Sigh. Your first post was about USA-Cuba relations and how they might shift in light of Castro's comments (which are now due skepticism, anyhow). Your next post had nothing to do with this and was totally out of place given the context. I postulate this is because you had some agenda the entire time, but did not want to frame it as such (disingenuous). You then claim I'm making a link to your views regarding Obama. I never did. You're not devious at all, just dishonest. I am not alone in this opinion.
It turns out, rhad, that another journalist was present when Goldberg did his Castro interview. My guess is that Fidel soon realized that his comment was highly controversial, even historic (if the quote is on the level, it is indeed historic, in my opinion), and came out with a denial. What we may be seeing here is what could be a glimmer of the real thoughts of the Cuban leadership behind closed doors. Castro, now 84 and in poor health, doesn't ordinarily make this kind of "blunder." (yeah, wouldn't want to screw up and tell the world what you really think of that system you've hung on to all these years, even after the original actors have walked away from communism, preferring a grand old Putin oligarchy, dressed up in a sham of a democracy) Yes, age has caught up, at last, with Cuba's El Presidente. Here's what I've found in a quick search: Castro says he was misinterpreted; journalist responds By Michael Calderone Fidel Castro is pushing back against an Atlantic report this week that quoted the 84-year-old ex-president as saying that "the Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." Castro said Friday at the University of Havana that he meant "exactly the opposite" of that quote, according to the Associated Press. But the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg stands by his report. "I quoted him accurately," Goldberg told The Upshot on Friday. Goldberg received significant access to Castro, and wrote two blog posts on the experience this week, with a more comprehensive article to come later for the magazine's print edition. In the second post, Goldberg wrote of being struck by "Castro's level of self-reflection" and his surprise when the former president commented about the Cuban model not working for the country anymore. "This struck me as the mother of all Emily Litella moments," Goldberg wrote. "Did the leader of the Revolution just say, in essence, 'Never mind'?" Goldberg wasn't alone for the sit-down. He brought along Julia Sweig, a Latin America scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. And after Castro's comment, Goldberg writes that he asked Sweig to interpret. Sweig said the following, according to Goldberg's account: "He wasn't rejecting the ideas of the Revolution. I took it to be an acknowledgment that under 'the Cuban model' the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country." According to Goldberg, Sweig also thought that one effect of such a sentiment would be to allow for his brother, Raul Castro, who is now president, to push forward on economic reforms. Reached Friday, Sweig stands by Goldberg's account. "I don't feel he was misinterpreted," Sweig told The Upshot by phone Friday, adding that "the way Goldberg quoted him is exactly as he said." http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upsho...ays-he-was-misinterpreted-journalist-responds
Regardless how he wants to play it for global politics, Castro is the key figure for normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States. For that reason alone the U.S. should cut him some slack. If Castro, working in conjunction with his brother, backs reforms, then Cuba will take its own steps out of isolation and economic malaise. I am not familiar with Cuban politics so, other than his brother Raul, I have no clue as to who the leader in waiting is. I'm sure the State Department does, and we should start putting out feelers to him or her -- not buying our way in but offering fair trade in several key areas with an eye toward expansion from there. I agree with Deckard that this is the best possible way to democratize Cuba without dominating it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100913/ap_on_re_us/cb_cuba_mass_layoffs HAVANA – Cuba says it will fire at least half a million state workers by mid-2011 and will free up private enterprise to help them find new work - radically remaking employment on the communist island. The layoffs will start immediately and run through the first half of next year, according to an announcement Monday by the nearly 3 million-strong Cuban Workers Confederation - the only labor union the government tolerates. To soften the blow, it said the government would authorize simultaneous increases in job opportunities in the non-state sector, allowing more Cubans to become self-employed, to form cooperatives run by employees rather than government bureaucrats and to increase private control of state land and infrastructure through long-term leases. Interesting.
