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PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has been criticised for praising the late Fidel Castro.
The death of Castro (90), who led Cuba for almost 50 years, was confirmed by his brother, current Cuban president Raul Castro, early yesterday.
In a statement, President Higgins said he learned of Castro’s death with “great sadness”.
“Following the revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro brought significant political and social change to his country, overcoming not just the regime of General Fulgencio Batista but also the economic isolation forced upon Cuba in the years that followed.
“Having survived some 600 attempts on his life, Fidel Castro, known to his peers in Cuba as El Comandante, became one of the longest-serving Heads of State in the world, guiding the country through a remarkable process of social and political change, advocating a development path that was unique and determinedly independent.
Cuba achieved 100% literacy many years ago and built up a health system that is one the most admired in the world. With economic growth rates similar to many other Latin American countries, inequality and poverty are much less pronounced in Cuba than in surrounding nations.
Higgins’ statement said Castro will be “remembered as a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet”.
However, it noted: “The economic and social reforms introduced were at the price of a restriction of civil society, which brought its critics.”
‘Brutal’ regime
Higgins’ comments have been criticised by a number of people including Renua leader John Leahy.
A statement released on behalf of Renua said: “Whilst we understand the necessity to be tactful in speaking of the dead, particularly when the dead were recently leaders of other sovereign states, we do think it important to note that Fidel Castro was a dictator, and a brutal dictator at that.
“[His] regime murdered thousands of people, sentenced thousands of people to death, often following show trials, and engaged in the usage of torture, repression, the mass jailing of dissenters, sent homosexuals to labour camps to be ‘re-educated’ and declared that homosexuality was ‘incompatible with the revolution’.”
Leahy added: “It’s important that we remember that people suffered under Castro. An entire country suffered under Castro. The man destroyed the free press, jailed and tortured democrats, priests, homosexuals, and anyone who tried to stand against him.
I, personally, cannot accept that the President speaks for me when he talks of him as a champion of the oppressed and the excluded, when he talks of him as if he was a normal politician who made a few minor mistakes. Fidel Castro murdered, tortured, and jailed all those who opposed him, and he should be remembered for his victims.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil TD Thomas Byrne had this to say on Twitter:
While Cuba begins nine official days of mourning, others have taken to the streets to celebrate Castro’s death, including Cuban exiles in Miami’s Little Havana.
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I find it tough to believe that in an age where we have the iss,GPS and all that tech that we can find a terrorist in the middle of the Afghan mountains but we can’t locate an airplane.
Fair point but for all we know, it’s completely disintegrated and could be in small pieces over God knows how many square miles. There may not be much to find.
I feel so sorry for the families whose loved ones have just disappeared, Just like that.
Terrible tragedy.
Yes but it could be an airplane hundreds of metres below the surface. Not an easy thing to find in a massive area. The fact it went so far off course without anyone realising is the scariest thing. Queue all the mad conspiracies. The agony of all the poor families of people lost must be incredible.
The most shocking part is how they managed to lose it in the first place. I always thought that a plane would be constantly monitored on numerous forms of technology. The reality appears to be quite the opposite
In fairness, it’s not an airplane…
It’s several million pieces of one at this stage
We are also living in an age of wholesale lies and mainstream media deception.
That’s very weird as yesterday the Australian media reported unusual activity by the search ships: “A graphic supplied by Mike Chillit, a US-based ship tracker, shows a lot of interest where the 90th east meridian meets 37 degrees south latitude, south-west of Perth. This is in the vicinity of where the first informed guesses were made of MH370′s likely impact with the sea…to this day, the cargo manifest has not been fully revealed”
Not even as much as a seat cushion or a piece of luggage.
The aircraft might be in a million pieces but there has to be a trace somewhere.
The terrorist isn’t hiding two miles underwater…
Aeroplane, not airplane! Americanisms need to stop!
You are right ofcourse Egg Head, I apologise. Your name is, perhaps, we’ll chosen.
There,their, the’re Egge head…. I typed “Aircraft” :)
Paul, you actually make a stupid comparison. Think about it.
Frank, you left out the lying and insane conspiracy theories from the Internet trolls. For every lie in “the mainstream media”, there are a 1,000 lies on quack web sites.
@Boganity Mike Chillit has done an amazing job of covering the movements and activity of Go Phoenix, Discovery, Equator and the newly arrived Supporter, but I don’t see anything odd in the four ships’ activity in recent days. And I don’t recall Mike saying himself the activity was unusual, other than at timespointing out the changing sweeps or going off track to test the better sonar they have now. Do you have a link to any piece in the Australian media where (and why) the movements were ‘unusual?’
William Grogan_ “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it” Adolf Hitler
We must also remember that the History book on the shelf is the one that always repeats itself.
