Talk:Fidel Castro temporarily hands power to his brother Raul

I have removed sentences from the article that discuss Cuba becoming a democratic nation, because it is only speculation, not fact. All the Cuban government has stated is that Castro is temporarily given power to his brother, because he is getting surgery. Saying that a new democratic government well form is based off of opinion, not facts. terinjokes User Page / Talk 06:27, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
 * fair enough, now that the offending lines are removed, can the tag be removed as well? Doldrums 06:28, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Um, unless anyone else objects to it being removed terinjokes User Page / Talk 06:39, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

The news sources - they should be more balanced
Why is the Cuban News Agency not in the list of sources? Can we really trust the word of the American Establishment owned news agencies? In a world that has seen over 50 years of the punishing Brit-America led blockade, would it not be more reasonable to include a Cuban source as a reference point?

My point here is more one of warning than of nit picking correction. We must all remember to think, question and stay mentally alive. Above all we must not slip into the stagnant mire of spoon fed complacency that encourages the near total mind death. And, if we will trouble ourselves enough to list the sources in wiki-style articles, then would it also be not worth while to think about having some balance in which sources we choose?


 * the following cuban news sources do not appear to have covered this event:
 * Granma - official Communist Party newspaper]
 * Cuban News Agency
 * Prensa Latina - government agency
 * Cubavision


 * Radio Habana Cuba does cover it, but is in Spanish. Doldrums 07:55, 1 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I did post a link to WFOR, the CBS station in Miami. I think they covered the story pretty well. terinjokes User Page / Talk 18:43, 1 August 2006 (UTC)


 * No offense, but are any of these Cuban sources useful as news sources? My take is that the more solid US and British news sources are far less biased and likely to contribute to "near total mind death" than Cuban government sanctioned news sources. I actually think that the BBC (who provided the transcript used in the version of the story I saw) is probably a good choice and much better than US sources which are IMHO often strongly influenced by the Cuban exile population.


 * Especially when you consider the value BBC adds in analysis and speculation. I think most people here understand that there are biases that make up the news we read. The question here is why pick extremely biased news sources when you can pick ones that have built a decent reputation as a low bias new source? -- 68.126.140.180 19:12, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

You have a point... however...as I mentioned above, my point was more of a general one...
We should remember to ask the questions; who is telling me this and can I find out if there is an alternative opinion? If we rely upon Reuters, CNN and the BBC we are really just giving up interest and this is a kind of mind death. The big corporations control the world, they already own or control most of the media and the part that they do not directly control is encouraged by what ever means available to tow the line. So we don't need to start doing their job for them.

The point is that we are used to the predictable rhythms of the media. We have grown up in a world that subjugates the mind to a carefully controlled viewpoint. This is a viewpoint that above all will nearly always support the establishment, the corporations, the government and the rich.


 * agree with you that we shld rely on diverse sources, and indeed, wikinews guidelines asks us to do so. btw, u can sign ur comments by appending four tildes ( ~ ) at the end of ur comment. this helps others follow the discussion better. Doldrums 08:24, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
 * (OFF TOPIC) Doldrums, was adding a comment about that on your talk page, but i see you fixed your tildes before i even finished adding the comment! terinjokes User Page / Talk 18:53, 1 August 2006 (UTC)


 * :) thanks anyway. guess i shld start reading bfor i write and reading what i do write. what a bore! Doldrums 18:55, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

POV title
It has a certain "he's such a dictator" ring to it by emphasizing the brother relationship right in the title rather than the VP relationship and also the phrase "hands" seems dictatorial; I don't know what the Cuban constitution says, but I imagine the vice president is supposed to take the lead when the president is sick--now, the fact that the vice president is the president's brother is a little sketchy and worthy of comment in the body of the story. I would suggest something like "Cuban Vice President, Raul Castro, assumes executive powers during president's illness." SethDelisle 18:58, 1 August 2006 (UTC)