Phuket Tourism Worries Mount Over Climate Change Impact

[webfact]

Fidel Castro's eldest son 'Fidelito' commits suicide

 

FILE PHOTO: Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, son of Cuba's President Fidel Castro, talks to Argentine human right activist and member of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo group Hebe de Bonafini during the inauguration of the International Book Fair in Havana February 8, 2007. REUTERS/Claudia Daut/File Photo

 

 HAVANA (Reuters) - The eldest son of late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, committed suicide on Thursday aged 68 after being treated for months for depression, Cuban state-run media reported.

 

Castro Diaz-Balart, also known as "Fidelito" because of how much he looked like his father, had initially been hospitalized for depression and then continued treatment as an outpatient.

 

"Castro Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning," Cubadebate website said.

 

Fidelito was born in 1949 out of his father's brief marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart before he went on to topple a U.S.-backed dictator and build a communist-run state on the doorstep of the United States during the Cold War.

 

Castro died just over a year ago, on Nov. 26, 2016, aged 90.

 

A nuclear physicist who studied in the former Soviet Union, Castro Diaz-Balart had been working as a scientific counsellor to the Cuban Council of State and Vice-president of the Cuban Academy of Sciences at the time of his death.

 

Previously, from 1980 to 1992, he was head of Cuba's national nuclear programme, and spearheaded the development of a nuclear plant on the Caribbean's largest island.

 

Cuba halted those plans in 1992 because of a lack of funding after the collapse of Cuba's trade and aid ties with the ex-Soviet bloc and Castro Diaz-Balart largely disappeared from public view.

 

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Marc Frank; Editing by Sandra Maler and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-02

[spidermike007]

It is hard to even imagine what it would have been like growing up with a serial killing, money grubbing, power hungry despot like Fidel "la cucaracha" Castro as a father. Chances are, he was as terrible a father, as he was a leader. He starved the nation, and created the world's most failed agricultural system and devastated the economy. The Cubans are fine people, and what they had to endure with this worm, was horrific. My guess is that his son had to endure a sad, desperate childhood, while his father was amassing billions of dollars, at the cost of the Cuban people. 

[Scott]

18 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

It is hard to even imagine what it would have been like growing up with a serial killing, money grubbing, power hungry despot like Fidel "la cucaracha" Castro as a father. Chances are, he was as terrible a father, as he was a leader. He starved the nation, and created the world's most failed agricultural system and devastated the economy. The Cubans are fine people, and what they had to endure with this worm, was horrific. My guess is that his son had to endure a sad, desperate childhood, while his father was amassing billions of dollars, at the cost of the Cuban people. 

I can't disagree with you, but I am inclined to think his clinical depression was more deep seated and physiological.   He could well have grown up like Saddam's children.   For most people committing suicide (especially as adults), the psychological pain is unbearable.  

 

 

[watcharacters]

On 2/3/2018 at 10:53 AM, spidermike007 said:

It is hard to even imagine what it would have been like growing up with a serial killing, money grubbing, power hungry despot like Fidel "la cucaracha" Castro as a father. Chances are, he was as terrible a father, as he was a leader. He starved the nation, and created the world's most failed agricultural system and devastated the economy. The Cubans are fine people, and what they had to endure with this worm, was horrific. My guess is that his son had to endure a sad, desperate childhood, while his father was amassing billions of dollars, at the cost of the Cuban people. 

I understand your feelings.

Most of my life I believed Castro was the  scourge of the planet.    

Yeah, I saw Michael Moore's docu a couple of years ago but I still had doubts.

 

With a few more personal experiences, I've come to not look upon Castro as a villain but rather as a  different politically viewed  person than the Western countries and certainly the USA like.

 

He was bright and in his way forward thinking.

[nausea]

Cursed with a famous father. Oh, that's a heavy weight to have on your shoulders.

[Grouse]

On 03/02/2018 at 11:53 AM, spidermike007 said:

It is hard to even imagine what it would have been like growing up with a serial killing, money grubbing, power hungry despot like Fidel "la cucaracha" Castro as a father. Chances are, he was as terrible a father, as he was a leader. He starved the nation, and created the world's most failed agricultural system and devastated the economy. The Cubans are fine people, and what they had to endure with this worm, was horrific. My guess is that his son had to endure a sad, desperate childhood, while his father was amassing billions of dollars, at the cost of the Cuban people. 

Educate me. Why do you call Castro "Cucaracho" - a cockroach? He was right in many ways, and wrong in others. The Americans killed the Cuban economy. 

 

BTW suicide is a tragedy. Always. 

[boomerangutang]

One claim attributed to Fidel (the father) is he has sex with over 12,000 women.  It is said that he liked having one after lunch, and another after dinner.  I don't know if that sort of lifestyle would affect the son.

 

However, I do know a bit about how the mind works.  For a person like Fidelito (or anyone else) to suffer such prolonged depression is sad and not uncommon worldwide.  I have some ideas on how such a dire mental ailment can be lessened, but I won't try to articulate those ideas here.

[Grouse]

9 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

One claim attributed to Fidel (the father) is he has sex with over 12,000 women.  It is said that he liked having one after lunch, and another after dinner.  I don't know if that sort of lifestyle would affect the son.

 

However, I do know a bit about how the mind works.  For a person like Fidelito (or anyone else) to suffer such prolonged depression is sad and not uncommon worldwide.  I have some ideas on how such a dire mental ailment can be lessened, but I won't try to articulate those ideas here.

