So he outlasted Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, most of Bush II. The ultimate survivor resigns.
AP's take on the resignation:
The United States was the first country to recognize Castro's government, but the countries soon clashed as Mr. Castro seized American property and invited Soviet aid.
On April 16, 1961, Mr. Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. A day later, he defeated the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States squeezed Cuba's economy and the CIA plotted to kill Mr. Castro. Hostility reached its peak with the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Fabulous understatement from Castro:
“It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-a-vis an adversary that had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply,” he said in a reference to the United States.
Perhaps, I have a warped perspective on Cuba from the 2 weeks I spent there on a development philosophy course back in 2001. Somehow, Cuba, and the revolution, were more of an inspiration than a threat. Much could be made of their medical school and athletic training programs for citizens of developing countries. But I will just share a personal story.
On a lovely day at the beach, I cut my foot on a piece of glass. The cut was pretty bad (hypochondriac remembering) but not life threatening. I hung in for a couple of hours waiting for the bus to come to take us back to Havana. On arrival, I took a cab with our guides to the hospital. Not the fancy tourist hospital, this was the empty, metal and brick, local hospital. The cab pulled me up to the front and I was immediately placed in a wheel chair, guided into a room and received stitches and anaesthetic. Although quite out of it, I was worried about the lack of medicine and conditions. I was delirious (at least delirious in a hypochondriac sort of way), but I was reassured by my friend who spoke a bit more Spanish. I didn't just have one doctor but I ended up having a team of doctors working to communicate and provide what care they could. Stitches and smiles later I went back to my hotel to enjoy
VH1's behind the musicAfter returning to Toronto, Nurse Mom said that I probably wouldn't have even gotten stitches in Canada...I wouldn't have been able to see a doctor for a couple of hours as well.
The care that I got in the midst of an economic and medical supply embargo by the US was nothing short of incredible (good thing I wasn't a blue baby...no non-American source for those drugs). But the care wasn't just for me. As I left a family drove up with a sick woman and the scary looking police man carried her in his arms from the taxi into the hospital.
There was something about the people: struggling, surviving, dancing, eating rice beans and gnarly meat. The human side of the revolution is lost in the news, the stats and the politics. This was what Castro et al should be remembered for. Whether there will be a new relationship between Cuba and the USa, whether "Cuban exiles" will be able to reclaim their massive plantations and oil resources, whether package vacations get cheaper or not...Cuba will stand as an incredible memory and inspiration for me.
Oh yeah and
BC has a carbon tax.
What have I (not) done about violence against women in the last five years? Why have men done the shit they have done to so many women in my town, country, community? What do I mean by community? Probably, schools that I have attended, Toronto, Ottawa and places I have lived. What kind of violence? The abuse ranges from strange men attacking in dark alleys to, the much more common, parter abuse.
