I was up late yesterday finishing a script for one of the most promising projects I am working on. Just a small update and/or explanation as to why this blog is so late. I had absolutely no idea what to write, yet again, but woke up to the news that Fidel Castro died. It was not the fact that he died that was so shocking, but rather the manner in which that information was transmitted to me.

I was scrolling through twitter and this glorious peach of a tweet popped up on my timeline:

Jesus W. Christ Donald…every time I think you can’t possibly surprise me again, you pull of something like this. At this point I’m not even convinced that you even run this account yourself! I mean that tweet is so perfect, it can’t possibly have been you right? This tweet accomplishes so many things at once:

It reaffirms you as being a soul-less fascist. It demonstrates a complete lack of empathy. It’s exactly what a President-Elect should NOT tweet!

When your business is basically getting people to talk about you as much as possible, there really is no better tweet out there, is there? Never mind the fact that you yourself are about to become the leader of the supposed free-world, and will probably have tweets like that written about you within the next 20 years. I mean, it’s the exclamation mark that seals the whole deal, and there is really no need for it. You could have ended with a full stop, all anyone would think then is :’ Thank you Donald, how informative of you! You know this guy might just be more In the loop than we thought!’

But no you just had to end in the most inappropriate way. The election is won Donald, you can tone down the ridiculousness.

But on to the deceased himself, and what can you really say about Fidel Castro? I don’t, know, please tell me, I have 665 words left. Well, since I DO have a degree in Political Science (lol) from the American University in Cairo (double lol), I’ll try and think of something.

Fidelity (do you see what I did there) is defined as a faithfulness to a person, cause or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support. I think at the end, this is the reason Castro will be remembered as one of the most important figures in our history. He was, and is, the ultimate symbol of revolution against the USA’s attempts to control the world. Despite the CIA’s attempts to assassinate him over 600 times (grow up btw), Castro remained loyal to his beliefs, which included that the USA has no say, and would continue to have no say, in the running of his country.

Sure, the fact that he toyed with them by instigating the Cuban missile crisis is really just the icing on top of the massive Fuck-off cake he built over the years. He didn’t have to allow the Soviets to transport nukes over the Atlantic and plant them in Cuban soil, but he did it because he wanted to see those gringo’s squirm. You have to admire that level of Fidelity. Those were different times though, those Cold War years, and you wonder what his legacy would have been if things had turned out differently. If he had actually sparked the end of days, would he be remembered so fondly? Probably not. But he would still be the bad-ass who brought it all down, so that’s something.

Another thing about which Castro was extremely faithful, was the elimination and subjugation of his enemies and detractors, even among his own people. And it is on this point that his place in history is shattered. This is something that is not foreign to most Middle-Eastern countries either by the way, but a side-effect of Castro’s determination was a brutal dictatorship, which resulted in the millions of Cuban-Americans in the USA today, who apparently do not remember him very fondly at all. And who can blame them? The guy was by all accounts a murderous dictator. But I wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Did the CIA’s attempts on his life, starting with the now infamous Bay of Pigs invasion, foster the man’s paranoia, and consequently his brutality? Sadly I think we will only ever be able to wonder about this point, without achieving a real answer. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, the man had a tendency towards brutality, which was fostered and fueled by his paranoia in the years the USA so blatantly supported his enemies and tried to eliminate him. I mean, that can’t not affect your psyche, knowing that the next assassination attempt could be around the corner. 634 (which is apparently the actual number) assassination attempts is not a small figure. Did the CIA ever think about the psychological effect this would have on their target? And how this would in turn, effect his people?

Probably not. And they probably didn’t care either. That was the Cold War era, where the politics were built on realism, not liberalism (as is still the case in most of the world), and the CIA functioned purely as the US’s Machiavellian arm (and probably still does).

Some people will miss Castro, others will not. I stand somewhere in the middle, I deplore his actions towards his own people, but admire his stand against America, and his unwillingness to depart from his communist agenda. I do not think the young Castro aspired to be a murderous dictator. I am sure this was not in the ‘Pro’ column when envisioning revolution with Che Guevara. I think he was a man who attempted to do something great, and was a victim of circumstance. Unfortunately, like all of humanity, the man was deeply, deeply flawed.

More Tomorrow.