59 Responses to Che!

  1. Kerry B says:

    Where do they get these hacks? (I know, that’s easily answered. The Beeb is full of ’em.)

    I don’t recall reading a more lop-sided hagiography anywhere, even on the Beeb. Could there be a more Marxist interpretation of his life than we proudly displayed here?

    Even Pope John Paul II would have beatified “My friend Che” in an instant upon reading this!

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  2. Monkey says:

    Interesting take on the BBC’s coverage of the Communist celebrations in Vietnam last week by the ‘labour sceptic’ blogger.

    http://bbc-bias.blogspot.com/200…st- victory.html

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  3. EU Serf says:

    … Where do they get these hacks?….

    By advertising in the Guardian.

    Nuff Said

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  4. Michael Gill says:

    Neither on this page, nor the biography on another Beeb page…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A471241

    …Is any mention made of Che’s time as commander of La Cabana Fortress prison, where “he oversaw the hasty trials and executions of many former Batista regime officials, including members of the BRAC secret police (some sources say 156 people, others estimate as many as 500). Poet and human rights activist Armando Valladares, who was imprisoned at La Cabana, documented Guevara’s particular and personal interest in the interrogation, torture, and execution of prisoners.”

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

    One can’t imagine a Beeboid-written biography of Pinochet omitting similar details.

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  5. peter says:

    I get the feeling that many BBC staff would have liked to have been a ‘freedom fighter’ if it hadn’t been for the mortgage and the school fees.

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  6. espresso says:

    “When I have doubts, I ask myself what Ernesto would say.”

    And as we all know, Ernie would have said “Put them up and against a wall and shoot them, comrade.”

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  7. Verity says:

    About a month ago, someone over on Samizdata put up links to photos of Che other than that one iconic T-shirt shot, and we are talking one overweight, grotty slob. Ernie looked very much like a “Put ’em up against a wall and shoot them, comrade. I’d do it myself, but I don’t want to have to put my cigar down.”

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  8. dave t says:

    Amazing how the Beeb keep banging on about the perfect society of Cuba et al yet never want to move there…must be due to the shortage of Chardonnay and tufu in Havana!

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  9. thedogsdanglybits says:

    BBC staff may not want to move to Cuba but enough could recommend it as a holiday destination and have been doing so for years as they did the GDR, USSR and other charming foreign parts. And the great thing was that it was so cheap, especially as their fraternal hosts rarely presented them with a bill.

    OT
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1052-1604182,00.html
    This piece in The Times by the inimitable Mogg is worth a perusal as it asks how long will we English be content to languish under foreign rule?

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  10. Denise W says:

    I would like to ask if Cuba is such a wonderful place, then why do so many Cubans drown trying to get Florida?

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  11. alex says:

    Denise Dear, to a garden variety left winger, the whole world would be like Cuba. There wouldn`t be a Florida to escape to.
    Get It?

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  12. Denise W says:

    Alex,

    Oh, yes. Note what is said here, “The journey also opened their eyes to inequality” and then, “The trip made us aware of poverty and wealth” how touching(sniff, sniff). You see, this is how the communists make communism sound so appealing, especially to poor people. “No one will be in poverty!” Doesn’t that just sound dandy! Isn’t that how the Soviets were suckered into communism? Yet they fail to mention the dark side of it and before you know it, everybody is screwed and it’s too late to do anything about it. Then people have the audacity to ask, “How did this happen to us?”

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  13. Susan says:

    “Inequality” is now the big buzzword with the left these days. That’s because capitalism has made the average person in the West so wealthy that the left can no longer credibly natter on about how capitalism will starve everyone to death. Now the big lefty cry is, “Okay we are rich, but some people are richer than others. That’s awful!”

    They also argue that capitalism is evil because it has made us all too rich, whereas they used to argue that capitalism was evil because it would make us all too poor (except for the tiny class of evil capital-owning robber barons at the top). That’s where all the trendy-lefty cant about “consumerism” and “anti-globalism” today comes from.

    If you can’t achieve a goal, just change the position of the goalposts or change the definition of the word “goal.”