Frank, it doesn’t always work. You and the other tin foil mad hatters lie continuously and we still don’t believe you. PS When did anyone claim Hitler was ever right? He was a complete dork. His book is such crap that it’s unreadable. She why quote him?
They used special force troops on the ground to find terrorists in the afghan mountains not GPS they did use satellites to pick up movement of these people but it was troops on the ground who pinpointed their exact positions, when your looking in an ocean it’s a whole different ball game, a lot of plane would be at bottom of the ocean and the rest would be scattered for hundreds of miles after couple weeks so it’s really tough to find exact position where it went down
Another false flag Frank? Explain your opinion on what happened the plane, I could do with a chuckle….
Hitler didn’t actually say that, Frank. The quote has no foundation, and can never be directly cited to a source, and even in meaning it is taken out of context when properly translated from its idea and subtext in Mein Kampf. You’ve been corrected on this before on Journal, but as usual, you don’t listen.
Frank spins his own lies and repeats them over and over again and he doesn’t realize it.
Declan Noonan_ Coming from someone like yourself that would bend over backwards for what is perhaps the most corrupt Government so far in US History.
http://static.uglyhedgehog.com/upload/2012/9/29/thumb-1348892054679-obama_lies.jpg
I am wrong It says in the link above that Gas prices are 200% of what they were…..
GAS prices have actually dropped considerably in the last few months but all at the expense of throwing Russia under the Bus and leading the world on course for WW3
Why don’t you talk to your buddies in Iran about that Frank – they voted to keep oil prices low too…
Frank will love this
For once I think Frank may have a valid point
We cannot say that Australia didn’t keep an “eye” out for this plane.
http://s13.postimg.org/3pqew5son/Planeeyee.jpg
End of the air search: Crews that searched for missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 pose for final photo in Perth as operation is scaled down
Malaysian Airlines have it all to lose, this would be their preferred scenario, wishful thinking.
I agree with you but I think this decision was more to do with pressure from the families. Until the passengers are officially declared to be dead their families can’t move on as insurances can’t pay out, money in the deceased bank accounts can’t be accessed, financial liabilities can’t be wrapped up etc etc.
Very strange that they couldn’t find the plane when we can send a missile from anywhere and accurately hit its target
Non sequitur.
Even now, Malaysia authorities have still provided no credible evidence that MH370 (after its left turn) ever entered the Malacca Strait before going south and eventually being picked up by the Inmarsat data. Indonesia and China, based on their radar and satellite data, still say there is no evidence that MH370 ever entered the Malacca Strait. Which means, when the aircraft was picked up by Inmarsat, it still had a lot more fuel to take it further south well past 39 degrees south and beyond where the current search is concentrated.
I think the biggest issue the families have with this is the Annex 13 stipulation in the Convention on Civil Aviation for missing aircraft – the declaration generally only applies to accidents when a search for wreckage, bodies and evidence has been terminated. This is obviously not the case with MH370, where a search is ongoing. I think folks should also be careful not to make ungrounded assumptions – that it is also a part of the grand conspiracy. There is a lot of legalese going on here and it’s not just about compensation claims against Malaysia Airlines. This also has to do with clearing the way forward for families with life polices on relatives. Life assurance companies are not going to pay out on policies without some declaration of ‘missing, presumed dead.’
What irks me most in today’s press conference is Malaysia’s claim that it investigated all possible leads. Rubbish! One of the most credible leads was the 300 floating objects picked up on satellite in the South Indian ocean two weeks into the search, and its instruction to Chinese vessels to call off their investigation of them. Even after SAR insisted that based on the Inmarsat data, they were searching in the right priority area, their projected drift patterns said debris would come ashore in Sumatra after 120 days; this data proved completely wrong! And yet to the tune of 60m dollars they refuse to admit their priority area may be wrong.
Very little info coming out of inquiry into why Ukranian fighter jet shot other Malaysian Airways down over its territory
What, the one that, even according to its manufacturers, wasn’t capable of doing it?
Probably because the inquiry is both an aircrash investigation and criminal case and some of the wreckage only arrived back in the Netherlands for cataloguing, examination and rebuild on a frame in mid December. Only then will physical evidence prove what kind of missile brought down MH17 – a ground to air missile, or a missile or cannon fire from a military jet. The final report is not due until later this year. Only at that stage will criminal action be advised in the report recommendations, and an international case file.
The sanctions on Russia last year, at the behest of the USA on the EU, have still to this day not been supported with evidence in the public domain, beyond a reliance on social media and witness reports. Similarly, accusations against Ukraine for its possible involvement, have not been properly substantiated. These are all political issues, the role of criminal authorities in each country, and not the role of the Dutch Safety Board. The DSB exist to investigate the actual air incident itself, explain what happened, provide data and evidence, and then report; not to actually prosecute or bring to justice those responsible.
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