August 1, 2006

"This is freedom for us... The tyrant is gone! We can see our country free at last!"

Fidel Castro isn't dead yet -- as far as I can tell -- but the exiles are already celebrating:
In South Florida, which with Castro's rise became in many ways the capital of the Cuban exile, thousands of people spilled into the streets for an impromptu euphoric celebration. People in the crowd shouted "Cuba Libre!"

Cars lined up for miles on Calle Ocho in Miami, as well as in Hialeah and Westchester, with drivers blaring horns, screaming, banging pots and pans and waving Cuban flags.

11 comments:

tiggeril said...

What's the name of those movies where they drag around the dead guy to get into parties and stuff?

Sloanasaurus said...

It will be a great day when Fidel is dead. Socialists and Communists should look to Fidel and his great society as an example of what they are fighting for.

What a waste of 50 years.

MadisonMan said...

What a waste of 50 years.

It wasn't a waste if Cubans have learned something. And who knows if the alternative would have been any better?

jas said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sloanasaurus said...

I read somewhere the the GDP generated by Cubans living in the U.S. is roughly 10 times the GDP generated by Cuba. What a great track record for Cuba. The only better example is North Korea (home to most of korea's wealth prior to 1950) GDP = $40 billion, South Korea GDP = $1 trillion.

What a great track record for socialism.

Of course they tell us that Cuba has a great health care system. All the stats on their health care system is provided, however, by the Cuban govenment. Gee... I wonder how great it really is?

Remember, Fidel was supposed to live to 130.

goesh said...

-the Cuban paradise will never be the same without him

Tibore said...

Babalu Blog has a little bit on this. It's less news and more secondhand reporting with opinion mixed in, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

Sloanasaurus:
That blog's got a short piece specifically on that topic:
link.

MadisonMan said...

I wonder what happens to Gitmo when Castro is dead. The US says it has a policy to (cough) help Cuba (will Cuba ask for help?). What would the US do if Cuba said, why yes, you can help us, but first close down Guantanamo. I'm curious to see how post-Castro Cuba is influenced by the US vs. say, Venezuela.

Here in Madison, people routinely move in from the coasts, usually with suitcases full of money, driving up housing costs. What will happen when comparatively rich
ex-Floridians come back -- will those who could not leave resent the repatriation of their countrymen?

Of course, he ain't dead yet.

knox said...

All the stats on their health care system is provided, however, by the Cuban govenment. Gee...

Yeah, it always gets me that people blindly accept stuff like this from a place that doesn't allow a free press. It's like poor old Sean Penn being chauffered around Iraq by Saddam's reps, going "see! it's not so bad!"

I guess it's a matter of wanting to believe it so badly there's no thought of questioning it...?

JackOfClubs said...

I found the begining of this sentence amusing: "When and if Castro dies, I think we will find out about it days later..." If? IF? Surely it's a matter of when for all of us.

Also, the last sentence: "But his doctor said in a recent interview with The Washington Post that Cuba's leader is so healthy that he could very well live to be 140." In the context of his surgery for "stress-related gastrointestinal bleeding" this is just laughable. Seriously, how do they write this stuff with a straight face?

knox said...

why, Robin, of course!