65 Comments

1. Pajamas Media » Benicio del Toro: Che Guevara’s Useful Idiot:

[...] the entire story here [...]

Jan 27, 2009 - 7:29 pm 2. LeftWingandBrave:

America can learn from Fidel Castro and Cuba.
Guess which nation in the Western Hemisphere has the highest standard of living and provides education and healthcare to its citizens?

The answer of course is not the United States but Cuba. In Cuba everyone has access to healthcare and Cuba enjoys a high standard of literacy and social justice. Unlike the United States, Cuba does not start wars nor does it even contribute to global warming. The people there are warm and friendly and they are socially and environmentally responsible.

I hope President Barack Obama will study all the things Fidel Castro has done right and try to apply them to Americans.

http://leftwingandbrave.blogspot.com

Jan 27, 2009 - 8:24 pm 3. Marin Frugle:

I saw part one of the film, and I can say that the depiction of Che is one that is a 2 1/2 hour infomercial on why he should be a saint. I felt he was portrayed in far too positive a light. All he needed to do was walk on water in the movie which might even happen in the 2nd half.

To say this movie is a fair and accurate depiction of his life is just not true and I hope those that watch it take it as a biased dramatization and not a true depiction of what he was really like.

That being said he was an extraordinary man who did incredible things but there was a much darker side to him that was just not captured in the movie

Jan 27, 2009 - 8:24 pm 4. TMK75:

It all comes down to the same thing for brain-dead liberals. Who cares what the reality is, as long as you mean well or it feels good inside. Che wanted to help the poor and fight the evil “man.” Why let his brutal murders or reprehensible tactics of hatred get in the way of noble ideals?

I am a student at a very liberal law school, but I worked for a decade first so I have been exposed to reality. I proudly wear my anti-Che t-shirt a few times each semester. Last year my hyperliberal criminal law professor (who had a picture on his wall from the 60s of himself in a beret) pointed out that I wore the shirt on the 40th anniversary of Che’s death. I smirked as I replied, “and what a glorious day that was, good riddance to a murdering thug.” Thank god for anonymous grading…

Jan 27, 2009 - 8:34 pm 5. narciso:

You have got to be kidding, LeftWing, Cuba doesn’t start wars, what do you call Angola, or the campaigns to destabilize Venezuela and
Dominican Republic, Costa Rica in the 60s. You really want to talk about the glories of Cuban health care in this day and age. Guevara, was a thug, a spoiled rich thug, but a thug nonetheless; he got much more kind treatment than what he deserved frankly.

Jan 27, 2009 - 8:51 pm 6. Che-τέρας:

@LeftwingandLame

Why wait for Obama to turn the US into another failed socialist/marxist state? You can always move down there and enjoy all the trappings of a third world country while surviving of food rations for the rest of your life. Let us know how the whole free-expression/blogging thing goes down in Fidel’s Cuba too…

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:10 pm 7. mk:

“The answer of course is not the United States but Cuba. In Cuba everyone has access to healthcare and Cuba enjoys a high standard of literacy and social justice. Unlike the United States, Cuba does not start wars nor does it even contribute to global warming. The people there are warm and friendly and they are socially and environmentally responsible.”

That’s very cute. Maybe that whole Freedom of Speech thing or the whole Cuban missile crisis is beyond your ability to understand. Or prison for those who disagree or for those who practise certain religions…..

Germany was very nice to live in during the 1930’s. Unless, of course you were a Jew….

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:16 pm 8. Donna V.:

Guess which nation in the Western Hemisphere has the highest standard of living and provides education and healthcare to its citizens?

Cuba? Oh, yes, that’s why Americans have braved the high seas, risking their lives to get to Cuba by raft – oh, no, wait, that’s the Cubans. Many,many of them have died trying to get here. Try praising old stink beard in certain neighborhoods in Miami, and you’ll get your face slapped for being a fool.

Cuba is a socialist dump. A large percentage of its female population prostitute themselves to foreign visitors. They have no other way of feeding their families. Yeah, everyone gets the same crappy, filthy healthcare. Do you think Michael Moore would actually have, say, open heart surgery, in Havana? Hell, no, he’d fly to New York and get the best money can buy.

