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Feric -> RE: Fidel Castro Resigns (2/20/2008 3:33:15 PM)
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Right about the time the Soviets cut off Fidel's gravy train, there was a great political cartoon in the Washington Post in which Fidel is bear-hugging Gorbachev right as he gets off the plane, and he's saying, "Papa! So good to see you! Did you bring money?" And Gorbachev is trying to fend off Fidel's kisses and says, "No, son. Actually, I wanted to talk about your grades!"
Fidel and Cuba have been a subject of long interest to me, and I've read quite a few books on both. Fidel is a smart guy (he went to law school, after all), but like 'W', he's a man of set ideas. Throughout his reign, he has parroted the Soviet ideals, and relentlessly pursued Marxism in the firm belief that it would lead to a glorious classless society. The fact that it never happened has--according to all reports I've read--been a bitter blow to him. When the Russian stipends ran dry in the early 1990's, and the evil capitalist society did not come crashing down as Marx & Lenin predicted, Fidel has retreated further and further into militarism, centralizing his power and silencing dissidents while trying desperately to find a way out of his bind.
About ten years ago, Fidel attended a Latin economic conference in Spain; his remarks were predictable (a two hour speech on his part) but the really interesting thing that happened took place in the bar after the official meeting was over. Fidel came into the bar, accompanied by two bodyguards. He spent most of the night drinking gin and shooting the breeze with the other bigwigs, his sentences becoming longer and more rambling as time went on. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, he looked around the table and said in very desultory tones, "I will be a footnote in history! Thirty years in power, and I will rate nothing more than a footnote!"
He's a beaten man, and he knows it. The great socialist state has been reduced to ashes. The cities are almost in ruins, with no major urban development in fifty years. Vintage 1950's cars rust on the streets, or limp along the roads like crippled veterans--their engines using parts cannibalized from outboard motors. Facing riots in the late 1980's due to increasingly long lines, Fidel and Raul had to abandon government allocations of foodstuffs and allowed the opening of small markets for farmers to sell their produce, all of which are flourishing, with impromptu butchers even selling meat and homemade sausages. Cooperative ventures with companies offshore to open new hotels and even a few tourist attractions have boomed, as visitors flock to a country which has a bottomless appetite for hard currency from outside their shores.
Most astonishing are the native Cubans, who are quickly adapting Capitalist ways and habits, working hard in new businesses to turn a profit. As one Cuban wryly remarked, "Lenin never said that the Proletariats had to be poor."
Fidel's great socialist dreams are being systematically knocked down by people who have grown up in the Communist Utopia, and realized it's a prison camp. Now, they want to build their own civilization, without the benefit of his advice.
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