Hollywood Loves Fidel--But Why?

[Big Don]

Hollywood Loves Fidel--But Why?

By Humberto Fontova Friday, May 8, 2009
Canada Free Press EXCERPT:

"Fidel Castro is a genius!” gushed Jack Nicholson after a visit with the Cuban Fuhrer in 1998. “We spoke about everything,” the actor rhapsodized further. “Castro is a humanist like President Clinton. Cuba is simply a paradise!”
Jack Nicholson has been saying such things for years now. Many of his Hollywood cohorts follow suit. Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Costner, Steven Spielberg, Woody Harrelson, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Leo DiCaprio, Chevy Chase and Robert Redford, among many others, have all waxed euphoric on Castro and his island prison.
While holding up the book ”Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant” on his TV show, Bill O’Reilly called these celebs “Hollywood pinheads.”
But there might be more to these celebrity plugs for a tyrant who jailed more of his subjects than did Hitler or Stalin than the usual celebrity vacuity upstairs.
“My job was to bug their hotel rooms,” says high-ranking Cuban intelligence defector Delfin Fernandez. “With both cameras and listening devices. Most people have no idea they are being watched while they are in Cuba. But their personal activities are filmed under orders from Castro himself.”
And according to some sources, Havana, given the desperation of its brutalized and impoverished residents, has recently topped Bangkok as the world mecca for child sex.



END EXCERPT
Interesting, having them be just stupid is a little more palatable...

 

[girlbug2]

It is easy for somebody's personal charisma to override all logic and common sense. Fidel must be one of those charismatics in person.

Still, once these charmed people have been out of Castro's sphere of influence for a while, you'd think reason would slowly come creeping back in..much like the hangover after a drunken stupor.

What a bunch of tools.

 

[Omar B]

I could go on about what communism does to people but we have all heard it. I've been to Cuba and let me tell you, I've never seen a more sad place in the world, gorgeous girls on the street selling themselves for a song on the beach, lines around the block for simple things like ice cream, basic lacking of simple things like transport.

Smart, educated people with no recourse but to run away or stay and have ambition squashed and live like a pauper.

 

[Archangel M]

It stumps me why anybody listens to anything that comes out of actors/actresses mouths.

They read other peoples writing in front of a camera.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Hollywood hasn't been American for some while now, it just resides here. I wish it wouldn't.

 

[Sukerkin]

One thing to bear in mind about the conditions in Cuba is that they have in no small part been caused by certain embargoes.

As to Cuba being a paradise in other ways, well, herding everyone with Aids into segregated towns is certainly an effective way of isolating the disease but I'm not so sure that it says a lot for the personal freedom's of the population.

 

[Sukerkin]

Hollywood hasn't been American for some while now

It hasn't?

Hmm, we (the rest of the world) have, therefore, been accusing it of a crime it is not committing i.e. the export of American Values (TM) and the general degradation of culture and the 'human condition'.

 

[Big Don]

One thing to bear in mind about the conditions in Cuba is that they have in no small part been caused by certain embargoes.

That is a crock and you well know it. The US embargo hasn't stopped other countries from fairly throwing money at Fidel and his brother. Fidel being a friggin thief rather than the selfless communist he purports to be has screwed the people of Cuba far more than any embargo, especially one only practiced by one country, could. Forbes estimates his PERSONAL fortune at $900 MILLION dollars...

 

[clfsean]

It's the beard... they dig the beard.

Plus free Cuban cigars & mojitos on the house while there...

 

[CoryKS]

It hasn't?

Hmm, we (the rest of the world) have, therefore, been accusing it of a crime it is not committing i.e. the export of American Values (TM) and the general degradation of culture and the 'human condition'.

If you think the rest of the world has been criticizing Hollywood for the general degradation of culture and the human condition, you should hear what people here in the States say about it. Hollywood couldn't represent 'American Values' if they had an army of cultural anthropologists and a mission statement.

 

[Andrew Green]

But there might be more to these celebrity plugs for a tyrant who jailed more of his subjects than did Hitler or Stalin

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, substantially higher then Cuba. This might not be the best method of attacking Cuba...

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sourc...EIqs05asJWptNTm8w&sig2=Ed68NTMUsYF9_QIhaWll9A

“My job was to bug their hotel rooms,” says high-ranking Cuban intelligence defector Delfin Fernandez. “With both cameras and listening devices. Most people have no idea they are being watched while they are in Cuba. But their personal activities are filmed under orders from Castro himself.”

Again, secret wiretapping might not be the best route to criticize right now, pot meet kettle.

And according to some sources, Havana, given the desperation of its brutalized and impoverished residents, has recently topped Bangkok as the world mecca for child sex.

As a 3rd world country with a high tourism level I have no doubt that prostitution is quite common. However a bit of a google search could not turn up anything to support this claim. Which is pretty much expected when you see "some sources" but not a single one listed.