12,000? That's nowt; I live in Thailand me AND I'm from Yorkshire!

 

[spidermike007]

19 hours ago, watcharacters said:

I understand your feelings.

Most of my life I believed Castro was the  scourge of the planet.    

Yeah, I saw Michael Moore's docu a couple of years ago but I still had doubts.

 

With a few more personal experiences, I've come to not look upon Castro as a villain but rather as a  different politically viewed  person than the Western countries and certainly the USA like.

 

He was bright and in his way forward thinking.

 

Sorry. But I spent alot of time in Cuba. I knew alot of the people who lived under his rule. To a man, or woman, they all said the same thing. He was an ignorant parasite. And he was destroying their lives. Those with Masters degrees were earning $40 a month, and having to moonlight as tour guides, to feed their families. Hospitals without bandaids and aspirin for a decade. The entire agrarian system stripped to the point where little could be grown, due to the ignorant adoption of a failed Marxist - Leninist agrarian policy. To a man he was despised! He was a monster. A pig. A worm. The earth is a far, far better place, now that this freak is no longer consuming it's oxygen. 

 

The liberal line of approval for the cockroach does not pass muster, if you have actually spent time on the island and been amongst the people. 

[spidermike007]

17 hours ago, Grouse said:

Educate me. Why do you call Castro "Cucaracho" - a cockroach? He was right in many ways, and wrong in others. The Americans killed the Cuban economy. 

 

BTW suicide is a tragedy. Always. 

 

He was a serial killing despot who deprived his people of the right to make a living. See my last post. Within months of assuming power, he clamped down, and forbade all forms of dissent, protest, voting, freedom of the press, cultural freedoms, etc. He literally destroyed the Cuban economy. The Americans were a small factor. The entire world was open to him, and he still managed to turn Cuba into one of the worlds tiniest economies, and one of the world's most desperate places. Only the Soviets kept him propped up for as long as he was. When they pulled out, it was utter devastation. What he did to his nation, and his people is unforgivable. Do some research. Do not buy into the liberal line that he was a decent man. There is zero truth to that nonsense. He was a pig. 

Edited February 5, 2018 by spidermike007

[spidermike007]

I had the good fortune of visiting Cuba many times, while "LA chcaracha grande" was still in power. I befriended many in Cuba. Amazing place. Extraordinary people. Great culture. But, all had the same thing to say about Fidel.

 

They had a great PR machine, and it would crank out alot of hyperbole about their educational and healthcare system being the best in the world. And you would then have numskulls like Michael Moore pick up on that, and run with it, to create utter disinformation campaigns. Yes, they did produce the greatest number of doctors per capita. But, most would have to leave the country to make a living, as they could not live very well on the $40 a month government salary. I met civil engineers, who had trained in Russia, and specialized in suspension bridges, who made $38 a month, and moonlighted as tour guides, to feed their families. All the while Castro was living in his gilded mansion, feasting on lobster tail, and socking away billions. For some of us, we were able to see for ourselves, and we saw that the dissemination was just that. When I would meet locals, they would nearly all say the same thing. Fidel was universally despised, and so was the regime. All of that was said in hushed tones, for fear of being discovered, and sent to one of his concentration camps, or marched before a firing squad. I would stop to chat with a local, and within minutes he would get picked up by the police. I would later find out he was held for days, under suspicion of offering either prostitution services or currency exchange. The government hated for the people to engage in exchange, as it gave them power and freedom. It was sickening. I stopped visiting, around 2008, as I got so disgusted with the government and the low quality of life the people had to endure under the despotic regime of the Castro brothers. They are absolute vermin, on every level. I was told by reputable sources that both brothers had fortunes into the tens of billions of dollars, and many of the generals were worth billions. Total hypocrisy. Castro lost his ideals, and sight of the bigger picture within 30 days of assuming power. It was all about the money, and the power, and the totalitarian rule. It was not about the people.

 

Very, very typical of the regime of despots. You have been made so poor by our policies, and our systematic repression of the people, that there is no way you could afford a $60 boom box. I know people who have been put into jail for the most minor of offenses. During my last trip in about 2008, "la grande cucaracha" (Fidel, for those of you who do not speak spanish. The grand cockroach). started losing his faculties, and really begun a heavy crackdown. He became very paranoid, and probably should have been put on heavy anti-depresent of bi-polar meds. He started having people locked up for the most minor of offenses. Women who were hanging out talking to their friends were locked up on suspicion of prostitution. It was quite sickening. I left a few days early on that trip, and vowed to never return, until they had cleared out the vermin. I hope that happens. Nothing of any real significance will happen as long as Raul is in power. No doubt he is less dogmatic than his older brother. But, he is also a pragmatist. If he can still maintain absolute control, while amassing many more billions of dollars, why not? 

 

I wish the best for the Cuban people. They deserve a better life, and they deserve better government. 

[ratcatcher]

On 04/02/2018 at 9:54 PM, boomerangutang said:

One claim attributed to Fidel (the father) is he has sex with over 12,000 women.  It is said that he liked having one after lunch, and another after dinner.  I don't know if that sort of lifestyle would affect the son.

 

However, I do know a bit about how the mind works.  For a person like Fidelito (or anyone else) to suffer such prolonged depression is sad and not uncommon worldwide.  I have some ideas on how such a dire mental ailment can be lessened, but I won't try to articulate those ideas here.

Castro may well have had a tryst with Justin's Trudeau's mother, Margaret (Sinclair) Trudeau.