What’s the good of education if everything is censored? (Of course, one can ask the same of our own universities.)

God, how I wish all Leftwing cretins, the sorry products of our dolt-producing educational system, could be transported to Fidel’s dump of an island. After a week of living in a hole, they’d be crying to come home to evil capitalist America. And they’d then be tossed in prison, like the starry eyed Western commies who moved to Stalin’s USSR in the ’30’s- and ended up in the gulags.

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:17 pm 9. Tex Taylor:

If Cuba has such a high standard of living, why were they rationing rice and beans for the common man to eat just a few years ago?

At first, I thought that comment from Leftwing had to be parody. Then I remembered about the Obama rubes fainting at his cliches of YES WE CAN.

Thank you Donna V. – couldn’t have said it better myself.

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:23 pm 10. Cat:

2. LeftWingandBrave:
If you go to Mexico you can buy an one way ticket. Hope you don’t rot in the Cuban hospital if you get sick.

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:39 pm 11. Paul from Hamburg:

“nor does it even contribute to global warming.”
ROTFLMAO!!!
That makes sense. I am very confident that they retrofitted all of the ‘57 Chevies with catalytic converters.

Leftwing, please listen quietly while the adults talk. Better yet, go outside and wait for the little bus to arrive.

Jan 27, 2009 - 9:51 pm 12. john from cinncinatti:

it seems only the rich can play at being poor the poor actually don’t have the luxury of playing at it, if only leftwing could open the door to Cuba and see which way the wind would blow, the rush of people leaving would give away the direction. the Marielito boat parade was something to watch wasn’t it?

Jan 27, 2009 - 10:09 pm 13. Shelly.O:

Hey leftwing whackjob, when was the last time Fidel or Chavez for that matter had to beat away throngs of asylum seekers trying to enter Cuba or Venezuela? Do you not realize that only then will leftist including H’wood’s elite have a more convincing argument?

Useful idiots is an understatement. It’s one thing to be gleefully ignorant of history and another to have the capacity to see history, objectively and accurately. Del Toro and others in H’wood have the capacity to study history, but for what ever reason be it peer pressure i.e. toeing the popular line of the day (no matter how apathetic and idiotic it is) or spitefulness, they just cannot find it in themselves to do so.

Dishonest portrayals only exacerbate myths, they’re negligent and indeed very hurtful to survivors who had to flee or lost loved ones cruelly at the hands of such regimes.

If actors and producers understood this they’d be far more satisfied and honest about their work. Respect is earned. Not being able to answer hard questions about one’s work is a cop-out and pure cowardice.

Jan 27, 2009 - 10:12 pm 14. Pat J:

If I had a Che T-shirt, I’d wear it proudly. Knowing it was a simble of the capitalist consumerism he despised.

Guevara was one sick f**k.

Jan 27, 2009 - 10:16 pm 15. Annalisa:

LeftWingandBrave:
Why wait for Obama to implement these policies. Why don’t you just go to Cuba if it’s so great.
I was an instructor at a school in Houston in the late 90s. One little girl from Cuba said her father was forced to fight in Angola where he ate dog to survive. Shortly thereafter he was kicked out of the country with his family. One of her family’s friends also said Castro would send Cuban produce to other countries to gain favor with them, while his own people would do without.
You know Cuba was hit by two? hurricanes this past year. I haven’t seen to many photos of damage. Well, we’ll be hearing about it in the distant future, I guess.

Jan 27, 2009 - 10:33 pm 16. fred:

I doubt that “LeftWingandBrave” is really all that brave. If he was, he would move to Cuba or some other socialist Utopia and be in heaven come down to earth.

Only former Marxists like myself can get the full depth of amusement at a pathetic mind such as that.

Che was a murderer. He got his rocks off on it, and torture besides. The history of his sociopathic legacy is not hard to find. But, immersion in fact and logic is hardly ever the virtuous habit of the Leftist.

Benicio del Toro is an imbecile. You can teach a grey parrot to memorize human words just as well. And the creature would probably never want to keep company with the likes of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Animals instinctively tend to avoid evil humans.

