'Fidel Castro Is Not Dead'
There was a minute’s silence at Adelante, the yearly gathering of
Latin America activists in London on Saturday who had woken up to news
that Fidel Castro was no more.
And then another minute’s silence at the end of the day, rich in
tributes to the towering figure of socialism and internationalism.
It was fitting. Just one minute would barely reflect the
revolutionary leader who rarely gave a speech lasting less than four
hours and ruled Cuba for five decades.
But the achievements that most people kept coming back to during the
day, were not leadership or longevity but two ordinary areas of everyday
life: health and education.
Under Castro’s leadership, Cuba went from being a country of poor and
largely illiterate people, to one that puts most of the rest of the
Western world to shame with its impressive health and
education statistics.
As rich countries, such as the US and Britain, have fostered
growing inequality and are failing to meet the public health and
education needs of their populations, Cuba has for years provided high
quality free health care and education for all. The result: a literacy
rate higher than the US’s and life expectancy that equals it.
