Letter from Havana
By Tarun Basu
Havana, Sep 17 (IANS) After Castro, who? The question about who would succeed the ailing 80-year-old fading revolutionary - in power for close to half a century - has never seized the mind of the average Cuban but has been a recurring subject of speculation among Cuba watchers abroad.
Cubans have not thought about it simply because two generations have grown up so much under his towering shadow that they can't think of a country without him.
Yet the younger generation, who do not carry the baggage of the epochal revolution of 1959 and often aspire for a lifestyle their previous generation has been denied, say they see him as a father figure and protector all right but would like that the transition - whenever that takes place - would make life a little easier, and brighter, for them.
Right now the state is both a protector and a provider. It is responsible for housing, education and even food, to an extent, and expects in turn unquestioning loyalty and absence of capitalist aspirations.
But the young are beginning to question many of the values and philosophies of the past and want less of the regimentation and more of freedom.
Nevertheless, a generation or two in Cuba know of no other leader but him - and cannot even think of After Castro, what?
His brother, Raul Castro, who is acting president and who presided over the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in his absence, is not as legendary as Fidel and few think he would inherit his brother's mantle in the long term.
"Fidel is deeply embedded in our psyche. His rule may not have been all that good for Cuba, but in the larger sense he has been the protector of Cuban sovereignty, its identity and nationalism for nearly half a century," says Tania Quimper, a young interpreter of mixed Peruvian-Cuban parentage.
"We can't simply think of who can come after him when he goes. But we only hope that whoever comes would give us a better lifestyle, for living is no more just about surviving but to live well like people of other countries. We want better goods, better services, and better cars (the only country where one still sees Studebakers and Ladas trundling the broad, clean and rather empty avenues) while at the same time retaining our national pride and sovereignty."
Castro, the romantic revolutionary of an earlier era and the greatest of all political survivors, may still come out of his illness and confound critics.
But what is abundantly clear is that a country of 11 million people that Castro has nursed and nurtured with his ideology may through its own demographic dynamics, globalization imperatives or political inevitabilities be forced to change soon - for better or for the worse.