Saturday 26 November 2016

He could have been a baseball star


So Fidel Castro has died. I am glad we made it to Cuba whilst he was still in control and before the Americans began to be let back in again. I need not have worried too much about it though, because Trump has declared that he will reverse the moves that Obama has recently made and replace the blockade which has kept Havana so quaint and picturesque for so many years.

It looks as though you will have at least another four years to go there and see all those 1950s American cars held together with tin cans, the crumbling facades of colonial palaces now used as community housing, and troops of immaculately uniformed children marching to school, looking as fit and healthy as children should, because the nearest MacDonalds is behind barbed wire at Guantanamo Bay.

Some Westerners have been reminding everyone about Castro's ruthlessness when dealing with opponents by locking them up without charges or for simply being being homosexual, but they seem to have forgotten Guantanamo Bay and Cuba no longer persecutes gays. I met several openly gay men in Havana, and that was years ago.

When Fidel went to university, it was quite common for arguments during college debates to be settled by one student pulling a gun on his opponent and shooting him dead. Castro did this at least once, which may give you a better idea of the social environment in which the revolution took place. This sort of thing used to happen all the time in 17th century European universities, remember, but it usually involved daggers and swords.

Ken Livingstone was on the radio this morning and said that - no matter what you thought of Castro - given the choice of which South American country you would like to raise your children in, Cuba came top every time.

The education and healthcare is second to none - their experise in treating cancer is so renowned that they send teams of specialists to places like Canada when called upon, but the U.S.A. refuses to let them in nomatter how good they are.

I wish we had spent more time in the little cafes and restaurants run by poor people from their kitchens rather than the swanky restaurants in the big hotels like the National or Sevilla - the food is so much better.

I watched one of his famous speeches live on TV one night, and it was unbelievably boring. I only managed about half an hour and amused myself by looking at all the old people falling asleep in the heat, whilst all the young at the back giggled and chatted to each other.

23 comments:

  1. I've read some pretty horrific first-hand reports of both Castro and Che Guevara. It always amuses me to see people wearing Guevara T shirts; if only they knew!

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    1. They were both ruthless, but Guevara did spend all his time as an unpaid doctor to the poor when he was not killing people.

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    2. I stood right next to the blood-stained stretcher on which Guevara was shot (in the legs to bleed to death), and that was a strange experience, having seen that stretcher in so many photos and films.

      The Museum of the Revolution is a strange place in general. Bullet holes in the marble walls, and cabinets with things like a knife and fork belonging to a revolutionary that I have never heard of.

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  2. I have/had great admiration for Fidel Castro and of how he ran Cuba. Especially for standing up against his bullying neighbour in 1959 with the then assistance of the USSR.
    There will be many who will disagree with me however I don't give a toss, well done to you Tom for this blog post.

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    1. A British delegation went to meet him in Havana once, and he asked the agricultural minister what the potato harvest was in Britain per annum. The minister could not answer, so he pulled a folder out from his desk and read out the exact tonnage per region. He had the stats on all food production for the U.K., researched in advance.

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  3. I was just trying to work out whether he was a good or bad guy. I think he did more good than bad and he helped Venezuela with doctors in exchange for oil and he did more helping fight the ebola crisis in Afica than the US and the beggars are fat in Havana and the living is cheap although everything is crumbling. He said the Cuban prostitute has a university degree and the children all go to school. Dervla Murphy cycled around Cuba a few years ago in her 80s if you want a good read. She had aeen it all 30 years before and wanted an update. She loved it.

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    1. I think when you have to rely on despots to keep your people fed, then you are forced to compromise. At least he did some good in neighbouring dictatorships rather than salting it all away in his own bank accounts like most others in his position. Whatever you think about him, he had Cuba at heart with everything he did.

      When I visited, there were quite a few nodding donkeys in the countryside - a bit like Dorset - and the Canadians provided the oil expertise.

      All the new-build tourist resorts were run by the Spanish, for obvious reasons. Everyone asked for one US dollar (their own dollar was no use on the black market) so it was wise to have a good stock of 1 dollar bills to hand. H.I. ran out of them one day, and - to my intense embarrassment and the incredulity of some men in a dust cart - she handed him a $20 bill. He would live off that for flipping ages!

      As in Egypt, the poor eat very well, but like children, they want white goods and everything they know we take for granted.

      They are really lovely people and we were sorry to leave them. They are like children but they are not childish.

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    2. Manuel, our guide: "Have you been to London?"

      Me: "Yes."

      Manuel: "Wow. One day I will go to London."

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    3. I never went there. But hearing you talk about it and reading Dervla Murphy's travels I wish I had. I think I will go get there one day. Just like Manuel said to you.

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    4. Don't leave it too late - it's bound to change for the 'better'.

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    5. The resort? Dervla had something to say about it.

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    6. Yes, it is actually called VaraderO I think. It was an exclusive resort for rich Americans, but now it is an exclusive resort for any tourists at all, so long as they are not Cuban. The only Cubans allowed in are servants. It is like a low-class Butlins in terms of atmosphere.

      The beach and the turquoise sea at sunset are unspeakably beautiful, but it is the same sea as you get on many other parts of the Cuban coast - just that the other parts don't have armed guards to protect you. It stinks.

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    7. On the beach at Varadero (they are divided up amongst hotesl) I heard a 'PSSST!' from the jungle fringe.

      I looked up to see two Cuban men who becloned me over. They were trying to sell sea-shells. I was not interested.

      They looked at my ordinary trousers (both of them) and said, "Do you want to sell us your trousers?"

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    8. P.S. - I am fascinated by Dervla Murphy's voice - and her name. I must look up her image to see what she looks like. I imagine a larger, female Samuel Beckett.

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    9. Varadero was - and soon will be again, I expect - the second homes of the US Mafioso, and associated film-stars. These days there are a load of new hotels, but the old ranches can still be seen on the approaches to the neck of the penninsula.

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    10. She is no great beauty and never was but it was she who inspired me to start travelling when I read her first book when I was 17.

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  4. News of Castro's death is all over the television news this morning. My Saturday morning NY Times went to press before the news broke and so its front page is still full of Trump-related stories.

    Even though the President Elect railed against Fidel Castro when campaigning in Florida, it would not surprise me if it won't be long before some sort of Trump Hotels appear in Cuba. That reminds me of when Nixon connected with China. Business is business.

    I have friends who visited Cuba, but I never did. When did you travel there, Tom?

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    1. I can't remeber, but it must have been about 10 years ago. It's a lovely place. Everyone is so relaxed... at the moment...

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  5. Surprise - Trump is dancing on his grave right now. He is probably also salivating at the propects of getting his nasty little hands on Varadera on the North Coast.

    Just when you think you have got rid of all the low life...

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  6. My veiw on Fidel Castro - he did much more good than harm. Try saying that about other dictators, past, present or future.

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    1. Yes. I agree. He had a great way with words too.

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