Posted on 08/04/2007 8:40:33 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro said Saturday that consumerism in the United States, the perennial enemy of his communist government, is threatening humanity's very existence.
Castro used the latest of his «Reflections of the Commander in Chief» columns to lambast American capitalism, quoting a former Russian defense official who says the world must stand up to the United States and its money-grubbing ways.
«Commercial advertising and consumerism are incompatible with the survival of the species,» Castro wrote in the essay titled «Hard and Obvious Realities» and published in Cuba's two leading state-controlled newspapers.
Castro turns 81 on Aug. 13 and has not been seen in public since July 31, 2006, when he announced that emergency intestinal surgery was forcing him to cede power to a provisional government headed by his younger brother Raul.
Recuperating in an undisclosed location, Castro's condition and exact illness are state secrets, but he says he's enjoyed the extra time to think since stepping down. He wrote Saturday that he has «spent a year gathering information and meditating in depth on the vital problems which today threaten our species as never before.
He devoted 12 paragraphs to quoting retired Col.-Gen Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian defense ministry's international military cooperation department.
Ivashov accuses the United States of bullying other countries and refusing to compromise on international debates about anti-missile defense and Iran. Castro noted Ivashov's call for Russia and its regional allies, along with China, India and nations in the Middle East and Latin America, to form an «alliance of civilizations» to oppose U.S. dominance and values. «It is an immense space where we could ... (give) priority to the intellectual development of man in the face of modern Western civilization, which emphasizes material goods, and measures success by the amounts of mansions, yachts and restaurants people have,» Castro quoted Ivashov as saying.
How much wealth has Castro robbed from the enslaved people of CUba?
Billions?
That's alright, Cuba's health care system can save it.
How long is the press going to support the fiction that Castro is alive and/or functional?
Funny stuff. Communism is pure materialism.
Thanks to Fidel, Cubans run no risk of destruction by material goods.
Oh and black Angolans.
L

Surely if any Cuban who has any sort of a marketable skill is even willing to drive to the USA through shark-infested waters is threatening his materialism.
Why do I immediately see an image in my mind of Jimmah nodding in agreement?
That old truck was sunk by the Coast Guard, which seems a waste.
It's pure materialism controlled and enjoyed by the rich from the backs of the poor. Cuba is the primo example.
I bet they broke environmental pollution laws in sinking that truck.
Probably so. Oil and gasoline spill at least.
http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/microfinance/microfinance_basics/what_poor_need.html
What the Poor Really Need
What do the poor need to escape poverty? Good advice? Moral support? Neither, according to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who says the poor really need a little capital to start climbing the economic ladder.
Money is created from a market system in which the people exchange goods and services. It beats sitting on your butt all day in future-less commie land.
And no human consumption will save humanity. /s
That statement is even more idiotic of a statement than Senators Ernest Hollings "There's too much CONSUMIN' goin' on out theyyyaarr!
American materialism provides the highest standard of living in the world. It’s socialism and communism that sentences most of the world to poverty.
NO cigar breath.. that would bbe dielectic materialism(communism) threatens human life and limb.. Communism has murdered hundreds of millions human lives since it began.. and made many more than than miserable and POOR.. Communism IS socialism.. And socialism is caused by the social disease of democracy.. You know, MOB RULE..
Besides, we got nothing on a billion screaming Chinamen.
All property among the green Martians is owned in common by the community, except the personal weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals. These alone can one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more of these than are required for his actual needs. The surplus he holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the community as necessity demands.
*****
In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but the results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the community interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of the mother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy, loveless, mirthless existence.
True communists despise money.
Todays communist despise anyone else having money.
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=050506I
Why Isn’t Socialism Dead?
By Lee Harris
And what about Russia and its money-grubbing ways...
«Commercial advertising and consumerism are incompatible with the survival of the species.. »
It almost sounds like Al Gore !
They are still supporting that fiction in the case of US Senator Tim Johnson...Castro's cover is a lot easier to maintain.
Castro should be glad then that his people don’t have any money. And he should be glad that we are suffering here in the US with all this money.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Sounds like something that would come out of the mouth of a failed player sitting on the sidelines; someone like for instance, a Castro.
So what Castro is really saying is “Cubans...embrace your poverty....you’ll feel so much better”. (smirk)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.