Cyprus-Forum.com

[Southerner]

Militiades,
I don't know if Fidel is a mate of anyone in this forum but I was just wondering what you thought his crime was ? Leading a revolution that overthrew a massively corrupt, mafiosi riddled, Battista regime ? Leading a government that rid Cuba of depths of poverty ? Leading a country which produces the highest number of doctors, nurses and teachers per capita in the world ? Leading developments which make Cuba one of the most highly educated, healthiest and welcoming of societies in the world ?

Not content with committing these terrible crimes of providing free education and free health care for his own people he then extended these misdemeanours to millions of Latin Americans and Africans in particular. Cuba trains more doctors, nurses and health workers to the highest standards from Latin America for free than the US charges for. What a crime !

And who do you think funded all of this, certainly not bankrupt Cuba?
The Castro regime/dictatorship was bankrolled by the USSR, look at them now, just another Carribean holiday resort.

[zan]

Copperline wrote:
""""How many thousands upon thousands more escape the paradise island of Great Britain despite having a much higher GDP per capita than Cuba ? There are a whole host of reasons why people leave their countries, what are the reasons, Militiades, for leaving Cuba ? Give us an answer to that - not your wild speculations but some researched evidence. """
Since you do so much research it is a bloody shame that you have not researched the preferred method that the Brits use to "escape " from Britain . The reason the Cubans leave their country , on boats risking their lives is to escape from poverty , and yes since you mentioned it GDP SAYS A LOT ABOUT PURCHASING POWER .What is your definition of GDP per capita , I thought it meant available , AVERAGE , income per head of population , I though it was indicative of a nations prosperity , obviously for an old accountant I was wrong. Here it is from the the horses mouth.GDP Per Capita has no bearing what so ever on purchasing power !!!!! Furthermore , the boat people escaping from Fidel's Cuba are no different from the Brits who emigrate to Sweet Sunny Cyprus . I'm Stunned .

THE CUBAN ADJUSTMENT ACT and IMMIGRATION POLICIES

Law number 89, known as the Cuban Adjustment act, was adopted by the US congress on the 2nd of November of 1966, under the Lyndon Johnson administration. It's main provisions was to change the legal status of the Cuban immigrants; to treat them as political refugees and to grant them political asylum; and as such provide them immediately with privileges that no other group enjoys, such as, automatic permanent residence status - all without review and without the usual waiting time.

This privileged law affords the Cuban illegal immigrant the opportunity, to work legally, to govt. welfare, to unemployment benefits, and to free medical care, things that the average immigrant by no means is entitled to.

As former Cuban ambassador Ricardo Alarcon has repeatedly stated, immigration has been one of the oldest weapons used by the US in its dirty war against Cuba. It started when the US welcomed with open arms Batista's scum, the corruptors of yesterday's Cuba; when in 1959 it let in all that thrash; thrash that eventually landed in Miami as Fidel Castro and the people flushed the toilet. Not all can be put in this category but if you look closely whose running the political show in Miami most of them had ties to Batista or are offspring's of Batista followers. They made Miami what it is today: one of the most corrupt cities in the US. A city which was in the forefront of drug trafficking and money laundering. It is no mere coincidence that drug trafficking came full blown in the mid and late sixties - a few years after the Batista scum had taken root in that city. All those banks in Miami did not spring up from the sales of bananas. They sprung up from the importation of cocaine from south America most notably from Central America. It should be noted that with all the hype Miami is one of the poorest cities in the United States. This a product of the immense corrupt political machine set up in Miami by the so called Cuban exiles.

Some of the most notable spawns of the old Batista crowd include Florida congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart - an extreme right winger - whose father was a member of Batista's congress, a congress that was utterly corrupt and which served under a brutal dictator who had taken power in a bloody coup. Another important spawn of Batista followers is the congresswoman from Miami Ileana Ros-Letinen; as her parents also served under the Batista regime.

To understand the reasons for the preferential treatment afforded to Cubans by this law one must take a look at different factors and questions.

First of all, no matter how many times you have heard or seen on the news, about new boat people escaping from the regime, fleeing the island to be free, the truth of the matter is that behind all the melodramatics played out by the press, the main reason for Cuban immigration, the boat people, is economics. It has very little to do with politics and very much to do with the economy and living standards in Cuba. They leave because of the harsh economic conditions that exist on the island, mainly due to the collapse of the Socialist bloc - in which Cuba lost 85% of it's trade - and mainly because of the US embargo, which forces the island to purchase some international goods and medicine sometimes at 3 or 4 times the going rate. It must be stressed that the embargo, which severely curtails foreign investment in the island, not only increases the economic woes of the island increases the number of boat people substantially as well.

If you think back the real influx of Cuban boat people started after the island lost 85% of it's trading partners after the fall of the Socialist bloc, around 1990. How many boat people did you hear about before this period?


No wonder you approve...Cyprus revisited

[Get Real!]

What a pity so many foolish people, Filitsa included, saw fit to take this one naive statement about homosexuality made by Ahmadinejad with which to fill the media with TRIVIAL RUBBISH giving the US media the "perfect" excuse to ignore EVERYTHING else Ahmadinejad said of substance.

How is it that you know so much about Filitsa, Get Real!?

Calling you a fool does not also imply I know a lot of other things about you.

Filitsa is not included because Filitsa did not choose to "ignore EVERYTHING else Ahmadinejad said of substance."

So where in this thread do you discuss or even mention the remainder of his speech?

Nevertheless, this thread is not about Ahmadinejad. It is about the media manipulating his word choice (at least that's what it started out to be).

