Cuba shows new images of Castro

Source: BBC

Last Updated: Sunday, 3 June 2007, 07:11 GMT 08:11 UK



Cuba shows new images of Castro
By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Havana

Cuban TV has shown brief video images of President Fidel Castro meeting the head of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh.

The Cuban leader has not appeared in public since being was taken ill with a stomach complaint last July.

These were the first video images for four months.

He is shown in a tracksuit, standing, and appearing less frail than in previous official images - and fit enough to give his guest a warm hug.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6716017.stm

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Oh Ricey,,,, Fidel is looking well...... And meeting with the head of Vietnamese Communist Party which is a country we trade with...

I'd like to know what you would consider frail and sick-looking.

Looks like he is being held up by that other fella.. I've seen elderly in that state, probably has less than a year to live.

.. apply for a job with a traveling circus. :+ :silly:


:hi:

So, do I qualify? Time will tell. Reminds me, I've got to go hang out with my 93 year old grandfather who just lost his wife a month ago and is ailing from Parkinson's, and probably looks better than Fidel in this photo.

:shrug:

I wonder how much makeup they spackled to his face.

turn out the light Fidel.......

you look like hell

Not too many look, at 80, as good as they did in the prime of life.

What they as a still shot is misleading. Maybe Barbra Walters can be granted an interview.
( as long as she does the interview without make up that is )

They do have a history of crimes against Cuba.

How many political parties are there in Cuba that are legal?

Been there. Seen it.

Article 5: The Communist Party of Cuba, a follower of Martí’s ideas and of Marxism-Leninism, and the organized vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the highest leading force of society and of the state, which organizes and guides the common effort toward the goals of the construction of socialism and the progress toward a communist society.

Article 53: Citizens have freedom of speech and of the press in keeping with the objectives of socialist society. Material conditions for the exercise of that right are provided by the fact that the press, radio, television, cinema, and other mass media are state or social property and can never be private property. This assures their use at exclusive service of the working people and in the interests of society.
The law regulated the exercise of those freedoms.

Article 62: None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary to what is established in the Constitution and by law, or contrary to the existence and objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism. Violations of this principle can be punished by law.

Article 39: The state orients, foments and promotes education, culture and science in all their manifestations.
Its educational and cultural policy is based on the following principles:
a) the state bases its educational and cultural policy on the progress made in science and technology, the ideology of Marx and Martí, and universal and Cuban progressive pedagogical tradition;

c) the state promotes the patriotic and communist education of the new generations and the training of children, young people and adults for social life.

d) there is freedom of artistic creation as long as its content is not contrary to the Revolution.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Cuba

he is looking good

trade with Cuba? Something must be wrong here. (sarcasm loaded)

Castro's Cuba can be a lesson to the world
By Peter Pallot
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 31/05/2007

Obituary writers have been preparing reviews of Fidel Castro for some months. A point they are sure to report is that Cuba's leader bequeathed a healthcare system of extraordinary value for money.

Cubans have life expectancy above 77 years and infant mortality at 6.3 per 1,000 live births. These rates, seen as universal markers of a nation's public health service, are comparable to those in America and many European countries. Yet they have been achieved on tiny budgets.

The World Health Organisation puts the island's annual health spend at US$251 per person. That is roughly a tenth of the UK's expenditure on health, which runs at nine per cent of GDP.

advertisementMatthew Young, of the Adam Smith Institute, who organised Dr McClellan's visit to Britain, believes Castro has a lesson for us all.

He said Cubans were achieving broadly the same morbidity (illness incidence) rates and health status as developed countries. "This has been driven by the need to reduce the cost of healthcare. They could not afford hospitals, so services were community-based.

''Physicians would visit your home, check the health status of your family.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/05/31/hecuba.xml

:woohoo:

This is hard one. I'd better sleep on it.

There, I said it.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/cu.html

* Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) {Communist Party of Cuba}
* Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Cuba (PDC) {Christian Democratic Party of Cuba} - Oswaldo Paya's Catholic party
* Partido Solidaridad Democrática (PSD) {Democratic Solidarity Party}
* Partido Social Revolucionario Democrático Cubano {Cuban Social Revolutionary Democratic Party}
* Coordinadora Social Demócrata de Cuba (CSDC) {Social Democratic Coordination of Cuba}
* Unión Liberal Cubana {Cuban Liberal Union}

The Cuban government was reorganized (approved by popular vote) into a variant parliamentary system in 1976.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

Or a long and detailed version here,

Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections
Arnold August
1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

Posted on Mon, Jun. 04, 2007
A ruddy-cheeked Castro goes on TV
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on Cuban TV looking stronger and more upbeat.

HAVANA -- (AP) -- Talking at length, grinning for cameras and even cracking jokes, Fidel Castro looked stronger and more vibrant Sunday as the first TV images of the ailing Cuban leader in four months appeared to confirm official reports he is feeling better.

The two-and-a-half-minute clip appears to show Castro in the same red track suit with black and white trim that he wore in past official images. At times, the 80-year-old shakes his fist and waggles a finger for effect while talking to Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh, who met with him on Saturday.

The pair are later shown smiling and embracing warmly. An upbeat Castro even draws laughs when he compliments a translator on how well he speaks Vietnamese and Spanish.

''Vietnam is a country that we will never forget,'' Castro says.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/127754.html

Source: Reuters

Castro to return to Cuban TV in interview Tuesday

Mon Jun 4, 7:15 PM ET

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been
seen in public for 10 months, will appear on Cuban television on
Tuesday in his first interview since undergoing emergency surgery
last year, a TV announcer said on Monday.

In a short preview of the interview, a healthier-looking Castro spoke
about Vietnamese leader Nong Duc Manh who visited him on Saturday.

Castro, 80, wore a red and white track suit and not his trademark
military fatigues. He has not been seen in those since he underwent
bowel surgery last July.

The interview will be aired at 6 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on Cuba's
Mesa Redonda (Round Table) nightly television program, hosted by
journalist Randy Alonso.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070604/wl_nm/cuba_castro_dc