Castro

Certainly isn't niggly

Almost certainly ab! Freedom of expression is not the order of the day in a Dictatorships!!!!

Exactly niggly , electricity is a high price to pay for a life time of total submission, even GN would be banned

We're using Hitlers autobahns to this day! Dictators right and left are fine so long as you tow the party line to the enth degree, keep you and your families heads well below the radar line, never ever even consider having an individual thought, (God forbid action) even in your head because if you do, it's the firing squad for you and those close and not so close to you. All is fine if you don't mind having your whole life completely mapped out for you from cradle to grave, but if you do mind and make this obvious then for certain you would be treading a very dangerous path with unspeakable consequences. Carrot and stick are always the Dictators way particularly in the early days. Heaven help you if you cross the line!!

Difficult to forget Galloways greeting to Kadafi too

It's on utube

So Gallaway, McDonald, Adams, Corbyn and Putin mourn the passing of this great leader !

What a deeply disturbing thing for him to have said...

Oh, well, that's alright then, we can forgive everything else.

Just heard George Galloway paying tribute to his idol, seems he is one of the few to have seen Castro naked and he was a fine figure of a man !

I think that your last sentence says it all really Jalima

Nothing is completely black or white, but the Castro regime was far more black than white!
a lot of dictators start out with some good impulses/intentions but all goes by the board when they think they may be thwarted in some way.All dictators/tyrants become monsters eventually.

Assuming that someone thinks "because a tyrant/dictator sends a team to help in Haiti or anywhere else, that it nullifies all the evil deeds and years of oppression." is also assuming that all the evil deeds and years of oppression." mean not recognising it when they DID send help where it was needed, and the other things that WERE improved.

You don't have to support and approve a totalitarian regime or its dictator leader to acknowledge that they had SOME good impulses, however small. No more than you would condemn a good humanitarian leader of a democratic state to rot in hell for SOME things they didn't get right, however small.

good question Jalima

Revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts but on moral conviction

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/fidel-castro-dies-dead-cuba-dictator-communism-human-rights-abuses-executions-freedoms-censorship-a7440636.html

I am puzzled that posters who are avowed pacifists reconcile their beliefs with their approval of Castro and his regime of suppression, torture and murder - and his use of guns - except for the 'ordinary population' who were not allowed them.

Or is there a 'right kind of killing' 'justified torture' as long as it is for the 'right ideals' (in their eyes) and not the 'wrong' ones?

Penstemmon I like and concur with your clear description of the 2 extremes.

Is it not also obvious that the outlook or interpretation of the "ism" a country practises emanates totally from the personality of the leader? Not discounting his/her backup support.
Fidel's Cuba is gone with Fidel. Let's see what follows, if anything.

No Jen, socialism does not mean firing squads , internment camps , dictatorships, classed by trisher as faults! But I am sure you will agree since the election of Corbyn you and I have discovered we have totally different views on socialism.

Yes, Penstemmon, the Cubans joke that they are healthier and better educated than many US citizens, despite the 50 year blockade.

They have it because Castro sorted it, water and electricity to all households, as well as an excellent health service and education. Fidel's legacy, the rural poor have benefited most from his policies.
That's socialism for you. Isn't it what you want, Annie?

Approx 14% of US citizens & 12% of UK citizens live in poverty. So still work to do! Other European countries, like Germany, have fewer!

Then if they live in poverty hoe hsve they got electricity, perhaps it's free ?

Of course they do. The US had an economic embargo. Obama was the first to try and ease it. Trump will just go back to what it was before unless the Cubans do what he says.

We are worried about trade here because of Brexit. Just think how much worse it must be in Cuba, being unable to trade with the US.

On the news it was said a third live in poverty,

Somehow, I don't think Castro will be bothered, roses, whether anyone sheds a tear.
In my paper today, there were photos of Cubans crying and wondering why. It's because they are afraid of what will happen next.
At least in Cuba the grandchildren of peasants can become surgeons. They all have electricity and clean running water.

Interesting to se how things will pan out between Cuba and USA It will be interesting to see if Raul and Donald will manage to see eye to eye over anything. The extreme right meet extreme left so only a hair's breadth between them!

The extreme left surpress opposition/minorities they do not like and build up education and health care and keep power amongst an 'elite' family group'. Present themselves (falsely) as 'benign' dictators.
The extreme right supress opposition/minorities they do not like and build up business monopolies and keep power amongst an elite wealthy group.Present themselves (falsely)as 'men of the real people'

We all see things differently, perhaps you think the same good of Facist dictators,?
I simply can't accept that because a tyrant/dictator sends a team to help in Haiti or anywhere else, that it nullifies all the evil deeds and years of oppression.Nobody should shed a tear over his passing or the UK send anyone of importance to the funeral.
You may think what you like, obviously, but then so may I.