Castro Leads Protest Against a Blinky Sign
Cigar smoking tyrants can’t stand free information, especially when it is in the form of red blinky lights that scroll across a ticker-type screen.? So he buses in thousands of people and makes them walk along the street and call Americans “cockroaches”, and those protesters better comply too, if they know what’s good for them.?
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From Reuters, here:
HAVANA (Reuters) – President Fidel Castro sent hundreds of thousands of Cuban marchers past the U.S. mission in Havana on Tuesday to protest a five-foot-high (1.5- meter) ticker that streams news and human rights messages across its windows.
Castro accused the Bush administration of “perfidious” provocation of a new crisis between Havana and Washington.
As he climbed the podium to send off the march, the U.S. ticker flashed “Conservatives win elections in Canada” and other headlines in bright red letters behind him and in full view of the marchers.
The headlines were followed by quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that toppled Poland’s communist government and led to the collapse of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
“They have turned on the display. How brave the cockroaches are. Little Bush must have sent the order,” an angry Castro said.
The communist leader, who turns 80 in August, was dressed in his trademark military fatigues, but did not join the march past the U.S. mission on Havana’s Malecon seafront, as he has in previous protests.
“The government of the United States … is planning to force a rupture in the current minimum diplomatic links with Cuba. The gross provocations by its Interests Section in Havana can have no other purpose,” Castro said in his speech.
The ticker began displaying messages across 25 windows of its fifth floor on January 16 when it flashed “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up” from U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s famed 1963 speech.
Shortly before the march kicked off, President Fidel Castro addressed the people to point out that the island?s response to US provocations would be ?entirely peaceful, but we shall strike back with all the strength of our moral fortitude.?
U.S. diplomats said the display is aimed at breaking the “information blockade” or censorship in a country where the media is state-run.
An earlier version of this story reported about how all of the thousands of protesters got there, which was by bus, and it also mentioned that there were supposedly 1.4 million cubans involved in the March.? I think they must have Million Man March syndrome (the main symptom is to lie about your number of attendees), because there aren’t enough buses on the whole island to hold 1.4 million people.?
And I like how he vows to use “Peaceful” responses to the outrageous attack of free information!? Oh No!? We Americans are powerless against “Peaceful Responses!”? Castro can make thousands of citizens walk down the street because he got pissed off.? Wow, that sure shows US!
Also, the people HAD to march if they wanted to eat and not be put on an enemies list.? I wonder if Elian Gonzalez got to attend this little rally?? Also, the sign announced that the US was going to allow Cuba to play baseball in the World Baseball Classic, which the Cuban government has not announced to its citizens.? The reason Cuba doesn’t want its people to know about the games?? Maybe because it doesnt want more defections.? See more about the game here.
