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Saw Datuk Mahadzir Khir (Deputy Education Minister) and I can't help but to realise the bizarre similarity between him and Fidel Castro. It's not just the beard but his whole face (tho he's way younger than Castro). Last few months I got the chance to watch a mini series about Castro on Hallmark Channel. It's a 2 part series of the person dubbed as THE enemy by the US since JFK right until George W Bush. For the benefit of anyone who missed the series or never read about Castro, he's a lawyer who toppled down the US backed goverment of Cuba in 1960's. It wasn't an easy revolution because he failed the 1st time in which many of his rebel comrades were shot to death and he himself fled to Mexico where he met another legendary person; Che Guevara. Together they came back and took control of Cuba. He became the longest serving dictator in power since.


Ernesto 'Che' Guevara La Serna

Another legendary icon and one of the most recognizeable face in the world is Castro's right hand man; Ernesto 'Che' Guevara La Serna. For anyone who would like to know more about his pre-revolutionary life as a young man, you guys should watch 'The Motorcycle Diaries". When he was a 24 year old lad, Ernesto (or fondly known as 'Fuser' amongs his friend) was a medical student in Beunos Aires, Argentina and he took a historical journey from Argentina to Venezuela on a bike with his best friend, Alberto Granado. During this journey across Latin America he saw the hardship of the people especially the native American being driven out of their land, poverty stricken and oppressed by the capitalists. It was an eye opener experience for this educated middle class young man. Inspired by the journey, he decided to launch a revolutionary in his dream to unite Latin America. The rest as they say is history.


Young Ernesto played by Gael Garcia Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries

Sometimes I wonder how many people out there (especially in Malaysia) who's wearing a t-shirt with Che's face really know who he was. After his death at a young age, Che was a symbol of a struggle and saint amongs the leftist (read: anti western, marxist and communist alike) around the world. In America, his face WAS the symbol of anti establishment. It was recently that it has become a fashion icon. The most ironic part about all this is, Che fought till his death to fight the capitalists but 30 years after that, he's turned from a symbol of anti establisment to a fashion icon (just like Beckam). If he can see what's happening to his face today, probably he would twist and turn in his unmarked grave in Bolivia...HUrmmmmm...

p/s: I'm not really sure why I wrote all this, just one of my mental masturbation I guess....