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In Castro's Cuba, it's 'Happy
Birthday' - or else
By Kathleen Parker. Houston
Chronicle, Aug. 16, 2005.
Ask 1,000 people when President George
W. Bush's birthday is, and 999 probably
will shrug. Ask 1,000 Cubans when President
Fidel Castro's birthday is, and most likely
999 will know.
Just one of the small and delightful differences
between a free country and a communist dictatorship.
Saturday, while Bush and a small group
of journalists took a 17-mile mountain bike
ride on the president's Texas ranch, Castro
celebrated his 79th birthday to the usual
state-mandated fanfare.
Children danced and cut a huge blue-and-white
cake for their leader, the longest-ruling
government head in the world. The not-so-free
press featured front-page stories and photographs
accompanied by praise and words of affection.
A letter published on the front page of
the Communist Party daily paper, Granma,
said: "We celebrate as your own, with
the affection and immense admiration that
children feel for the most noble, wise and
brave father."
Signed "your people," the letter
also called Castro "dearly loved Fidel"
and mentioned his "guerrilla spirit
of just ideals" and his "special
sensitivity for others."
Ah, yes, Castro's legendary and special
sensitivity. Gives you chills, doesn't it?
Or the sweats, if you happen to be among
those who have disagreed with this particular
noble, wise and brave father.
Dissidents, many of them recently imprisoned
for a tough-love refresher course, doubtless
were singing Feliz Cumpleanos along with
the little darlings indoctrinated since
birth by parents too afraid to skip one
of their neighborhood's mandatory Communist
Party meetings.
By the way, when was the last time you
attended a state-mandated Communist Party
meeting? When was the last time a family
member was arrested for criticizing the
government? Just checking.
It is useful sometimes to be reminded of
the freedoms we take for granted, and Castro's
birthday seems as good a time as any. What,
for instance, does one suppose would happen
to Cindy Sheehan's equivalent in Cuba if
she staked out Castro's home to protest
the arrest of her son? Not that Sheehan's
son, who died in Iraq, was taken by the
government.
And not, by the way, that Sheehan or anyone
else could camp outside Castro's house.
He doesn't have one. At least he doesn't
have one in which he regularly sleeps. He
moves around a lot. When you hold a nation
of people prisoner on an island, you are
not, in fact, wildly popular. You are, in
fact, despised. Quietly. During a visit
to Cuba a few years ago, I got a glimpse
of that hatred from Cubans who felt comfortable
speaking openly with an American journalist.
I also got a glimpse of the way official
Cuba regards those who prefer freedom.
We were meeting with Ricardo Alarcon, president
of the National Assembly of People's Power,
in a small, air-conditioned office, sipping
sweet coffee and pretending not to notice
Alarcon's navel, which was peeking through
a gap between the buttons of his guayabera.
Alarcon is charming and well educated,
a doctor of philosophy and letters who also
served for several years as Cuba's ambassador
to the United Nations.
He is also one of the founders of Cuba's
Communist Party and is often mentioned as
a possible successor to Castro. Alarcon
sat facing us, a group of eight or nine
reporters, one of whom bravely asked: "What
is your policy toward dissidents?"
Alarcon paused a moment and then chuckled.
"Well, of course," he said, "our
policy is to sometimes arrest them."
Earlier this summer, Castro exercised that
policy by arresting some 60 dissidents,
a dozen of whom reportedly remain incarcerated,
while denying that dissidents are a problem.
In July, on the 52nd anniversary of the
start of the revolution, Castro spoke to
an audience at the Karl Marx Theater in
Havana in a style reminiscent of our beloved
Baghdad Bob, who steadfastly insisted that
no American troops were in Iraq as American
tanks trundled behind him.
"The much-publicized dissidence, or
alleged opposition in Cuba, exists only
in the fevered minds of the Cuban-American
mafia and the bureaucrats in the White House,"
said Castro. " ... You would think
that the revolution only had a few hours
left."
The audience, which included hundreds of
Americans in Cuba as part of an aid program,
gave Castro a standing ovation.
That's the nice thing about being a totalitarian
ruler. Everyone agrees with you no matter
what you say, and everyone celebrates your
birthday. Unless they don't, of course,
in which case, well, sometimes you get arrested.
(Bush's birthday, just in case things go
badly here, is July 6.)
Parker is a syndicated columnist
for the Orlando Sentinel. She can be e-mailed
at kparker@kparker.com.
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