Cuban Shuffle

Dateline early August 2006, Fidel Castro, longest living dictator cedes power to his brother after some *sic* stomach problems and subsequent surgery. Exiles in Cuba jump for joy, celebrate in the street, throw a party, have a parade! Get the flag out and log on to mobissimo.com for a ticket 'cause that trip home is looking like a few weeks away. But wait, he ceded power up to his brother, Raul Castro, the ferotious, the fearful the terrible, the executioner, the evil genius behind Fidel. So hold the horses on those tickets. Condoleeza, weary from trying to calm down the middle east flare up and piano recital promptly sits for cameras to beam her thoughtful words of support wisdom or whatever into the Cuban people saying that America is "with you" and will "support" in any way a "democratic" change. I'm sure the Cuban government saw to it that maybe 10 people saw that thoughtful message.
Castro's sister in in Miami, over 40 years strong while weak in the English language managed to convey to CNN her displeasure at the jovial climate following her estranged brother's sudden illness and public disappearance. Everything is up in the air and no one knows quite where anything stands, no one's seen Fidel or much less Raul The questions are now: who, where, what and how. My experience from being there is that no one ever seems to be quite sure of anything on a good day much less on these bad ones. Information is blurry and muddled at best concerning mundane things like, where is the nearest Western Union or how long for wired money to get here. So I could only understand the spin that's going on. The exiles are sure that he's dead, the Cuban citizens are probably convinced otherwise and folks like myself are left scratching their heads. We will see how all this plays out, it is an interesting pantomine which I'll be following and chronicaling with great fervor.
And as for Cuba - what becomes of it now? Don't blink or change that channel 'cause the action is just about to start!