Everybody has his or her own hero. Some like Shivaji. Others, Gandhi.
Others prefer Einstein. Mother Teresa was very popular in my time. So was John Lennon. But my hero was a man who enshrined violence and believed it could change the world. You can call him a romantic revolutionary if you want. Many did. But for me he was a brave, honest man who lived and died by his convictions. The gun and his notebook were his closest allies. Che Guevara would have been 80 this year if he hadn't been killed fighting for the liberation of a country he did not belong to. Rosario, a tiny city in Argentina where he was born, raised a statue to its most famous son on Sunday, 41 years after his death.
Che was executed at 39, by CIA-backed troops in the jungles of Bolivia, fighting a war for "los pobres de la tierra", which roughly translated means the wretched of the earth. He died for a cause that he thought would outlive him. The cause of ordinary people, poor people, enslaved people fighting corrupt oppressive regimes all over the world. He not only espoused the cause. He abandoned his calling as a doctor and his own native land, risking asthma and bad health, to fight side by side with the rebels. His last words were: "Shoot cowards, you're only going to kill a man". Most young people today who practice the art of rebellion, comfortably ensconced in their homes and offices, have not even heard of him or the cause that he fought and died for. All that remains, 80 years on, is his beret clad face on T shirts, coffee mugs and posters and a brilliant movie on his journeys through South America before he became a revolutionary. The Motor Cycle Diaries reminds us that a man such as this actually walked this earth.
The cause he fought and died for is long lost. There are more dictators around than ever before. Capitalism, the scourge he battled against with such passion, is more entrenched than it ever was. The Big Enemy that he fought, the United States, is still around, stronger, more belligerent. The Great Dream that he dreamt of, Communism is more like a nightmare. The countries he admired for their revolutionary ardour are but shadows of their former selves. In fact, if truth be told, they are The Great Pretenders of our time. They keep the Marxist imagery alive. In reality, they pursue exactly what America so ruthlessly pursues: money and power. That's why I am happy Che's not here to see our cynical, selfish, frantic consumerist times.
Were he alive today, at 80, he would have been the world's most disillusioned revolutionary. And the history books wouldn't have remembered the romance of the revolution that never happened. The ethical absolutism that he stood for would have looked like a joke in our Age of Compromises.
Yes, everything Che stood for is gone. Much of it died long back. In fact, if he was alive today, everyone including the Communists would have found him dangerous. The romance of fighting the forces of political repression have long vanished. In its stead, he would have been fighting the forces he once dreamt would create a new world. A world where all people would be treated with dignity and respect.
Where no one would go to bed hungry at night. Where no one would oppress the weak and the defenceless.
So why are we talking about Che today? Is it because he would have been 80? Or is it because I see so many young people walking around wearing T shirts with his face plastered on them, not knowing what he stood for? Is it because radio stations and e-zines still keep alive his imagery, as indeed the pictures of Brazilian actor Gael Garcia Bernal who played him in The Motor Cycle Diaries? Does anyone remember his back story, his rebellion against corruption and authority? Or am I simply trying to rejuvenate my own shopworn conscience? 41 years after Che's death, 5% of the world still controls 95% of its wealth and over 3 billion people live on $2 a day. There's nothing you and I can do to change this
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