Friday, December 29, 2006

Bitter pill for Castro backers

Bitter pill for Castro backers
Friday, December 29th 2006

After spending a lifetime dedicated to denouncing the western capitalist
system "the great Castro", battling illness, has now sought aid from the
same western system in the form of a Spanish doctor and Spanish
equipment. This must be a bitter pill to swallow for persons who have
dedicated a lifetime to supporting the Cuban strongman and his philosophy.

As one who has touted the Cuban medical system Mr Manning should take
note of this. It strikes me as odd that a country that claims to have
more doctors per capita than any other in the world would need any
outside help, especially from imperialist swines.

I suspect that this may be so because Castro's control of freedom of
expression allows him to make glorious claims of superiority, without
actually having to prove them.

Maybe when Castro dies and Cuba is opened up, these claims could be
examined to see just how much is true and how much is fiction.

For those tempted to see this as a baseless attack on Castro, let me
remind you that post-Soviet Union scrutiny revealed just how much
"informational fact" was in fact government rhetoric aimed at shoring up
a failing state. Even right here in the free press era of Eric Williams,
claims of 98 per cent literacy, proved we had the "brightest leader in
the world" and by extension the smartest population. Claims that when
examined by truly independent bodies were shown to be grossly erroneous.

Christopher Teemal
Barataria

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161073625

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