Just another mental midget in the thespian profession…

Jan 27, 2009 - 10:42 pm 17. Bernard Chapin:

Yes, I think it’s not only bias but extraordinary ignorance that makes these Hollywood automatons say what they do.

Jan 28, 2009 - 12:29 am 18. Tom:

Much more important than what Americans from the U.S. think about Che, is what those in Latin America and the Caribbean think about him. Quite frankly Americans have no right to sit in judgment of anyone on this planet. Without detailing every single military invasion or intervention over the past century and the terrible cost in human lives, the U.S. has been responsible for the slaughter of at least 600,000 civilians, the internal displacement of 2 million civilians, and exile of another 2 million since its invasion of Iraq in March 2003. And you supposedly are a democracy. So you are all responsible for standing by and letting it happen.

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:06 am 19. Scott:

Benicio del Moron is a Puerto Rican

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:39 am 20. Scott:

Andy Garcia is a Cuban

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:40 am 21. JFM:

Mr LeftWing

Yu should check at therealcuba.com for some pictures of cuban hospitals. Fortunately the day you are ill you will not go to those hospitals but in the hospitals resevred for the nomenklatura and the useful idiots.

Jan 28, 2009 - 4:47 am 22. Marie Claude:

uh, doesn’t his brain weight 21 grammes ????

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:01 am 23. Evil Otto:

I think “LeftWingandBrave” is just trolling for hits on his blog. He comes here, says a few profoundly stupid things, and bingo, a bunch of pissed-off conservatives click on the link he so conveniently put at the bottom of his comment.

It’s a troll, people. Ignore it.

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:32 am 24. Craig:

Why do liberals insist on trying to rewrite history?

These IMPONDERABLES must be left alone. Right up there with: why does Al Gore, alone, have a larger carbon footprint than most small communities?

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:39 am 25. nadadhimmi:

When Che was captured exporting his Stalinist extremism in South America, he was found guilty and sentenced to death for his genocide. He begged, pleaded and cried like a baby to be spared his life. Just the opposite of when he murdered innocent victims with laughter in his throat. Che was a puke, a disgusting, cowardly piece of shit, and he remains so today.

Jan 28, 2009 - 6:29 am 26. Leftwingandsmart:

Fred,
“…and torture besides.”

So? Torture’s cool and it saves lives, right?

Jan 28, 2009 - 7:52 am 27. Mike:

Hey, “Che Guevera” – such a cool name and oh what a neat, rebellious hair style – you gotta love him.

Jan 28, 2009 - 8:17 am 28. Walt:

“just another mental midget in the thespian profession …”

For reasons I cannot fathom, some actually look up to these actors/actresses as if they really had some insight into politics, international relations, political science, civics, etc.

In truth, as an overall group, actors/actresses are the most uneducated collection of human beings on the planet. Certainly there are exceptions, but they are few and far between and I am referring to the group. The funny thing is they all consider themselves intellectuals!

Jan 28, 2009 - 8:26 am 29. fred:

“Fred,
“…and torture besides.”

So? Torture’s cool and it saves lives, right?”

So, comrade, you mean to tell me that Ernesto Guevara actually saved lives from the predations of the capitalist terrorists?

Jan 28, 2009 - 9:10 am 30. fred:

Comrade Tom @18,

This thread is about Ernesto Che Guevara’s beatification by Benicio del Toro, not some moral equivalence you’ve set up between the Communist being glorified and the United States.

Jan 28, 2009 - 9:13 am 31. Rodriguez:

See this is where El Che messed up …

He should have

- Bought a peasant girl, made her his slave, then raped her and had her give birth to his child (Jefferson)

- Next Che should have made all the rich oligarchs walk hundreds of miles before leaving the country in a ‘trail of tears’ (Jackson)

- Once his legend was solidified he could send one of his commanders to do a ‘march to the sea’ where he burned out all the govt homes and Batistaites who had been defeated (Lincoln/Sherman).

It’s a shame he didn’t follow the great paths history already laid out for him … then instead of being on the 3 Cuban peso he could be on the DOLLAR BILL.

