Cuba 'has no need of gifts from the empire': Fidel Castro
Source: AFP
Cuba's Fidel Castro signaled continued resistance to rapprochement between Washington and Havana, writing in an opinion piece on Monday that his country "has no need of gifts" from the United States.
The former president, 89, remained out of sight during last week's historic visit to the communist island by US President Barack Obama which aimed to cement normalization.
In his first published remarks about the visit, Castro seemed unwilling to forgive and forget more than a half-century of enmity between the two countries, declaring in the Granma newspaper that Cuba "has no need of gifts from the empire."
He made his remarks in a piece entitled "El Hermano Obama" -- "Brother Obama."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-no-gifts-us-fidel-castro-105802607.html
I think real change in US-Cuban relations won't happen while Fidel is still around.
= new reply since forum marked as read
... passed the ERA into their constitution, just as they did the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Most all the things that Hillary opposes now.
Yawn away.
Numbers mean little from a US perspective. Its the purchasing power that counts.
>> For example, in the US a bag of apples in a grocery store = $4-$5 {about .00125% of a monthly $4K income}. In Cuba bag of apples = 85 centavos {.00121% of the basic min income}. <<
$25 (700 pesos) a month is the guaranteed minimum basic income for everyone.
Depends on the line of work ... most workers - especially professionals like doctors, engineers, etc - earn more.
If one is working in a tourism related field that includes tipping income, then one can do quite well.
Even better is to work for a US funded propaganda "independent journalist" network paid to produce anti Cuba propaganda, like the "Ladies in White" - where one can make $2000 a month producing "reports" and fake news for the exile run, Miami based, taxpayer & exile terrorist funded Cubanet. The very organization the "independent journalists" on their payroll produce "reports" that are stenotyped by HRW, AI, and the US Dept of State (who's payroll they are on), and, of course, the corporocratic Wall Street owned US media.
... and some 60 years later the US still has not dropped the sanctions on Cuba, but, you claim that it is Fidel that can't let go?
You cannot be serious.
Interesting, your 'fuck you' attitude to the little brown people of Cuba. Most likely, you'll get a 'fuck you' right back from Cubans.
Absurd comments from the "experts" here - none of whom have ever set foot on the island, but feel sure of their pronouncements of the place and the people there.
"I've seen your schtick over the years, denying what is so obviously true and then playing the "when were you there?" card."
Wow.
How is anything so obvious if one has never seen it or experienced it? Serious "woo" (as is the common term here on DU for imaginary scenarios, alchemy and other non-science).
A significant reason I've been going often the last few years: One of my dearest in-laws in Cuba is 97 years old. Still up and about and busy doing things. Her hip's a little stiff, especially after dancing to some son with the youngsters. Has had many eye surgeries for cataracts, etc. She still has a puff or two on a cigar now and then. And a short rum every evening after dinner watching a tele novella. Lots of nice friendly and helpful neighbors. She's a very real progressive, and is disappointed that Cuba never progressed to the real Marxist co-operative economy that so many had sought in the early post Revolution years, but fully understands the forces at work preventing such a progression. Fascinating discussions. Every other day the neighborhood doctor or one of the doctor's nurses stops by her small house on the way to or from work to check up on her, take her blood pressure, and have a laugh and a loud chat (she's a bit deaf) about old times and the crazy youngsters today, and, of course, about Obama's visit - they all watched TV around the clock during the visit, and liked Raul's slight sparring over human rights. Lots of hope. A little trepidation. Glad to see such a friendly POTUS... most every person I talk to there likes Obama.
We talk (I yell) on the phone almost every day. 97. Wow.
Thanks for your kind post.
. Human Rights Watch has stated that the government "represses nearly all forms of political dissent" and that "Cubans are systematically denied basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, privacy, movement, and due process of law".
In 2003, the European Union (EU) accused the Cuban government of "continuing flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms".
Cuba had the second-highest number of imprisoned journalists of any nation in 2008 (China had the highest) according to various sources, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch.
Cuban dissidents face arrest and imprisonment. In the 1990s, Human Rights Watch reported that Cuba's extensive prison system, one of the largest in Latin America, consists of 40 maximum-security prisons, 30 minimum-security prisons, and over 200 work camps. According to Human Rights Watch, Cuba's prison population is confined in "substandard and unhealthy conditions, where prisoners face physical and sexual abuse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#Government_and_politics
Yeah sounds great, if Stalinist dictatorships are your thing.
Do tell us some Cuban history. After all, you're the expert. 
