Nothing vindicates Michael Moore’s hagiography of Cuba’s healthcare system (ie, the one for party officials and foreigners only) quite like the fact that Cuban doctors have managed to keep a “terminally ill and dying” Fidel Castro alive for over a year….
It is debatable, however, whether this fact is more galling to partisan critics of Moore’s movie Sicko, or to Miami Cubans who must be sick and tired of dancing on his grave.
After all, recall that when Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde published the first pictures of Castro taken after his gastrointestinal surgery last summer (2006), they were roundly criticized as Photoshop fakes. But only die-hard fantasists can deny the authenticity of the new pictures of Castro – in living color and sporting his now-trademark tracksuit – that were aired during a TV interview on Friday.
Incidentally, no one has made more of a public spectacle of his pining for Castro’s death than celebrated Cuban-American blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. Because, for over a month now, Lavandeira (a.k.a. Perez Hilton) has been holding a virtual vigil for his readers, who reportedly number in the millions, by assuring them that “Fidel is dead”, and that “An Official Announcement Is Coming” (as he did on August 24, 2007 at 2:55). Moreover, he relished this consummation, so devoutly to be wished, by promising his readers that “There’s gonna be a big ol’ party en Calle Ocho, mi gente!!!!”
Meanwhile, to dispel any reasonable doubt about his 9 lives still being very much a fact, Castro held up a copy of last week’s newly-released tome by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan during his interview, and even read a few passages aloud for further affirmation …of his life.
And it had to put a final nail in the coffin of rumors about Castro’s death when Ann Louise Bardach, CBS news correspondent and author of the authoritative WITHOUT FIDEL: The Death of Castro and Other Tales, declared over the weekend that – though gravely ill – Castro is:
…determined to outlive the Bush presidency.
My money’s on Fidel; especially since Bush’s presidency is effectively dead already…!
But, frankly, even if he drops dead today, there can be no denying Castro’s phenomenal longevity – given the determined efforts over the past 50 years by the CIA, and Cuban exiles, to kill him….
Viva Fidel!!!
Related Articles:
Dancing on Castro’s grave is unseemly
CIA family jewels…harebrained schemes to kill Castro
Fidel Castro dead, Perez Hilton, Miami Cubans
Rick says
Anthony:
Surely you jest with your Viva Fidel comment?
I grant you that without the US embargo Castro might have fallen from power a long time ago, but you cannot support what Castro stands for given you many other principled blogs?
Rick.
ALH ipinions says
Indeed Rick, a fair reading of my numerous articles on Castro’s ruination of Cuba would defy any notion that I “support what Castro stands for”.
The “Viva Fidel” merely reflects my contempt for Miami Cubans who treat Haitians in their midst like second-class citizens, and whose parents and Grandparents (in far too many cases) treated blacks in Cuba like slaves.
Never mind the unseemliness of dancing on his grave and their misguided presumptions about returning to Cuba someday to resume their fuedal lifestyles.
Rick says
Thanks for the clarification.