A friend of mine just told me this amazing fact about Cuba:

[howard112211]

I've never been to Cuba so I cannot verify this for certain, but according to him in Cuba the public glorification of living leaders is against the law. If you see banners of someone, it is usually Che Guevara, but never Raoul or Fidel.

Compared to America, this seems so foreign. With our presidents usually being treated as celebrities and schools and libraries and whatnot being named after living people and all that.

It seems hard to imagine. I was previously under the assumption that "communist" countries were generally even worse about personal glorification of leaders than the USA.

[aquart]

1. Honestly, we used to wait till they were dead.

[razorman]

2. It has always bothered me that living pols get stuff named for them while they are in office.

For instance, it seems that, for many years,everything in West Virginia has had the name, "Robert C. Byrd" tacked onto it.

[aquart]

3. Please, I just found out that the pocket park on Liberty was renamed Zuccotti Park.

Probably on account of the DA's office failing to get the indictments it so desperately sought against that felonious fixer.

[SoCalDem]

9. Didn't there used to be a 25-yr rule?

I seem to recall that being written about when towns started to name stuff after Kennedy when he was assassinated. They did not want to wait the prescribed amount of time...

There is a good reason for waiting.

Look at Reagan, for example.. The bulk of his official presidency papers are still under-wraps thanks to Georgie Porgie...and probably when the sanitized-for-their-protection version sees the light of day most of the "bad stuff" will not be there, but there will still be enough that will cause questions to be asked..

Nixon is another case.. what if the Watergate stuff had not come ouot until later on...and there were schools, roads airports etc named after him?

It takes time for people en masse to arrive at a realistic opinion of a person.. 25 years is a fair amount of time..

[aquart]

13. I don't know. I was a little tiny child.

But I was always being told about places named for dead people. And I never heard of something named for a live one. Unless Rockefeller Center.....?

[SoCalDem]

14. to be fair , Rockefeller paid for & built it, so naming it after himself

was not that odd:)

[LeftinOH]

4. It depends entirely on the country; North Korea, for example is basically a theme park dedicated

to the Kims. Cuba (nothing like North Korea) has the "Che" advantage: A long-dead icon whose image and name can mean whatever they want it to. I don't see any problem with places being named after anyone, living or not; no matter what -we all die eventually.

[Mika]

5. That is correct.

I've been there many times, and what you were told is true.

You will see these privately created signs a lot, especially now that Fidel has retired.....



http://thumb10.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/3525/3525,1255539704,7/stock-photo-wooden-propaganda-sign-viva-fidel-in-cuban-countryside-38863390.jpg

"Viva Fidel" is not simply adulation of Fidel, but was/is the historical signage indicating support for the young Revolutionaries during the uprising against the blood soaked Batista regime. It indicates support for the Revolution.

---

[rabs]

6. No statues of Fidel in Cuba

But you will find this one of George the First in downtown Houston. A homeless man took some yellow paint to it in Jan. 2009


In Havana, you will find this one of John Lennon, inaugurated by Fidel a few years back.



From a 2000 Miami Herald article:

There are no streets in Cuba named after President
Fidel Castro, no statues or peso bills bearing the
image of the ``maximum leader,'' no mention -- ever --
in the official media of his wife of 30-plus years or their
five sons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Few public images of El Comandante are visible
around Cuba, and his Aug. 13 birthday is not a holiday
even though it's always noted by the government's
media monopoly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His regime instead promotes dead revolutionary
heroes such as Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara and Camilo
Cienfuegos on everything from statues to key chains
and T-shirts sold to tourists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interesting article about Castro's family and his private life
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/fidel/castro-family.htm

[Billy Burnett]

7. It is only "amazing" to travel banned Americans.

The rest of the world's citizens are not travel banned from Cuba by their own government - only Americans.

What is amazing is that Americans are travel banned by their own government from going to see the evil island of Dr Castro - and nary a whimper.


Candidate Obama at CANF fundraiser in Miami promising to
keep the sanctions on Cuba and Americans (a classic flip flop
for politicians visiting Miami).

[dipsydoodle]

11. I hope he's clapping his hands

on the even beat.

:hi:

[Scurrilous]

8. I wish they'd apply that rule to Miami.

Then we could avoid things like Jose Canseco Street.

[Mosby]

10. you don't think this is a good idea, do you?

I'm not real fond of the OTT hero worship of politicians but limiting what people can do to honor others seems like a bad way to deal with it.

[howard112211]

18. I know generally it is a free speech thing. I just find it amazing though.

Not what I had expected.

[blindpig]

12. Very true

Fidel and Rauol are afforded great respect, Che's image is around, but reverence is reserved for Jose Marti.

[flamingdem]

15. That was the old days. Now Fidel's portrait is seen all over nt

[Billy Burnett]

17. As you know, Fidel holds no office now.

But is and always will be Cuba's revolutionary hero, as well as the hero who headed Cuba's defense against US invasion at the Bay of Pigs.

[seattleblue]

16. I was in Cuba in 1995. Went thru Nassau.

I actually only saw one banner of Che and that was in the Havana square that adjoins the Communist Party headquarters. I never saw banners or posters of Fidel or anyone else and I went through out the country.