Does Anyone Care Anymore about Fidel?

Does Anyone Care Anymore about Fidel?
June 9, 2014
Sergio Valdivieso (Café Fuerte)

HAVANA TIMES — Though he made no public appearance and no photos of the
living room of his home in a secure Havana location were televised,
Fidel Castro has made headlines in recent Cuban news.

In addition to recent events, it so happens that a selection of 38 of
Fidel Castro's now less-frequent "reflections" have been published in
Chinese. The book was launched in Beijing last weekend, thanks to the
joint efforts of the Cuban Embassy and the Chinese Association for Peace
and Disarmament.

Days before, in Havana, the elderly leader enjoyed singular
acknowledgment "for his dedication and commitment to the development of
Cuba's poultry industry."

During the main ceremony of the festivities celebrating the 50th
anniversary of Cuba's National Poultry Plant (CAN), Castro was awarded
the special, "50 Years of Service to the People" distinction by Emiliano
Diaz Lopez, the current CAN director.

Since his current health condition does not allow Castro to attend such
functions in person, as he used to, Diaz handed the trophy to Minister
of Agriculture Gustavo Rodriguez, so that he would have it reach the
Comandante (history has proven that he, not Hugo Chavez, is the true,
eternal comandante).

Cuba's Eggs

According to Cuba's official press, the award expresses the "gratitude,
pride and sincere feelings of all poultry farmers in the country."

During the ceremony, the Minister of Agriculture reminisced about
Castro's "advice for the poultry industry" and talk of reaching
production levels similar to those registered in 1991 (when the
production record of 2.7 billion eggs was reported) by 2020. Currently,
egg production indices barely exceed 2.65 billion and the promise made
by CAN's creator during a 1965 speech, when it was said Cuban chickens
had superseded all goals and the country would soon be exporting eggs,
has not yet been fulfilled.

These are two peculiarities of the personality cult that continues to
exist under Cuba's anachronistic totalitarian system. The most curious
note published during this time, however, was addressed to Granma
newspaper by the leader himself, who, this past Monday, complained about
not having been informed of the death of volleyball coach Eugenio George
by Cuba's National Sports Institute (INDER) in a timely fashion.

According to his brief missive to the newspaper, "several comrades
thought it curious that no floral wreaths from us were placed on his
coffin."

"I, a life-long admirer, was not informed of his death until several
hours after the burial," Castro added.

The Proclamation: Eight Years Later

The three incidents above – linked only by the name of Fidel Castro –
all point to one certain fact: the growing irrelevance that is beginning
to bury the figure of Cuba's formerly omnipresent leader in life. I am
not speaking of his declining influence over the nation's affairs or the
younger generations, but over the very members of the government.

It will soon be eight years since Castro proclaimed that he was stepping
down (on July 31, 2006), following a surgical procedure that would put a
definitive end to his leadership. Caught up in the maneuvers and
blunders of Raul Castro's administration, I believe we haven't yet
become aware of how much the figure of Fidel Castro has withdrawn at the
discursive and symbolic levels.

A quick glance at the last, massive projects he set in motion prior to
his illness make us aware of how insignificant those efforts are to
today's Cuba: the energy revolution of electronic contraptions,
intensively-trained teachers (who succumbed under the challenges of the
education system), social workers (who ended up as custodians at gas
stations), etc. The last strike was the promotion of moringa and morena
plants as dietary supplements, something the State media has long ceased
to do.

Between the Weekly Movie Package and Fidel's Reflections

Cuban society has changed a lot since. It's not that Raul Castro has
become a reformer or anything of the sort. He has merely been forced to
mold and make more flexible a number of rigid norms inherited from
Fidel's time in order to remain in power.

Let us be honest about it: what room could there be for Fidel Castro's
"reflections", news published by Granma and aired on the TV Round Table
program between the shy steps towards increasing Internet access, the
two million cell phones now in the hands of the population, illegal
cable television and the weekly "package" of foreign TV shows, soap
operas and informative materials?

Who cares, at this stage in the game, if the man has his reflections
published in Chinese, is named a hero of the national poultry industry
or complains about being kept in the dark about something?

I have the impression it is less and less important for the Party
leadership itself, regardless of how many vows and promises of future
abundance we hear about in the propaganda of the regime, caught between
a past that can offer us nothing and a present characterized by
unproductiveness, the hunt for foreign investment and the demands of an
incredulous and alert population.

I want to think that the greatest grief weighs on whatever is left of
Fidel Castro, on the eve of his 88th birthday

Source: Does Anyone Care Anymore about Fidel? - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=104159