Cuba, Cyprus, China

There may be some life yet in the few staunch communist idealists around the world.

This week has proved to be an eye opener perhaps for those who thought the West won out back in 1989 and have been too caught up in the globalisation-facilitated spend-a-thon of the past two decades to notice.

Many of the headlines of the past week had a communist angle to them.

In terms of the politics of small island states, the communist party was voted in by the predominantly Greek Cypriots on the small Mediterranean island who were eligible to vote.

While long term communist figurehead, Cuba leader Fidel Castro, stepped aside for his soccer-player sounding brother Raul, who was quick to appoint an old guard revolutionary as his deputy and request authority to consult his brother still on major issues – a signal the small island state will remain communist for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile in terms of larger land-locked ‘Red’ news.

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra left Beijing yesterday (Monday) to travel to North Korea’s capital Pyongyang as part of a ground breaking symbolic visit to the closed communist state.

While in China, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) kicked off its second plenary session in Beijing yesterday (Monday).

The main topic for discussion is the position of president, parliamentary chairman and premier going forward, along with the planned restructure of state council departments and elections.

This will all be on the agenda for next week’s National People’s Congress (NPC).

dragondata staff were meeting with representatives of one of the major media organisations in the country’s capital yesterday while interviews were being held on the floor above as part of the party’s apparent new open policy to the media.

Finally to Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia the previous Sunday.

The move had another effectively communist country – Russia – wishing  the Cold War was still live and well, then it wouldn’t have to stand by and watch as the small Baltic entity gave Russia’s own peripheral regions food for thought in terms of breaking away.