As to Castro's view of the world, that is rather too serious a question to address directly.
Chris Burford
London
By Douglas Herbert, CNN.com Europe writer
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Last New Year's Eve, George Ward and his friends, stricken with the flu, sniffled on the sidelines while much of the planet rang in the new millennium with abandon.
This year, the UK-based travel writer is getting a second chance to celebrate the party of the century -- courtesy of a sixth century monk and a 20th century Marxist.
The monk is Roman scholar Dionysius the Diminutive, who created the Gregorian calendar beginning with the year 1 A.D. -- a concession to Roman numerology, which had no symbol for "0."
His decision sparked an ongoing squabble -- often cast as a battle between number-crunching pedants and free-spirited pragmatists -- over when centuries and millennia begin and end.
The Marxist is Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who -- in a snub to millennium organising committees the world over -- spurned last year's festivities, insisting they were a year early.
So now, scores of people, including Ward and his friends, who missed out last year or are looking for a reprise of Y2K revelry are heading to the sun-splashed communist isle off the U.S. coast.
"I think we are going to get this Castro idea that the world is wrong and we are right," Ward said.