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  14. Denise W says:

    Susan,

    And the lefties seem to think that anyone not on welfare is wealthy. I guess there’s no such thing as a working middle class to them. That’s where all this talk about Bush’s tax cuts for the rich comes in. The tax cuts helped little ol’ me so I reckon that means I’m filthy rich. But I think it’s the other way around. Rich (Hollywood) lefties don’t want average people like me to have anything.

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  15. jon livesey says:

    I worked in the old USSR for a few years back in the seventies and the thing that struck me most was the incredible *inequality* of the communist state. Ordinary workers lived on the equivalent of about $200 a month, paid in rubles that could be spent only in state stores which had almost no choice and dire quality. In the town I lived in, the only vegetables we ever had was potatoes, cabbage and onions, the only fruits were apples, most often bruised and of very poor quality.

    Meanwhile, Party members, state-approved artists and military officers had access to so-called “valutnaya” coupons, which were the equivalent of hard currency. These coupons were spendable in state hard currency stores on just about anything you can think of. Imported wine and cognac, chocolate, luxury goods of all kinds, and western canned meats and fresh fish, furs and high quality clothing. Ordinary Russians were not even allowed into such stores. To get in you had to show your party card or, for a foreigner, your passport.

    Having two entirely separate retail systems seemed pretty darned unequal to me.

    The BBC always remind me of Old Labour in that they can all remember a past Golden Age that never actually occurred.

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  16. David Field says:

    Talking of dictatorships…

    There is an interesting piece on North Korea on the BBC website entitled “Why are the North Koreans”. Nowhere does it give the most obvious reason why the NKs might be refusing to talk – because it has a cruel, violent, megalomaniac and tyrannical form of government as opposed to say a functioning democracy.

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  17. JohninLondon says:

    In this interview with melnie phillips she has a good dig at the endemic bias at the BBC :

    http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=636970

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  18. Monkey says:

    Remember the ‘New Speak’ dictionary which journalists have to use in Orwell’s 1984?

    I think I have found the BBC equivalent:

    http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=42

    This is probably the funniest political website I’ve ever seen.

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  19. Monkey says:

    eg:

    Islamism

    Religious and cultural manifestation of the struggle of oppressed minorities in Third World countries against white imperialists, reactionary Christians, and Zionist colonialists. Islamism’s professed disdain for the Western lifestyle, its intolerance towards the bourgeois morals are of vital importance for the international class struggle and have our full-hearted support and cooperation. We will be able to sort our philosophical differences after the Western civilization collapses. We think.”

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  20. Cockney says:

    I never realised Melanie Phillips supported public service broadcasting. It’s just about the only thing I’ve ever heard her be in favour of, as opposed to being a morally degrading symptom of creeping socialist anti-semitism.

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  21. Verity says:

    Susan, I realise it was a minor oversight, but I must take you to task for not finishing the thought: “They also argue that capitalism is evil because it has made us all too rich, whereas they used to argue that capitalism was evil because it would make us all too poor …” But it has made us all so rich that we are using up the earth’s resources!!! This is bad! The earth’s resources should stay in the ground and …. well, they should stay in the ground! We can all afford cars and gasoline! We can all afford to fly. We are causing global warming and at the same time, we are destroying the rain forests(formerly known as “jungles” but this may have sounded a little too Third Worldy), and we cannot convert to cheap nuclear power because it causes leukemia and is possibly linked to left wing lunacy. We are too rich! Workers of the world unite to make us all poorer!

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  22. Miam says:

    OT BBC News Online

    MEPs back McCartney justice fight

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4533029.stm

    “Any cash support would come from the EU’s fund to help victims of terrorism.”

    “victims of insurgency” surely?!

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  23. Verity says:

    I admire their tenacity, but why can’t they raise the money privately?

    “victims of insurgency” surely?! Or “rebel militants”.

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  24. EU Serf says:

    ………And the lefties seem to think that anyone not on welfare is wealthy………

    The also measure poverty by the number of people on welfare. By increasing the number of people able to recieve welfare each year, they can prove incontrovertably that capitalism is leading to more poverty.

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  25. Cockney says:

    Verity,

    In Northern Ireland the supply of private money might be seriously restricted or skewed by the influence of paramilitary organisations and people’s unwillingness to have their kneecaps broken.