Oh yeah and Happy Columbus Day — he only killed/impaled/burned alive about 2,000,000 Natives )

Jan 28, 2009 - 9:39 am 32. fred:

Comrade Rodriguez,

This thread is about the romanticizing of Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the movie, not about setting up a moral equivalence between Che and the United States.

Idiot.

Jan 28, 2009 - 10:15 am 33. Chris:

“America can learn from Fidel Castro and Cuba.
Guess which nation in the Western Hemisphere has the highest standard of living and provides education and healthcare to its citizens?

The answer of course is not the United States but Cuba. In Cuba everyone has access to healthcare and Cuba enjoys a high standard of literacy and social justice. Unlike the United States, Cuba does not start wars nor does it even contribute to global warming. The people there are warm and friendly and they are socially and environmentally responsible.

I hope President Barack Obama will study all the things Fidel Castro has done right and try to apply them to Americans.”

Guess which country doesn’t kill or imprison political dissidents? If you believe that the murder and imprisonment of people of different opinions is the way to run a country then I think you should move to one of the countries that encourage it. Have you heard of Daniel Craig’s new movie, “Defiance”? The character he portrays was a communist but instead of living in the USSR after the war he emigrated to the USA. Why? He discovered that the socialism was bad and found the US system not so constrictive and controlling. Cubans don’t start conflicts? What about the Cuban Missile Crisis? That wasn’t us pointing nukes at them. How do you know they don’t contribute to Global Warming? According to Al Gore creating CO2 contributes and unless they’ve stopped breathing then they’re contributing.

Jan 28, 2009 - 11:15 am 34. Read a book ... tards:

“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.” — Nelson Mandela

“Che is not only an intellectual, he was the most complete human being of our time, our era’s most perfect man.” — Jean Paul Sartre

Jan 28, 2009 - 12:30 pm 35. AlexinCT:

I remember a conversation with an old Argentine buddy whom once told me he was certain Guevara wasn’t even a marxist but just joined whatever revolution was going on so he could torture, rape, and murder. That’s the stuff he believed in. Heck, when Fidel realized the man was whack he kicked em to the curb! So Ernesto then wet to Bolivia to find new victims. Of course it thus should surprise nobody that Guevara ends up a hero of the leftists movement. Leftists preach peace, love, and equality, but indubitably the proof lies in the hundreds of millions murdered and the billions imprisoned by the vile ideologies of these leftists. We now have over 100 years of proof collectivism degenerates into nothing but prison states where atrocities are the norm.

The USSR, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, and even Nicaragua and Venezuela have all been turned into hell holes, and yet we have leftist telling us how much better they are because some paper claims everyone is equal and has free healthcare and education. Of course they never bother to point out that the healthcare all have equal rights to is non existent and that the leader are the only ones free to travel or bring capable doctors to come treat them when they are sick. And what good is a free education if all it really does is brainwash you into believing the failed marxist ideology is a good thing when there is no way to improve your lot in life to begin with? A lot a good a PHD will do anyone in Cuba since there is no use for over educated fools unless they are stooges of the government to begin with.

The only Latin Americans that admire Guevara these days are the ones that have fallen for the bullcrap sold by the Latin marxist movement and the lie that the only reason their country is a mess is the vile American capitalist. This is not new. Around the globe there are nations, most of them run by marxist or similar totalitarian thugs too, that have convinced their people that the reason their lives suck is not the vile marxist ideology and the corrupt and evil people running their countries, but some foreign boogieman. Be it the evils of Colonialism or America, these lies started with the KGB back in the 70s, and were thought in our own universities. Classic marxism at work: in one fell swoop you absolve yourself of any fault and create a false object for the masses to direct their anger at. Anyway, those Latin Americans that actually got to experience Che or any of his revolutionary buddies firsthand, be they in Cuba or anywhere else, have no kind words for that butcher.

