a day at the Havana aquarium

Comrades,

Everyone used to love "El Che" - but he wasn't even Cuban, just a very good micro-manager and we all know what happened to him; dead in some Bolivian shit-hole at 39 - Fidel was the big picture man and much more charismatic for mine, with that enormous bunger constantly in his gob, and let's face it, it was Fidel's Way or the Highway - how do you stay at the top for so long without it being so?

One of the many things I loved about Fidel was that he had an opinion on everything and would bang on forever about this own uniquely contradictory style of Marxist-Leninist-Trot-like Agrarian Socialism [still holds the world record for the longest speech to the UN General Assembly at about four and a half hours], was very good at a rumble in the jungle, and was never afraid to take on the "Colossus to the North".
Despot? Yes. But a tyrant you could trust.
But more than that, Fidel was a gourmand, pants-man, enjoyed nothing more than a good practical joke, and admired dolphins for the mad rooters that they are.
Here's just the start of the best article ever written about a day at the Havana Aquarium:


http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-cuban-model-doesnt-even-work-for-us-anymore/62602/



(originally published 28-11-16)