Your Political Ideology

[Wes]

What is your Political Ideology. I'm just wondering what part of the spectrum all you people are from. :)

[vivian]

My ideology is democratic. I came from Cuba 42 year ago as part of the Peter Pan group. As I got older and began to study and read more and more about cuban politics both in Cuba and in the US I've come to the conclusion that the embargo is a joke. First of all since its inception Cubans have send money, medicine and other items to their relatives. These are the same people that want the embargo to continue The majority of Cubans on the island are between ages of birth to 60 which means that most of them have lived through Castro's regime.
Everyone talks about Castro's cruelty towards his people but Batista was just as cruel. Cuba's government today is the most stable in all Latin American countries, it also should not be overlooked that in Cuba everyone must have an education,
making Cuba on of the few countries where iliteracy has been erradicated.
Don't get me wrong, I do not agree with his fredomless regime but I also don't agree with those pompous cubans in Miami and elsewhere who rather starve the people as retaliation against Castro since many of them gave money to the Revolution.
We need to move on and accept the country's governmet like we(US) have done with countries like China whose human rights record is attrocious.
Cuban-americans think they are going to go back and take over the country, think again; the cubans there are the real ones. They have lived during Castro tolerated his regime and followed his rules. We came, became cuban-americans have lived the good life, what else do we want? Begin another dictatorship? I blieve that all those big shot cubans who want to go back and take back what was once theirs also want to create their own gov. Same dog with different collar.
My parents tell me all the time that they send me here alone to save me from Castro, but that so call "salvation" was a hell. I lived in an orphanage for 5 years wore clothes others donated Christmas was a ***** just like every other holiday.
By the time my parents arrived I resented them for what they did. "Saving me from Castro?" bull**** I would have preferred
staying with them and leave together. This in not just my feelings I think I speak for quite a few Pedro Pan kids.
The property that we all left behind no longer belongs to us and we have no rights to it, it's call squater's rights.
Well I've said enough about the subject. I know that some of you that read this will accuse me of being a communist, just like my mother, but I don't care. What I care about are the people who have no relatives here and therefore cannot receive money medicine and other neccessary things.
In closing I like to say that I am planning to visit Cuba for the first time next year and I'm looking foward to it because even though it is said that the city is in shambles it is still Cuba the place where I was born.

[Michiel]

Brave statement

[greslogo]

I wish you peace in your life.

[mellisas]

hi vivian,
the last time you posted hear you touched my heart,and you have done it again.
your trip to cuba is going to be an amazing experience.
l hope everything goes well for you there.

[Rebelde]

Reply to Vivian. Thank you for your true and frank comments about Cuba. Americans tend to forget or don't know that Fulgencio Batista was the first dictator of Cuba when he suspended the Cuban Constitution. Machado and Batista were both very cruel, U.S. backed, leaders. Batista left Cuba, a poor country, with 300 million dollars on January 1, 1959. What impresses me most about Cuba is the freedom that the children have to run and play in the streets and parks, unaccompanied by parents, and without fear of violence. Cuba also has twice as many doctors per capita as the U.S. I have also been called a Communist, by Cuban Americans, because of my dissemination of the truth about Cuba. I find that rather ironic because I fought against communism in South Vietnam. The main thing that the U.S. government and Cuban Americans have to fear about Cuba is the TRUTH.

[fscat]

I don't doubt that some good has come out of the Revolution. But don't pretend that Cuba is some happy well adjusted place. You can't critize Castro at all without some sort of prison sentence or harrassment. I recently saw a special about Cuba and it highlighted a Cuban journalist who was being sentenced to jail by the government for a year and a half for his call for more democracy. Another filmmaker had a film confiscated because it talked about racism in Cuba, but there is no racism in socialist Cuba (sarcasm). So the film was taken after one showing. Also here is a article from Amnesty International:
Human rights violations continue in Cuba despite some improvements. There are fewer prisoners of conscience, and no executions have been carried out since 1999. However, dissidents are still imprisoned and harassed and about 50 people are on death row. The 40-year-old embargo against Cuba by the USA continues to contribute to a climate in which fundamental human rights are denied.

Prisoners of conscience
Although the number of prisoners of conscience in Cuba has decreased significantly over recent years, dissidents are still targeted both by state officials and government supporters. There are at least six prisoners of conscience, such as the journalist Bernardo Arévalo Padrón who was found guilty of “disrespect” and sentenced to six years imprisonment for accusing President Fidel Castro and Vice-President Carlos Lage of lying in an interview given to a US radio station.

Harassment
There appears to be a shift from long-term prison sentences to other forms of punishment and harassment such as short-term detentions, house searches, evictions, loss of employment and restrictions on travel.

This harassment is used not just against specific individuals but to suppress larger protests and pro-change movements. For example, people attempting to collect signatures for the Proyecto Varela petition have been subject to threats, short-term detention and confiscation of materials by State Security agents. The Proyecto Varela petition calls for a referendum on legal reform, and has reportedly collected more than the 10,000 voters’ signatures required to introduce the subject before the National Assembly.

Death penalty
An unofficial moratorium has been declared on executions. However, legislation allowing the use of the death penalty is still in place and some 50 people are still on death row.

Death row prisoners have at times been subjected to extremely poor conditions. One letter from a death row prisoner says he was confined in a windowless cell, with no toilet or running water, and was denied the right to go outside for months at a time. In July 2000, non-governmental sources in Cuba reported that one death row prisoner had been held for 18 months in solitary confinement in a closed cell where temperatures often reached 32 degrees centigrade.

I understand the embargo hasn't helped matters any. But don't fool yourself and remember Castro's regime is very oppressive.

[greslogo]

40 people on death row.... how many in the USA. How many wrongfully convicted ? With DNA testing now available, how many are being let go ? How many were not so lucky, in the past.

"In July 2000, non-governmental sources in Cuba reported that one death row prisoner had been held for 18 months in solitary confinement in a closed cell where temperatures often reached 32 degrees centigrade. *"

LOL.... that's the temperature in just about every Cubans home.

Solitary for death row inmates is the norm in the USA.

I am not suggesting that freedom of speech is not restricted but one does not need to provide "evidence" that, at first appearance, seens to be unusual, when in fact is normal for any country.

[jackd]

Since 1976, death penalty states have been engaged in a macabre experiment. State legislators have enacted a wide range of statutory regulations that apply to capital crimes. States have tried various methods of execution, from the firing squad to today's favored lethal injection. And, with the passage of time, the number of executions has increased exponentially, from one in 1977 to seventy-four in 1997, to six hundred and ten in 1999. The size of death row has also increased, so that today's death row population of slightly more than 3,500 is the not only the largest in U.S. history, but the largest in any country in the world.

http://archive.aclu.org/executionwatch.html