For anyone who is interested and gets the Canadian channel, be sure to watch COMANDANTE this Sunday night.
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/index.html
COMANDANTE
Sunday March 28 at 10pm ET/PT
repeating Friday April 2 at 10pm ET
"Comandante is an intimate portrait of Fidel Castro and his beloved Cuba seen through the lens of acclaimed movie director Oliver Stone."
AN INTERVIEW WITH CASTRO (selected clips from Comandante)
ON BEING A DICTATOR
FIDEL CASTRO: What is a dictator? Does anyone really know? And is it bad to be a dictator? Because I have seen the U.S. government being friendly with the biggest dictators. Karl Marx spoke of dictatorship of the proletariat. Not of personal dictatorship.
I have always tried to solve fundamental problems through persuasion and not moral authority. You will not find a picture from the last 43 years of the police oppressing the people.
I do admit that I am a dictator. A dictator to myself. I am a slave to the people, that is what I am.
ON CUBA'S EDUCATION POLICIES
FIDEL CASTRO: We found a country that had 30% illiteracy, 60% functional illiteracy. And I don't think it's an exaggeration if I say that we had 10% well educated people.
At that time of the victory of the revolution there were somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 university graduates. Today there are over 700,000. I'd say it's one of the greatest advantages of the revolution, that even our prostitutes are university graduates.
ON KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION
OLIVER STONE: Were you shocked or not when you found out the details - that Kennedy had an open car and the windows were open all the whole parade route...he was driving very slow. Were you surprised by that?
FIDEL CASTRO: I always had doubts because when you shoot using a telescopic site, it's difficult to aim a second time at such a distance because when you shoot the gun moves and you have to re-aim you can't shoot multiple times.
The theory of the lone gunman with one shot is all he could have pulled off. The possibility for conspiracy is great. The strange thing is that the assumed assassin is killed, it's difficult to explain that.
ON CUBA'S INVOLVEMENT WITH VIETNAM
OLIVER STONE: In Vietnam there were always stories of Cuban advisors...
FIDEL CASTRO: There were Cubans who were studying Vietnamese to collect experience. I don't think there were ever more than 20. I can assure you but I am certain that it was a very small group. Later, it's been said that we had some security advisors there and that they had participated in the torture of prisoners. I can tell you that is a total lie.
OLIVER STONE: I read the POW accounts in Hanoi, about two dozen men who claimed there was a Cuban...who at first watched but then participated in the beatings and was very brutal.
FIDEL CASTRO: If that were true, you can be sure that we would have tried these people in court. Believe us or not, I can assure you that in 43 years of revolution we have never practised torture. That was the practice of Batista and we would never resort to those methods. The Vietnamese did not want any foreigners. They did not ask the Chinese for assistance nor the Russians.
OLIVER STONE: Are you sure?
FIDEL CASTRO: Yes, they were very zealous. Very nationalistic. The Vietnamese were not criminals. They did not practise execution of prisoners.
OLIVER STONE: There was quite a bit of brutality.
FIDEL CASTRO: You would know better than me.
A HUMEROUS MOMENT
FIDEL CASTRO: My mind is used to the idea that I'm not going to live forever. There is a limited amount of time.
OLIVER STONE: They tell me Viagara will help.
FIDEL CASTRO: Will it help me to think? Doctors say that it accelerates blood flow.
OLIVER STONE: I could be a CIA agent.
FIDEL CASTRO: That's right. The headlines will read: Oliver Stone smuggles Viagara to Castro.
Many Americans will believe you helped kill the enemy with a heart attack. You'll get the decorations you didn't get in Vietnam. (note: Oliver Stone was decorated for his time in Vietnam)
ON BEING A FATHER
FIDEL CASTRO: Politically speaking as a revolutionary I refuse to mix my family with politics. In truth the idea of first ladies seems to be ridiculous. As far as the time I have devoted to my children ... it has not been much.
If you measure my being a good father by my time spent with them then perhaps I have not been a good father. But, yes, I am capable of feeling and I do feel for them even though I do not spend everyday with them. When I am with them I try to make the most of the time we have together.
ON THE END
OLIVER STONE: Which version of your life would you like to see for the closing chapter? Version 1: You're a grandfather, many children, you're a benevolent patriarch, well loved by the people, you die in bed - it's a great life. Or the new world order happens, they throw Fidel in chains with billions of people watching you give the most eloquent defence of human rights and dignity ever heard.
What would you do, version 1 or version 2?
FIDEL CASTRO: Neither of the two. I always try to be rational in my thinking. I have an idea how relative glory can by. Look (Jose Martin) said in a phrase "All the glory of the world fits in a kernel of corn."
