Doesn't stop the EU doing 2.5 billion Euros worth of trade with cuba every year though. In fact US sanctions were eased in 2000 to allow exports of agricultural products and medicines from the US and America is now Cuba's biggest supplier of food and it's fourth largest trading partner (after the EU, China and Canada).
You paint such a rosy picture, but there’s more to this allowing of agricultural products than meets the eye; Link
Plus as a bonus here’s a few relevant quotes from Wikipedia that make your rose look rather withred !
“ On October 10, 2006 the United States announced the creation of a task force made up of officials from several US agencies that will pursue more aggressively violators of the US trade embargo against Cuba, with penalties as severe as 10 years of prison and thousands of dollars in fines for violators of the embargo.[10]
The Helms-Burton Act has been the target of criticism from Canadian and European governments in particular, who resent the extraterritorial pretensions of a piece of legislation aimed at punishing non-U.S. corporations and non-U.S. investors who have economic interests in Cuba
The United Nations has condemned the embargo as a violation of international law since the 1990s.[13] The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Perez Roque called the embargo 'an act of genocide'. Cuba has also denounced as "theft" the use of frozen Cuban assets to pay for lawsuits filed in the US against the Republic of Cuba”
See my posting above. The EU is Cuba's biggest trading partner and in 2006 UK direct exports to Cuba were worth £11.5 million but Cuban authorities think much more is imported via third parties. Over 200,000 British tourists visit the island every year. Trade with the US is worth 304 million Euros compared to 2.5 billion with the EU.
The figures I supplied are the official numbers from the EU and Foreign Office websites. Can't put links up but go search.
Should've pointed this out earlier.
Despite America's posturing it seems many nations, including it's own major trading partners, do a lot of trade with Cuba. I don't think the US can do much about it without spiting it's own face.
Despite America's posturing it seems many nations, including it's own major trading partners, do a lot of trade with Cuba. I don't think the US can do much about it without spiting it's own face.
Threats of heavy financial fines as well as 10 years in prison, can be described as a little more than just “posturing” ! The fact that some business is done in spite of US threats, is no credit to the US ! Imagine how much trade could be done if there was no embargo, and imagine all the harm that has been done because of decades of this vindictive & criminal policy.
Originally posted by Rabies: '...when it comes to Castro, useful idiots have never been in short supply. From Norman Mailer to Jean-Paul Sartre, from Jesse Jackson to Ted Turner, a long line of admirers has swooned over the bearded tyrant, lavishly praising his wisdom and charm - and never showing the slightest interest in his real record: cruelty, repression, and a death toll in the tens of thousands.'
"The Castro regime executed more people in just its first three years than the Pinochet regime killed or 'disappeared' in its entire 17 years in power,"... "Yet Castro's victims, who number so many times more - and who include not just political opponents but entire families assassinated for trying to flee - remain unknown, ignored, or forgotten.
Originally posted by littleandoften: How embarrassing! Unthinking groupies!
You didn't think he looked really, really tired and a bit drunk? Or you didn't question why he wanted to do his piece from a bar? He was spot on about the suspension of democracy here during the war, making C4 look stupid. But other than that, he was doing what he does best...cheerleading a dictator and sweeping aside human rights as inferior to strong government that stands up to the USA.
Most Cubans don't live in Cuba. There's a reason for that!
Indeed. During a general amnesty in the very early seventies, Castro emptied the prisons of all their murderers, thugs, pimps, prostitutes,crooks and general bad hats and gave them all permission to migrate to Miami! Which they duly did. What a master stroke!
Originally posted by littleandoften: How embarrassing! Unthinking groupies!
You didn't think he looked really, really tired and a bit drunk? Or you didn't question why he wanted to do his piece from a bar? He was spot on about the suspension of democracy here during the war, making C4 look stupid. But other than that, he was doing what he does best...cheerleading a dictator and sweeping aside human rights as inferior to strong government that stands up to the USA.
Most Cubans don't live in Cuba. There's a reason for that!
Indeed. During a general amnesty in the very early seventies, Castro emptied the prisons of all their murderers, thugs, pimps, prostitutes,crooks and general bad hats and gave them all permission to migrate to Miami! Which they duly did. What a master stroke!
A master stroke indeed. The failed attempt to send Michael Moore to Cuba was pathetic retaliation.
