You guys will have to forgive me, but I’m translating from Spanish, I wanted to include a link to a Google translated page but somehow it’s not working, however, the original link is here, for those of you that can read in Spanish.
‘Business is Business’ – El Pais: Commercial relationships between two of the most enduring governments in the world, the State of Lower Saxony in Germany and the Cuban Dictatorship, has increased in the last few years.
What stands out lately in the commerce with Lower Saxony is the import of some emblematic products from the German Industry. German press has informed about the acquisition of 183 BMW cars for Cuban ambassadors. The Embassy in Berlin has stated the following: ‘These are vehicles for embassies’. BMW hopes to sell them 60 more cars. The embassy refused to confirm that Raul Castro already uses a quite modern BMW, compared with the old Mercedes used by his brother Fidel.
What, no Ladas? Damn.
Those spokespersons from Lower Saxony companies consulted by the newspaper that trade with Cubans, all fled like demons escaping from holy water to the question about fearing sanctions from the U.S. as a consequence of the Helms-Burton Law, which forbids commerce with the Cuban dictatorship.
Something that all the Bavarian exporters agree with is that Cuba is a trustworthy commercial partner and pays on time.
I bet they have loads of cash from using its citizens as slave labour in Latin American countries and all the Oil given by the lovely Kuzco. Isn’t that peachy. :(
“I bet they have loads of cash from using its citizens as slave labour in Latin American countries”
Oh please. Do you buy products from China? If so, shut up.
I bet they are ‘Special Protection’ BMW’s
Gaparini…
STFU
You havent been to cuba, dont know the people and all you know is the crap the US media and Miami cuban mafia shoves down your throat.
As a sovereign nation Cuba has the right to do whatever it pleases without iTards like Gasparini making baseless idiotic suggestions.
What does Dennis Castro use…..
#1, #3 – I bet you two wouldn’t be so pissy if there were German hooters in the picture instead of the BMW logo.
How about making a decent argument instead of whining like newbs?
Who cares? Oh, Yeah– the US Gov’t.
I think it is time for the US to change it’s stance on Cuba. Fidel is all but gone. The Cold-War is over, why should we still adhere to the policies made during that era? It is an opportune time to extend and olive branch, and make peace.
#1 – Ryan – Oh please. Do you buy products from China? If so, shut up.
My thought as well.
#5 – James Hill
Ryan’s comment was on target… unlike yours. The bottom line is that a lot of the people who say “Keep the embargo”, have absolutely no problem supporting the biggest dictatorship in the world… China. China has murdered and imprisoned way more of its citizens than Cuba, they’re occupying another country, they’ve been the enemy of the USA in two wars, they’ve supplied arms to the enemies of the USA… but still you don’t have a problem going to Mall Wart to get your cheap Chinese goods.
#7 – This is why you’re a hack: You’re insinuating things you don’t know to be true while supporting a post that was nothing more than telling someone to “shut up”.
You’ve failed. You’re welcome to try again, but you’re not allowed to continue posting nonsense.
#8 – James Hill
What is not true in what I wrote?
How about this. Gasparrini is wrong. There is no slave labor in Cuba.
Cuba does have human rights issues, no doubt about it but singling this Cuba/BWM deal is silly. Want a short list of counties that the US (not just the US but most counties) does business with that have questionable human rights? Libya, Colombia, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Cameroon, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Zimbabwe.
Pedro stuff an empanada up it, I wasn’t talking to you. Most people who havent been there think that Cuba is this soviet style police state which is the farthest thing from reality.
#8, James:
However, in #3, you said:
Pot, meet kettle.
#10 – pedro
Here’s a list of the 30 worst atrocities of the 20th century. Where’s Cuba? True enough, Cuba has a smaller population. In 1950, China had a population of something like 562 million… which had increased to about 924 million in 1975. During this period time, Mao and his followers massacred close to 50 million people. Just for the sake of satisfying you, let’s divide these 50 million with the larger of the population numbers, 924 million. That makes 5.4% of the population was massacred/starved etc by the communists in China. So, what’s the population on Cuba? 11 million? Nah, let’s take Cuba’s population in 1959/60, just to give you some advantage… around 7 million. So, let’s take 5.4% of 7 million… 378,000 … That should have made the list over the worst atrocities, shouldn’t it? Pedro, you can hate Fidel for all hist faults, but he’s not worse than the Chinese communist regime by far… and the corporations are in bed with them with the Western Governments approval. I’m guess this was Ryan’s point… but it definitely is mine… why are we not bringing democracy to Cuba in the same way we’re trying to do it to China? I do not fancy Fidel, but I don’t try to demonize him either. His a dictator… and therefor an asshole… but as Ryan pointed out… the US is in bed with several dictators.
