Fidel's Legacy at Age 90

 A Canadian Appraisal 
{Updated: Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016}

     The Reuters photo above shows an attentive Fidel Castro at the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana on Saturday, August 13th, 2016 -- his 90th birthday. He is flanked by Cuban President Raul Castro on his right and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on his left. Having passed nine decades on this earth as one of history's all-time most famous and infamous men, appraising his legacy is in order.

      To accurately and freely assess Fidel Castro's legacy, one must first go outside Cuba and then, for sure, outside the United States. So, let's go up to Canada where resides a man named John M. Kirk. He is a renowned professor and one of the world's greatest Latin American experts/scholars. He has written sixteen books about Cuba and he has visited the island many times since 1976. Unvarnished by pro-Fidel or anti-Fidel rhetoric and propaganda, John M. Kirk is a good place to start if you are interested in a fair appraisal of the Fidel Castro legacy on the occasion of his 90th birthday, which will be celebrated for a solid month in Cuba. The celebration will include, among other things, a Guinness Book of World Records 90-meters-long cigar to commemorate each of the historic 90 years of his life. Guinness has already registered Fidel Castro's World Record for Having Survived the Most Assassination Attempts in History, a legacy not likely to be broken.

     But beyond the somewhat piddly things such as assassination attempts by the CIA, the Mafia and Cuban exiles he booted off the island, one of the best sources for the rest of Fidel Castro's legacy can be found in the prolific speeches and writings of John M. Kirk, Canada's greatest authority on both Fidel and Cuba. Mr. Kirk describes Fidel thusly: "A polarizing figure for many, he is revered in developing countries and public health programmes he instituted. Cuba currently has 50,000 medical personnel working in 60 developing countries, and that has been praised profusely by such notables as Nelson Mandela and Ban Ki-moon. Always short on money, largely because of the U. S. embargo, he nevertheless has found some to finance Operation Miracle, which has restored or greatly improved eye-sight for many poor people. He has also financed the world's largest medical school and it gives totally free scholarships to poor but qualified students, including Americans. His Polyclinics, which blanket the island, are credited with Cuba's extremely low infant mortality rate and extremely high longevity. His medical clinics have discovered some of the best vaccines against cancer, diabetes, etc. Yes, he is seen as both a totalitarian dictator and an anti-imperialistic humanitarian giant.  Under his rule, Cuba became the symbol of resistance to the dictates of Washington and he has thus inspired other resistance that has resulted in democratic rule as opposed to imperial domination in a host of countries. At the same time, much of the criticism of Castro is justified but first you must totally dismiss the American criticism that has been dominated since the 1950s by those he rightfully booted off the island, meaning the Batista Cubans, the Mafia and the greedy Americans that raided Cuba throughout the 1950s right up until the victorious Cuban Revolution. As one assesses his legacy, one must also wonder what the last five decades of his life would have accomplished had he not had to fight off the assassination attempts that have been a part of the efforts to recapture the island by U.S.-supported exiles. His humanitarian lack of greed would surely have manifested itself more."   

       Now that he has somehow reached the age of 90, Fidel Castro's legacy will be discussed and debated far into the future, both regionally and internationally. John M. Kirk is neither an idolater nor a hater from his vantage point in Canada, where a much freer perspective than in the United States is possible. So, Mr. Kirk's unique knowledge of both Castro and Cuba deserves a prominent place in that assessment even as fading but lingering memories of the Cuban's battle-tested fervor, fiery oratory, proud nationalism, and his role as an underdog warrior will surely stamp the would-be lawyer as an historic revolutionary figure. 

 And by the way: 

          The chief CNN correspondent in Havana, Patrick Oppman, provided the best and most continuous American coverage leading up to Fidel Castro's rather memorable 90th birthday this past Saturday.

       Interestingly enough, Patrick Oppmann's most viewed CNN report on August 13th, Fidel's 90th birthday, included the photo and graphic above. That's because the majority of the report centered around the "potentially more than 600 assassination attempts." Oppmann detailed many of them, including the young female lover the CIA recruited to kill him. She arrived at his suite in the Hotel Hilton with two vials of poison pills hidden in her jaw of cold cream. But Fidel had been tipped off...uh, yes, he had some friends in high U. S. places. But his reaction to her, face-to-face, was rather remarkable, as Oppmann explained. He took out his loaded pistol and handed it to her, saying, "You came here to kill me, didn't you?" She looked at the pistol in her hand, but then melted and started to cry before throwing herself into his arms. That's a true story, and one that Hollywood would not have to embellish for dramatic and emotional effect. And by the way, the photo used in Oppmann's report above showed Fidel in a wheelchair meeting with the Chinese leader. That was in October of 2004 when Fidel was 78-years-old. He had fallen from the stage after making a speech in Santa Clara, Cuba, and suffered broken bones in his left knee and left arm.

      But I know you want to know more about that young girl the CIA recruited to...almost...kill Fidel. Her name is Marina Lorenz. That's her at age 20 in February of 1959 with Fidel and with her father, the captain of a German cruise ship that had stopped off in Havana. Marina, like a lot of young foreign girls and some Hollywood starlets, was smitten with the bearded, cigar-smoking young rebel who had just defeated the combined might of the dreaded Batistianos, the Mafia and the United States. Thanks to her father, she got to meet Fidel and then fell madly in love with him, and he reciprocated. The AP photo above made her famous and the CIA, when she visited New York City, somehow managed to convince her to kill Fidel. The manner in which she agreed is truthfully depicted above because she confirmed it in her book and with a lie-detector test. But she fell back in love with Fidel after she looked down at his loaded pistol in her hand. And she also confirmed that the two CIA poison pills...remember them?...had melted in the cold cream jar.

      Marina Lorenz only briefly, and only because of CIA persuasion, had thoughts of killing Fidel. She still treasures the black-and-white photo above. In her book she said, "I fell in love with Fidel in 1959 and tried to kill him in 1960." Since then, she's been back in love with him...at least her memories of FIDEL CASTRO!!! 

Marina Lorenz in 1960 when Fidel Castro knew her. 

Marina Lorenz was born in Bremen, Germany in 1939.

      This Cubaninsider blog has been getting over a thousand hits each week from the gorgeous nation of Norway, which is home to 5 million hearty, caring and peace-loving souls. There is amazingly beautiful scenery such as this all over Norway, from the national capital of Oslo to Bergen, the capital of the fjords.

This map shows 21 major airports in Norway.

Norway is kinda at the top of the world.

      One of the absolute best Country & Western singers is Heidi Hauge. She is 100% Norwegian but her singing in English is nonpareil. For example, no American female covers great songs such as "Seven Spanish Angels" and "Crystal Chandeliers" as well as Heidi. You're welcome to test that theory on YouTube.  

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