Socialismo o Muerte

Legacy polishing can be undignified, especially when it is carried on by others on your behalf. Dogs fighting over your bones before you have had the decency to die. I may have mentioned previously that an acquaintance of mine was feeling a bit poorly, suffering, no doubt, from the after effects of rhetorical diseases. Well, he has decided to retire, after a fashion.

I suggested that:

I'm not sure how the rest of them will remember.

The articles, ranging from pre-mortem panegyrics to biographies of a mass murderer and secret admirer of Franco, have been rolling out. Some good jokes though!

In Open Democracy 19 - 02 – 2008 (First published Aug 2006)

Fidel Castro's legacy: Cuban conversations

Fred Halliday recounts a Cuban anecdote from the 90s

about Fidel Castro finding himself in a cage with Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, where they are all being threatened by a ravenous lion. Clinton and Yeltsin bravely tussle with the beast, but retire seriously mauled. Fidel tells them to leave it to him. He approaches the lion and whispers something in its ear: the animal pauses, frowns, and rolls over dead. Bill and Boris take a break from licking their wounds to query comandante about the magic words. Fidel replies: "well, I said what I always say – Socialismo o Muerte" ("socialism or death").

As a follow on from that Richard Gott in an article:

Fidel remembered: a view of the Cuban revolution

on the 20 - 02 – 2008 in Open Democracy, recounts:

A few years ago, I returned to Havana to write a history of Cuba, which was published in 2005. On its final page, I wrote the following words about Castro:

"He remains a figure from all our yesterdays, grey-bearded but eternally youthful like an ageing rock star. He does not run the country, but he presides over a government that is his creation. He has changed his slogan from ‘socialism or death', suitable for the violent 20th century, to ‘a better world is possible', appropriate for the more pacifistic revolutionaries of a new era. When he dies, there will be little change in Cuba. While few people have been looking, the change has already taken place."

Nice switch that from socialism or death to a better world is possible.

I’m not sure what the next stage is, probably – ah well mustn’t grumble.