No lover of true emancipation on this earth would not be moved by the story of the demise, last Friday night, of Dr Fidel Castro. Born to fairly affluent parents some 90 years ago, Castro was educated in Cuba. His desire to liberate the proletariats from exploitation emanated from his contact early in life with […]
Tribute to Fidel Castro
No lover of true emancipation on this earth would not be moved by the story of the demise, last Friday night, of Dr Fidel Castro.
Born to fairly affluent parents some 90 years ago, Castro was educated in Cuba. His desire to liberate the proletariats from exploitation emanated from his contact early in life with peasant Cubans working for bourgeois American plantation owners. The untold hardship experienced by those peasants made Castro to meditate on how to effect change which he concluded must be by military invasion.
In order to succeed, he needed the right people who shared the same ideals with him for support and to assist him in preparing the ground for the revolution. This he found in his friend, Dr Ernesto Che Guevara. In mobilizing people for the Cuban Revolution, they convinced the people that: “We, practical revolutionaries, initiating our own struggle, simply fulfilling laws foreseen by Marx”, they said further that: “The blood of people is our most sacred treasure, but it must be used in order to save more blood in the future”. To further concretize the need for the revolution, Guevara on his own part added that: “Revolution is not like an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall”.
Upon coming to power, Castro nationalized the industries and virtually all commercial ventures in the country, many of which were owned by the Americans. He also embarked on land reforms. These put him on collision course with the USA.
Education was made free. The literacy rate thus increased to 96% in Cuba during his regime. Very importantly too, more medical doctors were trained. The patient to doctor ratio in Cuba is one of the tops in the world today.
It is 155:1, much better than that of the USA that is 396:1. Cuba sent out doctors to Third World countries that are in need of them including Nigeria.
In 1975, Castro sent over fifty thousand soldiers and weapons to Angola to prevent invasion of that country by imperialists using apartheid South Africa covertly. He also supported militarily the regimes in Ethiopia and Nicaragua.
The late President Hugo Chavez aligned with Castro and implemented similar reforms in Venezuela with resounding success, Castro himself was confronted with over 600 attempts at overthrowing him.
The two publicized ones were said to be those of April and November 1961 but he survived all.
In his condolence message, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, described Fidel Castro as “a strong voice for social justice in global discussion at UN General Assembly”.
Fidel would be remembered as a champion of the under-privileged especially in the 3rd world irrespective of race.
