Fidel's Legacy, South Korea, Non-Reform in Italy

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... from the opinion pages of Wall Street Journal ... this is ... for an addition ... now from our studios in New York ... Bret Stephens and Mary Kissel ... well welcome back to foreign editions sorry we're a day late but I was ... I was ... at an undisclosed ... and I was location yesterday so I'm ... here I am ... Mary ... DE we need to talk about Cuba ... because ... and I was like stuck with years of vehicles and aunts ... and being offered to Fidel Castro ... from ... Justin Trudeau the hit ... Prime Minister ... young Prime Minister of ... Canada the ITC his father ... fall so former Prime Minister ... and Peter Trudeau was very close ... to ... the Dow in the nineteen seventies ... Justin ... called him a champion of social Jacqueline he said the ... that ... makes a much progress with Cuba's healthcare and education ... Gerri Corbin leader of the Labour ... party talk to him as an internationalist champion of social justice and Michael Caine is the president of Ireland had kind if you sit for ... four ... for Castro ... now she's in pain ... of course but that you expect ... you expect the dictator's you expect that in John goons of the world ... to ... put in a kind word for him and takes power nineteen fifty nine ... said successfully dies and is in his bed in twenty sixteen because ... he is the dictator's I'd deal right ... what's astonishing to me is that ... after everything we know about ... what Fidel Castro ... did too is people after the evidence ... we knew was a flurry of you know this so well we know the evidence of people ... putting their lives in the lives of their families and young children in their hands to make it across the ninety ... mile stretch of water ... after all of this fee Dell still has his grip ... on the imagination of the Western blot them and I guess my question ... is when you think that is why it while it shows a distinct lack of intellectual curiosity in the knowledge of history ... that's ... and that's to be between number one but also crack ... I think it also shows just how successful Cuban propaganda ... has been over the years ending ... the anti had they Cuba has a traffic health care system ... has terrific education system is simply false ... I it doesn't take much research to discover this mean the health care system ... I can really be classed I think in in three basic categories it's it's it's theirs and health care system for ... foreign healthcare tourists there's a health care system for the Stephen elites ... and thus the healthcare system for everybody else where ... the average Cuban has a brain basic amenities to the hospitals ... to get really a nice of snow she ... didn't need to get to the terrible caravan shortages of things like aspirants up ... in the idea to Cuba somehow a model for health care and pastor should be lauded for this is just ... on an absolutely S Shares aptly stunning ignorance and ... as for the education system while ... let's say the you believe anybody living Neely it's got a great education in Cuba ... I'm I'm sorry does that justify a dictatorship that has murdered tortured and jailed ... on tens of thousands of people I had the effect of funds that Cristiano IRA gonna aam ... opinion Journal this week racking she said ... if you look at ... as a percentage the number of people that Astra murdered it speaks more percentage wise ... in Stalin's Russia just to put that in perspective for me by ... I mean there's no question there is there is the ... archive ... that keeps track of the victims of ... Cuba's dictatorship our colleague Mary O'Grady was ... appointed to this point are you mad ... thousands of people who were ... put up against firing squads and and and then there's ... the export of Cuban ... revolution to ... Angola the support for groups like the Fark ... in ... in ... Colombia ... and more than that the model that he'd been provided to other ... um left wing regimes throughout Latin America ... the bill ... I've been reading a fantastic stories ... have the same in New York Times ... about the plight of of Venice Willens we've talked about this before from our former colleague Nick Casey to ... set the Journal won over to the Times's been doing outstanding ... and some outstanding journalism ... and now you have a bowl ... issue you ... from your ... old people problem from ... Dennis Willens Corso hungry and so desperate to leave Venice well ... that they're taking the boat over to chorus Aoun of lead the ruble as well ... Dutch colonies at the very southern end of the Western it in the end of the West Indies that are right on the coast to ... coast of the Venezuelan ... shore ... they're they're they're putting their lives and enhance their trekking through the Amazon's to get to Brazil from Venice will itself ... in July ... I make all the smuggler of the tyrant in Venice where were briefly allowed the border of Columbia to be open ... uh hundred and twenty thousand people flooded the border just to buy food ... Caracas is the world's most violent city there are shortages of