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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (382035)	9/11/2010 10:51:01 AM
From: miraje	5 Recommendations Respond to of 794009

Castro replied: “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore” In truth, it never did. Perhaps he should have a chat with Comrade Hugo down in Venezuela and clue him in on reality.. Unfortunately, however, reality holds little appeal to megalomaniac, tin pot dictators such as Chavez, or some of the leftists moonbats in this country, for that matter. Viva la revolución..

To: LindyBill who wrote (382035)	9/11/2010 11:34:45 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 794009

Castro pulls an Obama and walks back comment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Castro: I Meant That 'Capitalist System' Doesn't Work Published: Friday, 10 Sep 2010 \| 4:12 PM ET By: Reuters cnbc.com Fidel Castro said Friday his recent comment that communist-led Cuba's economic model does not work was badly understood and that what he really meant was that capitalism does not work. Castro, speaking at the University of Havana, said his words had been misinterpreted by his interviewer, U.S. journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, who quoted a U.S. analyst saying they indicated Castro now supports a smaller state role in the island's Soviet-style economy. Goldberg wrote in a blog on Wednesday that he asked Castro, 84, if Cuba's model was still worth exporting to other countries. "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore,' Castro told him. Castro confirmed that he said those words "without bitterness or concern.' But, he said, "the reality is that my response means exactly the opposite.' "My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn't work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.' Castro's words to Goldberg had been interpreted by some as a rejection of communism, by others as an indication that he supports economic reforms being implemented by his younger brother, President Raul Castro. President Castro, who took office in early 2008, has introduced modest changes aimed at increasing productivity while preserving the communist system installed by Fidel Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution. Missile Crisis Goldberg, who interviewed Castro two weeks ago in Havana, wrote in a Tuesday blog that Castro had criticized Iran for anti-Semitism and renounced his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when he urged the Soviet Union to launch nuclear weapons on the United States. "After I've seen what I've seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn't worth it at all,' Castro told Goldberg of his recommendation to the Soviets. Castro said Goldberg did not understand the irony in his comments and that had the U.S. threatened to invade Cuba, he would have recommended a nuclear strike to prevent it. The irony referred to what he described as a betrayal by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who he said gave military secrets to the United States while "saturated by intoxicating substances.' Castro summoned Goldberg to Havana to discuss his recent article about the danger of conflict between Israel and Iran, with possible U.S. involvement, over Iran's growing nuclear capabilities. Since emerging in July from four years of seclusion following intestinal surgery, Castro has repeatedly warned that nuclear war could break out if the United States and Israel try to enforce international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear activities. Despite his clarifications, Castro said he still thinks Goldberg is a "great journalist.' "He does not invent quotes. He transfers and interprets them,' he said.

To: LindyBill who wrote (382035)	9/13/2010 4:55:14 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	6 Recommendations Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 794009

Cuba gets the message, when will Obama [or California] Cuba to Lay Off 500,000 State Employees, Ease Private-Enterprise Curbs By JOSE DE CORDOBA Cuba will lay off more than half a million state workers and try to create hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs, a sharp shift by the hemisphere's only Communist country toward a more capitalist-style economy. The mass layoffs will take place between now and the end of March, according to a statement by the Cuban Workers Federation, the island nation's only official labor union. Workers will be encouraged to find private-sector jobs. "Our state can't keep maintaining ... budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls," the statement said. The move represents Cuba's biggest step towards a more market-oriented economic system since the early 1990s, when it embarked on a brief period of change after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main benefactor. The shift in the workforce is also the boldest effort to remake the flagging economy since Raul Castro, the brother of retired dictator Fidel Castro, took the helm of the Communist country more than four years ago after his brother fell gravely ill. To help workers who are laid off, the union said Cuba will allow a far greater number of citizens to work for themselves rather than in state jobs, handing out licenses for self-employment and promoting job-creating industries like oil and tourism. "Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-state employment, among them leasing land, cooperatives and self-employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years," the union statement said. The changes were announced shortly after Fidel Castro gave a controversial interview to The Atlantic magazine, in which he said the Cuban model no longer worked for any country, much less Cuba. Mr. Castro later said he was kidding and was misunderstood. Cuba's 1990s experiment with market economics didn't last long. Changes, such as permitting self-employment and allowing the U.S. dollar to circulate, were gradually rolled back after the island stabilized its economy. online.wsj.com