Cuba blocks U.S. ticker with flags of mourning - Yahoo! News

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba hoisted 138 huge black flags bearing a white star in front of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana on Monday, blocking an electronic sign streaming news and political messages.

I guess we're done being subtle.

The ticker flashes news headlines and also has included quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement in Poland.

Castro had promised to respond to the sign, which he termed a "gross provocation aimed at rupturing fragile relations" in a speech earlier this month

Fragile relations? The only reason we have any relations is because Castro knows if we don't buy some products from Cuba through our own auspices or from outside companies, Cuba would be dead.

But here is my favorite comment from the report:

The flags represent the nation's mourning for over 3,400 Cubans killed by U.S.-sponsored violence since the 1959 revolution," said Carlos Alberto Cremata, son of the co-pilot of a Cuban airliner downed by a bomb blast, killing all 73 aboard.

"They are white stars over a black background, representing the light of a people that are in pain and mourning for their children and families," Cremata said at the flag-raising ceremony, attended by Castro, other leaders, families of the dead and selected young people.

No where in the report does it mention the tens of thousands killed by Castro's regime over the intervening years. I see no Cuban raising black flags to represent regime sponsored murder on it's own people.

Of course, those who would try to do it would end up needing a black flag raised in mourning due to their deaths by Castro goons.

I really wonder, some day, when this old coot dies, what is Cuba going to do? Are the true believers that powerful that they would just go on as Castro lite? Or would it be Castro heavy? I wonder if Cubans, even the dissidents, fear Castro's death because what may come after that?

Or, are there really so few dissidents that the regime would change to the next dictator expressing solidarity with the likes of Chavez and the Cubans wouldn't even stir themselves?

How long do you have to live in a trash heap watching the rich Euro's enjoying paradise the next beach over before you decide that a trash heap doesn't hold much charm?

Cuba blocks U.S. ticker with flags of mourning - Yahoo! News