FIDEL Castro, one of the greatest world leaders of the 20th century died last November 25 at age 90.
The legendary Cuban leader ruled Cuba for 49 years after he took power on January 1, 1959 and ousted the brutal U.S. backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Fidel Castro, a product of a devout Roman Catholic family and a Jesuit-trained lawyer who led the successful revolution against Fulgencio Batista with a few faithful followers, was a classic model of human endurance. He successfully defied the US for 50 years, led his small country in surviving a crippling US economic embargo, and survived 650 assassination attempts orchestrated by the CIA.
It was not easy to govern an impoverished nation when Fulgencio Batista was ousted from power. Because of US imperialism and Batista’s corrupt dictatorship, Cuba became one of the poorest countries in Latin America. In the urban areas, many were jobless; in the countryside, 85% of the small farmers in Cuba had to pay rent and lived under the constant threat of being dispossessed from the land that they cultivated. There were 200,000 peasant farmers who did not have a single acre of land to cultivate to provide food for their starving children.
The overwhelming number of Cubans would die without seeing a doctor or a chance to be treated in a hospital. There was no electricity in the rural areas. Illiteracy became widespread. The little rural schools were attended only by half the school-age children–barefoot half-naked, and undernourished--and frequently the teacher must buy necessary materials from his own salary.
When Fidel Castro took power, he wiped out illiteracy among the Cuban people, establishing schools in every village and provided free medical services to both urban and rural areas. Today, Cuba has one of the best medical systems in the world, turning thousands of doctors to serve Cuba’s needs and every Cuban enjoys free medical and hospital services from womb to tomb.
Despite Castro’s unprecedented record as leader of the Cuban people, the US and the Western press demonized him, picturing him as a dictator and a tyrant and turning Cuba into a garrison state. But it was the US, which pushed him to act what he had to do. Just two years after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, 1,400 Cuban exiles, armed and financed by the CIA, stormed the beaches of the Bay of Pigs on Cuba’s southern coast. The US- backed invasion failed but the US did not stop its efforts to destabilize Castro’s government.
The US for several decades dealt Cuba a crippling trade embargo, launched hundreds of assassination attempts on Castro and was responsible for decades of hostilities between Cuba and the US. Under these circumstances, who is that leader in his right mind would surrender the gains of the revolution by holding US dollar-dictated elections and would allow destabilizing rallies?
By force of circumstance, therefore, Fidel Castro had to adopt authoritarian methods to protect Cuba’s national interest and thwart the US destabilization efforts against the Cuban government. This is not a brief for the dictatorship but the violence that Castro employed was the violence that liberated, not the violence that oppressed his people.
No matter what critics may say against Fidel Castro, one thing is sure. His detractors cannot accuse him of enrichment in public office, unlike our own homegrown dictator Ferdinand Marcos who plundered our nation and stole US$10 billion and stashed them in secret Swiss banks. We regard Marcos as a fake hero while the Cubans consider Fidel Castro as a real hero. --from Democrito C. Barcenas
Helping street kids
AS we walk along the streets we might have been irritated by beggars with able bodies who ask for alms, but the case is different when we see children, especially babies, with them.
Kids need to be nurtured in an environment where they can explore, practice and enhance their talents and skills.
In the street children’s case, they also need extra parenting. Their parents might have conditioned their minds to stop dreaming too high and to just focus on making ends meet.
I am not belittling homeless parents, but how many have sent their children to school, considering people with permanent houses are even struggling to do this?
We can help street children by becoming a member or a volunteer of any program of the government, nongovernment organizations or individuals who have projects that teach street children to read and write. We can also join and facilitate workshops designed to help street children identify which field they’re good in and help them practice and develop their talents and skills so they might be able to get a scholarship in the future.
Helping street children will not make them dependent and their parents lazy. In the long run, what we plant in their minds and hearts will make them self-reliant. Inspiring young minds will be an effective undertaking in eradicating the number of homeless Filipinos. --from Judy-Ann Virtucio, University of the Philippines-Cebu, BA Mass Communication-III