What we are unlikely to hear much from the frenzied media reports on Fidel Castro is his achievements. Castro overthrew something much worse than he is accused of.
The signature of the Batista regime he toppled in 1959 was executing opponents, both real and imaginary including children, and leaving their bodies hanging in the streets as a warning to Castro’s followers.
Says Wikipedia: Batista ‘began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba’s commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American Mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US-based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts’.
Yet, to the US, Castro and his sidekick, Che Guevara, were red-horned monsters. But in many parts of the world, the two were an inspiration. Castro was a strong leader and meant well for his people. His personal discipline bordered on the religious; stopping shaving to ‘to save 5,000 minutes per year’ and quitting smoking to ‘sleep better’!
But he committed the very serious crime of bringing communism to the doorstep of the West. In the process, he almost brought the world to a nuclear war in the Bay of Pigs missile crisis.
Clearly, the problem between him and the West was not on democracy, rule of law, human rights. No. He actively resisted the gods of capitalism. One could be killed for that, and many were. The CIA spent over one million dollars trying to kill him.
Yet, media reports say after overthrowing Batista, he travelled to the US and tried to meet President Eisenhower. He was blithely ignored. He turned to Russia and in his own words: "I was driven to communism".
I am not sure if there is a country that has had such a long embargo placed on it. Until Barack Obama overturned it last year, Cuba suffered a worldwide economic blockade for 50 years. But let not the antique cars in Havana fool you.
Castro did much more than just imbue his tiny country with communist ideas. Through a strict fiscal drip line and zero tolerance to corruption, Cuba somehow overcame the embargo.
Supporters regarded El Commandante, as an untiring protector of the poor. Despite the economic embargo and little resources, he laboured over the decades to ensure equality and social justice for all in Cuba.
In all, Castro put emphasis on culture and education. Indeed, the revolution he led was not just political but also cultural. It left Cuba with a deep sense of identity and nationalism, something we need to emulate here in Kenya.
In comparative education classes, we learn that Cuba has one of the best education systems in the world, where graduates are guaranteed employment. Castro personally ensured the country will always have enough teachers. By the 1980s, the island nation had one of the lowest illiteracy rates in the western hemisphere. At 98 per cent, her literacy rate rivalled that of the US, if not better.
Castro’s government trained thousands of doctors. The Caribbean nation boasts a universal healthcare built on a stable, sustainable health system complete with well-equipped hospitals and clinics.
Cuba even regularly sends medical doctors to the less developed countries, notably Ghana. At 6.1 per thousand, the country has one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.
Castro confiscated land owned by Batista and his generals and distributed it to poor Cubans. When foreign companies refused to play ball, he nationalised them. Today, Cuba is food self-sufficient and is lauded for her advanced urban agriculture. Elsewhere, he offered moral and material support in the Africa liberation wars, notably to Angola and Namibia. Importantly, he actively supported anti-apartheid campaigns and was a great inspiration to Mandela.
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To the developing countries, Castro was “a giant of the Third World”, as Agustin Diaz Cartaya, 85, who was part of the Castro’s revolution that started 1953 with the Moncada barracks attacks says. “No one has done more for the Third World than Fidel Castro,” Cartaya is quoted telling Aljazeera online.
In a hypothetical world, it would be easier to say that these things are better enjoyed in a democracy. But we are slowly waking up to the reality that Plato was right about democracy: it can become chaotic mob rule.
Castro was no saint. He was brutal against his opponents. But so was Lee Kuan Yew who built Singapore.
I wouldn’t want to live in a country where I could be charged for things like ‘social dangerousness’, a crime during Castro’s reign. Or where everything, TV, Newspaper, internet is strictly controlled by the government.
Let history judge him. And it will, as it has judicially done to others. Che Guevara, who died in 1967, was part of the Cuba revolution. After the mist of history had cleared, there emerged a legend. Today, donning a portrait of ‘El Che’, dropping a quote ascribed to him is a mark of political refinement.
That said, leaders should be judged by what they did for their people. In the immediate history, Castro may be a benevolent dictator. In the ‘later’ history, just as he is quoted as having said: "Condemn me, it doesn’t matter. History will absolve me."
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