The God Beard
Fidel has had three surgeries, and instead of following what the doctor told him, he decided to go his own way. The surgery would be life threatening to a man in his twenties, not to mention an 80 year old man who has lived a life of unparalleled stress. He believes he is a god, and does not need to do what the doctors say. The main doctor is currently under house arrest, and will likely be the fall guy if Fidel goes down.
Word is that he is confined to a bed, with tubes in him. He is not in a coma, but cannot communicate, as the wounds did not heal. He will die any day, perhaps any hour.
He had a surgery to remove a section of intestine, and had a replacement from China. It did not work. The second replacement, the one he currently has, is from Spain, and was the result of the recent surgery by the Spanish doctor. However, many people who have this surgery, need to have a piece of the intestine outside of the abdominal wall connecting to a bag which collects waste matter. Fidel refused this, believing he is different than the normal human, and that was his mistake.
When he is gone…
People will not go crazy here, they will not immediately embrace capitalism, and they will not freak out. They are prepared, and perhaps his prolonged sickness has eased the transition. Many people love Fidel, many hate him, all have a love/hate for him. It’s confusing, like most things here. Even getting an ice cream cone at the famous Coppelia is mind boggling. Those who will be happy when Fidel is gone will not show it, not even to their friends, because the fear that they could lose their job. All jobs here are run by the government, and if you lose your job, the pittance you are paid becomes nothing. We know one highly educated man who requested to go to the USA, and because of this they stripped him of his job – one that would earn him six figures in the US, but of course here he gets less than a taxi driver. They call it the inverted pyramid of socioeconomics. But now, he is not allowed to practice, simply because he requested to visit the USA, and must look for other sources of income.
People like him will most likely be happy to have the bearded one gone, however, the government is entrenched, and will change slowly, if at all.