Carlos Eire, back from Switzerland, has written a superb essay, A fine day in Geneva, with Che’s ghost
Europeans are the people who keep Castrolandia afloat, so I thought nothing would surprise me over here, concerning Cuba. At the age of 58, however, I should have known better than that. Surprises never end. Hell is as limitless as the human imagination, and so is evil.
And the worst thing about the evil kingdom of Castrolandia is the way it uses capitalism to further its own ends while denying all the benefits of a free economy to the people of Cuba.
So, on a very sunny morning, I walk by a tobacco store in Geneva, Switzerland, which has a large sign proclaiming that it sells Havana cigars, and I am compelled to go in, as if suddenly bewitched. I know that every one of the dozens of tobacco stores I have seen over the past week sells Cuban cigars, but I have felt no need to check them out. Damn it. I have to walk into this one, just to see what is going on.
Go read the rest.
By the way, the room where we have tango lessons at Princeton University has a mural with pictures of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Someone must have complained that the images are covered with poster board.