The Cuban leader resigned as head of state this week leaving his brother Raul in charge of the Communist Caribbean island-nation CUBAN President resigned 19 February, having survived as chief of state for close to half a century, longer by far than any king or president in modern times, except perhaps Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. He outlasted 10 US presidents who all vowed to depose him, using economic and political embargoes, invasion, bombings and even poisoned cigars. He never wavered in his loathing of his powerful neighbour to the north, dramatised in a handwritten note he sent to a fellow guerrilla commander six months before taking power on 1 January 1959. "I am going to launch another, much longer and bigger war against them [the Americans]. I realise now that this is going to be my true destiny," Castro, then 31, wrote. He kept his word. He despised American imperialism, ridiculed American elections, American consumerism, the American penchant for changing cars every few years and American indifference to society's less fortunate. His star rose through the 1950-70s, inspiring revolutionaries around the world, but fell through the 1980-90s, especially after the collapse of Cuba's main lifeline, the Soviet Union. He despised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev too, the loss of revolutionary fervour and the Soviet fear of confrontation with the US after the fall of Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. But Western hopes that Cuba would follow the SU into the dustbin of history were shortlived, and he has been able to retire with Cuba's star in the ascendant once again, with the economy improving, admiration for farsighted ecological policies which have ensured that Cuba is one of the world's least spoiled gems, and recent victories of socialist leaders in Latin America -- Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. He can bask with satisfaction in the world's adulation, everywhere the US imperial boot is felt and resented. The new president is his "younger" brother, 76- year-old Defence Minister Raul Castro, though Fidel retains his post as first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party and has penned a series of thoughtful essays, Reflections of the Commander in Chief, mostly weighing in on international issues, which are widely read on the Internet. Yes, life is rather threadbare in Cuba and there is little of the intellectual ferment and industriousness associated with life in the West, but there is also none of the hopeless despair that arises out of extreme economic disparity in the West, nor the violence and corruption. A comment from an American who managed to sidestep the travel restrictions is a fitting tribute: "It's a great place. Get there quickly before the US gets back in and screws everything up."