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  26. Susan says:

    We can all afford cars and gasoline! We can all afford to fly. We are causing global warming. . .

    Verity, too right! Trans-atlantic flights to Paris were never a problem until Guido the Garbageman from Hackensack could afford them. But at the same time we’re supposed to forego air travel to save the world from global warming, we’re also supposeld to get all warm and fuzzy and Kumbaya-ey about “appreciating diverse cultures.” How can we appreciate diverse cultures if we can’t visit ’em?

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  27. Monkey says:

    “Nazism and Communism shared many things in common. Both were varieties of socialism — one a nationalist socialism, the other a Marxist-Leninist socialism. Both were intrinsically anti-capitalist, anti-individualist and anti-democratic. Both categorized entire groups as enemies destined for annihilation, and did all they could to annihilate them. Both hated each other, and both hated the West.”

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  28. Verity says:

    Cockeny – Touché.

    Susan, I’m sorry, but once again, you are missing the point “…we’re also supposeld to get all warm and fuzzy and Kumbaya-ey about “appreciating diverse cultures.” How can we appreciate diverse cultures if we can’t visit ’em?”

    You don’t have to! They will come to you! In their hundreds of thousands, bringing their incredibly rich culture (with so much to teach us) right to your doorstep if you live in a poor area!

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  29. Susan says:

    Yes, but Verity, they’ll have to board evil global-warming airplanes to come visit us too!

    But I suppose, in the great book of lefty double-standards, they are exempt from criticism because the evil global-warming airplane trips of too many “diverse” immigrants are “for a good cause” — destruction of the West!

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  30. Verity says:

    Exactly, Susan! Plus, it’s OK for hundreds of thousands of them to get on planes for the West because they have been driven out of their homelands by Western imperialists – who destroyed their rain forests and ruined their rich cultures! See?

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  31. Robin says:

    Verity,
    They come in the backs of lorries and the drivers pay the state for them.

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  32. Verity says:

    Where do they come from in the backs of lorries, Robin?

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  33. Basil says:

    What has happened to Andrew, former B-BBC stalwart?

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  34. Anonymous says:

    Nazism hated the west?

    Monkey, can you explain what this means? What is the “west” that Nazism loathed so much?

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  35. David Field says:

    Anonymous –

    Good point. The attempt to treat Nazism as though it has nothing to do with Western Christian culture is ridiculous. It grew out of that culture. Attempting to deny such facts just gives ammunition to Islamists – among others – who always make mention of it.

    Susan/Verity –

    I think your dismissal of green issues is a bit premature. What are you saying? That there are no issues about air travel? That you woudl be happy to see the rain forest disappear? That you think everyone – all six billion of us – should just continue piling up material possessions ad infinitum until nothing green and pleasant is left on this planet? I think your assumption that green technology makes people poorer is also highly debatable. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

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  36. Rob Read says:

    David “Left” Field,

    Technology means more from less. We get a larger amount of crop from LESS farmland. This means we need less cropland.

    Wealth means that people have less children.

    The socialist policies of rewarding child production and attacking economic growth are totally counter-productive.

    National Socialism main variant on the dominant form of coerced collectivism (Communism) is that the victim group is changed from the financially succesful to Jews etc.

    Remember Socialism Kills!
    Together freely we can Make Socialism History!

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  37. David Field says:

    Rob “There’s more than Adam Smith to” Read –

    I think it’s very simplistic to say that wealth equals less children. That hasn’t been the case in Saudi Arabia for instance. I think it quite likely that “natural” population growth will never fall below replacement levels in some parts of the world.

    But the reference to population rather misses the point. The USA and Western Europe consume far more of the world’s resources than all the rest of the world put together despite their (in some parts) negative popualtion growth. Are you saying that you see no end to the accumulation of material possessions and the use of resources?

    As for Nazism my point is that some people seem to view it as something that had no connection with Western values. I;m afraid that’s not true.
    It was very much firmly embedded in various Western traditions established over several centuries including anti-semitism, militarism, racism, colonialism and imperialism.

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  38. monkey says:

    Perhaps Nazism wasn’t anti western, but it was certainly anti-anglosphere.

