Fidel is Fidel

Fidel is Fidel
Written by Editor

All the virtues are attributed to Fidel Castro – a revolutionary who has filled the pages of all newspapers and magazines, who has been on all screens and has seen the effect his words have on multitudes. Amazing anecdotes about Fidel’s sensitivity, that has survived disillusionment, failure, ingratitude, days of glory, assassination attempts and other people’s selling out. Stories have been told how easily Fidel is moved to tears.

People say that he is the most outstanding person in the modern world. People feel strongly about Fidel: they either hate or love him. Those who love Fidel consider him blameless. We think, really, that he is, because he never lies. Even those who hate Fidel respect him. Some people say the most tender and amazing platitudes to Fidel.

The honour of Fidel by the Zambian government for his selfless services to humanity is truly a befitting one. But we say this knowing very well that Fidel is a disciple of José Marti who believes that “all the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn”. Like Marti, Fidel is unassuming, modest. You will never catch him talking about what mark he has made or he will make on history or his historical image.

Fidel has always been dedicated to the work and thinking of the revolution. And Fidel would a thousand times rather think of the place history will assign to the causes and ideas he has been defending, he is defending, to the rights of humanity and the people’s happiness in the world of the future.

Fidel believes that humans tend to make a fool of themselves if they think too much about posterity and the impression they will make on it and that it would be wiser to aspire to a modest, simple, even anonymous place in history, because if one has a true measure of the power of people as individuals, one will realise that it’s so fragile and such a small thing that it really doesn’t make sense to magnify the role of any individual, no matter how intelligent, brilliant or able they may be.

Therefore, we should be unassuming and limit ourselves to doing our duty to the best of our extremely limited abilities. That’s how Fidel understands his role in life, as a revolutionary.

Fidel has demonstrated to all of us that if you are honest, truly honest, you won’t be corrupted. If you are unassuming and have a clear understanding of the worth of people and of yourself, you won’t be corrupted. And there is need to maintain eternal vigilance about this throughout one’s life, and be very self-critical.

In honouring Fidel, Rupiah Banda observed that the leader of the Cuban Revolution has rendered selfless service to humanity and was an inspiration to many the world over. We agree with Rupiah’s observations. But what is it that we really admire in Fidel, that has impressed us? What is that characteristic that gives us the precise measure of Fidel’s spirit and soul? It is his moral qualities, his altruism, his absolute selflessness.

There is nothing Fidel has sought other than to do his duty and to do it well. Fidel has always sought to respond quickly in any situation, to immediately and unhesitatingly set an example of what he thought a revolutionary fighter should be.

Fidel has never fought for glory, honours or medals, for personal material possessions. He has never fought for fame. Fidel is a person who right from the outset, from the very first battle, was ready to give his life. Clearly, Fidel has always thought of nothing but duty and sacrifice, with the most absolute purity and with the most complete selflessness.

Fidel is endowed with outstanding qualities in many areas. He has one of the most penetrating minds we have known, one of the most generous spirits, one of the most revolutionary characters. His feelings – his concern for other people, his concern for the movements in Africa and Asia – extends to the whole world.

Fidel is a person with infinite confidence and faith in humanity. He is truly a living example. And it seems to be his style to be the example, to set the example. He is a revolutionary leader with a great spirit of self-sacrifice, with a truly Spartan nature, capable of any kind of self-denial.

But Fidel is not living for history; he is not living for honours or glory. Like every other true revolutionary, like every other thorough going revolutionary, Fidel knows – as we have already pointed out – what that extraordinary person, that great patriot José Marti – meant when he said, “all the glory in the world fits into a kernel of corn.”

Revolutionaries do not struggle for honour or glory, or to occupy a place in history. Fidel occupies and will always occupy a great place in history because this is not important to him, because he has always been absolutely selfless and so his life will always be an example.

The value of the honour the Zambian government has bestowed on Fidel lies in our people, in our leaders, in our president, in Rupiah and his colleagues in the leadership of our country being willing and able to follow the example of Fidel – to be like Fidel in honesty and integrity; to be like Fidel in conducting politics that are totally devoid of deceit, lies and manipulation; and in discharging public service without corruption and selfishness. These are things seriously lacking in our leaders.

And it’s a source of encouragement when we see them attempt to exalt the virtues of honest revolutionaries like Fidel. However, extolling the virtues of Fidel is one easy thing, but trying to live like him is another difficult thing.

But since Rupiah and his government have told us or have shown us that the qualities of Fidel are something we should admire and honour, they are in another way telling us that these are the standards we should seek and expect from them.

Fidel is a model leader, a guide. Fidel represents all that is noble, to the spirit of justice for all the peoples of the world. Future societies will be made of generations of people like Fidel. From generations of selfless leaders like Fidel, a better world will arise. If today’s world is seeking an example and if you consider the quality this example requires, one should have no difficulties understanding why many in the world, including our own leaders and government, are choosing Fidel as a model. Fidel has lived defending no other interest, no other cause than the cause of the exploited and oppressed of this world. And the exemplary manner and the selflessness with which he has been defending that cause cannot, today, be disputed even by his most bitter enemies.

Before history, people who act as Fidel does, people who do and give everything for the cause of the poor, grow in stature with each passing day and find a deeper place in the heart of peoples each passing day.

As it is said, Fidel is Fidel. In Cuba, any cult that may exist is justified by Fidel’s personality. Fidel is unquestionably an archetype.

And we believe the best way to honour Fidel should be to try and attempt to repay Cuba’s generosity, to repay at least a fraction of what it has done for us, and do so immediately. We think that we can all 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 change the archaic, irrational and cruel policy it is applying against Cuba. That’s the only decent thing to do. There is also need to campaign without respite for the release of the Cuban Five incarcerated unjustifiably in United States jails and whose only crime was to attempt to save the lives of their people and others who were being threatened and were victims of terrorist attacks conceived and hatched on United States territory.

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 the large numbers of its citizens who enroll in the most noble causes and will also be worth the respect and affection of other peoples.