The ironic thing is that the left, the very left that was so up in arms about American intelligence using waterboarding to break our enemies, finds Guevara’s brutal acts of torture, rape, and murder to be heroic. I guess as Bill Ayers once put it Che tortured, raped, and killed the right people and did it for the cause (who cares if he even believed in it) and hence it was A-OK. These are the people now running our country…

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:05 pm 36. AtheistConservative:

The “Cuba as paradise” line is constantly repeated by liberals who believe anything they read on liberal websites. Try speaking to any Cuban refugees. What you hear about is controlled information. When you go to Cuba you see the revamped & preserved tourist centers and are prevented from seeing the ‘real’ Cuba which is rundown & ramshackle.

Even if it were true that “Cubans enjoy the best education and standard of living” (it isn’t) you’d basically be saying you would stand dictatorship to get those things. Which means you need to leave this country and move to Cuba. There are many people who will willingly change places with your whiny, complaining, privileged white ass.

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:07 pm 37. NMSC:

Don’t ya’ll get it? Che is brown, so he is a morally superior hero when he kills innocent people. Stalin and Hitler were white. They are soooooo much more evil.

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:29 pm 38. Dave:

Thirty-one Cubans came ashore Wednesday morning near the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant.

Twenty males, 8 females, and 3 children landed on the southern most point of the nuclear facility.

The Cubans waited on the bank of one of the cooling canals to be transported to the Pembroke Pines Boarder Patrol Station.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said all of the Cubans appear to be in good health.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/18585570/detail.html

Well…Thank God for that good Cuban health care! Eh?

Jan 28, 2009 - 1:38 pm 39. stuart Williamson:

Here’s the truth about Cuba’s superior health system. My brother-in-law visited Cuba two years ago, having tracked down the family of an uncle who had settled in Cuba after WW1, the brother of his german-born father. . They live in modest circumstances in small town within 100 miles of Havana. He is a diabetic. One day, sight-seeing with relatives he realized he had forgotten to bring a syringe with him, so they took him to the local public clinic. He describes it as apparently clean, but much like the restroom of a rural gas station. They had one syringe – and one needle – for the community. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had that level of health care in the greedy capitalist U.S.A.?

Jan 28, 2009 - 3:11 pm 40. Jim G:

Why is it that everyone is so surprised about the ignorant and mightier than might attitude held by movie-lands great I’ve stumbled over rocks that are more inteigent

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:02 pm 41. Rusty:

del Toro spent seven years studying for the role of Che. Usually I try to make some witty comment, but I can’t. He’s an idiot if he doesn’t get it after seven years.

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:06 pm 42. Marie Claude:

“Che is not only an intellectual, he was the most complete human being of our time, our era’s most perfect man.” — Jean Paul Sartre

Sartre was living in a “parallel” world, he saw revolutions only from his “parisian salon”

Jan 28, 2009 - 5:51 pm 43. JUST A NORMAL GUY:

WELL AS THE ENRAGED RESPONSES JUST GO TO SHOW THAT THE LIBS REALLY DO’NT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIER HEROS AND THEY ARE OF COURSE FIGHTING MAD BECAUSE I SEEN SO MANY “CHE” T-SHITS AT OBAMA RALLEYS. AND I MEAN THINK BACK THREW HISTORY AND YOU WILL SEE THAT THEY’RE HAVE BEEN OTHER SYSTEMS SUCH AS CAPITALISM IN WHICH NOBODY WAS EVER KILLED FOR BELEIVING IN ANOTHER SYSTEM. EVEN NOW IN AMERICAN TODAY YOU SEE ONLY THE COMMIES ARE THE ONES WHO ADVOCATE KILLING ANYONE ELSE AND IF I REMEMBER IT CORRECT IT WAS THE COMMUNISTS WHO FIRST STARTED KILLING THE MUSLIMS IN AFGANISTAN AND WHO CAME TO THERE RESCUE? WELL IT WAS THE CAPITALISTS’ PIGS SO I DEFINITELY AGREE WITH GAVIN MACINES ON THIS ONE. AND ANYWAY THE SITUATION DEFINATELY IMPROVED ESPECIALLY FOR THE WOMEN IN AFGANISTAN ONCE THE COMMIES WERE GONE. SO BASICALLY YOU’RE WELCOME ALL YOU AFGANS AND COMMIES TOO BECAUSE WE LET YOU LIVE WITHOUT GETTING YOUR HEADS CUT OF BY ALQUEADA LOL

Jan 28, 2009 - 6:42 pm 44. Dave (other Dave):

The complete break with reality that one must have to see Che as anything other than a murdering psychopath is mind boggling.