water ... electricity ... basic goods like diapers are shortages of the year ... their shortages of anti By Onyx the infant mortality has skyrocketed ... and this is from a guy from first China's cement mother who said ... Cuba ... is our model and practically waited their regime to abandon ... and yet for all of this ... you have ... a laugh that I don't think it's that they they are ... not cognizant it's ... the it's the romance ... of the permanent revolution ... I think it is the fact that Castro was the guy who for ... more than fifty years was sticking it in the eye ... of the Yankee imperialists ... I think in that symbolic sense ... there was a kind of romanticism attach on which they were willing to forgive every manner of crime so long as anti American ... okay bye well and you also saw ... an owl romance with of course the twentieth century's ... most murderous dictators ... romance to similar fashion and continues to be ... romance in the same way I did today Brock ... it's also important to note that just because Fidel diet does not mean that the Castro rule of terror ... is dead ... all you have a brother Raul ... on nominally in charge but you have for those children of working leaving the highlighted by the way ... and and ... working in ... various parts of the industry in in in the military ... ALM so you have a another layer of dictator that is rising now ... and in the wake of Fails passing ... a few buttons were told that ... they could not go onto the street they could not demonstrate distant big crackdown ... on any kind of demonstrations are writes ... on it and so ... yet the Obama administration is still going to send ... Ben Rollins ... the ... the the National Center the National Security Advisor down to the funeral I guess ... thankfully ... Obama and Biden ... aam were sufficiently Callum had a reaction to to Justin Trudeau and his comments and I'll eat that we should also mention presidental Mama's comments too ... aam because he didn't announce casters ... the murderous regime in the rights violations he said he was leading up to history ... as if we can judge what kind of a leader Fidel Castro ... was a mentor his press release was notable because ... it was mostly about him ... and ... what to look ... here and and and and and astonished people ... the only guy who got it right ... I was Donald Trump no Castro's that exclamation mark ... that's right I mean this guy ... was one of the worst dictators never mind his anti Americanism you can ... you can be a French intellectual sat on the left bank of the Senate the anti American that's one thing ... thousands of people were murdered countries weren't ... ruined lives were devastated ... aam ... and and I think that instinctive understanding that Fidel is our enemy ... even afford to pretend that he's not ... is he goes goes deep and I think people people appreciated that ... I interviewed a Cuban dissident very brave of course in an inferior very courageous Cuban dissident who spent ... eight years in Castro's um Dungeons ... including in the Cuban Guantanamo nobody is aware that there's a ... the still improving as he out in the Cuban side of ... the one on the mall ... um what are the worst maximum security prisons in the whole gulag ... tropical gulag apparatus ... in a small you know what what he think he should do next he was very interesting what the status of going to simply tear up ... the new diplomatic relationship but ... the system ... in which you make it very clear that if ... the Castro the new Castro regime the rule and whoever's successes are ... Move meaning flee towards openness ... political reform ... and don't simply use the opening of the United States to enrich themselves at the expense of their people ... then you can reward that ... but ... if Castro continues to repress ... the women in white the ... dissident movements ... if he continues to use economic ... of ... openness ... the economic openings simply to ... enrich the nomenclature of the lead of the regime ... if he continues to God's people writes ... then you have to punish them enuf to punish them and ... in terms that they themselves ... feel very personally I think that is going to be the key going forward and ... some of my costs are the new fare that has that ... authority ... to make the case ... convincingly ... I wish ... I wish that the left with learn from ... the experience of supporting the enemies of human rights and never to repeat the mistake but ... I saw at first with Castro ... then with Chavez ... we're just waiting for the next Mugabe at some point ... waiting for the next dictator for the left to become infatuated with ... um and so long as this ... continues there's gonna be a ... crippling effect ... and in what goes by the name of the progressive move that will be right back after the break ... the news on the go ... when everyone and where ever you why is ... WSJ podcast listen ambitiously ... from the opinion pages of Wall Street Journal ... this is ... for an edition ... now from our studios in New York ... Bret Stephens and Mary Kissel ... welcome back to foreign edition um ... an incredible