Up here in Canada – land of the free, etc, etc – we actually can see Cuba legally, both on vacation and on business.
Of course, we also can see America.
Guess which one we prefer.
+–
#16, jag,
Good reply.
*
I’m not so sure the American government can do much about BMW trading with Cuba. The WTO prohibits it and the German economy, as well as the European Union, would surely back them up. Any enforcement might just start a larger trading war the US is too weak to win.
@ 10
Yes, I have been to Cuba (2 weeks) and China (3 weeks). I never said Cuba was great. But China wasn’t great either.
@16
I said the US and other counties all do business with questionable people. Again, it’s silly to single out a single country/business as they all do it.
I am sure that the embargo will bring the Cuban communists to their knees! just because it has not worked for 50 years does not mean that it won’t work any day now.
OTOH, lifting the embargo could democratize Cuba just as American engagement has brought the sweet fruit of liberty to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and many other freedom-loving lands.
Why is it that the further left the politics of a person, the more allowances they will make for murdering thugs like Castro and Guevara? Yet these very same people call Bush “hitler” with a straight face.
It;s quite astounding, really.
Jeez! You mean the same BMW whose logo, the Roundel, represents a spinning airplane propeller? As in the Luftwaffe planes powered by BMW engines?
Shocker!
#18 – Mr. Fusion – Thanks. 🙂
#19 – Ryan – Point taken. 🙂
#21 – pedro – Nowadays, the regular chinese lives better than a regular cuban.
If the embargo against Cuba had been lifted in 1974,, the Cubans would have way better living standards than China. Why? Because it’s easier to lift a small country than a big country. Now, the embargo is still in place, so don’t expect Cuba to go the same path as China.
Both are on the wrong, but China has made adjustments to try and live with at least a minimum of civil coexistance with other countries.
According to OnWar.com, these are the major conflicts China has had since the communists took power:
Chinese Occupation of Tibet 1950
Korean War 1950-53
Tibetan Uprising 1954
Sino-Burmese War 1956
Tibetan Uprising 1959
Indo-Chinese Skirmishing 1960
Sino-Indian War 1962-63
Chinese Cultural Revolution 1966-69
Sino-Soviet Border Clash 1969
Sino-Vietnamese War 1979
Tiananmen Square Massacre 1989
And current disputes and their military buildup.
But you cannot say this is right because China is worse.
I never said that, but what I’m saying is… treat them the same.
So, forgive me if I have an axe to grind with those worms.
I understand… the issue of Cuba is closer to home, but it doesn’t change reality… that both Cuba and China has a shitty leadership.
I sure like my BMW 740iL.
At the risk of sounding like a terrorist, look at it this way: The cars probably aren’t for diplomats in Cuba, they are for Cuban Diplomats in other countries . So, BMW gets paid in Canadian dollars or whatever, and the U.S. State Department or FEMA or whatever has no gripe.
#1 Ryan: ““I bet they have loads of cash from using its citizens as slave labour in Latin American countries”
“Oh please. Do you buy products from China? If so, shut up.”
Uh Ryan: Sorry to disagree but please get your facts right about China – the slave labour of which you speak are from private companies – many of the foreign.
There are very few ‘State Run” companies in China any more – China is purely all capitalist now. China does have a 40 hour work week with maximum 32 hours per month overtime – problem is enforcing it – like so many other things. ;).
It would be like me saying “Don’t go to America you will be shot right out side the airport”…well not all airports.
Cheers
To all the Cuba bashers: Just bear in mind that Cuba provides free medical and dental care to the Cuban people who outlive Americans despite their lack of LCD TVs and Jet travel tourism. I seem to recall Castro offered to send 10,000 doctors to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina(before an American federal relief effort was launched).
Think about the real consequences of the embargo ie. denying the Cuban people medicine not just BMWs.
And to top it off Castro’s “shitty leadership” has cost how many Cuban lifes in wars on foreign soil? ….oh thats right 0.
