More Cuba? Why Not?

Jeff Goldberg, writer for The Atlantic, was recently invited to have some private talks with Fidel Castro in Havana Cuba. He is publishing a series of articles about the trip here. I don't know anything about Goldberg or his policies, but the 1st two articles have been fascinating. I'd suggest that you take a couple minutes to read them...

Longtime Slicers will undoubtedly remember the Razor's opinion of the Cuban Regime (same communist crap, just tropical), and may remember reading some of the things I wrote here and here. As a brief and (very, very) simplified restating of history, Fulgencio Batista was a Cuban dictator for much of the 1950's. He used his position to enrich himself at the expense of the Cuban people. He was overthrown by Castro, which tossed the island out of the frying pan into the fire. Not long after taking power Castro became even more corrupt than Batista. 51 years later he is still around.

In the articles I mentioned (and linked) above, Goldberg tells some fascinating stories about his personal interactions with Castro. If he wasn't a murderer, you'd almost refer to them as "quaint". I'll reproduce a small portion for you here (head over to The Atlantic for the rest). Please remember that I didn't write this. When the author says "I" or "we" he is not referring to me. Throughout the work I've made a couple comments in gray.

...The next day was Monday, when maximum leaders are expected to be busy single-handedly managing their economies, throwing dissidents into prison, and the like. But Fidel's calendar was open. He asked us, "Would you like to go the aquarium with me to see the dolphin show?"
I wasn't sure I heard him correctly. (This happened a number of times during my visit).

"The dolphin show?"

"The dolphins are very intelligent animals," Castro said.

I noted that we had a meeting scheduled for the next morning, with Adela Dworin, the president of Cuba's Jewish community."Bring her," Fidel said.

Someone at the table mentioned that the aquarium was closed on Mondays. Fidel said, "It will be open tomorrow."And so it was. (If Fidel wants a dolphin show, he gets a dolphin show)

Late the next morning, after collecting Adela at the synagogue, we met Fidel on the steps of the dolphin house. We went together into a large, blue-lit room that faces a massive, glass-enclosed dolphin tank. Fidel explained, at length, that the Havana Aquarium's dolphin show was the best dolphin show in the world, "completely unique," in fact, because it is an underwater show. Three human divers enter the water, without breathing equipment, and perform intricate acrobatics with the dolphins.

"Do you like dolphins?" Fidel asked me.

"I like dolphins a lot," I said.

Fidel called over Guillermo Garcia, the director of the aquarium (every employee of the aquarium, of course, showed up for work -- "voluntarily," I was told) and told him to sit with us.

"Goldberg," Fidel said, "ask him questions about dolphins."

"What kind of questions?" I asked.

"You're a journalist, ask good questions," he said, and then interrupted himself. "He doesn't know much about dolphins anyway," he said, pointing to Garcia. He's actually a nuclear physicist."

"You are?" I asked.

"Yes," Garcia said, somewhat apologetically."

Why are you running the aquarium?" I asked.

"We put him here to keep him from building nuclear bombs!" Fidel said, and then cracked-up laughing." (weird humor...)

In Cuba, we would only use nuclear power for peaceful means," Garcia said, earnestly.

"I didn't think I was in Iran," I answered.

Fidel pointed to the small rug under the special swivel chair his bodyguards bring along for him. "It's Persian!" he said, and laughed again. (FYI: What we refer to as Iran, used to be called Persia)

Then he said, "Goldberg, ask your questions about dolphins."

Now on the spot, I turned to Garcia and asked, "How much do the dolphins weigh?"

They weigh between 100 and 150 kilograms, he said.

"How do you train the dolphins to do what they do?" I asked.

"That's a good question," Fidel said. Garcia called over one of the aquarium's veterinarians to help answer the question. Her name was Celia.
A few minutes later, Antonio Castro told me her last name: Guevara.

"You're Che's daughter?" I asked. (Che was one of Castro's original henchman)

"Yes," she said."And you're a dolphin veterinarian?""I take care of all the inhabitants of the aquarium," she said.

"Che liked animals very much," Antonio Castro said.


I find the human side of Castro fascinating. Kinda like the clean end of a turd...