Go, Already! Or Not

It's a fascinating lesson in human nature. But then so much about human nature is fascinating, we are so complex, so multi-faceted, so insecure, so proud, so demanding and yet humble, so intelligent and yet clumsily incapable. If we're truly fashioned in the image of God then what does it say about that great spirit on high?

Well, for starters, it might tell us why we feel abandoned at our times of greatest need. Either the all-knowing, all-powerful is as inanely doubtful as we are, or he holds back, in the hope that we will learn from our experiences. Certainly we're offering him ample opportunity to learn from our experiences.

So here's Fidel Castro, still the fiery revolutionary, still determined to lead his country into the promised land. He eschewed god in the belief that he was following a greater purpose, that which would lead to full equality, equal opportunity, with each giving what he/she could to the betterment of the aggregate. His revolutionary spirit is undimmed but he's shuffling off this mortal coil.

A noble enough vision, but one not too closely aligned to what human beings would respond to by their very natures. We are not by nature altruistic. Nature, or god, has fashioned us to be far more concerned for ourselves as individuals - to succeed as living organisms by advancing our own personal agendas and with it our personal genetic code. Communism as an ideal may be quite wonderful but as a living practise it doesn't engage or challenge the human endeavour, simply because it cannot promise individual gain.

Fulgencio Batista was a dictatorial thug who dominated the island of Cuba and allowed it to become a barroom and bedroom for the United States, while its citizens suffered and somehow persevered against all odds. Fidel Castro and his partners in revolution envisioned a different kind of opportunity for the country and its people and when he came to power all those Cubans with wealth and education fled rather than live in an environment of sharing which would leave them for the short term as destitute as the ordinary Cuban on the street.

Now wealthy, privileged, highly educated, brightly entrepreneurial Cubans live a short distance from Cuba, but within the confines of a democratic capitalistic country which they adore for the opportunities it has afforded them and their families. And they loathe the Cuba they left behind, the Cuba of Fidel Castro, holding a celebratory death-watch in eager anticipation of his departure from the soil of their beloved country.

Their dream was to return to Cuba, reclaim their land, their property, their wealth and future. That dream has become muted. They fiercely appreciate their lives in the United States, while still loving their memory of the country they felt forced to flee. Castro is the devil incarnate and his minions little better. All of them responsible for ruining the future of a country they love. They don't think much of some great experiments in human nature and capability that took place over the decades under Castro's watch.

Not the least of which was well-trained medical professionals who fanned out over the country to do their work where it was needed, untrammeled by a capitalistic urge to assemble personal wealth. And when their numbers exceeded their utility they were loaned out to do their fine healing work elsewhere in Latin America. The spirit of the Cuban people living under the duress partly caused by an implacable U.S. trade embargo seemed undimmed and they somehow managed to get by.

But in fact what difference is there between a Communist or a Fascist-style dictatorship? Extreme left, or extreme right, they both exact the maximum sacrifice from those people whom fate has given them control over. Cubans are given strict and direct orders to maintain a way of life that has offered them few creature comforts and little reason to celebrate a future for their children. They aspire as do all other people but their circumstances dampen hope and creates bitterness.

It's time, past time for Fidel Castro to make his final speech. Cubans are tired, they're fed up, they're ready to move on. And the exiles? They know a good thing when they're living it, and will likely opt to remain where they are in the golden land of opportunity for those willing to work to achieve success; material success.