story that we um ... we've been covering in the editorial pages of Wall Street Journal you and I haven't ... spoken about it on the show ... is the um political scandal that is engulfing ... and seems about to topple ... the ... president Park ... in South Korea ... here is a president who still has her should have a few months to serve ... in her four year term ... it turns out that she had a spiritual cooler advisor ... who was running a paper plate influence steam ... with the South Korean ... and US troop conglomerates that rival ... prosecutors say it involves sums of ... seventy million dollars ... meanwhile ... this spiritual guru was rewriting the president's speech has apparently rendered them ... totally incoherent ... and ... appointing people like video music directors to positions of influence ... now this is all kind of ... you think well this is a scandal that affects Korea only but it's more than ready ... well yes of course it's it's more than that ... and by the way just to work on spiritual Pfizer's of course ... Cherie Blair the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has a ... spiritual advisor as well but to it's the to pay for play aspect here that the cop on ... the spirituality ... I in in this Nancy Reagan and especially endearing and oranges are correct correct so ... this this this friend ... of present Park a woman named choice and so ... is her name ... looks to have brought ... a president parks ... he will roll to end and ... in the weather not that happens sooner or later it's it's clear that whatever happens ... President Park has absolutely no political capital left in South Korea and this is important ... on because it's coming at the moment in time ... when North Korea ... under Kim Jong Un is becoming more and more provocative so ... it ... put on top of that the fact that the United States which has tens of thousands of troops still stationed in South Korea ... is undergoing its own political transition so ... you have a moment of political turmoil in both South Korea ... and its nuclear protector of the United States and I think the fear here Brock ... is that North Korea under a guy Blake Kim Jiang ... and a young leader in unpredictable leader ... someone who ... does not seem to follow any kinds of rules or norms ... on it that that one would expect ... the guy he's tested ballistic missiles has tested nuclear weapons ... the theme might use this opportunity to take advantage ... of what's going on in so ... he I think that's that's really exactly right because what you have this ... this this cleared up ... political weakness and political uncertainty ... which could very quickly spiral into the ... a military crisis ... aam and ... in part ... the problem is that the mechanism by which President Park will be replaced is she can it be impeached are they cannot ... weeded out for new elections if she is impeached you have an unpopular prime minister ... who I gather would become the interim ... president and elected to ... all this is for freezing Syria's political ... questions ... at a time at the worst of worst time at the worst possible ... moment ... that being said ... all this being said ... you know ... I think it's worth sort of ... their moments we have to step back ... and ... think about ... just how significant is the present part is the daughter of the last ... South Korean ... dictator in the nineteen ... seventies she's democratically elected and she's being brought down ... by the democratic process ... a purely democratic process both ... hundreds of thousands of people marching in the street against her ... collapsing support in ... the legislature ... she has gone on TV to accept ... the verdict and simply say look I just wanna ... make my exit as painless as ... possible ... as quickly as possible ... no one ... when Harry Truman ... I've decided to go to war for the defense ... of South Korea ... it was ... the country was poured Bennett ... the Belgian Congo was one of the poorest places on earth ... it had been brutalized by the second World War ... he was run by seeming re a dictator ... it had been invaded by ... Kim Il sung ... a communist ... dictator ... the United States ... expended enormous blood and treasure more than thirty thousand men ... killed in Korea ... we rotated ... probably millions of troops in his base of sixty years and probably more than a million American troops ... and a one time or another been stationed ... in Korea we still haven't been north of twenty thousand troops ... there ... and yet what are we to the country went from being up or country tour rich country went from being ... an offshore tearing country to a democracy ... apart from your Galaxy Sevens ... Korea ... South Korea provides us with products that we like and need to compete on ... on the market with other cars when dishwashers or or or cell phones or televisions ... it is a pillar of stability an anchor of stability ... it is a rebuke ... to what communists systems produced because the difference between one side ... of the thirty eighth parallel ... and the is that the twenty ... oh yes the ... I ... the thirty