Castro, on Cuba's Revolution Day, slams Bush's past drinking
What they think.
China speaks of the religious fanatical, bigoted mindset of the neo-conservatives shared by Bush. #msg-3656966
While in the same light Castro feels Bush uses religion as a defense mechanism, substituting thought.
"He depends on religion as a defense mechanism, substituting thought," said Castro, paraphrasing from the book by the Washington, D.C.-based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry during the island's Revolution Day celebration in the central city of Santa Clara. "In some ways, he doesn't even have to think."
-Am
Castro, on Cuba's Revolution Day, slams Bush's past drinking
VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press
Posted on Mon, Jul. 26, 2004
SANTA CLARA, Cuba - Fidel Castro's ongoing battle with U.S. President George W. Bush turned personal Monday night as the Cuban president brought up his American nemesis' past drinking habits.
Summarizing arguments made in Justin A. Frank's book, "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President," the Cuban president said Bush apparently had replaced his drinking with religious fundamentalism.
"He depends on religion as a defense mechanism, substituting thought," said Castro, paraphrasing from the book by the Washington, D.C.-based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry during the island's Revolution Day celebration in the central city of Santa Clara. "In some ways, he doesn't even have to think."
In an autobiography written when he was Texas governor, Bush wrote about swearing off alcohol in 1986, when he was 40.
"I am a person who enjoys life, and for years, I enjoyed having a few drinks," Bush wrote in the book. "But gradually, drinking began to compete with my energy. I'd be a step slower getting up. My daily runs seemed harder after a few too many drinks the night before."
Bush said a spiritual awakening prompted his decision to quit.
Castro began Monday's 1 1/2-hour speech by disputing Bush's recent charges about sex tourism on the island.
Castro said the claims were false, and show that what the White House considers to be the truth about Cuba is "that which the president makes up in his head, whether it corresponds to reality or not."
"There are many in the world who know very little about the Cuban revolution, and could fall prey to the lies diffused by the United States," Castro said. But he said those who know Cuba have witnessed the benefits for children, such as universal education and health care.
During a speech in Tampa, Fla., earlier this month, Bush accused Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to attract U.S. dollars to the impoverished nation.
"The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. Castro welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at the July 16 conference on "human trafficking" - forced labor, sex and military service.
Bush says Castro has turned Cuba into a major destination for sex tourism, which is "a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat."
Although prostitution does exist on the island, it and has been far less visible since Castro launched a massive crackdown on street crime in early 1999.
Earlier Monday, Communist Party faithful gathered for the speech in this provincial capital, where red, white and blue Cuban flags hung from the sides of buildings in observance of the island's Revolution Day. The celebration marks the 51st anniversary of the failed July 26, 1953, attack on a military barracks that launched the Cuban revolution.
"With the heroism of always," declared a banner hanging over a street in this city about about 125 miles east of Havana.
The top leaders of Cuba's ruling Communist Party were among about 1,000 people attending the annual event in Santa Clara, home to a major monument housing the remains of revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
About 30,000 people originally had been scheduled to attend the event outside, but it was moved inside due to threat of rain. The event was also broadcast live on Cuba's state-run television and radio.
Castro's annual Revolution Day speech is considered among his most important. Communist leaders, who consider July 26 Cuba's true independence day, do not recognize the May 20 holiday celebrated by anti-Castro Cuban exiles to mark the island's break from Spain in 1898.
Castro, who turns 78 next month, has been in power for 45 years, making him the world's longest ruling head of government.
The U.S. wants into the Philippines to fight terrorism but more importantly to contain China.
The prominent descendants of Chinese immigrants to the Philippines might have enough influence to keep the U.S. out.
-Am
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Dr. Jose Rizal’s Chinese Ancestry
The Chinese contributions to the Philippines
The racial and the cultural life of the Filipinos today is the functional summation of the contributions of many peoples, especially the Spaniards, the Americans and the Chinese. The Spaniards and the Americans, however, contributed through conquest and governmental control; the Chinese, in a peaceful and friendly manner. Because of this fact, and the Chinese’s longer association with the Filipinos than the others, it is safe to say that the Chinese contributions are greater and more significant than those of other people.
Students of the Chinese cultural contributions to the Filipino people described them, more or less in detail. For example, economic goods, such as tea, textile, silk, ivory, jewelry, iron and glassware, household utensils, manufacturing and mining skills, clothing, cooking, games of cards, flying kites, and others. These economic objects and skills of course have their by-products, which have affected the Filipino ways of life. But the most significant Chinese contribution to the Filipino people is not in the form of economic goods and skills, but in the form of human beings—the large number of Chinese who settled in the Philippines and whose descendants later on became good and loyal Filipino citizens. Many of these Chinese became loyal Filipinos. And some of them became leaders of the community. Among their descendants, past and present, are found many useful citizens; many of them are prominent leaders in economics, science, arts, professions, religion, government. One of these leaders is Dr. Jose Rizal, the greatest hero of the Filipino people.
(Now on its third year, the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards is an annual project of The Manila Times. This year’s awardees will be known on Friday.)
Philippines, U.S. conducting drills despite reported sour ties
Tuesday, July 27, 2004 at 08:10 JST MANILA — The Philippines and the United States are conducting this year's joint anti-terrorism military drills as scheduled despite reported strains on relations following the withdrawal of a Philippine contingent from Iraq to save the life of a Filipino hostage, a military spokesman said Monday. Lt Col Daniel Lucero, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said one of the exercises began as planned Monday morning in the southern Philippines province of Cotabato. (Kyodo News) http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=306646
Reference: The Pentagon's leak of a "private agreement" with Filipino officials for a direct U.S. role in fighting the terror group triggered a political crisis in the Philippines, because the country's constitution forbids foreign troops from operating on its soil. The provision is implicitly aimed at the United States, which had to close down its local military bases in 1992. http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=713013b4811f4cd741f2e3b2f805343f
More important than delivering a coup de grace to the rebels, successful U.S. operations in the southern Philippines could give the United States a forward presence in the Southeast Asian sea lanes. These waters are critical to the movement of U.S. forces from the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The United States lost a strategic position when Filipino opposition and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo volcano forced the closure of American military bases in 1992.
More immediately, the United States could stake out a staging area for future strikes against Islamic extremists in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, and possibly in Malaysia -- each just hours away by smuggler speedboat. Widespread anti-U.S. sentiment makes stationing American troops unlikely in either country. http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a6fd6ed7f7ea38531ed7f7853ae7c383
The United States is trying for control of the Strait of Malacca. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target. More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait. #msg-3404130
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