
Cuba and South Africa Are Friends, Because Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela Were - hkt
http://www.southafrica.info/mandela/castro-070314.htm
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hkt
I'm adding this for balance: lots of people on the announcement of Castro's
death said he was a monster. It is worth knowing that this was an American
narrative and a product of the cold war,and that life is more complicated than
simple good and evil, in almost all cases.

Cuba under Castro aided decolonising countries in Africa towards their
independence. In the case of places like Rhodesia, which had legally enshrined
racism that carried on after it declared independence from the UK, white
minority rule might have continued had it not been for Cuba's policy of
intervention. The aid of communists in Africa helped deliver equality, where
the capitalists of Britain wore badges saying "hang Mandela" well into the
90s, and Americans were conspicuously quiet.

This is worth remembering at a time in history where the way we see the world
is being distorted by echo chambers and demagogues the world over.

~~~
geezerjay
> It is worth knowing that this was an American narrative

Are all the political assassinations committed by Fidel's regime a product of
the American narrative?

Is Cuba's direct participation in the Angolan civil war just propaganda?

Is Cuba's oppressive and castrating regime just tales from disgruntled
americans?

...or is it something else?

~~~
hkt
I will remind you that America rents space on Cuba to torture people free of
its constitution. You are not uncompromised good guys.

Cuba supported countries in Africa and elsewhere that were decolonising. This
sometimes got messy, just as American (+ friends) interventions in Libya, Iraq
and Afghanistan have recently created disasters. Most informed commentators
say we created ISIS. America has a long history of intervening, renditioning
(that's "kidnapping and torturing people who haven't been convicted of a
crime"), coups - even in democracies! - and assassinations. So I'd say simply
that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The fact is that Cuba was probably not significantly more morally broken than
anywhere else. The reason we are taught to hate is because they rejected
capitalism.

