Castro angry over Forbes listing

CNN

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro has criticized Forbes magazine for the "infamy" of listing him among the world's richest people, with a net worth of $550 million.

"Once again, they have committed the infamy of speaking about Castro's fortune, placing me almost above the queen of England," Castro said in a speech to top officials of Cuba's ruling Communist Party, military and police.

On Tuesday Forbes published a story on the fortunes of the world's richest rulers and heads of state, including Castro, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the Sultan of Brunei, saying none were "exemplars of capitalism" and did not qualify for the world billionaires list.

The magazine said Castro derived his fortune from a web of state-owned companies that include retail conglomerate CIMEX, pharmaceutical company Medicuba and a convention center near Havana.

One does not have to be a Castro-booster or a socialist to call Forbes on this.

Regardless of what Mr. Forbes or anyone else thinks of socialism, it is absurd to list Cuba's state-owned assests as the personal property of the Cuban leader.

Would Mr. Forbes say the Bush owns the nuclear missiles in US government silos? Of course not. Or that the mayor of Los Angeles owns the the public Department of Water and Power? Don't be silly.

To comparare Castro to one of the world's richest industrialists because he is the leadeer of a socialist state is comparing apples to oragnes. Mr. Forbes should know better.

decided that essentially all Cuban commercial assets belonged to Castro. What a freaking joke. Unlike corrupt dictators around the world, they can't actually document any foreign bank accounts etc. that would constitute actual plundered wealth controlled by Castro. Fidel has lots of problems, but plundering Cuba does not appear to be one of them.

"companies" that don't bear the bush name, but hold all of the bush mafia plundered wealth.

Cummon, Forbes, do your homework!!

:kick::kick::kick:

<clips>

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Most people would be flattered if Forbes magazine estimated their personal fortune at US$550 million (euro410 million) - but Cuban President Fidel Castro is not, apparently, one of them.

Cuba's embassy in Mexico issued a stinging rebuke on Wednesday of the Forbes article without mentioning the magazine by name, calling it "a repugnant example of a campaign of lies'' by "an American magazine of decaying credibility.''

"It is a clumsy slander and a repugnant example of a campaign of lies perpetrated in the United States with the sole aim of justifying the criminal blockade of Cuba,'' the embassy said in a press statement.

Embassy officials could not immediately explain why the statement was released in Mexico, rather than in Havana, the Cuban capital.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/3/17/latest/20050317090115&sec=Latest

This is pure nonsense. Will the value of government run ventures such as the Defense Department and U.S. Postal Service be added up to determine George Bush's net worth?

The value of nationalized government enterprises has never been used to determine the net worth of any government officials. They are not privately owned and are not set-up to make a "profit" which goes to the President or Prime Minister of that nation.

Using Forbes bogus system I have to wonder what the net worth of leaders in the former Soviet Union would have been. Perhaps a trillion or two dollars?

Forbes admitted just how bogus their method of determining Castro's personal "wealth" is in the article admitting "valuing these treasures can get tricky."

"In the past, we have relied on a percentage of Cuba's gross domestic product to estimate Fidel Castro's fortune," Forbes explained.

"This year, we have used more traditional valuation methods, comparing state-owned assets Castro is assumed to control with comparable publicly traded companies."

That's some assumption!

for this. Here's how they've calculated his actual material wealth:

The weekly financial magazine said that "valuing these treasures can get tricky."

"In the past, we have relied on a percentage of Cuba's gross domestic product to estimate Fidel Castro's fortune," Forbes explained.

"This year, we have used more traditional valuation methods, comparing state-owned assets Castro is assumed to control with comparable publicly traded companies," it said.
(snip)

That would be exactly like claiming _{George W. Bush's} wealth includes the assets of the United States. This is laughable, yet they will dupe the slow-witted who don't have the capacity or attention span needed to think it over!

A similar stunt was used during the 1960's when in "Operation Mongoose," created by Psy Ops specialist, Air Force Brig. General Edward Lansdale:

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon offered President John F. Kennedy an extraordinary variety of dirty tricks intended to sabotage Fidel Castro, newly declassified documents show.
(snip)

These plans ranged from sophomoric pranks, like faking a picture of a fat and debauched Castro to destroy the Cuban leader's image, to murderous plots, including sinking a boatload of Cuban refugees as a phony pretext for a U.S. military invasion.

Then there was Operation Good Times. That involved sowing Cuba with faked photos of "an obese Castro" with two voluptuous women in a lavishly furnished room "and a table brimming over with the most delectable Cuban food." The faked photo would be captioned "my ration is different."
(snip/...)

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kencast.htm

they did this same thing a number of years back. A google search would probably turn up the figures over the years.

Predictable. Just another attempt to ratchet up the bullshit for the upcoming UNCHR in Geneva. Typical US slander from the ugly northern neighbor.

Viva Cuba!!

or possibly a Delphi message board became driven to obsess on the idea Fidel Castro's car was a Mercedes. They went over and over it. I couldn't understand the motivation, and wanted to ask them if they expected heads of state to use bicycles, or a cab, or merely HITCHHIKE when going to and from state events.

There have been right-wing people breathing down his neck from the first.

By the way, his OWN family's plantation was the very FIRST PROPERTY NATIONALIZED by Cuba after the revolution, and it has become a tourist stop in the later years.