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I'll be going to Cuba in the next week and figured I'd try and learn something about Cuba and their political leader, Fidel Castro as I'll be in his country.

What I learned has been an education and one I'd love to share here with all of you. It's quite amazing how much I didn't know and have learned from this 2006 BBC documentary on Fidel.

I hope you enjoy watching it and come away from it with more knowledge than you went in with.

It's in 3 parts, 1.5 hours long but WELL WORTH the time. Watch it while it's still available on google if you can.


Fidel-The Untold Story
by BBC World News


Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7344&hl=en

Part 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7608&hl=en

Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1366&hl=en

Enjoy,

Mike

Wow, this really struck a chord with me! Those videos are a bunch of hocky puck! for lack of better words... The BBC special protrayed Fidel as a hero which he is far from. Funny thing, the video didn't mention all of the people that he killed and jailed because they were in opposition to him. Not to mention all of the private property and business that he seized for his personal use and for that of his officers and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

If Castro is so wonderful and things are so great in Cuba then why did so many leave in those fredom flights, why do so many risk thier lives year after year and cross the Florida straights to escape to a better life? The only reason that Castro was in power for so long was because he intimidated the Cuban people. If they spoke out against him they would be jailed, tourtured and killed and that information dosen't come to you via a fluffy BBC special it comes to you from someone who's family is from Cuba and witnessed what a pig Castro is first hand. My comments and experiences are not edited to suit Fidel, unlike the BBC special. Now the future of Cuba is uncertain with his brother Raul in power and Castro's health in question.

I personally feel that the bastrd should die a slow and painful death.

Cuba is indeed beautiful, you will see some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, witness the most beatiful sunrises and sunsets over the Siera Marde Mountains....You will eat some really good food, hopefuly they aren't trying to pass horse meat as beef!, and listen to some of the best music in the world. However, the truth still stands that it's a communist coutry and Fidel a ruthless dictator.


Thanks for letting me vent, this is the Soap Box after all right.

I think I need to go for a long ride.....

A hero to himself and his cronies perhaps. Cuba was in very bad shape before he came along. They have been in worse shape since then.

He is very smart, but also ruthless. My father went to school with him and his brother Raul in Havana. They were considered the campus gangsters, with Raul being the worst of the two.

Fidel gained power by taking full advantage of a bad situation. Most of the country was convinced that the Batista regime was corrupt and had to go. The question was "How?". He convinced his supporters that he was not a communist and enlisted middle-class, anti-communist moderates to support him in ousting the Batista government. He promised to set up an elected government and that all of his supporters would share in that task. Instead, soon after he rode triumphantly into Havana, leaders and members of the political groups that had helped him, all started turning up murdered. To the vast majority of the Cuban population, a takeover by a communist dicator was the last thing they expected or wanted.

My family fled soon after, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. My father (a young doctor at the time) was in hiding and wanted because he refused to turn over his patients records. Some of his patients were on Castro's hit list and they were looking for them. It was clear that anyone not cooperating soon disappeared. Within a year, there was no opposition left alive, or still in the country.

There's nothing inherently wrong with revoltion against a corrupt regime. But there is little nobility in taking over a people at the point of a gun.

Hey thanks for the links. I quite enjoyed the documentary.