ElMondoHummus,

Fidel, alongside the US and USSR, supported my countries bid for independence. They were opposed by Australia, UK and New Zealand who did not want to let our natural resources come under our own control.

Fidel, alongside the People's Republic of China, supplied our nation with doctors whilst Australia made pariahs of us by pressuring us into a deal which would have us collaborate in the disenfranchisement of thousands of refugees.

All indications are that the tyranny in the developing world is not coming from Cuba; but from those who oppose her.

Sorry,

Xavier

P.S. For those who like to quote UNHCR, check which government on the Cuban island is most heavily criticised for its human rights violations, namely in relation to the illegal depravation of liberty and denial of equal access to the law. Guesses?

Xavier Barker:

Being enigmatic doesn't make you smart or fascinating. What it does make you is unintelligible. For starters, you might try revealing the name of your country. I presume that it's a Pacific atoll rich in minerals which the local oligarchy (to which you belong) is now free to exploit rather than foreign colonialists.

You shouldn't be grateful to the Fidel Castro for the Cuban doctors, but to the Cuban doctors themselves. As part of Castro's international medical korps, they worked as slaves in your country, receiving little or no renumeration for their work, although your government did pay Castro in dollars for their services. I hope your people were good to them and at least fed them.

Fidel Castro, by the way, has disenfranchised millions of refugees and murdered tens of thousands on the high seas who were trying to escape his island-prison.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has condemned Cuba on numerous occasions for its systematic violations of human rights. In Cuba, people have been sent to jail for just owning copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What infernal foolishness are you talking about?

Cubano: Ok, now we understand each other. For you, the NCC and the Vatican what happened in the 1980s was justified. That's all we need to know.

Cubano,

I don't seek to be smart or fascinating. Clearly I am intelligible, as your conclusions about my country show. And what would make you believe I belong to any oligarchy?

The doctors working in my country were very popular, well looked after and worked hard. Rest assured, in my country, as in all of the Pacific, no person goes hungry as long as someone eats. However, perhaps more testament to the state of my country than theirs, all they spoke of was a return to Cuba.

I won't make any effort to defend Fidel's government of his people but can only say that he has treated my countrymen with dignity and supported our right to self-determination. That is something for which we must remain ever grateful.

Thanks though,

Xavier

Xavier:

Attribute my knowledge of your country more to my powers of discernment than your powers of explication. As for your being a member of the oligarchy, it is, I think, a fair supposition given your facility with English. This pretty much defines classes in your country.

I am glad to hear that your people treated with kindness and generosity the Cuban doctors and that they did not starve when they were amongst you. I am glad also that they left a favorable impression with you and your countrymen. No thanks to Castro, of course.

If Hitler had supported your country would you have been grateful to him? The important thing about Castro is not whether he supported your country's right to self-determination, but whether he supports his own country's right to self-determination. And the answer to that question is: No.

Xavier, sir:

I would never disparage your country's progression to freedom. However, that does not excuse or undo the terrible things that Castro has done. He's impoverished his people and ruined the infrastructure of Cuba, he's turned them into a debtor nation that cannot pay it's debts to countries - even allies like Venezuela. He's eliminated so many social freedoms... the list goes on and on. Whatever laudatory acts he's committed for your country, none of them change the fact he's ruined his own.

I praise your country's march to independence, but that does not erase, change, or impunge the fact that Cuba's woes are due to Castro's government, not America's embargo. That was my whole point.