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Freedom vs communism
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By: Odal Rune

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Freedom vs communism - Video

ST. LOUIS (KTVI) President Obamas move to lift some U.S. restrictions against Cuba is receiving mixed reactions locally.

St. Louis Congressman Lacy Clay praised the presidents actions calling them long overdue. But Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt criticized the decision as one that will encourage our adversaries.

A St. Louis resident of Cuban heritage fears the Obama administration move will end up enhancing the Castro regime.

Jorge Riopedre, an executive with a not-for-profit health clinic, is the son of Cuban refugees who were forced to flee Cuba in the early nineteen sixties because of actions by the Communists who took over the island nation.

My mother had to flee for her life because of religious persecution. My father and his family were at gunpoint removed from the land that had been theirs for five, six generations, Riopedre explained.

His parents succeeded eventually in earning advanced college degrees and building a good life in Florida. But family relatives who remained in Cuba are trapped in poverty.

The Cuban government controls every aspect of your life, he said noting there is free education but, the government then chooses what your profession is. Riopedre said, on every block of every town there is a person in charge of the defense of the revolution who reports back to the government on what the activities are of the people who live there.

Riopedre said he appreciates President Obamas desire to normalize relations but if the end game is that it will strengthen the Castro government without really changing things for the United States then Im not sure thats the way to go.

He thinks the U.S. would be better to wait until Fidel and Raul Castro die and try to influence the next Cuban government. What keeps the Cuban people downtrodden and oppressed is the Castro government not the United States embargo.

Link:
Local Cuban-American says communism is the problem not U.S. embargo

This must be the sort of thing President Obama meant when he talked about"more flexibility" after elections.Relations with Cuba are to be normalized.

Let's try to sort this out dispassionately. Cuba isn't a topic that often lends itself to calm and collected discussion but let's try.

Take the response of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is appalled the U.S. will open an embassy soon in Havana (at present, the U.S. has an office in the Swiss embassy there and an envoy housed in tropical splendor in Miramar).

"This is going to do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba," Rubio told The Associated Press. "But it potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Castroregime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come."

The first part of Rubio's take is unquestionably correct. Castro is a Communist thug and that's his romantic persona. He and his ilk put thousands up against the wall and thousands more in foul prisons for vicious crimes ranging fromdemanding a free press to being attracted to the same sex.

What the world needs are fewer and better Castros; ridding it ofdespotic killers like Che Guevara was a plus. So it's maddening to see American liberals who think both are good guys and who'd like to see a little more of the Cuban experiment here.

But take the second part of Rubio's remark. Castro has already been a permanent fixture in Cuba for generations. If the embargo's goal is toppling Castro it hasn't worked. That doesn't mean the goal isn't a noble one, simply that clinging to an unsuccessful policy isn't sensible.

From time to time, especially from Havana, one hears the embargo hurts Cubans. This has it backwards. Castro hurts Cubans. State run economies are disastrous for people. If anything, Cuba refutes Marxism even more than the Soviet Union's collapse, because if Castro can't make a go of it on a Caribbean island with massive aid from Russia, practically free energy from Venezuela and full trade with every country but the U.S., then fellow travelers in America need to upgrade their thinking.

Still, disgust with the intelligentsia is no guide for foreign policy. The U.S. should not maintain the Cuba embargo to spite the dupes among us.

There's also an inconsistency in the American position. TheChinese Communists have murdered more than any political group on earth. The U.S. and China have had formal relations since 1972.

See the article here:
The Cuban embargo and Castro's Communism: James Varney/Thursday chat

14 Dec 2014 Spotlight: Tales of close shaves from Singapore #39;s struggle against communism
Earlier this week, a marker to commemorate Singapore #39;s struggle against communism was unveiled at Esplanade Park. In this week #39;s Spotlight, Channel NewsAsia hears first-hand from those who...

By: Channel NewsAsia

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14 Dec 2014 Spotlight: Tales of close shaves from Singapore's struggle against communism - Video

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) Romania has changed dramatically in the 25 years since the people rose up against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, executed him and began the slow transformation to a market economy and democracy.

Here are five ways that daily life has changed:

REGISTERED TYPEWRITERS TO SMART PHONES

Under communism, typewriters could not be bought in the shops, because the regime was fearful of people distributing anti-government manifestos. Those who had typewriters had to register them with the police every year and explain why they needed them.

Today even young children have smart phones and tablets and people enjoy high-speed Internet. One thing that has gone backward? Modern keyboards do not have diacritics and many don't bother to install the software to use the cedillas and accents that Romanian uses, a source of lament for language purists.

CARS BANNED IN WINTER....NOW PARKED ALL OVER THE SIDEWALK

Ceausescu rationed everything from bread to meat and gasoline. The few people who had cars could only get 20 liters (5.3 gallons) a month, often with waits at the pump of up to 48 hours. Private car use was banned altogether in the winter in the 1980s as Ceausescu squeezed people even further to pay off the country's foreign debt.

Today in Bucharest, where more than a tenth of the Romanian population lives, it can take two hours to cross the city when traffic is bad and cars clog the sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road. Affluent families often have several cars, with SUVS being a favorite even though Bucharest has no hills or rough terrain. Some SUVS cost as much as an apartment.

TWO HOURS OF TV A DAY

Romanians famously tuned into Serbian, Bulgarian, Hungarian or even Russian television as their own state TV station was so lousy. Two hours of TV, much of that dull "news" about the first couple. In the 1980s, even "Dallas" was taken off the small screen after Ceausescu deemed its values too decadent.

More here:
Communism to capitalism: Romania sees huge changes