Enjoy your American dictatorships you false patriots
Cuba offers her citizens free medical and dental care
Statistically Cubans outlive Americans
Cuba doesn’t send her citizens to die in foreign countries while killing innocent civilians to generate corporate profits.
Cuba offered to send aid to New Orleans before George Bush did…
Cuba has accomplished this despite the embargo
So suck up you BS false patriotic rhetoric and face the facts
#1, I don’t have to shut up about anything and you are no one to tell me to shut up. A different matter altogether would be if I lived in China or Cuba, where I wouldn’t be able to say anything about the government without fear of being imprisoned in sub-human conditions.
#2, Again, who the hell are you to tell me to shut up? The only ‘iTard’ here is you since you don’t even know how to read. Pick up a book every once in a while, it might do you good.
I guess you guys didn’t know that Cuban doctors in working in Latin America barely get paid. This type of business transaction is performed government to government, with the monies being exchanged getting directly to the coffers of the Cuban government, with very little going to the doctors working in other countries. Does it seem fair to you that a government treats its citizens as their own property? Then, why do Cuban doctors keep defecting? Ever wonder why is that? If things are so wonderful, why do people risk their lives trying to get to the U.S. by any means possible from Cuba? No answer to that? No snappy comeback?
Some other person said that Cuba doesn’t send their people to die in other countries for big corporations? What big corporations are there in Cuba when everything is owned by the State? What about sending people to die in Angola? What about Grenada? What about Venezuela around the middle of the 20th century?
#12 – Ryan
“Cuba does have human rights issues, no doubt about it but singling this Cuba/BWM deal is silly. Want a short list of counties that the US (not just the US but most counties) does business with that have questionable human rights? Libya, Colombia, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Cameroon, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Zimbabwe.”
So what I’m hearing is, two wrongs don’t make a right – but 16 do?
#28, pedro,
#25 the thing is, this post was about cuba. When a post about china comes, then we’ll talk about it.
So if this is about Cuba, why did you post such a long winded, irrelevant piece about Argentina in #10?
Pot, meet kettle.
#37 – I didn’t know that – I was guessing and was running on a bit of left over ‘rant’. I get that way. My wife is probably wondering why I am not ranting to her as much recently! 😉 I won’t tell her why.
Thanks for the update – and yes what can you do with someone who does that? I have never been there so… It’s like North Korea too – is this guy for real? Many Chinese say if Mao lived on or if Deng Xiao Ping didn’t turn China around and abandon communism after Mao that is what China would be like…scary!
Perhaps it will be that way with Cuba – wait until Castro falls off the perch and hope for a Cuban ‘Deng Xiao Ping’ to turn things around.
I do like the Cuban cigars though, that’s one small benefit of being out of the States. (yeah I know its a Freud thing and its bad for you…)
Cheers
It’s honestly way too easy to beat on you morons. You must enjoy being abused.
#9 – You insinuated that I don’t care about what China does, which is not true. You also failed to prove that I wasn’t right on.
You failed to prove your point.
#15 – Learn English: Starting the sentence with “I bet” is something called a qualifier. Look it up, because now that I own you I can safely say you have the time to do so.
#39 James Hill – I agree – but wouldn’t say they are morons – they have an opinions based on incorrect information and media rhetoric.
Jägermeister: “China. China has murdered and imprisoned way more of its citizens than Cuba, they’re occupying another country, they’ve been the enemy of the USA in two wars, they’ve supplied arms to the enemies of the USA… but still you don’t have a problem going to Mall Wart to get your cheap Chinese goods.”
Jägermeister: Germany has also been an enemy of the US in two World Wars!, (not just Korea & Vietnam) they occupied most of Europe – sought to obliterate Poland, and Russia and subjugated its population as slaves and attempted genocide by killing millions of Jews…So now we all should have problems with owning BMWs?
America has also been an enemy with itself over the issue of slavery but when this was resolved refused to allow them full freedom and rights, occupied territories of other countries (Texas used to be Mexican – Americans were invited to settle but become naturalized Mexicans), broke every treaty ever signed with the American Indians – so the rest of the world should have problems with buying American products?
See the point? China today is not the shitty terrible China you remember or think it to be just as Germany and America are not as well. Hmmm America is still open for debate – kidding!!
Hey, I can control my rants… 😉
Cheers