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opinion
KANSAN.COM/OPINION | MONDAY, DEC. 5, 2016
I'm sorry, professor,
my body is just
predisposed to sleep
through your class, I
have no control over it
Still proud of my volleyball girls
The only bowl KU will be in are the burrito bowls that the fans are eating
I just skipped class to get a haircut and that's where I'm at with everything
Since when do we sit down in the student section? Stand Up People!!
my professor just took class time to tell us where all of his clothing was made.
All I want for Christmas is Tyler Self scoring double digits
Only a few more days
sanitydontfailmenow
"you all look bored as sh*t and like you want to f*cking leave" -phil 180 prof. how does he know us so well??
Do you ever just forget that Ashton Kutcher is a person?
Why blame yourself when there are 7 billion other people in the world?
If people could stop having the same name as me, that would be great.
Who thought is was a good idea for engineering to start doing plus/minus?!?!
Glad to see someone finally sticking up for Mrs. E's!! #truhttopower
Is anyone else in for the worst two weeks on their young lives? I sure am!!
Me every day this week: "To the Hawk!"
B-ball? More like Sviball, am I right?
Twenty-fun? More like, Twenty-I shouldn't have put off this essay until it was due right after my birthday...
Congrats to Austria for having the good sense to reject a far-right blowhard!!
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ANSAN.NEWS
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Associated Press
The motorcade carrying the ashes of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro makes its final journey towards the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago, Cuba.
Sanchez: Castro leaves contradictory legacy
▶ SANDRA SANCHEZ
@sssanchez26
The death of Fidel Castro on Nov. 25 was met with mixed emotional responses. The Los Angeles Times called him a "charismatic icon of leftist revolution" whose "bellicose and swashbuckling" actions in the fight against capitalism left him a symbol of anti-American diplomacy, while other news outlets like the Washington Post labelled him, "a spiritual beacon for the world's political far left."
In Cuba, thousands of mourning people met in Havana's Revolution Square to pay respects to their leader of
nearly half a century. World leaders from Vladimir Putin and François Hollande to Enrique Pena Nieto and Xi Jinping offered condolences. The latter lauded Castro's "immortal contributions to the development of socialism around the world."
However, there were those who responded with joy and relief. CNN reported that in Miami's Little Havana, loud festivities and celebrations complete with music and dancing served as a keen reminder of the lasting legacy of Cuba's political turmoil. After all, it was just a few decades prior that nearly one million Cubans fled the island for political asylum from Castro's communist revolution. These migrants — many who are barred from returning to their families and homes and who were labelled gusanos (worms) by Castro himself — were denounced as traitors to a revolution that brought steadily decreasing standards of living to Cuba.
Castro's Cuba was not a happy socialist paradise in which the problems of capitalism or American politics were absent, but, predictably, his death has become part of an agenda to critique these factors. As Che Guevara t-shirts and paraphernalia persist, so does the myth of the anti-capitalist hero.
Castro's Cuba was not a happy socialist paradise in which the problems of capitalism or American politics were absent."
It is true that Castro enacted valuable change. Fighting the rising U.S. superpower in the decades of overbearing American foreign policy and meddling, and emerging after the corrupt and business-fueled Batista Regime, Castro was a powerful figure who oversaw various social progresses and improvements to sectors like healthcare and education. Under his reign, Cuban illiteracy rates dropped from nearly 25 percent to being "illiteracy free," as proclaimed by UNESCO in 1961. Cuba is in the top 25 countries for highest life expectancy and its medical system and medical research is leading in global preventative care.
Yet any improvements under Castro's reign come with a dark legacy of repression and economic collapse. As noted by the Americas director at Human Rights Watch, Castro's regime repressed "virtually all civil and political rights" by jailing political dissenters and activists as well as restricting NGO research on human rights. In 2012, the median income per month was a measly $25, a result of little access to disposable income and
encroaching taxation policies promulgated by Castro's economic programs across decades of resistance to U.S. trade.
Castro's Cuba was nothing like a Stalinist regime, but it did fail to uphold key progressive values for a true working socialist state. Using his death to promote political critique of capitalist inadequacies distracts from the true discussion of his contradictory reign. El Comandante should be remembered as he was, a man who decried imperialism and capitalist hegemony while extending his power over a complicated nation. Beloved or hated, his legacy will certainly be lasting.
Sandra Sanchez is a junior studying history, Chinese and global & international studies.
Edited by Cody Schmitz
Liston: Know when to give advice (or not)
RYAN LISTON
@rliston235
"You've got it set to 'M' for mini, when it should be set to 'W' for wumbo." Many of you may remember this hilarious episode of Spongebob Squarepants in which Patrick suggests Spongebob simply flip over the letter on Mermaid Man's shrink-ray belt in an attempt to un-shrink Squidward and eventually the rest of Bikini Bottom. The
strategy does not work.
While this piece of advice may sound ridiculous, uninformed advice seems to be all too common. As a cross country and track runner, I have been on the receiving end of much of this advice. People who have no experience with the sport have tried to tell me how I can improve. The advice ranges from overly-simplified "Just run faster," to overly-specific "Maybe if you shaved your beard off, you would be running faster."
Yet athletics is not the only area of life where this type of advice comes into play. From academics to work to mental health, there are certain people who should be providing advice and certain others who should not. The challenge for all of us is to realize when we should not provide advice. To determine whether you are in such a position, you should ask yourself the following:
Do I have experience with the situation?
If the answer is no to any (or all) of these, you're likely not in a position where you should provide advice. In terms of my athletic performance, the only people whose advice I truly value are my coaches, my teammates and my parents, because all of them have either experienced what I am going through, or have been around me enough to know
Would I take this advice myself?
Has this person requested my advice?
what will help me succeed.
The challenge for all of us is to realize when we should not provide advice."
Just as we all would not want a doctor telling us how to fix our cars, or Gary Johnson to tell us about foreign policy (if this reference is lost on you, just Google "Gary Johnson Aleppo"), we also need to realize when we ourselves should not advise someone on a certain issue. If we do not know much about mental health, we should not advise our friends who struggle with it on what
they should do. If we do not understand chemistry, we should not advise our friends on how to study for their chemistry exams.
At best, providing uninformed advice can be just an annoyance. At worst, it can cause problems such as divisions in friendships. So the next time you want to give someone advice, make sure that you are qualified to do so, and that your advice is not just some version of Patrick Star's "wumbology."
Ryan Liston is a sophomore from Lawrence studying journalism and political science.
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