Maravi

We salute Fidel

We salute Fidel
By Editor
Wednesday February 20, 2008 [03:00]

What more could a person expect out of one life?
This is the question that should be answered in our response to Commandante Fidel Castro's decision not to aspire to or accept the position of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief. This clearly confirms what Fidel has always said that in Cuba nobody is in public office because of ambition or pleasure but only to fulfil a duty, to serve their cause.

All virtues are attributed to Fidel - he has filled the pages of all newspapers and magazines, he has been on all screens and has seen the effect his words have on multitudes.

Some of his friends and comrades have told some amazing anecdotes about his sensitivity, which has survived disillusionment, failure, ingratitude, days of glory, assassination attempts and other people's selling out. Fidel is a man easily moved to tears. People also say that he is the most outstanding person in the modern world. People feel very strongly about Fidel: they either hate or love him.

Those who love him consider him blameless. We think, really, that he is, because he never lies, not even when he is authoritarian and stubborn. These are defects that make Fidel more human.

It is common for those who are near a leader to imitate them in some way: their voice, their gestures, their style. Nobody imitates Fidel, however, because there is the same distance between him and the others as there was between St Francis and his friars.
Even those who hate Fidel respect him.

Apocalyptic statements credit Fidel with having helped along more of the best and worst events of the last 40 years - the Vietnam War, the defence of the independence of Angola and the opening of the way for the independence of Namibia and freedom in South Africa and so on and so forth - than any other human being in modern times.

At 22, Fidel was in Bogotá during the upheaval in 1948, when Jorge Eliecer Gaitán was assassinated, and took part in an armed raid against Trujillo, defying sharks and stormy seas.

When the Cuban people took power under Fidel's leadership, revolutionaries all over the world sensed the magnitude of the change, the burial of geographical determinism and the appearance of the most charismatic, eloquent leader of modern times.

Cuba threw itself into impassioned solidarity with causes that were or seemed good. It helped so many countries and so many human beings this way that countless numbers of them are - or should be - grateful and ready to express that gratitude in Cuba's present circumstances.

Cuba has donated oil and guitar strings. It gave blood for those injured in earthquakes and for those wounded in the field of battle in Latin America and Africa.
Cuba sang lullabies, love songs and songs of battle to the listening peoples. It provided metaphors and medicines, meeting every need unhesitatingly. Fidel created that style.
The most beautiful, admirable aspect of Cuba under the leadership of Fidel has been its generosity.

We should repay at least a tenth of what it has done for us, and do so immediately. We think that we can be useful in denouncing the inhuman United States blockade. We must convince international public opinion and especially public opinion in the United States to get the government of that country to change the archaic, irrational and cruel policy it is applying against Cuba. That's the only decent thing to do.

The time will come in the not-too-distant future when the United States will come to its senses and become respectful, when its terrible pretentiousness will end, when it will stop acting like an evil stepmother and become a sister. When this happens, it will become a country worth of the large numbers of its citizens who enroll in the most noble causes and will also be worth of the respect and affection of other peoples. And we hope one day the United States will engage in self-criticism for its attempts to assassinate Fidel.

They say no one is indispensable. But there will be only one Fidel. We won't have another. Fidel is Fidel. In Cuba, any cult that may exist is fully justified by Fidel's personality. Fidel is unquestionably an archetype.
There are some people who, by pursuing their own convictions and without being self-conscious about it, touch the lives of millions of others. Such has been Fidel's revolutionary life and leadership.

There is an impressive flood of light that surrounds Fidel and he accepts it, aware that it belongs to history more than to any human being in this period of history - although his immortality is assured.

Fidel's retirement - if one can call it that - has reaffirmed our convictions and given us more arguments for our enthusiasm for solidarity and for taking the measure of the affront to the intelligence and honour of human beings. Our views are not impartial; they cling to life after the recent funeral rites, seeking to light a spark in the dark. And in our efforts to do this, we will always delve into Fidel's incredible memory and singular intelligence as he continues to "fight as a soldier of ideas" by writing columns in the Cuban media. And we have no doubt the peoples of Latin America and Africa will find his columns a stimulus to reflection and encouragement to preserving their hope in the causes that have never ceased to be legitimate. Fidel's reflections on humanity, the human condition and human beings as the protagonists in the inconstancy of history will always be of great value.

Again, Fidel's retirement demonstrates his boundless confidence in human beings and should be approached in a critical spirit, with a sense of history and renewed faith in the values that for some have become obsolete and bothersome.

We salute Fidel for his contributions to the advancement of humanity, especially those in our Third World. We will always respect and honour his great revolutionary contributions.

Labels: FIDEL CASTRO

posted by MrK @ 7:51 AM