalled by the way they were living that he spent the whole trip buying things for his relatives. The retired American steelworker might as well have been a millionaire by Cuban standards. Contrast 50 years of poverty, repression, and despotism so severe that people regularly brave the ocean waters in makeshift crafts that can only loosely be described as boats to escape it with even the worst recession in decades in the US and your description of capitalism's glaring failures is revealed for the overreaching hyperbole it is.
Considering the nature of the Cuban government, how exactly do we know what the Cuban people actually want? It's not like they're able to just vote in a new type of government.
Capitalism is responsible for all of the wealth you see today; the innovation, the technology, and the commerce. That is almost always stifled by government interventionism, and freedom suffers, always, by restricting peoples' rights to association and exchange. If people want socialism, they can have it, privately and voluntarily, under a laissez-faire setting, without restricting and imposing it on others. Give socialism another try? No thanks; socialism, and left-ism in general, is a complete and utter failure. Let's not go back to the Soviet Union, now.
Many Europeans countries are also 'socialist' or have 'socialist ideals' like the Scandinavian nations and yet still maintain a democratic process. Its the will of the people to decide if they want more or less government or more or less free capitalism. China at the moment isn't democratic but it sure has been utilizing capitalism to their advantage.
I did. "Dialogue" among the peasants is meaningless in a nation with a history of punishing dissent. If I was a Cuban, I wouldn't risk expressing too much displeasure with the status quo.