I have never thought about glory, I have never thought about how I want to be remembered. History is relative. The human species could become extinct, the sun could die out. So what is fame and celebrity worth? One day none of that will exist.
http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/index.html
COMANDANTE
Sunday March 28 at 10pm ET/PT
repeating Friday April 2 at 10pm ET
"Comandante is an intimate portrait of Fidel Castro and his beloved Cuba seen through the lens of acclaimed movie director Oliver Stone."
AN INTERVIEW WITH CASTRO (selected clips from Comandante)
ON BEING A DICTATOR
FIDEL CASTRO: What is a dictator? Does anyone really know? And is it bad to be a dictator? Because I have seen the U.S. government being friendly with the biggest dictators. Karl Marx spoke of dictatorship of the proletariat. Not of personal dictatorship.
I have always tried to solve fundamental problems through persuasion and not moral authority. You will not find a picture from the last 43 years of the police oppressing the people.
I do admit that I am a dictator. A dictator to myself. I am a slave to the people, that is what I am.
ON CUBA'S EDUCATION POLICIES
FIDEL CASTRO: We found a country that had 30% illiteracy, 60% functional illiteracy. And I don't think it's an exaggeration if I say that we had 10% well educated people.
At that time of the victory of the revolution there were somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 university graduates. Today there are over 700,000. I'd say it's one of the greatest advantages of the revolution, that even our prostitutes are university graduates.
ON KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION
OLIVER STONE: Were you shocked or not when you found out the details - that Kennedy had an open car and the windows were open all the whole parade route...he was driving very slow. Were you surprised by that?
FIDEL CASTRO: I always had doubts because when you shoot using a telescopic site, it's difficult to aim a second time at such a distance because when you shoot the gun moves and you have to re-aim you can't shoot multiple times.
The theory of the lone gunman with one shot is all he could have pulled off. The possibility for conspiracy is great. The strange thing is that the assumed assassin is killed, it's difficult to explain that.
ON CUBA'S INVOLVEMENT WITH VIETNAM
OLIVER STONE: In Vietnam there were always stories of Cuban advisors...
FIDEL CASTRO: There were Cubans who were studying Vietnamese to collect experience. I don't think there were ever more than 20. I can assure you but I am certain that it was a very small group. Later, it's been said that we had some security advisors there and that they had participated in the torture of prisoners. I can tell you that is a total lie.
OLIVER STONE: I read the POW accounts in Hanoi, about two dozen men who claimed there was a Cuban...who at first watched but then participated in the beatings and was very brutal.
FIDEL CASTRO: If that were true, you can be sure that we would have tried these people in court. Believe us or not, I can assure you that in 43 years of revolution we have never practised torture. That was the practice of Batista and we would never resort to those methods. The Vietnamese did not want any foreigners. They did not ask the Chinese for assistance nor the Russians.
OLIVER STONE: Are you sure?
FIDEL CASTRO: Yes, they were very zealous. Very nationalistic. The Vietnamese were not criminals. They did not practise execution of prisoners.
OLIVER STONE: There was quite a bit of brutality.
FIDEL CASTRO: You would know better than me.
A HUMEROUS MOMENT
FIDEL CASTRO: My mind is used to the idea that I'm not going to live forever. There is a limited amount of time.
OLIVER STONE: They tell me Viagara will help.
FIDEL CASTRO: Will it help me to think? Doctors say that it accelerates blood flow.
OLIVER STONE: I could be a CIA agent.
FIDEL CASTRO: That's right. The headlines will read: Oliver Stone smuggles Viagara to Castro.
ON BEING A FATHER
FIDEL CASTRO: Politically speaking as a revolutionary I refuse to mix my family with politics. In truth the idea of first ladies seems to be ridiculous. As far as the time I have devoted to my children ... it has not been much.
If you measure my being a good father by my time spent with them then perhaps I have not been a good father. But, yes, I am capable of feeling and I do feel for them even though I do not spend everyday with them. When I am with them I try to make the most of the time we have together.
ON THE END
OLIVER STONE: Which version of your life would you like to see for the closing chapter? Version 1: You're a grandfather, many children, you're a benevolent patriarch, well loved by the people, you die in bed - it's a great life. Or the new world order happens, they throw Fidel in chains with billions of people watching you give the most eloquent defence of human rights and dignity ever heard.
What would you do, version 1 or version 2?
FIDEL CASTRO: Neither of the two. I always try to be rational in my thinking. I have an idea how relative glory can by. Look (Jose Martin) said in a phrase "All the glory of the world fits in a kernel of corn."
I have never thought about glory, I have never thought about how I want to be remembered. History is relative. The human species could become extinct, the sun could die out. So what is fame and celebrity worth? One day none of that will exist.
