This just in: Uncle Fidel offers aid to Gulf Coast victims...

[dd74]

Fidel Castro says Cuba will offer 1100 doctors and 24 tons of relief goods.

And who says the U.S. doesn't have high friends in high places?

So, is this offer genuine, or a sort of thumbing one's nose at our country's travesties?

BTW: no comment yet from the U.S. on this offer.

[Aurel]

Hugo Chavez has offered free oil too. Now, what is Kim Jong Il going to offer is the $10M question...

Aurel

[Jims5543]

Considering Cuba has been getting slammed by storm after storm I would suggest to Fidel to take care of his own.

This is obviously a thumbing of ones nose.

[livi]

I suggest this was an ironic opportunity for uncle Fidel - too good to pass on. Cuba offering Mighty USA a helping hand..

Take the offer and start to normalize relations. We need a new island to develo.

[island911]

I think he ought to take our refugees.

[tabs]

You beat me to it Island....

And Kim can give us one of his NUKES so we can NUKE NO and end all our problems down there.....

[creaturecat]

offering 1100 doctors and 24 tons of relief (evil commies) - some way to thumb one's nose! I guess all the other countries that are offering relief must be thumbing as well.

Ever heard the saying - "never look a gift horse in the mouth"?

[bryanthompson]

creaturecat, this would be the same thing as me offering to give you or k911sc a ride in my 944 when your 911 is in the shop.

[911pcars]

Originally posted by island911
I think he ought to take our refugees.

We all can read different things in your comment. Care to elaborate?

Sherwood

[island911]

Originally posted by 911pcars
We all can read different things in your comment. Care to elaborate?

Sherwood

I sure wouldn't mind elaborating . . . if I just knew which part was confusing for you. (?) Are you thinking that those displaced shouldn't be called "refugees"?




. . .or are you just positioning yourself to be offended?

[island911]

Hey Sherwood, you're an "understanding" guy. Help me understand this:

Originally posted by MuleOn this thread

This shows that the ghetto culture that MTV has promoted to the youth of America is a tick away from Mogadishu style warlord fuedalism. There is no racism in calling it what it is.

A close friend who is working search & rescue called yesterday. He was pulling up to rescue 2 guys from a roof. One guy had a hand behind his back. As the boat got close, home boy starts to pull his pistol out to "boatjack" my friend. However when the .45 slug from my friend's pistol strikes him in the chest his plan falls apart as he ends up flipping backwards over the peak of the roof. The next OG ups his pistol with the movie star ghetto gangster sideways position. To quote my buddy, you can't hit an elephant like that. My friend puts 2 .45s in his chest. I said "what did you do then?" "We went on to the next house" he said.

My take:
Many in that area stayed in the area for an opportunity of lawlessness. (and lots of plasma screens un guarded)

Sure it's nice to think that those who stayed were only the poor, down trodden, held back by da Man . . po black folk, needing nothing but compasion from understanding people, like yourself. But, Mules story there, along with the high count of looters doesn't paint that pretty picture.

. .. and of course; looting/lawlesness is not the WHOLE picture. -duh

[turbocarrera]

Originally posted by bryanthompson
creaturecat, this would be the same thing as me offering to give you or k911sc a ride in my 944 when your 911 is in the shop.

What's wrong with that? Now if it was a 924..

[artplumber]

But how many tons of the supplies will be cigars?

[yellowline]

What's wrong with that? Now if it was a 924..

Sure. Whatever works in the analogy. Make it a mad phat Honduh with a 3 foot wing and NOS wired into the hazard light circuit.

As an American, I think it's great that some countries have given aid, especially Canada...they've been generous. This disaster is probably one of the worst to hit the developed world. But it really looks like Fidel is using this opportunity to say "Look at us, we're being benevolent and helping out the poor, poor United States." Maybe he's not. But I'd bet a heartwarming story about Cuba's generosity and Fidel's paternal instincts will show up in their media anytime. Take the aid with a smile, but realize it is meant in insult.

What Fidel seems to be doing is similar to politicizing 9/11. It's really, really low to hustle one's own agenda, in ignorance of the fact that people have lost their lives. Kind of petty, in that light. This goes for Democrats, Republicans, independents, Bush fans, anti-Bush people, international leaders....anybody. It happened, it can't be taken back, let's try to minimize the impact in the present moment, and get it all cleaned up.

[flyenby]

Of all ther doctors that Castro would send........How many would return to Cuba????

[911pcars]

Originally posted by flyenby
Of all ther doctors that Castro would send........How many would return to Cuba????

If the current New Orleans was an option, I'd say they'll all return to Cuba.

From
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076990

<<
Sunday, Sept. 5, 2005 9:44 p.m.

By Richard Meek
Staff writer
Perhaps it's the stench that Dr. Kevin Stephens will remember the most. It was a stench that was a gumbo of human waste, sweat, and despair. For four days, Stephens, the Health Department director in New Orleans, administered to the sick in the Superdome, his primary patients being those in wheelchairs and nonambulatory. He watched conditions deteriorate from one of calmness on the eve of Hurricane Katrina crippling the city, to one of frustration by the time he was evacuated to the adjacent New Orleans Arena on Wednesday. He was taken to Baton Rouge on Thursday.

"I would not have even asked my dog to live in there," Stephens said Sunday in the shadows of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at LSU, where the conditions inside were infinitely more stable than those he left behind in New Orleans.
"On Sunday, everything was fine, we had electricity, water and air conditioning," Stephens said. "On Monday, we lost electricity. By Tuesday the water was coming in through the holes in the roof, the electricity and air conditioning were off and toilets were beginning to back up. People were getting frustrated."

Stephens said he was aware of the water continuing to rise outside the Dome, but he was uncertain as to whether most of the evacuees knew. By then, however, the sliver of light filtering in through the two holes left in the Dome's mammoth roof courtesy of Katrina was that of despair, not of hope. "I never felt threatened and I walked around the entire place," Stephens said. "I was talking to people, administering first aid. But people were ready to get out of there. The conditions were horrid and horrible. The stench was unbearable. If we had electricity, it would have been so much better."

But Stephens stopped short of placing blame on authorities for not responding to the needs of the city sooner. He said it would have been impossible to have the required number of buses arranged that were required to evacuate such a large number of evacuees.

"Buses were running (regular routes) to other places," he said. "If you own a bus company and had that many buses available, you would be out of business."
Stephens said he called for additional help and people responded, including Dr. Fred Cerise from the Department of Health in Baton Rouge. "He came in and stayed with us, and slept with us," Stephens said. "I didn't expect that."

Stephens said he survived off of MREs and water, and that he lost weight.
"It was something I never expected to do," he said, before quickly adding, "I don't ever want to go through something like that again."
>>

Sherwood

[Victor]

Yes, Australia thumbs it's nose to N.O aswell. To the tune of ~$7m at this stage I beleive.

That's probably less than an average rapper spends on a diamond studded ashtray option for a rolls-royce, but still. Better than nothing.