Passing of a world icon

In the death of Fidel Castro, we see the passing away of the last of the 20th century revolutionary and idealist. In his long eventful political career, Castro succeeded in carving out a niche for him as a leader of the Cold War era along with likes of Nehru and Nasser that lent a new character to nationalism. He will be remembered for the very significant influence that he wielded in the half a century that he dominated world politics.He has left his indelible motif in the greater part of the Third World that idolised him and saw him as the icon of struggle against oppression and neo–colonialism.

Castro will be remembered as a revolutionary that brought down a corrupt regime in Cuba as also one that stuck to his socialist ideals in the post Batista regime to improve the lot of his people. But he will be remembered most for being the leader of the first communist country in the western hemisphere which survived as a sovereign nation under the shadows of a super power and refusing to be browbeaten by it.

We in Bangladesh will remember him for all these, and most of all, for the fact that he was a friend of Bangladesh, not in words but in deeds too, having been one of the first few world leaders to recognise the newly born country, a fact that Bangladesh gratefully acknowledged by awarding him the "Liberation War Medal" as a "Friend of Bangladesh" in 2013. 

Castro will stand out as a selfless leader of a Third World country, who became in his time an inspiration to many fledgling nations in Asia and Africa. His legacy will survive beyond his death.