Fidel Castro Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

Gee, he just started blogging and he's already winning awards! Fidel Castro, Renaissance man, called by Gabriel García Márquez the greatest master of the Spanish tongue since Cervantes, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Sweden's leading literary prize. Well, not quite, but just as relevant. The Union of Cuban Journalists (who are neither journalists nor a union) has awarded the Not-Quite-So-Maximum Leader its "Dignity Prize" (it must be a very little award) "in recognition of his exceptional merits and work in favor of the press and the homeland." The president of this un-union of un-journalists, Tubal Paez, said Fidel Castro "represents a synthesis of the dignity of all Cubans, the homeland and humankind." Throw in some implements of torture, a handful of chícharos and enough shit for blending and you shall have your synthesis, though surely it will bear no relation to "dignity."

No doubt all other Cuban "unions" will follow suit in honoring the man who outlawed independent unions in Cuba and strikes, replaced the 35-hour work-week (for which workers were entitled to 40 hours' compensation) with a 60-70 hour work-week during which workers pretend to work and the state pretends to pay them, eliminated the "13th month" bonus (which all Cuban workers received at Christmas), brought back child labor (abolished in Cuba in 1878), repealed minimum wage laws, abolished collective bargaining, made "volunteer" work for the state compulsory and authorized the payment of wages in script or non-convertible currency.