Mediaboss Marketing

Cuban President Raul Castro has hailed a recent U.S. move to normalize bilateral relations, but stressed that Havana will not give up socialism.

Speaking at the National Assembly in Havana on Saturday, Castro said he is open to discussing a wide range of issues with Washington, but added his country would not bow to pressure to change its core political principles.

Just as we have never proposed to the United States to change its political system, we will demand respect for ours, Castro said.

"There are profound differences between the governments of the United States and Cuba that include, among others, differing concepts about exercising national sovereignty, democracy, political models and international relations," the Cuban president said.

The thawing of U.S.-Cuba relations follows 18 months of talks between the longtime foes. In his speech to the assembly, Castro said change would come slowly.

"This will be a long and difficult struggle," he said.

In related business, members of parliament gave a standing ovation to three men convicted of spying in the United States who were released as part of an historic agreement to restore relations between the two long-hostile countries.

Since taking over from his ailing brother in 2008, Raul Castro has pushed through market-style economic reforms, but he told the National Assembly that Cuba would not abandon its socialist principles. (Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press)

The three men, known as the "Cuban Five" and long regarded as heroes in Cuba, appeared before the National Assembly along with family members.

Seated behind them in the audience was Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban who in 2000 was at the centre of a bitter custody battle between relatives in Miami and his father in Cuba.

View original post here:
Castro says dtente won't change socialism in Cuba

Saturday December 20, 2014 03:12 PM

By Tim Johnson, McClatchy Foreign Staff (TNS)

HAVANA Cuban President Raul Castro said Saturday that Cuba would not renounce its core socialist ideals as part of a deal he struck this week with President Barack Obama to renew diplomatic relations after more than five decades.

Castro, speaking at a session of the National Assembly, praised Obama, highlighted the profound political differences that still divide Cuba and the United States, and noted that normalization would not come quickly.

An important step was taken, but the most essential part is still pending, which is the end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo of Cuba, Castro said.

Earlier in his speech, the Cuban leader said that the economy lurched along with 1.4 percent growth in 2014 and pledged new steps to promote a nascent private sector in Cuba, one of the worlds last socialist holdouts.

But he said change would come slowly.

This will be a long and difficult struggle, Castro told the assembly.

He praised Obama, the Vatican and Canada for their roles in hosting secret talks that led to Wednesdays surprise announcement of a breakthrough that could ease the greatest lingering source of tension in the Western Hemisphere.

I salute the proposal of President Obama to open a new chapter in the relations between our two nations and to introduce the most significant change in policies of the United States in the past 50 years, Castro said. We are not unaware of the virulent criticism that President Obama has had to endure from the forces opposed to the normalization of relations with Cuba because of this announcement. They will do all they can to sabotage this process.

More here:
Cuban president praises new US ties, but wont abandon socialism

(Saurabh Gupta is Correspondent with NDTV 24X7)

Around 70 politicians, writers, academicians, religious and business leaders have gathered in Goa for an intellectual gathering, along with 400 participants, for the India Ideas Conclave.

The event is being billed as the right wing's answer to Nehruvian socialists who have dominated think-tanks and policy making since independence. Organised by the India Foundation, the central theme of this three-day event is Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhaya's philosophy of integral humanism.

BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy says, "We are believers in market economy and nationalism. Many of us have suffered at the hands of fanatic Nehruvian socialism and now it's our turn."

Social worker and writer Harsh Mander, who is a believer in Nehruvian socialism, told NDTV, "Let people who believe in markets function outside the framework of state provisioning bodies which plan state provisions. As far as the other right wing is concerned, which is the idea of the majoritarianism, to me, it is not a negotiable idea because the country has a constitution."

Among the attendees of the conclave are eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai, Chairman of European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok, economist Arvind Panagariya, former Comptroller and General Vinod Rai and author Amish Tripathi.

Shourya Doval, who has played a major role in organising the event, told NDTV "Certain elements of Nehruvian socialism did not fit at all in India. And we see it in the outcome of what we tried to do and what we ended up doing. The Planning Commission was one of them. These are borrowed concepts which have lost their relevance."

The organisers say the meet is being organised so that India can reclaim its leadership position in intellectual thought.

Ram Madhav, a former leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who recently joined the BJP, told NDTV, "This is not about politics. This is simply an answer to those who made us reach intellectual bankruptcy by constantly borrowing from the west and forgetting our own ideas."

He adds, "The topics and speakers have been chosen to create a nationalistic agenda." As opposed to Leftists and American academia, who rely on western concepts and have dominated the intellectual arena for years, this is the right wing intellectuals' comeback moment.

More:
Right-Wing Intellectuals Say This is Their Conclave

Reflections on Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism
Searching for an equitable system of governance so that the extremes of wealth and poverty would dissipate and human dignity is restored.

By: iraj khodadoost

Read more:
Reflections on Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism - Video

Senator Sanders, as is well-known, is a self-described Socialist with a penchant for hard-hitting populist speech attacking the American oligarchy, by which he seems to mean rich Republicans. We libertarian types tend to think that Socialism creates its own, much more dangerous oligarchy, of the well-connected and politically powerful, who use their influence to benefit themselves and their friends and allies. While the market at least rewards those who satisfy others needs, statist economic and political systems reward those with pull.

Of course, Sen. Sanders isnt like that.

Oh, wait. TheNew York Timesreports that he pulled ranked to get his aide out of a traffic ticket:

Senator Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont who calls himself a socialist, was riding in the back seat of a rented blue minivan this week when his aide abruptly announced they were being pulled over by the Iowa State Police for speeding.

Hi ya, Im Senator Bernie Sanders, how ya doing? Mr. Sanders piped up, in his unmistakable Brooklyn accent, after the aide explained to the police officer that they were late for the senators appearance here. The officer issued no ticket, just a warning to slow down: No need making a headline for something silly.

Somehow, being late for a campaign appearance hardly seems like a good reason to get out of a speeding ticket. But surely if youre the officer, you know better than to ticket a driver whose passenger just introduced himself as a Senatorwho knows what consequences may follow. There was no reason for Sanders and his aide to announce hes a Senator unless they were either suggesting that hes too important to be expected to follow the traffic laws, or, worse, were not-so-subtly intimidating the officer.

Whats especially interesting about this anecdote is that Sanders and his aide did this while a reporter witnessed the whole thing. Youd think our lone Socialist Senator would at least not try to pull rank knowing that it would be in the New York Times. But our political elite, including Sanders, is so used to getting deference and special treatment that it apparently it didnt even occur to him that readers might find it improper that he used his status to get out of a ticket that would have been issued to a regular Joe.

And that, my friends, is an example of how the Pigs become the Farmers.After all, while all animals are equal, some are more equal than others.

[Post edited slightly to reflect the fact that it was Sanders' aide who initially brought up the Senator's status.]

UPDATE: See my related post about the late Frank Lautenberg, who pulled rank even as a former Senator.

See the rest here:
Volokh Conspiracy: Pigs into farmers: the case of Sen. Bernie Sanders and the foregone traffic ticket