[Jorge]

Wow. Maybe Raúl isn't quite as nuts a brother Fidel.

One can only hope...

[mware]

Hmm, maybe there is something to that rumor going around that his brother is dead.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Hmmmm.....very interesting. Softening up the population so that the government can announce that Castro is dead perhaps? Trying to ward off a revolt?

[hinckley buzzard]

There is a real effort to look at what doesn't work and to change it. Raúl wants to make life more bearable. The hope is that by addressing some specific complaints the system can continue

Shades of Gorbachev's perestroika and glastnost. But totalitarian communism is unreformable, as Gorby discovered to his dismay. The whole fricking mess collpased like a house of cards. The machine is rigged with booby traps and Cuba can expect the same outcome if Raul tries to tinker with it.

[EternalVigilance]

Hang both brothers from a lamppost.

If Fidel is already dead, hang him from a lamppost anyway...

[neodad]

was experimenting with stealth reforms to improve living conditions and morale without eroding government control.

Free healthcare isn't enough? Don't let Michael Moore know.

[redhead]

"The defence minister has a reputation for hard-nosed pragmatism,"

what in the heck is "hardnosed pragmatism?" Is that like "soft hardness," or "light darkness?"

[norton]

"Raúl wants to make life more bearable. The hope is that by addressing some specific complaints the system can continue."

I expect that the second statement carries more weight than the first.

More like "Raul wants to keep his head on his shoulders when the dam breaks."

[shield]

Raul would NEVER do this if Fidel were alive. Fidel died around the 15th of August. It’s not a rumor.