According to "some sources" Cuba is the greatest place on the planet. Doesn't mean anything either, just a empty claim unless the sources have credibility and something to back up the claim.

Cuba has some pretty serious problems, but given their situation they could also be doing a hell of a lot worse. The embargo's placed on them by the US certainly don't help anything.

canadafreepress.com is a conservative gossip site with very little credibility. If you want to write a article critizising Cuba there are plenty of things you can look at without having to go take things that aren't there.

And before you point out that this is the CANADA Free Press, it is in name only. The author of this article is not Canadian, he is a Cuban who was exclied and is now a American conservative columnist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humberto_Fontova

 

[Sukerkin]

That is a crock and you well know it.

I hesitate to disagree with such a forceful statement but I have to protest that I know no such thing. I would ask that you recall that where I draw my information from is the Economic pool rather than the Political one.

I will hold my hand up and say that the last time I personally studied the economic state of Cuba was twenty odd years ago but it has been widely accepted by the abstracts that I have read that the effects of the embargo have been pretty hard on the population of Cuba. Perhaps you could share your sources with me so that I might have a chance to assess their quality?

Now, as to the personal wealth of Fidel being drawn from international monies, I don't have any notion as to the veracity of that. My personal guess is that it is a charactersitic of dictators to skim off wealth for themselves so it may well be true.

Once again to give an alternative perspective, in Britain at the moment, we're giving our 'lot' of thieves, vagabonds and liars (aka politicians) a caning in the press for pretty much the same thing. Graft is a bedfellow of political authority all around the world it would seem.

 

[Andrew Green]

That is a crock and you well know it. The US embargo hasn't stopped other countries from fairly throwing money at Fidel and his brother.

Actually, it has.

Getting donations from Canada to Cuba is not a easy task due to the US being in the middle.

Also have a look at the Helms-Burton Act, which attempts to do exactly that.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Any of you guys note Communist states don't have 'movie stars'? And Communist states tend to shoot intellectuals? And Communist states tend to take all the money from the rich people... like movie stars?

I'll never understand why people like communist, including Fidel. I guess they are 'useful fools', like Marx said they were.

Deaf

 

[Empty Hands]

I'll never understand why people like communist, including Fidel. I guess they are 'useful fools', like Marx said they were.

You see it on the Right with guys like Pinochet, or even Hitler before WWII started. Each dictator was committing atrocities and locking up political foes, but the only thing that their fan club members on this side of the world could see was that they were on "their team." Again on the other side, Stalin had his defenders in the West long after the purges and the engineered famines became common knowledge.

It's a common human tendency. When someone stands for "your side", you tend to excuse or overlook their bad behavior. It happens everywhere, not just politics. Look at a thread on police ****ups here on MT. Who are the first to offer potential justifications or excuses? Other police. Who are the first to excuse and defend the bad behavior of politicians put forth in The Study? Other people that share their D or R designation, usually.

It's pretty common behavior.

 

[Empty Hands]

Any of you guys note Communist states don't have 'movie stars'?

Sure they do.

 

[Sukerkin]

Sadly true, EH.

Because opinions are formed very largely by the attitudes of those around us when we 'mature', they are hard things to challenge in a truly independant fashion. They become 'hard coded' in a very real and very unhelpful sense. Such polarisation stultifies genuine debate and tends to cause any political discourse to become antagonistic rather than investigative.

 

[Andrew Green]

China certainly has movie stars, so did the USSR.

Small countries don't, as movies tend to be imported rather then produced there.

What does that have to do with this?

 

[Archangel M]

It's a common human tendency. When someone stands for "your side", you tend to excuse or overlook their bad behavior. It happens everywhere, not just politics. Look at a thread on police ****ups here on MT. Who are the first to offer potential justifications or excuses? Other police. Who are the first to excuse and defend the bad behavior of politicians put forth in The Study? Other people that share their D or R designation, usually.

It's pretty common behavior.

Hold on a minute. I dont believe that any LEO here posts information to provide "justifications or excuses" for known wrongdoing. Unless a media story is blatantly of a cop caught doing wrong (rape, theft, murder etc..) I tend to look at the situation as a cop. And as a cop I have seen MANY situations where the media runs off half-cocked without all the infomation damning officers for doing their job. Show me any LEO on this board who has defended a proven "bad cop".

 

[punisher73]

I can't remember where I saw it, but a couple years ago I saw a breakdown of the education backgrounds of MANY of Hollywood's top stars that were in alot of politics and voicing their opinion. Most only completed high school but never attained a college degree.

Of course you are going to think someplace is great when you are given the royal treatment when you visit and only see what they want you to see. I think the biggest example of this is Jane Fonda. She is actually listed on the North Vietnam's war memorial as an important person who helped them win the war.