Castro the Fall Guy?

During the other day, I've heard from an online chatroom that Castro has taken a fall, and most of us here were wondering what happened. Did some US commando unit finally assasinated Fidel Castro, Dictator for Life of Cuba? In the chatroom itself, there was a huge discussion on this topic, in which there were many mixed emotions based on the rather curious news we got. Some of them were verging on the edge of vulgar, whereas some of them were more muted, and some of them were indisbelief in hearing about the infallable's dictator's unconventional fall.

After that, I decided to visit the CNN website, in which I found the scoop on his fall. After reading through the article, I just can't help but admire that old man, if you notice through this report:

The 78-year-old leader missed a step down from a rostrum as he was walking back to his seat and crashed down heavily.

In an effort to calm the crowd, Castro took the microphone after a few minutes, saying, "Just so that there won't be any speculation, it seems that I broke my knee."

He apologized for any concern he may have caused those who care about him, and then joked about how his spill was likely to make headlines in the international media.

Looking shaken, the Cuban leader of 45 years was taken to a hospital, where he said he would probably get a cast. He promised to get back to normal as soon as possible.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Castro. Though Castro known as a dictator and has been vilified for many decades by USA due to its Communist leanings and because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the hugely embarassing Pay of Pigs, I have much to admire from him. Though the west have been shedding Dictatorship in bad light, I have to say that Castro is an example of what we call a benevolent dictator. Though most people consider dictators to be megamaniacs with ultra egos, a tendency to tot their hardware around, and a huge insantisable desire for riches, Fidel Castro as a leader has been very different. I find that his policies in Education and Healthcare has been one of the most progressive - and is a sign of a good policies. Though there is severe economic problems in Cuba, I wanted to point out that it was caused by the failure of the Communist System and coupled with US embargos (and pressure against all trading partners of Cuba) and interests, it is evident that any country placed under such situation would be in trouble. If you look at a close example, Iraq during the preinvasion period is a standout example. Though many people might associate Saddam as another dictator, I don't think that Castro has built so many lavish palaces and stashed away his funds in secret Swiss bank accounts :P

Talking about it, the major falling of Castro is to embrace an Communist ideology that has been deemed out of touch of the world. His leadership is a dictatorsihp, which is also deemed as a danger to the world by our biased media. Though there are numerous cases of bloodthirsty and dangerous dictators, it has been stressed very little that sometimes authoritian rule can unite and push the country forward to prosperity. Singapore is one good example. Strangely enough Pakistan, with General Musharaf is a major US ally and is a military dictator. In a curious note the Saudi Arabia which is a huge ally of the US is a monarchy which rules over its country in an ironfist Islam fundamentalist way which is similar to an authoritian dictatorship. Its strange to see how a small insignificant country and dictator like Castro to be taking the flack for many of the US old failed policies in Latin America?

It doesn't make too much sense. Talking about democracy, its quite laughable to see how things are at Iraq at the moment. Iraq is an example where a strong leadership must be installed. As Iraq consists of 3 major groups - the Sunni, the Shiite, and the Kurds, there is no way a divided country can easily agree on itself without a strong leadership! Democracy does not provide strong leaderhips. It gives the choice to the people, but if the people are not prepared or not united enough to take elections in a mature way, we can see that elections will never solve any problems. It can only get worse as the government elected would be severely tested by the other two factions. Now include vested US interests in Iraq, I just have to foresay that its highly likely nothing good will happen in Iraq for a long while.

Dictatorship is just another form of governing, much like democracy. Economic systems such as free capitalism or communism are just systems, and none of them are inheretly good or evil. What matters is the leaders behind the system, and how they govern their country.