Nary a single "crush the American oligarchy!" has been heard from Fidel Castro since June, when el jefe's regular columns began devolving into the kind of bizarre, haiku-like rants found only in assisted living facility newsletters or Dadaist art collectives.
But any fears that the Bearded One has gone senile are way off base, Fidel's son says. Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, his eldest son, recently told a scientific conference that Fidel is "lucid" and "working hard."
Working hard on what, exactly? Diaz-Balart points only to a statement that Fidel sent to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last month, hailing Chavez's "iron will."
"You have seen the message from the other day to President Chavez," Diaz-Balart said, according to Fox News Latino. "As always, he's lucid and working hard."
Fidel, who is now 86 years old, is also said to be working on a book with Chavez. Yohandry Fontana, a pro-government blogger, wrote in August that the strongman was collaborating on the book and closely following Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's attempts to gain asylum in Ecuador.
Lest we forget why many have been speculating on Fidel's mental health, let's revisit his most recent Reflection of Fidel column, called "Unimaginable":
YOGIS do things with the human body which are beyond our imagination. There they are, before our eyes, via images arriving instantaneously from vast distances, through Pasaje a lo Desconocido [Cuban TV program]Yep, that's the whole column. It was published shortly after this all-time classic work of bizarre performance art:
THE conditions have been created for the country to begin massively producing Moringa Oleífera and mulberry, which are sustainable resources [for the production of] meat, eggs, milk and silk fiber which can be woven by artisans, providing well-remunerated employment as an added benefit, regardless of age or gender.Let's hope Fidel's hired a ghost-writer to help out with that book project.
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
