A cynical view of Fidel Castro

Did he anticipate that so many citizens would escape his loving arms and go away beyond his reach? Over the years many poor nations became eternally grateful for Castro’s sharing of medical knowledge learned from his Russian friends, but what of the suffering of Cubans living with a stultifying, demoralising embargo? Thumbing your nose at the rest of the world only looks good on paper.

Is it that the days for oldstyled revolutions are over? Consider what is happening in Venezuela, previously under Hugo Chavez and now under Nicolas Maduro? Can we be like that in TT ? To each his own and we do not need a similar type revolution in TT . We can admire the high levels of health, education and sport for each man and woman, but do we need to be told from on high when to laugh, when to cry and not make a profit? Nobody should be better off than the other? Perhaps only the people at the top? Many decades later, after all the killing, the dramatic standoffs that almost led to nuclear world war, all at Fidel Castro’s hands, was it worth it? An American commentator used the words “increasingly irrelevant” to describe Castro and the Cuban Revolution in the living world. To me, those days of the revolutions for civil rights that enabled equality of food, health and housing belong to a dream time.

People marched in Poland, in South Africa, in Germany, in Cuba. We look around and we see people who have chosen to live simply. They crave no enrichment. Then we see those who live solely for profit.

What has now become suspect is the necessity for some to want to enforce uniformity.

It is a form of dictatorship to decide what is best for the individual who does not wish to live the socialist dream and make that person toe the line.

Fighting in the jungles and emerging with your flag held high is now the stuff of movies.

Gone are the days of altruistic self-denial.

LYNETTE JOSEPH Diego Martin