Who owns Che Guevara?

By John Cheeran
Who owns Che Guevara?
World over Che is the poster boy for the youth. Che is the revolutionary parexcellence, a few notches below Jesus Christ.
Jesus and Che both died young and they were spared the decay in death. Look at Fidel Castro, it has become difficult to tell apart whether he is awarrior or dictator. Revolutionaries should not grey, they should leave thestage as quickly as possible so that they do not degenerate into cutouts.
In Che's case, it is cool to be associated with the Argentinean. Communist organizations all over the world appropriate Che's images to boosttheir cadre. In this age of image rights, comrades may have a right to use Che's image.
Look, Sachin Tendulkar holds billions in his bank by selling his image rights todeal makers such as Iconix and World Sports Group.
And how many can recognize the little Indian's face in global pool of images?
Che is big, real big.
I was shocked to see Che's face dominating the hoardings of a real estate company the other day. The advertising agency had no qualms to prostitute theidea of revolution by using Che's image to push brick and mortar.
The copy said "revolutionary idea in property...
The irony is that such an ad was thought out to push the product in a placewhere workers are denied even their basic rights.
Leave alone revolution, there is no democracy and where immigrant workers aretreated worse than cattle especially in the booming construction field. If only these Che hoardings sparked off a revolution in that El Dorado.