three ... and and the other side of thirtieth or thirty eighth parallel is ... so ... so did the ... Invisible media to sleep and when John and ... in case of I'm I'm having a ... northerly moment ... and ... and it's extraordinary and one in one discipline Trina me is ... when ... a leader is brought down ... by democratic process ... is it because it is the thirty seconds ... it is a testament to ... the strength ... and resilience of the democracy ... not its weakness it's a testament to what American or achieve NetEase no end and I think there's this there's also a second thematic point here to read which is ... the benefits of American engagement ... in Asia Pacific it hasn't brought ... real strength of the region it has brought strong democracies and not just in soft worth it ... but you can see also for instance in Taiwan aam which ... has a very flourishing democracy in which has gained enormous ... prosperity in the year since since World War two ... on for Chile some of these democracies that were created or moving backward and thinking for instance of ... the ... monarchy in Thailand and thinking of ... democracy in the Philippines and taking it that democracy in Malaysia ... so if anything there's an argument for more U S involvement in that region of the world then last and that's I think ... something that the incoming administration needs to think long and hard now ... last topic ... Italy ... this Sunday Italy schedule to have ... what has been billed as a very import referendum ... the D tells a somewhat art can but basically it's an attempt by the center left Prime Minister Mikhail Renzi ... to force constitutional changes through the town government so that the Senate ... the second ... their second I'm glad to ... the house of ... parliament ... goes from being a body with I think more than three hundred members ... to the five hundred members ... I'm ... not mistaken three hundred and fifteen two thousand and fifteen two hundred for the sake of some legislative efficiency in it looks like ... the polls hold out it looks like the Titans are going to vote ... no on this ... whenever these questions come up I'm reminded of this ... quote I hate to say it from the needs of most of the knee who said ... to govern Italy is not difficult it's useless ... one of the featured it a ... routine and I think was the last term ... on in the future ... and of ... but what really strikes me here ... the report pointed his ... I think the reason this is failing is because Italians understand that it's a diversion from problem to Italy faces ... is that ... whether it has uh hundred ... and fifteen senators ... the promise Italy faces ... is no grow ... and no job prospects for the young ... and arcane ... our web of regulations labor laws ... that prevent any kind of open ... illegal activity the the crew pervasiveness ... of the grey market and what I think Italians could be ready for ... is a real dose of pasture is ... to say ... this is what deals as an a and and this is why I'm saying this ... the ... French Republicans the center right in France ... just nominate we talked about this last week Francois fee on ... the fact right to lead the party ... the French touch for that to them ... a miracle he's to be a contradiction in terms ... and to lead the party I think that's what it owns are looking for now ... markets are jittery about this I don't think very much is going to happen if the vote no to priced in the no vote ... I think it's a lesson that if you want ... to reform your economy ... reform the economy ... if you want to salt Italy's problems ... go for growth ... don't take around the edges with with ... constitutional that it's ... a Intel adopt the populist fixed ... which is what I think is happening in Britain right now under three some names were you demonize the other in that case ... immigrants and you ... use government as a kind of big government conservatism to pick winners in the economy ... in the year he'd be a decent tax reform around the edges new NetEase regulatory reform around the edges ... but it's it's more of an austerity that is of of of pro growth ... supply side set of reforms that the my fear premise that ... there isn't a factor in Italy that yet you may have Teresa maize or you may have the Marine Le Pen's but I'm not sure ... that that figure exists yet in round ... one last thing that I won us because we wanna be one and on a ... positive note ... the invention of the creator of the big Mac trust God and it's a sad thing except for this ... he died at ninety eight ... amazing amazing morning nine in August of nineteen eighteen she and Billy Kennedy when he was running a McDonald's franchise ... win against the desires of his of of management ... and ... put that bond between those two those two burgers ... added the special sauce put into the crispy ... the crispy lettuce ... and Dom sold around the locals ... and change the world and it just ... goes he goes to show that ... small ideas can have ... a large and tasty consequences thanks for tuning in ... the Scots will see next week ... 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