For starters, Elizabeth Fry, Grace Darling, Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Blackwell.
OK, Susan is perhaps John Kennedy a hero? I am not a historian but have read enough very precise and impartial analysis of his role in the enforcement of the isolation of Cuba, for which the root cause was attempts by the Soviet Union to more or less take the place over, and his utter contempt for the Cuban people. The Cuban missile crisis was made by Khrushchev and it was as much Castro who stopped it going any further as anybody else. The USA was ready to attack, the Soviet Union never prepared and Cuba never really asked if they wanted any of that. The Cubans were lied to by Khrushchev. They have paid since. Skip a few pages now and again and one always comes up with US pressure on Cuba, funding of opposition groups who are the majority of people who have been detained and other pleasantries. It has been a country under siege since 1958 when a brutal dictatorship funded by the USA was deposed.
All countries have opposition, including journalists, some end up in prison. Oh dearie me, history books not often read in the USA tell how communists in the USA were interned, imprisoned and let's not forget what the kind gentle CIA might well have done to them. Just about every communist journalist in the USA was out of a job and even freedom by the end of the 1960s. By heh ho, that's democracy for you. In Cuba we met members of opposition groups openly, critics of Castro and indeed opponents of human rights activism, thus as a group selected by a UN committee to visit we found that we saw more that was positive on that poor island than in some considerably wealthier and allegedly free countries. Many 'free' Cubans who go to the USA very quickly learn to play the game and say how awful life is there. Free Cubans in Cuba, some of whom are well off enough to have travelled and study abroad are happy there. We spoke to a California trained paediatrician who had returned to Cuba to work who believed children in his country are happier and better looked after. He also admitted that the temptation to stay in the USA and earn a lot of money could easily have won, especially since he was not a socialist, but that he put his professional ethics and integrity first. He also did not like the Castro family, saying they had dominated his country too long, but thought the outcome of the revolution was worth keeping.
I regard Cameroclegg as a pygmy in all things not just the NHS. Cameron pretends to support the NHS, in the sense he professes to support it rather than dissembles, but seems to do little to control the members of his part who hate it with a vengeance.
Sadly there is no one of the stature of Bevan to oppose them. A little more venom in the House would be welcome but of course it is now simply an extension of the university DebSoc stuffed with career politicians who are all "people like us" and not much different whether Left or Right.
Human rights in Cuba? Ask the Ladies in White what they think about their rights. Ask the journalists in jail about their rights. There's no such thing as a free press! My sister in law and in laws have visited Cuba twice and not to stay in the hotels for tourists but in Cuban homes. I admire the Cuban people for their strength but blame Castro for their poverty. He is in no way a hero for me. I've seen the pile of boats in Key West, Florida that the Cubans risked their lives in while trying to get away from Castro. I also had to learn how to hide under my school desk as a child during the Cuban missile crisis. Ask the large Cuban population in Florida how they feel about Castro. You may be surprised to hear what a free Cuban has to say.
Guevara, Chavez, da Silva, Morales (already mentioned)
Jane... and your heroes?
I think that calling Cameron a pygmy over the NHS is far from the truth. He has used the NHS for his now deceased son and appreciates it well. Probably far more than the thousands of people who fail to turn up for appointments and waste money.
I once had occasion to sit on an NHS committee and I can only marvel at the amount of time they spent without making any progress at all.
The NHS needs people to really appreciate it by not demanding drugs which they do not need and not filling up the A & E with drunks!
Churchill believed in eugenics, does not go down well with me at all.
Bevan, oh yes, one of those speeches full of fire. Could they handle a day in the Commons with him in best form? Doubt it. None of the smarmy put downs would work with an orator of that calibre.
Fidel has always been a hero of mine. His ridding Cuba of the scum that maintained it as a fiefdom of the Mafia was a great work. Doubtless the Americans would like to see it return to that state.
Can't say I'm a great fan of Churchill.
Would love to see Nye Bevan laying into the pygmies Cameron and Clegg over his NHS.
You'll see I did not put in mine, deliberately. Here goes:
Janusz Korczak was the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, who lived July 22, 1878 – August 1942. He was a Polish-Jewish educator, children's author, and paediatrician known as Pan Doktor ('Mr. Doctor') or Stary Doktor ('Old Doctor'). After spending many years working as director of the Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw. He refused freedom and stayed with his orphans when the institution was sent from the Ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp during the Grossaktion Warsaw of 1942. He inspired many activists for children's rights, so that in 1979, the UN International Year of the Child, the UN Commission on Human Rights began to consider the Polish government's 1978 proposal for a CRC based on the text of the 1959 Declaration. The fact that the proposal came from Poland, at a time when the Iron Curtain still split Europe into two different worlds is often attributed to the life and work of Janusz Korczak as a pioneer of child welfare. Professor Adam Lopatka, is sometimes referred to as the 'Father of the Convention' and served as the President of the Working Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He was inspired by Korczak's inclusion of children as participants rather than just recipients of rights and oversaw the inclusion of children into the Convention. I met Lopatka twice very briefly. So whilst Korczak is my hero, Lopatka is another in his wake.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, is a controversial and divisive world figure, hailed as a champion of anti-imperialism, humanitarianism, socialism and environmentalism by his supporters, but considered by his critics as a dictator, he has significantly influenced the politics of various individuals and groups across the world, including Nelson Mandela and Evo Morales. However, when I was part of a group invited to Cuba by a children's organisation we were not 'lead by the noses', we met people opposed to the present regime as well as supporters. The picture we got all in all was of a country kept poor by the embargo placed on it by its powerful neighbour but where there is greater freedom and joy for life than in many other countries. Whilst people admitted they have had political prisoners, they also asked why the fuss when the USA is holding suspects at Guantanamo Bay on their island? In their case, they were all actively opposed to the regime and often what we now call terrorists, all tried and sentenced or freed. Many were allowed to leave, etc. Castro has never encouraged human rights breeches and actually been very vocal about all people, especially his own, being allowed their rights. I admire him for his tenacity and holding out against bullying by the USA and also by the Soviet Union, especially Khrushchev.
Even now he is actively involved in regional and some wider international peacemaking where there are conflicts, his life has been given over to the pursuit of justice as a lawyer and human rights activitst which is what he began as and continues to be. For me, he is a hero.
Alexandra David-Neel has always been one of my heros along with Amelia Earhart. I also like Phoolan Devi. I have a weakness for rebels... I could add Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt and Harvey Milk. The last because I just saw the film.
Schopenhauer. Direct, succinct and truthful......