The history of the third world nations and the cold war politics will not be complete without reference to Fidel Castro of Cuba, the only man who withstood and outlived over ten generation of former American Presidents. Fidel Castro is a Revolutionary General who had a strong patriotic affinity for his countrymen and the poor people all over the world, Like Karl Marx he detested the exploitative nature of capitalism, an ideology which brought enmity between him and the United States of America, one of Cuba’s closest neighbours. The climax of these crises was the historic Cuban Missile crisis and Havana’s diplomatic ties with Moscow.
Cuba an Island of over 10 million people was literally unknown before the emergence of Castro who transformed the very small society into a highly advanced state. Currently Cuba has the highest literate populous in the world; this is despite Western nations economic blocked for nearly 50 years.
Castro took Cuba outside the main stream of Western liberalism into a socialist state, an ideology that destroyed the diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana for more than half a century. Castro made nonsense of the modernization theory, a hypothesis which expresses the view point that less developed countries should tool the path of the developed Western societies, if they ever want to develop and reach their highest potentials.
Africa and the third world nations must forever remain grateful to Castro for his attacks on their former colonial masters especially during the 1960’S when Castro stood on the floor of the UN podium to ask member states to grant independence to their colonies. Castro became a symbol of emancipation as most third world leaders saw in him a leader that had a genuine interest in their welfare as against their former colonial masters who came to exploit them.
Africa and the third world nations must forever remain grateful to Castro for his attacks on their former colonial masters especially during the 1960’S when Castro stood on the floor of the UN podium to ask member states to grant independence to their colonies. Castro became a symbol of emancipation as most third world leaders saw in him a leader that had a genuine interest in their welfare as against their former colonial masters who came to exploit them.
By his life, Castro has taught the world that a man with an ideology can transform a nation, no matter the level of opposition he or she may face. This is very significant as there is a leadership crisis in the world especially in Africa nay Nigeria where successive leaders have been a curse to the people rather a blessing.
We can learn from the principles of Castro that democracy maybe the most fashionable form of government in the modern world but it is certainly not the best form of government especially for developing society like ours. There is no other better example to expose this ideology than the life and leadership roles of Castro and Gaddafi. Both men were not democrats from the true sense of the word but they had a passionate motive and ideology to transform their societies. Fortunately they both did, this was why they attracted the envy of the big powers. The duo escaped several assassination attempts from the West, unfortunately, the Obama’s administration succeeded in ousting Gaddafi, albeit Castro survived eleven American Presidents.
The life and death of Fidel Castro is a pointer to the fact that nations can actually pursue ideologies that are quite different from what obtains in the West, just like how the South East Asian Economics decided to take a different part to pursue their vision, Africa can live without the West, all we need to do is to look inward and develop the local content philosophy that fits our domestic needs.
We can learn from the principles of Castro that democracy maybe the most fashionable form of government in the modern world but it is certainly not the best form of government especially for developing society like ours. There is no other better example to expose this ideology than the life and leadership roles of Castro and Gaddafi. Both men were not democrats from the true sense of the word but they had a passionate motive and ideology to transform their societies. Fortunately they both did, this was why they attracted the envy of the big powers. The duo escaped several assassination attempts from the West, unfortunately, the Obama’s administration succeeded in ousting Gaddafi, albeit Castro survived eleven American Presidents.
The life and death of Fidel Castro is a pointer to the fact that nations can actually pursue ideologies that are quite different from what obtains in the West, just like how the South East Asian Economics decided to take a different part to pursue their vision, Africa can live without the West, all we need to do is to look inward and develop the local content philosophy that fits our domestic needs.
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