Re: [CTRL] Doc To Marisleysis-SEEK HELP!

[Foxter]

I have been to Cuba.   The people who are professedly proregime have it fairly ok. Except for thick pollution in the cities with buses spewing forth jetblack exhaust, no new cars in sight (gotta be an operative), expensive food, papaya-based food, expensive clothes, poorly-made clothes, stores closed to natives not having special cards but open to tourists, rationed electricity, scarcity of toilet paper, indoctrination everywhere, machinegun-totin' armies patrolling the streets and airports, catsized rats, dogsized cats, leapin' lizards and cockroaches, rundown buildings and child prostitution at the beaches.   The others, the masses Castro supposedly has cared fabout for the past 40 (forty) years, are poor.  Meat is rationed to about half a pound per person per month. The others are also persecuted for unpopular political beliefs. The others are also persecuted for unpopular religious beliefs. The others are also persecuted for unpopular social beliefs. What have I missed?  Oh, jail time for the unpopular.   Nessie confuses the form of democratic government with its popularity.  Just because a democracy operates in a corrupt way does not mean it is not a democracy anymore.  It's just a corrupt one.    Nessie thinks some Americans see America as a living hell and some Cubans think Cuba is very nice.  That's a clear bid to characterize America as a third world country.  I don't appreciate that, America is great.  And - news flash - those suffering in the American hell can leave, there is something called freedom and another thing called capitalism.      ----- Original Message ----- From: nessie To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 1:05 AM Subject: Re: [CTRL] Doc To Marisleysis-SEEK HELP! [EMAIL PROTECTED],Internet writes: > > Do you actually believe that Cuba is a nice place to live? I don't know. I've never been there. Have you? If not, you don't know what you're talking about. Neither do I, at least vis a vis life in Cuba. But I'm willing to admit it. Are you? I figure we're both going on hearsay. Outside of hearsay, I don't know much about Cuba at all.  I live here. I lived her all my life. Living in only one country cannot help but have warped my perception. But I'm 51 and I have been paying attention, so  I do know about America. For some people it's very nice indeed. For others it's not so nice. For some it's living hell. My best guess is Cuba is pretty much the same. A country is a cage. A cage is a cage. It doesn't matter how big it is or how good's the food. A cage is a cage is a cage. One is cage is as good as the next. I like the one I live in  better than the one I don't live in because I'm used to it here. I understand how it works. I know where it's weak spots are and how to read between its lines. I get  along pretty well here. But it's still a cage. > > We may >not have much of a democracy, This isn't a democracy. The real power is not held by elected officials or even  unelected bureaucrats. It's held by the boards of directors of the corporations. They answer to their shareholders, not to the public at large. This structure is inherently undemocratic. > >but it's better than outright >in-your-face-with-a-gun fascism. So if it wasn't in-your-face-with-a-gun fascism that guy who says he's a fisherman faced in that closet with Elian, what was it? You tell me. <