So I take it you don't like Trudeau or Castro then? You have to let these feelings out, it isn't healthy to bottle stuff like that up. Years ago the hippies here used to send a semi across the country to pick up everyone's donated used computers, and they'd be sent to Cuba to help support them against the blockade. I've never been to Cuba, but a friend brought me back some Cuban beer once, and it was good. Castro was and remains a role model for socialist revolutionaries not only in the Americas but worldwide alongside Mao and Ho. As for Trudeau, I wasn't offended by his eulogy, (but tbh I'm still dancing that Harper didn't get in) and he knows full well that there are both Cuban ex-pats in Canada who are pro Castro and those who are not and that there will be letters, and what some of the trade possibilities are with Cuba now. Trump's emissions about Castro's death show the depth of his understanding about diplomacy.

I haven't been to Cuba either. A daughter worked there for a summer and came back craving pasta after weeks and weeks of red beans and rice. She said life seemed hard but healthcare good; that's quite an achievement if your point of comparison is Haiti.

Castro was Cubas Hitler as far as I am concerned. His persecution of gays and well, anyone he didn't like or who disagreed with him, is deplorable. Imagine living in a Harper or any elected or should I say forced PM reign for 59 years !!! Then say "oh that was nice" now what ?

Well yes, Castro was a brutal despot in a third world country. If we compare him with Harper he has an outstanding record of achievement but the circumstances are wildly different; it's hard to make a dramatic change in a country with a developed economy (though Trump may manage that), democratic checks and balances held Harper back. The proper comparison to Castro might be Papa Doc Duvalier or Robert Mugabe; or any other benign, friendly, people loving, third world ruler, Chavez maybe?

I've been there a couple of times, albeit as a tourist. The people didn't seem to be suffering much. Not much money, for sure, but I've seen worse places.

We may go there again in January, to do Havana properly. It's a fascinating place.

Maybe now he is dead Cubans will be able to live a normal life, even travel the world, if they ever get enough $$

And gay people may one day forgive the twat

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.pinkne...?client=safari

I didn't realise they'd made homosexuality legal in 1979, it's still worth 10 years and mandatory registration as a sex offender in Jamaica. The church has a huge stake in Jamaican politics. "Despite Castro's shortcomings in the field of civil liberties, he was a pioneer in the early days of conversion therapy" #PenceEulogies

Would the people in Cuba have been better off in Haiti, the Central African Republic, the Belgian Congo, Honduras?

No doubt Castro's absolute power allowed him to persecute whichever people he didn't like but it's not the case that without him the people would have been living in a happy paradise.

As my nan says, in the way old people absent mindedly appropriate, “All you need to know about Fidel Castro, is he done a lot for the country but you wouldn’t want to shag him.”

Up against the bins behind Woolies!

No, but they would have been better off in England, USA, Canada, even France at a push, but they were not there were they

The major issue Cuba had to contend with was the US. You have to ask yourself the question 'By what right does one country seek to victimise another simply because it disagrees with it's political system?'

I don't deny that Castro may have ruthlessly acted against political opponents but you have to look at the history of failed invasions, failed assassinations, active subversion and a strangling embargo to ask 'Did the US act in any way to make the lives of Cubans any easier or did they with purpose seek to persecute an entire country to change the regime?'

Now where have I heard of the US acting to implement regime change recently.. and not so recently as well?

A puppet despot who replaced a puppet despot. Still a little rich of the U.S. to slag him off when they have a torture camp based there where people are held without trial.