    Traditional British, American, Canadian and Australian values are liberal, in the true sense of the word. The Nazis regarded ‘the people’ as tools of the state, who’s only duty was the advancement of their race.

    ‘The volk’, ‘brotherhood’, ‘blood and soil’ and all that bullshit. (doesn’t sound altogether different from most of the Islamic rhetoric)

    ” Western traditions established over several centuries including anti-semitism, militarism, racism, colonialism and imperialism.”

    British ‘imperialism’ was not racialist. If it were then there wouldn’t be any blacks or Asians alive today. Indeed, the British actually refused an offer from the Nazis to carve up the old world between them and create an all white Eastern hemisphere.

    If anything, the British Empire was the most benign, benevolent Empire in the history of humanity.

    Nazism and Communism are 2 branches of the same tree. To quote Alf Garnett:

    “Fascism, Communism, all the same when ya know ya Orwell.!

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  39. Basil says:

    OFF TOPIC: How come Andrew has stopped posting at this blog? He used to be one of your main writers.

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  40. Susan says:

    David, I was just making fun of the Left’s hypocritical stances on a whole lot of issues, and also the way they keep moving the goal posts/changing the answers to always make socialism “win” the debate no matter what the subject is.

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  41. Anonymous says:

    “I was just making fun of the Left’s hypocritical stances on a whole lot of issues, and also the way they keep moving the goal posts/changing the answers to always make socialism “win””

    Do you mean like Rob Read’s view that socialists reward child production *and* that national socialism’s only real difference from communism is its victim group?

    Bad socialists/communists! Except for those commie Chinese, of course, who aren’t notably in favour of rewarding child production.

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  42. Susan says:

    *and* that national socialism’s only real difference from communism is its victim group?

    Don’t know about the other stuff but there’s quite a lot of literature out there that supports Rob’s contention that National Socialism (euphemistically known as “Nazism” today) was actually a movement of the left, not the right. See von Hayek’s Road to Serfdom for instance.

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  43. Susan says:

    PS Anonymous

    How do you explain the shift in ideology?:

    Leftism, circa 1930: We need socialism because capitalism makes most people poor.

    Leftism, circa 2005: We need socialism because capitalism makes most people too rich (and they then ruin the environment, endanbering us all, with their greedy consumerism.)

    Any cogent thoughts on this?

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  44. Basil says:

    OFF TOPIC (but then so is everyone else): Were you aware that the State of Alabama legislature is trying to pass a law banning certain books from their public libraries which are by “gay” authors or deal with “gay” subject matter. On the list, among others, is Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams, one of America’s greatest playwrights. Isn’t this frightening in a democracy that we want to spread all over the world?

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  45. Fausta says:

    Now that the Beeb did a show on Che’s best friend, maybe they’ll find some time to interview Che’s own grandson http://www.babalublog.com/archives/001645.html

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  46. Rob Read says:

    Basil,
    Yes it’s terrible that american are forced to contribute towards authors that they hate.

    The state should make paying for libraries voluntary.

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  47. Susan says:

    Basil: Such a law would be declared unconstitutional if the libraries receive public funding.

    Sounds like a big tempest in the teapot to me. But the European left are always picking out these odd little events that occur time to time in the US and holding them up as examples of US “fascism.”

    What do you think of the Australian preacher who stands threatened with prison for refusing to recant his “hate speech” (criticism of Islam), thanks to “progressive” anti-racism laws passed by the State of Victoria?

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  48. Susan says:

    Or more importantly Basil, what do you think of plans to pass the same kind of laws in the UK, similar to those passed in the State of Victoria, to sentence UK citizens to a maximum of 7 years in prison for criticizing Islam as well? Sounds a bit more serious than some redneck legislature wanting to get rid of Tenessee Williams’ plays.

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  49. Pete_London says:

    Basil

    It sounds like you’ve been travelling around with Justin Webb. While you’re on the hunt for those who want to ban ‘gay’ (I’m not sure what ‘gay’ is compared to just gay, but hey ho) literature I’ve a hunch, just a feeling in the bones, that Islamic countries may offer more fruitful pickings than even those dastardly rednecks.

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