Nothing screams mindless idiot louder than wearing a Che T-shirt.

Jan 28, 2009 - 7:21 pm 45. Donna V.:

Sartre was living in a “parallel” world, he saw revolutions only from his “parisian salon”

Isn’t that the truth, Marie Claude? Name a communist murderer Sartre didn’t love. And he managed to get his plays produced in Paris during the Occupation, which meant some sucking up to the Nazis. In the meantime, Camus, a truly brave man, was working for the Resistance. Sartre never put his own skin on the line in his life.

Cambodians who studied in Paris in the 1950’s later returned home – and formed the Khmer Rouge. Paul Johnson calls Pol Pot and Co. “Sartre’s Children.”

Read a few books, ‘tard. Maybe something that isn’t Communism buttwipe for a change.

Jan 28, 2009 - 7:50 pm 46. Donna V.:

Critic Clive James on Sartre:

“He might have known that he was debarred by nature from telling the truth for long about anything that mattered, because telling the truth was something ordinary men did, and his urge to be extraordinary was, for him, more of a motive force than to simply see the world as it was. This perversity,…,made him the single most conspicious example in the 20th century of an intellectual aiding and abetting the opponents of civilization. More so than Ezra Pound,…,more so even than Brecht.”

I loathe Sartre. Anybody who thinks Sartre was a great man is a moral cretin.

Jan 28, 2009 - 7:59 pm 47. WestGuard:

“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.” — Nelson Mandela

That’s funny. Is Mandelas idiotic statement supposed to validate Che as a good guy? All it acheives is showing what a deranged lunatic Mandela is.

Jan 28, 2009 - 9:13 pm 48. JFM:

Imagine how good is the Cuban system that when Castro fell ill, Cuba asked Spain for a doctor.

Oh, and go to “therealcuba.com” for some images of cuban hospitals(warning not for the faint of heart) that is the hospitals for real people not the ones for nomenklatura, fellow travelers and foreign journalists.
We could add, the hospitals for black people: despite having a Negro proportion several times higher than Unied States, the Cuban governement is a all-white club: there are zero Negro ministers, zero high ranking generals only ten percent provincial governors. Obama, Powell or Rice would have been in the fields cutting cane or at best in subordinate positions.

BTW Batista was a mestizo.

Jan 29, 2009 - 12:39 am 49. deguello:

RODRIGUEZ: Here are the REAL reasons why che is not on our currency. 1.He was a Marxist ie, a totalitarian, ie, a mass murderer. He killed,tortured and imprisoned thousands of cubans who disagreed with his insane stalinism. 3. He totally destroyed the cuban economy as Castro’s economic Czar.4. He was a total failure as a guerrilla commander, and his guerrillas were totally annihilated. In short he was a failure. We don’t usually put losers’ faces on our money.Unfortunately,psychotic Marxist losers serve as heroes to fellow losers like you who need a spurious version of reality to tolerate their pathetic lives. CHE:BIEN MUERTO Y BIEN MATADO! VIVA CUBA LIBRE!

Jan 29, 2009 - 6:19 am 50. deguello:

LEFTWING AND RETARDED:Tell your care provider/special ed. teacher to explain to you that the last century was a refutation by example of the marxism and leninist psychosis,that not only killed 149 million people,but failed utterly to bring about prosperity, equality, and justice.Man,your’e the left wing equivalent of a holocaust denier!Either that,or you are just plain dumb!

Jan 29, 2009 - 8:34 am 51. Joe Bison:

Imagine a country that was on a free ride
for 3 decades yet never developed a
productive economy. With the island covered
in sugar and the world looking for alternative
fuel this craphole is helpless.

Everybody forgets Cuban military intervention
in Africa among other places.

