Castro is certifiably mad; at least on mining

What he says is not particularly interesting—same kind of trash any old madman would spout.  What I look forward to is the comments from anti-mining activists on his positions and opinions.  Let me have yours before they post theirs.

Here is a link to Castro’s full missive.  It is madness pure and simple, but nevertheless let me quote this madman on mining:

I knew about the damage caused by the Yankees to the people of Canada.  They forced the country to look for oil by extracting it from huge extensions of sand that are impregnated with that fluid, thus causing an irreparable damage to the environment of that beautiful and extensive country.

The incredible damage was the one caused to millions of persons by the Canadian companies specialized in the mining of gold, precious metals and radioactive materials.

…the mining laws in our countries […] do not include any obligation or methodology to control environmental or social impacts; the tax revenues that mining companies pay to the countries of the region are, as an average, no more than 1.5 per cent of the revenues received.

Ah well! Thus I leave you with the picture above.  I snapped it yesterday on a ride through Vancouver.  It is a drain outlet, believe me.

On the way home, through light traffic (Easter Monday?) I had more thoughts on this issue.  Here they are.

Castro is typical of the ignorant and blind on mining  His lousy county subsists on nickel mining done at his regime’s behest by Sherritt Nickel.  Yet not once does he or any other reporter, for that matter, note this fact.

I would propose that Canada pass Bill C-323 which would allows foreign nationals to sue in Canadian courts for imposition or profit from slavery.   Recall that the average geologist working for Sheritt Nickel earns a mere $15 a month.  That is slavery.

If we allowed the people, miners and geologists of Cuba, to sue for slavery, they could recoup millions from a greedy & venial Canadian company.  And, in my opinion, they deserve the right to sue and be recompensed at decent rates.  How can we glory in $100,000 a year salaries for newly graduated Canadian geologist in the face of this slavery?

Take a look at Google Earth to see the devastation of Canadian mining in Cuba.  It is bullshit to bemoan other countries while taking a holiday tour to Havana to glory in the “color, music, and romance of the old.”    I would fine every Canadian hypocrite taking a holiday in Cuba a million dollars for luxuriating on the wages of slavery.

Let us face facts that only a blogger can address: Cuba is a basket case; a prison; a dictatorship of racialist old men promoting their families’ best interests; they have beguiled silly Canadians into supine romanticism; they are criminals along with Sherritt in exploiting the people and the environment; they should be in the International Court of Justice, and hopefully will on day be there.

They make out that the USA is immoral in opposing this ghastly modern regime.  They are propaganda experts of the worst type.  Cuba is as bad as North Korea, Iran, South Africa in the old days, or any other dictator bent on bending world opinion.  The USA is right in opposing this terrible place and its racist, tyrannical government.

Let us hope that in my life-time we see the fall of this modern horror and its replacement with decency and democracy.   I despair when I see Canadian journalists and tourists supporting this prison on the basis of romance and stupidity.

Get real people and say what is.  Stop this denial of fact and attack yet another bad regime and its crazy old men.  They are sewer outlets and let us treat them as such.

A final plea to all those Canadian jounalists who have celebrated this statement by Castro and used it as the basis to attack Harper, the oil sands, or Canadian miners:  repudiate your reports and comments; admit you are wrong; tell the truth for once; restore the integrity of Canadian journalism; tell the story of what happened and what is; admit the country can do wrong; admit that everything Canada does is not moral or right or admirable;  attack Cuba and its venial and immoral political leaders; stop visiting the island; stop telling us that only the USA is wrong and tell us the complete story that underlies this extraordinary statement by a man who is old and mad. And yet still in charge of a disfunctional slave state.

This is one chance for Canadian journalists to regain credibilty.  Pass up this opportunity or forever put yoursleves in the bin of venial, uncritical, prejudiced, and unintelligent commentors whose opinion is worth no more than the paper or e-space it takes up.

Stand up to propoganda or fall into the history-bin of those who were too stupid,  afraid, or prejudiced to tell the thruth.

Admit that you, as a jounalist, cannot use the statements of an old mad-man as the basis of reasonable comments & analysis of the state of the world or Canadian mining. Admit this is prejudice of the worst sort on your part.  And let us proceed to fact (not fiction) and the presentation of a full evaluation of the state of things as they are, not as you wish they were.