My grandfather was born in Cuba but fled with his family to T&T as a young boy.
In a conversation with him before he died, having lived a long and full life as a Trinbagonian, he cried silent tears for his younger self and the memories of his "still" home.
I was as young then as he was when he left, and did not understand what could chase people from their homes. Now, I am an adult fighting to rescue mine from chasing people to other lands.
By all means, fix what you have to fix but treat people with respect for their rights and dignity. Saying you developed the highest standard of healthcare in the world while the people lived lives of misery is like the plantation owner proud of his financial bottom line built on a zero-sum entry in the labour column, or the man who abuses his wife mercilessly but buys her nice gifts.
There are others, of course, who were not victims of the revolution; who looked on wistfully from outside while never having to suffer the hardships of what they romanticised.
There is a saying, don't judge a man until you can walk a mile in his shoes.
To the many who idolised the revolution, there should have been an opportunity to exchange your rights and freedoms with one of the people trapped in that same system who wanted to get out.
From a student of history and of politics I know fully well that there is far more to the conversation and there is a lot to be said about the rejection of Yankee imperialism in the western hemisphere at the height of the Cold War, but all the justifications in the world does nothing for the public if all you do is exchange one abuser for another.
I write this for you, Elias Alexander, for everyone looking on, and for my sweet T&T, suffering itself from years of change and exchange of abusers of our own. I think of the trillions of dollars stolen through waste and corruption that could have made this land Utopia for all its citizens, and redouble my commitment to inform and educate so that perhaps we might be spared the yoke of a totalitarian hard line inadvertently.
Freedom is only useful if you use it, only precious when you lose it.
Go on to your final reward Fidel Castro. I hope that in death you become an even greater inspiration and example to those to whom politics is something we do every time "they gih we an election."
More to say, more will be said, but for now, I hope you get in death, all that your life deserved and more.
Phillip Alexander
Political activist