Cuba had a high literacy rate before Castro.
Communists always push public “education”
as part of their political indoctrination.
Also children are worked on to inform on
the family.

Health care is a joke for the average person.
A dog in your shelter has better care.
UN mortality rates, for example, come from
the Cuban government. Geez they wouldn’t
lie would they? Notice everything is always
a bit better than the US.

As you can imagine obesity related problems
are low with little food. I guess Castro
and Che could take credit for this too.
Never knew long term partial starvation
is a health plan. At least it doesn’t
cost anything.

The military/communist bigwigs de facto
own everything, resorts included.

On the bright side Canadians and Europeans
get cheap safe resort vacations with
educated prostitutes to service them.
No wonder left wing Americans feel cheated.

Jan 29, 2009 - 9:37 am 52. Richard Wells:

It takes a long time for the Left to process information – I know, I’m a leftie. There is still at least one bookstore in Seattle that has framed posters of Mao in the window. That being said, I’d like to think the Left’s long love affair with the Cuban revolution is in the hands of a very small minority. It’s just a shame that some of them are Hollywoodians like Soderbergh and Oliver Stone. Kids wear Che t-shirts because it’s slightly rebellious (although the rebellion is inchoate) and the Korda photo and Warhol colors are fabulous. Here’s a poem describing my disillusionment with the revolution – leave a comment:

DONDE ESTA FIDEL

Jan 29, 2009 - 3:22 pm 53. Marc Malone:

Good article. Better comments. The useful idiot in the first post got excoriated, and being an idiot, didn’t even know it. Funny. However, the passion and the truth were very edifying.

Jan 30, 2009 - 4:09 am 54. JFM:

Sartre was living in a “parallel” world, he saw revolutions only from his “parisian salon”

In order to understand why Sartre gained such influence despite his mediocrity as a thinker compared to Camus or Aron, it is useful to remind that after the occupation (during which, his activities as resistant were non-existent) his subordination to the Communist Party allowed him to preside the Committee for the epuration of the French literary activity. This allowed him to populate every one of the organs who can make or unmake literary careers (jury of literary awards, literary critics in the main newspapers, heads of the main book publishers) with his friends and sycophants. In the twenty years after WWII, outside “railway station literature” if you wanted to write for a life in France, you better say nice things about Sartre.

Jan 30, 2009 - 5:40 am 55. Grace:

My uncle was one of those slaughtered without a trial by the Che. It sickens me, not only the movie but the stupid and cruel use of his face on everything from shirts to mugs. How can a killer like that be glorified? It’s a crazy topsy turvy world we live in…

Jan 30, 2009 - 9:28 am 56. Alfredo:

You have to see, what you sid?
The opinion is not smart. If you have something to say in public.
Eres un pedejo de mierda que nisiquira saves lo que escrives.
Y sacate mucho a chigar a tu madre ojete, por getes como tu es por que estamos en esta pedejas gerras y putas resesione mejor quitate de escribir pedejadas puto

Jan 30, 2009 - 11:49 am 57. davod:

Castro’s Cuba was no place for a socialist like me

“Neil Clark says that he went to Havana in search of a left-wing Utopia and discovered instead an island fortress of poverty, corruption and currency apartheid

It’s a country where the vast majority live in poverty, while a tiny, corrupt elite live in luxury. It’s a place where, 14 years after South Africa abolished apartheid, a form of it still operates. And it’s a country where you can be threatened with prison not just for criticising the country’s leadership, but also for querying a medical bill….

…My wife and I, as unreconstructed paleo-lefties who support Clause Four, free school meals and NHS dental provision, had long wanted to visit Castro’s Cuba…But we returned home terribly disillusioned. Neither of us had been to a country which was so utterly decrepit.

Stay on the officially approved tourist trail round the newly renovated streets of ‘Old Havana’ and you’d get the impression that Cuba was a tropical version of Switzerland. There are smart restaurants, designer shops and modern hotels. Wander a few streets away, however, and you’ll witness scenes of incredible dereliction. Dilapidated buildings with wires hanging out, streets that haven’t been resurfaced for more than 50 years, balconies that look like they’re going to fall down at any minute. In my travels in the Middle East and Asia, I’ve certainly witnessed squalor, but nothing prepared me for the back streets of Havana.

