Broken Promises : Week of 3.21
This week when learning about the Spanish American War and Fidel Castro, I learned that I was very ill-informed during my former education. I didn't realize what Castro had stood for before his rise to power, and that the government before him was even worse and more corrupt. Batista used his power to kill prisoners of war and keep the blame off of himself. I found Castro's, History Will Absolve Me, to be a very interesting read. I enjoyed how he used the recall of historical events to make his point to the magistrates. Like many other corrupt influential leaders, Castro captured the court and the public with his ideals and promise to overturn the corrupt government. Leaders like Castro make promises that will never be kept, and all of the change that was promised is thrown out the window. I think this goes to show how much people will follow behind a person simply by the ideas that are talked about.
Hi, Illy! I also was surprised by how little I learned about Castro in school. His ideas before he became a dictator aligned with many of the democratic ideas in the US and it was surprising to learn that the US liked Castro at one point. This week I have wondered why we barely learn about Castro in schools and what the reasons were for leaving him out of our history books.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, Illy. I agree that after he came to power Castro failed to uphold the democratic values he defended in his speech. I’m not sure that he can be described as a "corrupt" leader—at least not in the sense in which the word is commonly used. Transparency International, an organization that fights corruption throughout the world, defines it as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” We haven't seen any evidence of Castro personally engaging in such behavior. What we know for a fact is that his government has committed systematic human rights abuse, which runs against the democratic principles he upheld in History Will Absolve Me.
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