The news ticker at the US Interests Section in Havana has so infuriated fidel castro that they are now clearing the adjacent site and preparing it for the construction of the Great Wall of Havana.
In a country where even paint is hard to come by, where centuries old buildings crumble for lack of materials and maintenance, where there are even gas shortages for vehicles, much less construction equipment, the government is using what little resources it has to keep the population from reading the UN Declaration of Human Rights on a news ticker.
Photo from The Real Cuba
The only way a totalitarian state like fidel castro’s can maintain it’s grip on power is by keeping its people in the dark.
Update: Much more here, from the heart of the story. Warning: The language is much like mine when I get passionate about something.
Update January 31, 2006:The flag poles are up!
The Havana Wall. One day you’ll have a piece of it on your mantle, trust me.
Couldn’t the US Interests Section just put the ticker up higher? The resulting spite fence war could be amusing.
Incredible. I bet the US has laser technology that will enable the beams from the ticker to go right through walls, too. castro will just create a better billboard for it all.
Guess Castro’s trying for his own Berlin Wall. May this one suffer the same fate.
The U.S. Interests Section building has four sides, doesn’t it?
What would be the feasibility of making the ticker run along all four sides?
That plan force the tyranosaurius maximus to extend the new “Wall of Silence” a lot farther than he intended… he would have to sacrifice a lot of hard-earned currency to get the building materials that he should be using to repair some of the island’s disintegrating infrastructure.
More than likely, he’d probably try to build a bowl of dark plastic over the “offending” building…
Remember, tirano, what Cuba’s Ap’ostol, Jos’e Mart’i, once said: S’olo la verdad nos pondr’a la toga viril…
No matter what you do, you won’t be able to hide the truth for very long!
JulioZ
I bet Harry Belafonte is donating to the effort.
its horrible how Fidel controls any kind of dissent and opposition. how evil. although, it reminds me of some things that are happening here. like when the conservative media deems dissenters here as terrorists and traitors. isn’t it similar? im not a democrat but i cant help but notice some tendencies to silence opposition here, like the wall mentioned in this article.
“…isn’t it similar?”
Um…no. It isn’t.
Cafeconleche,
as opposed to say, when the liberal media equates bush to hitler or a terrorist? Please man.
How many glitches before this damn thing goes up? I bet they can’t get the cement mixer going and Hugo needs to sign off on some more oil and a new car battery.
Como tratar de tapar el sol con la mano.
No, Fausta, con un dedo.
In any case, it won’t work.
And truth shall set us free… which is why the communist regime is so afraid of it.
JulioZ
Bullies, Cowards, Tyrants… Same Thing
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
As I recuperate from the shock of this absurdity (cuando ya creia que lo habia visto todo de Fidel), still in my state of shock I have two things to say:
1. This just goes to show that (a) he should never be underestimated (b) he will go to any length to control the flow of information (c) this is a silver lining, in a way, because it means WE GOT THE MESSAGE ACROSS AND WE REALLY PISSED HIM OFF. So this tactics should be kept up, they work!
2. The US building should get on the roof one of those screens, like the ones in Times Square, and project there. Or better yet, find a way to project on the very DAMN Wall.
Julio, the building has three other sides, but if i’m not mistaken it’s ocean front, so a wall would be pretty effective in isolating it.
Maybe in addition to the sign they can start handing out free Cuban sandwiches and a roll of that toilet paper with the comemierdantes face on it. So we’re all cockroaches eh? lol Le queda poco. Oh.. lol.. and instead of the 150,000 “free” eyes surgeries heres a better idea que le operen el ojo del culo a castrado por que la mierda le sale por la boca y no por donde le debe de salir. Greetings from the insect world. Val , I dont know ya, but that was funny.
Here’s a suggestion, folks:
Why don’t we start calling it “El Muro de la Impotencia”?
Because we know that the tiranosaurius maximus will be impotent to stop the truth from reaching the Cuban people.
JulioZ
Bwahahahahahahaha! THEN WE’LL BUILD A BIGGER SIGN!
We’re about a million times richer than Castrato. Let the new arms race begin!!
Our new, mile-high sign will say, among other things, in 100 FOOT TALL LETTERS:
“Su presidente pudo gozar de un cigarro que estallaba.”
Excellent suggestion, Julio, El Muro de impotencia it is!
Possible Option: I would get a “blimp” (dirigible) and fly it over the U.S. Interest Section in Havana with the ticker news … this way it can be seen from all areas in the vicinity … (this is too much, but could you imagine if the blimp were to be in the shape of a “gusano?) 🙂 Melek
“When you’re being criticized, it means you’re making a difference…”
Great Blog. Found you guys via The New York Sun blog “It Shines For All.”
http://www.shinesforall.com/archives/2006/01/_hundreds_of_th.html
BTW, your second link to killcastro.com is broken.
http://http://www.killcastro.com/blog/2006/01/so-whats-new-in-kasstroland.html
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise
Cuban President Fidel Castro points at a giant apparition of Martin Luther King, the ghost of Cuba Future.
This wall too, shall fall. I like the suggestions posted, to “escalate” this conflict. I think humor should be liberally used, as it is the one thing el viejuco moribundo cannot stand – that’s why he closed down “Zig Zag” in ’59. How about projecting ridiculous images of el tonto maximo on a giant screen atop the interests sections building? Accompanied by self-contradicting quotes of his verbal diarrhea with Saturday Night Live-like comments appended. Make this an opportunity to show him as he is – the one and only coma andante.
How about using the wall and a projection screen…like the ones in movie theaters….then the us office should point a big projector with the same messages!
They’re probably going to put up a big picture of castro or el che up there-
They should use that wall as a billboard for Google.
Cuba II
Updating a post of yesterday about a sign the US Mission in Cuba uses to stream messages to the Cuban people. Val of Babalublog reports that the Cuban government is now erecting a wall to block the sign. More here.
…
I have to laugh at the naked dictator.
But the U.S. Interests Section offices might not have four sides. The offices really are in the Swiss embassy building, since we don’t have formal diplomatic relations with the Cuban police state. I’m not sure how many sides of the building the U.S. offices have access to.
The oceanfront would be a fine place for a liberty ticker sign. Lots of people walk by there, along the Malecon sea wall, every day.
I think the point is made. The little pig Fidel is squealing! Ha!
Just did a little more checking. I guess the U.S. has control over the whole building. It’s only technically part of the Swiss Embassy.
GREAT WALL OF HAVANA
Val Prieto at Babalu blog reports that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is raising a Great Wall of Havana to encircle the U.S. Mission there. Castro is enraged at a running lighted billboard which plays the UN declaration of human rights across its pixel-st…