The average wage in Cuba is a pitiful $17 a month. The monthly ration which includes 283g of fish, 226g of chicken, ten eggs and 1.8kg of potatoes is barely enough for a fortnight, meaning most Cubans need to work the black market to stay alive. Things that we in Britain take totally for granted — such as toilet paper, toothpaste and pens — are luxury goods in Cuba. I’ll never forget the look of joy from an old lady when I handed her a couple of old marker pens and a coloured pencil.

For Fidel’s chums, life is somewhat easier. Despite its calls for further belt-tightening, the Cuban government last year ordered Series 1, 3 and 5 BMWs for all its ambassadors and a Series 5 model for Raúl Castro, who had taken charge of the country after his brother’s hospitalisation.

The heartbreaking consequences of Cuba’s currency apartheid were bought home to my wife and I on a Saturday afternoon visit to Havana’s Coppelia ‘Ice Cream’ park. To the right of the park gates was a long queue of Cubans who had only Cuban pesos. They have to wait on average two hours every weekend to get their weekly scoop of ice cream. On the left, there was walk-in access to tourists and the lucky locals who had convertible pesos…”

Jan 30, 2009 - 4:11 pm 58. Roderick Reilly:

“”"”"”"where among other things, he met Fidel Castro. Now that’s the way to find out the truth about Che Guevara.”"”"”"”

You mean Castro told del Toro how he (Castro) finally wanted Che dead? So, are you saying that Castro told del Toro about how he told Bolivian Communists to give Che no help whatsover, “not even an aspirin.” The underfunded, outnumbered, and outgunned Che Guevara was hunted down and killed by the Bolivian army and the CIA. Fine by Castro, because now he had a dangerous, too-popular rival out of the way, and he had his own Horst Wessel-like martyr for Cubans and other useful idiots to celebrate.

Did Castro neglect to mention any of this to Benicio?

Jan 30, 2009 - 4:22 pm 59. JFM:

It is not clear if Alfredos is pro or anti CHé. What is clear is that he says a lot of things who are completely unappropriate for a family site and in addition his Spanish is very poor. A true insult to the Spanish language.

Jan 30, 2009 - 4:29 pm 60. Lilith:

LeftWingandBrave:
Sorry, but according to statistics from 2003-2004, the country with the highest standard of living in the Western Hemisphere is …………….CANADA! And I doubt much has changed in five years.

Jan 31, 2009 - 6:39 pm 61. Lilith:

I can’t believe Che Guevera didn’t disappear along with Rajneesh, Timothy Leary, and the Simbionese Liberation Army/Front – I remember my sister had his picture on her bedroom wall and one of her dreams was to go and pick sugar cane in Cuba – This is soooo old.

Jan 31, 2009 - 7:03 pm 62. Richard A Fay:

Of all Guevara’s faults, the one which is least mentioned is that he was a failure as a strategist. He participated in several “insurgencies” after the Cuban revolution and all of them failed, as have most movements which followed his model of guerrilla warfare. Militarily, George Armstrong Custer had a better record.

Feb 2, 2009 - 10:32 am 63. Karl:

Che = Hero

This site = garbage

Feb 9, 2009 - 2:51 pm 64. cheasesino:

Hey leftwing, why don’t you go and live in cuba then? You are free to go. Not the other way around though………..but anyway is not like any one in cuba would risk their lives to reach us land, right?

Mar 27, 2009 - 7:51 am 65. LEo:

What do you mean Totalitarian Killer?
You’re nuts!

This man tried to change something in the latinamerican third world.
It was a war for god’s sake! Batista had placed a mercyless regime, and in spite of an existing middle-class it WAS a murderer regime.

It seems you would have preferred the pre-60s hyper turistisized (prostituized, etc) Cuba,
no wonder you’re from the US!! Your country has poisoned the citizens minds with those ideas.

-a south american citizen-

pd. Vargas LLosa is not a trustable reference (he’s pro-facist)

Apr 29, 2009 - 3:06 pm

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