Cuban Health System

"It was just mentioned to me by our esteemed speaker, 'Did anyone say
anything about the Cuban health system?' And lemme tell ya, before you
say “Oh, it’s a commu–”, you need to go down there and see what Fidel
Castro put in place. And I want you to know, now, you can think whatever
you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders
I have ever met. [APPLAUSE] And you know, the Cuban revolution that
kicked out the wealthy, Che Guevara did that, and then, after they took
over, they went out among the population to find someone who could lead
this new nation, and they found…well, just leave it there (laughs), an
attorney by the name of Fidel Castro…"

Oh man... I came across this video and transcript (thanks Charlie) of a congresswoman from L.A. praising the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro stating that he is one of the brightest leaders she's ever met and that the health system in Cuba is one that America should aspire to.

No offense lady, but have you been to a Cuban hospital? I don't mean the nice one for tourists that Michael Moore went to, I meant the "REAL" hospitals that regular every day people go to? Didn't your mother teach you not to be a Communist? Didn't you grow up in the land of opportunity? I bet you never tried to get on a raft made of tires and driftwood to sneak INTO CUBA!

Anyways... Enough said, read the transcript or watch the video and I dare ANY of you to come up with something positive to say about Watson's stance about Castro.

Some Montreal Protesters Missed the Point

There was another march yesterday in Montreal to show support towards those requesting a legitimate democracy in Iran, actually there was two...

One with about 400 marchers organized by Solidarité-Iran that was demanding "another vote, the ouster of Ahmadinejad and international boycotts."

The second group with about 100 marchers "demanding a complete regime change."

And both claim to be for "for the purpose of the democracy movement in Iran."

Maybe I am the one missing the point here, maybe there was an email sent out explaining all this stuff and I never got it but I thought we were marching to show our support, so that those in Iran know they weren't alone... I didn't think I was marching on the street to make demands of a foreign government or decide for a complete regime overhaul.

What's important to remember is that many Iranians that marched in Tehran aren't marching against the actual system, many of them are FOR the Islamic Republic of Iran, they are simply marching because they don't believe this election was fair. They don't want to oust a president (or at least they didn't at the beginning, now that he's killed a bunch of people they probably do) they just wanted to make sure their president was actually elected fairly.

So who are we, here in our safe little city thousands of miles away to tell them that they need to overhaul their system, the system many of them fought to put in place in the late 70s?

Let the Iranians deal with Iran, they know what is best for themselves... If you want to march in support, do just that: demand democracy, demand peace... once these things are achieved perhaps the system can change from within.

(source for quotes: The Gazette)

Muchacho Enfermo