THERE AND ABOUT - Modesty not part of Castro’s virtues

[Jimmy2]

THERE AND ABOUT - Modesty not part of Castro’s virtues

Story by CHEGE MBITIRU

Publication Date: 12/23/2007

Cuban President Fidel Castro appears to have acquired a late education and learned indispensability ends. However, a week today Mr Castro hesitated to call it quits.

In a letter read on state television, Mr Castro, 81, said, “My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so, to obstruct the rise of people much younger, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived.”

Modesty was never a chip on Mr Castro’s shoulder. Nine US presidents and a few fellow travellers have tasted the Commandante’s “There’s nothing imperialists can do to the Cuban revolution” mantra.

Mr Castro temporarily handed power to his brother and defence minister, Raul Castro, after undergoing abdominal surgery. Pathetically, Cuban exiles in Miami prematurely celebrated imminent demise of Mr Castro’s revolution.

That hope lingers. For 16 months, Mr Castro hasn’t appeared publicly. Officials treat details of his illness as state secret. Now and then, his photographs and articles appear in print and on television. In September, for example, Mr Castro appeared on television. “Well, I’m still here,” the BBC quoted him as saying to those who speculated he had died.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a good friend, has been more forthcoming. “They changed nearly all his blood,” the BBC quoted Mr Chavez as saying. That isn’t done for fun. Mr Castro was more real: “...well, no-one knows when they’re going to die.” In other words, why waste time speculating.

Beginning in 1898 the US meddled in Cuba’s affair at will. Then Mr Castro, in a second attempt, chased from office in 1959 President Fulgencio Batista—synonymous with corruption, decadence and inequality. Things changed.

The US snubbed Mr Castro who turned to the then the Soviet Union. The US returned the compliment and sent a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles. Mr Castro’s forces made mince meat of the invaders at the Bay of Pigs. Cuba became a Cold War battleground, culminating in the Soviet-US missile crisis of 1961.

Since then, eliminating Mr Castro and ending his revolution remains a US priority. The CIA has hatched most bizarre plots to assassinate Mr Castro. More crippling to Cuba’s economy are sanctions Washington imposed on Cuba.

Capitalist pressure

Former President Mikhail Gorbachev, while the Soviet empire was imploding under capitalist pressure tried to sell Petroika, openness to Mr Castro. “Petroika, manyana,” Mr Castro replied. Soviet subsidies of $4-5 billion annually disappeared, but not Mr Castro.

In his trial after the first attempt to oust Mr. Batista in 1953, Mr Castro delivered a marathon speech—26,265 words—in mitigation. With him at the helm, he implied, only the Valley of Shangri-la would rival Cuba.

It’s debatable whether that really happened. However, in another not-so marathon speech—5,518 words—on May Day, 2003, Mr Castro reeled out an impressive list of the progress Cuba has made at home and aiding the poor and the oppressed overseas in spite of US hostilities. “Never,” he said of relations with Washington, “has the world witnessed such and unequal fight.”

In November, 100 US businesses attended the Havana International Fair. They sought to secure part of $1.6 billion Cuba spends annually on food imports. Weeks earlier, President George W. Bush had urged the world to isolate Cuba. Who had the last laugh?

Mr. Castro’s letter wasn’t conclusive. In any case, he’s a candidate for a seat in Cuba’s National Assembly. In the letter, Mr Castro paid tribute to a Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, who turned 100 two days earlier, saying like him, “...you have to be of consequence up to the end.”

That might indicate Mr Castro plans to follow suit. That isn’t necessary. Mr Castro has been of consequence for 48 years. Another marathon speech or presidential term wouldn’t add much. As the Book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything, this time for Fidel to quit.