HAHAHA! no. Augusto Pinochet and Lee Kuan Yew are examples of dictators whose leadership changed their countries for the better, but Cuba today ranks as one of the worst countries on Earth and it's entirely the fault of Castro's regime. Say what you will about Batista, but one thing's certain: he wouldn't have held power for *nearly* as long as Castro. And without the influence of the USSR, it's unlikely even during his government that he would've made the same idiotic mistakes of Fidel that wrecked the island's economy.

The UN, World Bank, FMI, RSF, Transparency International and pretty much every other ONG strongly disagree with you.

Not really. For people not deeply in love with the idiocy that is Marxism, the aforementioned Augusto Pinochet and Lee Kuan Yew are both criticized for their excesses (specially Pinochet's) as well as praised for their economic progress and various political reforms.

It's just when people think of the word "dictator" they think of people like Stalin, Mao and Castro, who weren't just genocidal madmen but also complete and utter idiots, destroying their countries to unprecedented degrees with populist and jingoistic reforms, like the infamous Great Leap Forward which killed even more people than Mao did when he was actively trying to purge the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu

You from kosmak? You eat rutzak? You sing päkpök?

How exactly did Stalin "destroy" his country? I'm not denying he caused a lot of death and suffering, but overall the Soviet economy grew tremendously under his rule, he effectively turned a feudal backwater into an industrial superpower in 10 years, and used it to defeat Nazi Germany.
I greatly admire dictatorships, I won't deny it. There's just something beautiful about the complete unity and discipline that they can instill, the visuals of marching soldiers and banners and all the trappings. An entire society, all marching to one beat if you will. Modern liberal democracies, the type of which are predominant in the world today, really make me sick.

not really but i used to dance Kazachok with your mother in rainy summer nights :P

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dazaeQHrXIM

Sad to see Castro go. The guy toppled an utterly corrupt regime, defied the almighty US of A for over half a century and is one of the few far-left leaders to not betray the socialist core principles. Hasta siempre, Comandante

Fidel Castro was a scumbag communist thug that murdered many people. This fashion of just R.I.P.'ing anyone that comes up on the media across various forums is silly. If you like Fidel Castro so much I doubt you would if you had to live under his regime.

As for the other guy don't know him, don't and didn't know about the charges against him and if they are valid so I certainly won't R.I.P him.

What?! Castro's gone?! How could that happen? Why? There were so many great movies there! Even big sing-alongs! The drag shows were kinda weird, but if that's your thing, there was even that! How could Castro ever close down?
...
...wait, we're talking about the one in San Francisco, right? Right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castro_Theatre

didn't you write a thread saying you got a star? i don't see your star bro :'( go back, get your star and then we talk

You've never been to China, have you? I've been spending time there for the better part of two years and believe me, it's far less of an Orwellian hellhole than western media would like you to believe. As a foreigner I haven't really experienced any repression there. The most overt form of repression would be on the internet, which is slow as hell and facebook, google and their subsidiaries are blocked outright. But hey, that's what VPNs are for, right? As for individual freedoms: I see openly gay couples everywhere I go and if I feel like watching a bit of hardcore pornography, I can walk into the local supermarkets and buy it there. Yeah, pornography is officially banned, but whatever, no one bothers to enforce that shit anyway. As long as you don't go around randomly raping and murdering people, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. You're well-advised to keep your mouth shut about politics though. But that's really not all that different from other so-called "free" countries, like, say, Germany, where you can get arrested and sentenced for wrongthink.

Because Cuba was doing so well under US puppet Batista.

Was Castro everything he should have been for his people: Honestly, I'm not an expert, but I'll guess probably not (democracy definitely did not flourish under his rule).

However, he wasn't a suck up. Unlike his predecessor and some of our "democratically elected" leaders, he didn't work for outside or corporate interests, he worked for his people. I can't comment about the quality of his execution, but unlike many, the core of his intent was pure and I can respect that.

Overall, I think Obama behaved like a world leader regarding Cuba, by doing what a leader should do: bridging the gap (which admittedly was mostly US' fault... USA was a real exploitative d*ck to Cuba in the pre-revolution era... it was disgusting, they really needed to get the heck out of there). With Trump, who is not even half the leader Obama is, things will go back to being forever stuck in the 60s.

sad news

I'm not familiar with Hamilton's work, also I'm not cuban nor have I ever been to Cuba, so I'll refrain from passing judgement on their work either way.

Still, two human beings have died, and may they rest in peace.

Against U.S.A. Imperialism, really? Adidas has lost a great sponsor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoNLFKpk_Y

There's no evil that lasts a hundred years, nor a body that can endure it.

Absence of proof is not proof of the absence. The fact that there is no evidence doesn't prove it never happened. And dismissing the journalist's words because she is "tacky" now doesn't account much for truth or lies. So, yes, it will always be word vs word now that he is dead and he was maybe innocent of what he was accused. But you can't really be sure it was fake charges.

Never heard of this Hamilton, looks like the king of hebephilia to me.
So Castro died again, this time for real?