Havana minders
While I was away from my computer screen last week showing the Miami relatives my home town, I missed out on much of the discussion regarding the live broadcasts from Havana by the US morning television show Today.
So, here is a kind of postscript.
One of the program’s researchers, Gina Garcia, has kindly shared her impressions of the visit with readers of the official Today blog.
It seems Ms Garcia (no relation) had a terrific time in Fidel Castro’s island paradise, enjoying the food, the music, the old cars cruising along the Malecon, the crumbling colonial architecture …
She even bumped into a group of American medical students studying in Cuba, all of whom refuted any suggestion they were being used as propaganda tools by the Castro regime. No, siree.
But here is the comment that gives the game away.
Referring to her task of “sourcing” stories for the program, Ms Garcia writes: “Everywhere we went … a government official came along.”
So, here is a kind of postscript.
One of the program’s researchers, Gina Garcia, has kindly shared her impressions of the visit with readers of the official Today blog.
It seems Ms Garcia (no relation) had a terrific time in Fidel Castro’s island paradise, enjoying the food, the music, the old cars cruising along the Malecon, the crumbling colonial architecture …
She even bumped into a group of American medical students studying in Cuba, all of whom refuted any suggestion they were being used as propaganda tools by the Castro regime. No, siree.
But here is the comment that gives the game away.
Referring to her task of “sourcing” stories for the program, Ms Garcia writes: “Everywhere we went … a government official came along.”
Really?
posted by Luis M Garcia at 10:11 am
4 Comments:
I thoroughly enjoy your blog.
We live "next door" to Cuba here in The Bahamas and our very nice Cuban Ambassador spreads their banal propoganda here on a regulr basis.
A few years ago Cuba's foreign minister was here and at a meeting with Chamber of Commerce members, he was happily inviting Bahamian businessmen/women to Cuba to open businesses.
The catch? No one could own property!
How about employees. Oh no worry there. The governemnt would send employees to you and you pay the government, not the employee. The gocvernment will pay them.
What about a problem employee? Oh don't worry, just send them back to the government office. No severance pay etc.
Just a couple things about the "magnanimous" Castro regime that we do not consider in the free world.
Thank you for your post, Rick.
Far too many people, including many supposed intellectuals and sophisticates, see and approach Cuba as a kind of theme park or zoo. It doesn't matter what the "animals" really think or feel or want, since their function is to gratify and amuse the patrons (and there's an awful lot of patronizing and condescension, not to say racism, going on).
That's why so many "progressives" defend Castro's system even though they'd NEVER want the same system for themselves. But such a system is seen as perfectly OK for lesser creatures: after all, they're just animals, so what's the big deal? And they're SO exotic, quaint, and picturesque, too!
That's why, when liberals controlled Spain in the 19th century, they wanted liberal reforms for SPAIN, but they wouldn't consider extending that to their Cuban colony. Cubans, after all, were DIFFERENT, you see. Like pets, or servants, or slaves. No need to worry much about THEIR wishes or rights. That's not what their role is. Get it?
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Maybe that government official was Mr. Rushton one of yur commenters who seems to find Cuba such a wonderful paradise that he even buys meat at the vegetable markets!!!While everyone in Cuba knows that if you ever find meat (not an easy thing) is not at a vegetable market, but a butcher shop. But by a miracles of the accidental tourist, he actually found it there!! My wife laughed at that comment after revealing to me she did not eat any meat for over 2 years and suffered a loss of memeory as a result of the meager diet. But Mr. Rushton found everything he wanted anytime he wanted and at the vegetable market. Maybe he is Harry Potter in disguise!!It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
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