Is that what your opening line was saying? “There are no homosexuals in Iran. There just aren't ... according to President Ahmadinejad.”

I now know something more about Get Real! He has reading comprehension issues specific to intuiting meaning.

Some readers will suspect that’s what YOU suffer from, but I know it’s more a case of you jumping on the very dangerous (foolish) “US Vs Iran” bandwagon.

[CopperLine]

Southerner,
You obviously didn;t read the links. When did the USSR cease to exist ? 1991. When did the medical training programmes take place that are referred to in the items ? From the 1990s to the present. So Southerner, can't have been bankrolled by the USSR !

But maybe you were referring to the eradication of poverty, literacy programmes etc, before the end of USSR. Well look at the financial transfers between USSR and Cuba from 1961-1991 : these were minimal. Soviet 'aid' to Cuba during that period, or rather from the late 1960s, comprised two main forms : First there was payment for Cuban cane sugar exports which, were approximately - from memory - double the current market rate per tonne. Second, Cuba was in receipt of 'free' oil from the USSR. Very soon after that agreement was introduced - around about 1969/70 - Cuba took the shipments and sold them on the Rotterdam exchange for cash. Other forms of aid were almost exclusively in material or educational assistance, not money.

All in all, the value of Soviet aid to Cuba was financially insubstantial. At any rate nowhere near enough to "bankroll" Cuban health and education programmes. No, Cuban programmes succeeded not beacuse they were 'bankrolled' but because they were simple, carefully developed, popular and democratic. You've got to ask why today Cuba represents a model of health care which is the envy of people around the world.

[Get Real!]

What a pity so many foolish people, Filitsa included, saw fit to take this one naive statement about homosexuality made by Ahmadinejad with which to fill the media with TRIVIAL RUBBISH giving the US media the "perfect" excuse to ignore EVERYTHING else Ahmadinejad said of substance.

And that is where you display the Achilles of your limited logic, just to suit you point of view you think you have the right to judge what is naive and what is substance.
There is no naivety about the statement it is a veiled way of saying Iran is intolerant of homosexuals; which is born out by the executions of such people.

You probably meant… "the Achilles' heel of your limited logic” …because “Achilles” on its own is just a name but anyway...

You admit to a “veiled” meaning of the statement and proceed to “unveil” it for us! Isn’t that judging what is naive and what is substance?

While it is true that the Persian culture generally frowns upon homosexuality, the US is actually intolerant of people looking “suspicious” believe it or not… and “offenders” have been known to have spent many years imprisoned without a trial.

[Southerner]

You probably meant… "the Achilles' heel of your limited logic” …because “Achilles” on its own is just a name but anyway...

the US is actually intolerant of people looking “suspicious” believe it or not… and “offenders” have been known to have spent many years imprisoned without a trial.

It is your limited logic where everything has to have an anti western angle, that, is your "Achilles heel"!
Achilles is just a name true, "Achilles Heel" is a term used to describe an inbuilt weakness such as you have which is an autopilot that twists everything into an anti western agenda whatever the topic.

[Southerner]

Southerner,
You obviously didn;t read the links. When did the USSR cease to exist ? 1991. When did the medical training programmes take place that are referred to in the items ? From the 1990s to the present. So Southerner, can't have been bankrolled by the USSR !

But maybe you were referring to the eradication of poverty, literacy programmes etc, before the end of USSR. Well look at the financial transfers between USSR and Cuba from 1961-1991 : these were minimal. Soviet 'aid' to Cuba during that period, or rather from the late 1960s, comprised two main forms : First there was payment for Cuban cane sugar exports which, were approximately - from memory - double the current market rate per tonne. Second, Cuba was in receipt of 'free' oil from the USSR. Very soon after that agreement was introduced - around about 1969/70 - Cuba took the shipments and sold them on the Rotterdam exchange for cash. Other forms of aid were almost exclusively in material or educational assistance, not money.

All in all, the value of Soviet aid to Cuba was financially insubstantial. At any rate nowhere near enough to "bankroll" Cuban health and education programmes. No, Cuban programmes succeeded not beacuse they were 'bankrolled' but because they were simple, carefully developed, popular and democratic. You've got to ask why today Cuba represents a model of health care which is the envy of people around the world.

And the moon is made of Green Cheese, you are a propogandists dream.

[Get Real!]

You probably meant… "the Achilles' heel of your limited logic” …because “Achilles” on its own is just a name but anyway...

the US is actually intolerant of people looking “suspicious” believe it or not… and “offenders” have been known to have spent many years imprisoned without a trial.

It is your limited logic where everything has to have an anti western angle, that, is your "Achilles heel"!
Achilles is just a name true, "Achilles Heel" is a term used to describe an inbuilt weakness such as you have which is an autopilot that twists everything into an anti western agenda whatever the topic.

I've always had a habit of prioritizing global events so I find it rather petty worrying about homosexuality in Iran while much more serious (read life threatening) things are happening elsewhere and on a much grander scale.

If I ever get another shot at life I’ll hopefully be born without a conscience.

[Southerner]

I've always had a habit of prioritizing global events so I find it rather petty worrying about homosexuality in Iran while much more serious (read life threatening) things are happening elsewhere and on a much grander scale.If I ever get another shot at life I’ll hopefully be born without a conscience.[/quote]

King George V had the right idea regarding Homosexuals.

[humanist]

Southerner

King George V had the right idea regarding Homosexuals.

as a gay man I find your post and coment insulting southerner. not that you would care of course what i think.