Ardain Isma
CSMS Magazine Staff Writer
We knew the end was near, but we never wanted it to happen. Yet, like all iconic leaders before him, pitting against the odds to forestall his mortality was the fight he could not win, for death is an inescapable process in life, and human existence cannot be ensured unless it materializes. Fidel, however, rose above and beyond life itself. His revolutionary fever, his ideological pragmatism, his intellect and the depth of his conviction have all contributed to the elevation of the Cuban society and to the benefit of millions of disenfranchised people around the world.
No doubt, it is a sad day in the struggle against social injustices and the fight for political independence. For many oppressed nations, like Haiti and others, the pain must be hard-felt. If in capitalistic societies, bourgeois democracy is the model to emulate, Cuba’s socialism—with its human’s heart and face—has fundamentally proved them wrong. In Cuba, the rights to work, to an education and to a state-of-the-art healthcare are enshrined in the country’s constitution, and it is not just for Cubans but for every human being who happens to live within the country’s border.
For over 50 years, the US and other industrial nations have been spoon-feeding a visceral narrative against the Cuban revolution, and in spite this relentless bash reinforced by an embargo imposed on this small nation since 1961, the country stands firm. Cuba not only survives, but thrives.
Fidel, respected by friends and foes alike and who for many years embodied the triumph of the revolution, has entered the pantheon of Grand figures of the world’s history. If we agree Marxism is a science, not an ideology, we must also admit that if embraced and adopted as such, it won’t fail as the Cuban revolution helps us to understand; and what happened in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 was none other than a misinterpretation of Marxism.
Cuba dismisses the Chinese the model—we could agree to disagree on this—because it believes capitalism, which is based on human subjugation and exploitation, cannot be the recipe for lifting endangered people from misery to poverty with dignity, for it represents a furtherance of class antagonisms, war and outright devastation.
Finally, Fidel lives on, as many others before him, like Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, José Marti, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba etc… Fidel Castro Ruz is now our new star that will forever shine in the firmament.
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