The previous post focused on the online blog which Cuban Comandante Fidel Castro writes. It noted that:
Fidel Castro is in many ways a throw-back to the past, back in the days when communism ruled half of Europe and nuclear war seemed a distinct possibility. He is more than 80 years old now, and no longer controls the nation Cuba.
Nevertheless, Mr. Castro still maintains a blog (older articles can be accessed here), in which he writes about the latest happenings in this world.
To be fair, the postings are probably taken from some sort of written article; most likely they are put online by a government employee rather than him.
It makes for fascinating reading.
More below.
There are several other interesting aspects of the blog, which this post will talk about.
One quite surprising thing is the extent to which Mr. Castro follows American politics. The shooting of Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords was, for instance, actually given several posts of coverage. This says something about America’s influence in the world. If a crazy man shoots a minor politician elsewhere in the world, nobody would care. But when it happens in America, even Fidel Castro himself writes about it.
Mr. Castro tends to quote speeches and newspaper articles – even those made by his ideological opponents – at length. He then makes brief comments, usually in disagreement. This is quite different from the American style.
In addition, sometimes the wording is not done well or doesn’t entirely make sense, although the general idea is still pretty clear. This maybe due to translation issues into English. Alternatively, Mr. Castro’s age may have led to his writing style deteriorating.
Finally, there are times when the Comandante’s opinions are out-of-whack with even the most radical Americans. A few articles, for instance, argue that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was a hero resisting Western aggression.
Then there is his interpretation of North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean submarine:
SINCE the day of March 26, neither Obama nor the president of South Korea have been able to explain what really happened to the flagship of the South Korean Navy, the state-of-the-art submarine hunter Cheonan, which was taking part in a maneuver with the U.S. Navy to the west of the Korean Peninsula, close to the limits of the two Republics, which provoked 46 deaths and dozens of injured.
The embarrassing aspect for the empire is that its ally knows from reliable sources that the boat was sunk by the United States. There is no way of eluding that fact, which will accompany them like a shadow.
Once again, this conspiracy theory goes against the entire educated opinion of the United States.
All in all, Mr. Castro’s writings offer quite a different perspective from the typical Washington attitude. This is a pretty obvious conclusion, but it is worth repeating. It is also very much worth reading what he writes. As the previous post argued:
All in all, I highly encourage anybody reading this to visit Mr. Castro’s website. One’s understanding of the world is always enhanced by reading what one’s ideological opponents say. With the rise of the Internet, it’s quite amazing that anybody can just go online and check out some of Mr. Castro’s thoughts on current events. One should take the opportunity.
–inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/