XPost: soc.history, alt.obituaries, soc.rights.human   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, soc.culture.caribbean   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   Castro’s legacy: how the revolutionary inspired and appalled the world   
      
   The man who led a revolution and strode the world stage for half a   
   century left Cuba with free healthcare, food shortages – and not a   
   single street in his name   
      
   Rory Carroll and Jonathan Watts in Havana   
      
   Saturday 26 November 2016 05.50 GMT   
   Last modified on Saturday 26 November 2016 19.03 GMT   
      
   No street bears his name and there is not a single statue in his   
   honour but Fidel Castro did not want or need that type of recognition.   
   From tip to tip, he made Cuba his living, breathing creation.   
      
   Children in red neckerchiefs scampering to free schools, families   
   rationing toilet paper in dilapidated houses, pensioners enjoying free   
   medical treatment, newspapers filled with monotonous state propaganda:   
   all in some way bear the stamp of one man.   
      
   Historians will debate Castro’s legacy for decades to come but his   
   revolution’s accomplishments and failures are on open display in   
   today’s Cuba, which – even with the reforms of recent years – still   
   bears the stamp of half a century of “Fidelismoâ€�.   
      
   The “maximum leaderâ€� was a workaholic micro-manager who turned the   
   Caribbean island into an economic, political and social laboratory   
   that has simultaneously intrigued, appalled and inspired the world.   
      
   â€œWhen Fidel took power in 1959 few would have predicted that he would   
   be able to so completely transform Cuban society, upend US priorities   
   in Latin America and create a following of global proportions,â€� said   
   Dan Erikson, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank and   
   author of The Cuba Wars.   
      
   The most apparent downside of his legacy is material scarcity. For   
   ordinary Cubans things tend to be either in short supply, such as   
   transport, housing and food, or prohibitively expensive, such as soap,   
   books and clothes.   
      
   These problems have persisted since Fidel handed the presidency to his   
   brother Raúl in 2008. Despite overtures to the United States and   
   encouragement of micro businesses since then, the state still controls   
   the lion’s share of the economy and pays an average monthly wage of   
   less than £15. This has forced many to hustle extra income however   
   they can, including prostitution and low-level corruption. The lucky   
   ones earn hard currency through tourism jobs or receive dollars from   
   relatives in Florida.   
      
   Cubans are canny improvisers and can live with dignity on a   
   shoestring, but they yearn for conditions to ease. “We want to buy   
   good stuff, nice stuff, like you do in your countries,â€� said Miguel,   
   20, gazing wistfully at Adidas runners on a store on Neptuno street.   
      
   Castro blamed the hardship on the US embargo, a longstanding,   
   vindictive stranglehold which cost the economy billions. However, most   
   analysts and many Cubans say botched central planning and stifling   
   controls were even more ruinous. “They pretend to pay us and we   
   pretend to work,â€� goes the old joke.   
      
   Thanks to universal and free education and healthcare, however, Cuba   
   boasts first-world levels of literacy and life expectancy. The   
   comandante made sure the state reached the poorest, a commitment   
   denied to many slum-dwellers across Latin America.   
      
   Idealism sparkles in places such as Havana’s institute for the blind   
   where Lisbet, a young doctor, works marathon shifts. “We see every   
   single one of the patients. It’s our job and how we contribute to the   
   revolution and humankind.â€�   
      
   Castro continued to hold a place in people’s hearts and minds despite   
   largely withdrawing from public life in the last decade of his life.   
   Increasingly infirm, he mostly tended his garden in Zone Zero (the   
   high security district of Havana), rebutted frequent premature rumours   
   of his death with photographs showing him holding the latest edition   
   of the state-run newspaper Granma, and wrote the occasional column,   
   including grumpy criticism of Cuba’s drift towards market economics   
   and reconciliation with the United States.   
      
   But his influence was clearly on the wane. Although he met Pope   
   Francis in 2015, he spent a lot more time with his plants than with   
   national and global power brokers. Even before his death, he had   
   become more of a historical than a political figure.   
      
   â€œFidel was the dominant figure for decades, but Raúl has been calling   
   the shots,â€� observed a European diplomat based in Havana, who   
   predicted the death would have more symbolic than political   
   significance. “Has his presence been a block to reforms? Possibly.   
   There could be an impact on young Cubans, but we won’t see a huge   
   shift of Cuban politics after Fidel’s death. More significant would be   
   if Raúl dies because he put his leadership on the line for reform.â€�   
      
   Cuba had already begun the move away from Fidel’s era in a similar   
   series of gradual steps to that taken in China after the the death of   
   Mao Zedong or Vietnam after the demise of Ho Chi Minh.   
      
   Under the Economic Modernisation Plan of 2010, the state shed 1m jobs,   
   and opened opportunities for small private business, such as paladares   
   â€“ family-run restaurants – and casas particulares, or home hotels.   
   Farmers have been given more autonomy and price incentives to produce   
   more food. The government has eased overseas travel restrictions,   
   loosened pay ceilings, ended controls on car sales and tied up with   
   overseas partners to build a new free-trade zone at the former   
   submarine base in Mariel. The biggest changes have been in the   
   diplomatic sphere, where Cuba strengthened ties with the Vatican and   
   signed a historic accord with the United States to ease half a century   
   of cold war tension.   
      
   But this is still an island shaped more by Fidel Castro than any other   
   man. Wander up the marble steps at the centre of Revolution Square and   
   stand where Castro used to give his marathon orations to an audience   
   of more than a million and you can still see just how much the   
   revolution he led reshaped the country. On one side are the giant   
   profiles – illuminated at night – of his two lieutenants: Che Guevara   
   on the ministry of the interior and Camilo Cienfuegos across the   
   facade of the communications ministry.   
      
   In the distance, you can see the tower blocks that were formerly the   
   headquarters of major US corporations such as ITT and General Electric   
   but were nationalised under Castro, and hotels such as the Havana   
   Libre, which were once owned by US mobsters but later turned over to   
   the state.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)