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Shufflingdead > Things of the Week > Shameful Human of the Week
Fidel Castro
This week, Fidel Castro handed temporary control of Cuba over to his brother while he paid visit to a hospital. Everyone knows that Castro is old as hell, and there has long been speculation as to what would happen to Cuba upon his death. Even if Castro were to die in the near future, his brother is not much younger than he is, and once they are both gone I have little doubt that the country of Cuba will either struggle on under its communist rule, or face violent and catastrophic upheaval. In either case, the Cuban people suffer.
Castro has outlived many American Presidents, Soviet Premiers, and actually the Soviet Union and to a large degree communism itself. What I realized this week is that Castro isn't just old, he's a fucking dinosaur. He's a face from the Cold War, a bygon era. What makes him Shameful Human of the Week material is that he's had all of this time, with very stable rule, to do something about the quality of life in Cuba. Perhaps rules were loosened on the free market after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and perhaps Cuba deserves the same sort of allowances given to China from the United States, but no real change has come, and the blame rests with Fidel Castro.
I'm not exactly a fan of American imperialism myself, but because of its size and proximity to the United States, it seems inevitable that Cuba will become an American protectorate or even state eventually. Castro has had decades to suck up to the United States and make this happen. I know, it's counter intuitive to that whole thing about keeping power, but it's been obvious for a long time that Cuban communism is going nowhere. Castro's reign is now too close to ending for him to do anything significant, and his country is likely doomed to chaos, or at least continued mediocrity, because of it.
By the way, Cuba is near Costa Rica, and in the fictional franchise Jurassic Park, wealthy entrepreneur John Hammond leases a couple of islands from Costa Rica to build a dinosaur park. Just so you know.
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