A master stroke indeed. The failed attempt to send Michael Moore to Cuba was pathetic retaliation.
I never knew Michael Moore was among the gang of US marines who attempted an illegal coup. That's the Cuban one not the;
1949 syrian one,
1953 Iran one,
1953 British Guyana one
1954 Guatemala one
1955 South Korean one
1957 Haiti one or any of the many times they attacked invaded and tried put a pro USA leader into Laos during the fifties and preceding decades because they disagreed with the foreign policy of an independent nation?
Hmmm Cuba was a real and present danger to the USA then.
Oh well that make's it all right then. Providing they never sink as low as America Cuba can do whatever it wants.
There you go again, misrepresenting & adding your straw-man to attack.
It would be like me now assuming from what you have just written that you regard America as the ultimate low any country could fall to, unless of course this is what you really believe ?
One shouldn't gloat, but these Castro threads are a cool little reminder of how isolated and bonkers the rest of us have made lefties seem. Do they realise, I wonder, that the putting of their beliefs into action in terms of electoral success in any western nation stretches ever further into never. You have people here passionately defending one-party dictatorships on the basis that they haven't killed or imprisoned quite as many people as the USA! How attractive your ideology must seem to the average floating voter, trade unionist, hard-working single mum etc etc! Leftosaurus bones, anyone?
Oh well that make's it all right then. Providing they never sink as low as America Cuba can do whatever it wants.
There you go again, misrepresenting & adding your straw-man to attack.
It would be like me now assuming from what you have just written that you regard America as the ultimate low any country could fall to, unless of course this is what you really believe ?
America as the ultimate low any country could fall to
Is it not? It's certainly seems to be heading that way, if it isn't already.
One shouldn't gloat, but these Castro threads are a cool little reminder of how isolated and bonkers the rest of us have made lefties seem. Do they realise, I wonder, that the putting of their beliefs into action in terms of electoral success in any western nation stretches ever further into never. You have people here passionately defending one-party dictatorships on the basis that they haven't killed or imprisoned quite as many people as the USA! How attractive your ideology must seem to the average floating voter, trade unionist, hard-working single mum etc etc! Leftosaurus bones, anyone?
You & Fil2 are both missing the point being made; the highlighting of such comparisons is never made to show that two wrongs make a right; instead it to show-up the hypocrisy of those who support one (often bigger) wrong but chose to cry about another. Do you get it now, or should I use even simpler language ?
Originally posted by Turk123: You & Fil2 are both missing the point being made; the highlighting of such comparisons is never made to show that two wrongs make a right; instead it to show-up the hypocrisy of those who support one (often bigger) wrong but chose to cry about another. Do you get it now, or should I use even simpler language ?
Originally posted by aubrun: Galloway had a few good points to make but it needs someone better than a clown to make us take them seriously.
He's still better off sucking people's toes in a big brother house.
Good grief! Politician imitates unelected royalty and Prime Minister Major! Does this make him more of a clown than these Right Honourables and Highnesses? Galloway at least states his beliefs lucidly whilst others pontificate and withhold the truth about their real motives.
Probably, but I like to think that common-sense is a universal ability; but now seeing the posts following yours, I'm beginning to despair that this is a false belief !
One shouldn't gloat, but these Castro threads are a cool little reminder of how isolated and bonkers the rest of us have made lefties seem. Do they realise, I wonder, that the putting of their beliefs into action in terms of electoral success in any western nation stretches ever further into never. You have people here passionately defending one-party dictatorships on the basis that they haven't killed or imprisoned quite as many people as the USA! How attractive your ideology must seem to the average floating voter, trade unionist, hard-working single mum etc etc! Leftosaurus bones, anyone?
You & Fil2 are both missing the point being made; the highlighting of such comparisons is never made to show that two wrongs make a right; instead it to show-up the hypocrisy of those who support one (often bigger) wrong but chose to cry about another. Do you get it now, or should I use even simpler language ?
Yes, but where are these supporters/hiders of the bigger wrong? I'm certainly not one...
There are posters here calling Castro 'the great man' and so on. I think some of us need to highlight some facts about Cuba to them. It is not a matter of opinion. It is empirically wrong and universally incorrect to laud Castro as a great man. He has presided over some extremely nasty stuff. That is not changed by the fact that the Americans have also.
