Every once in a while you find an article from the MSM on Cuba that’s reasonably fair and balanced. Here’s one from Gary Marx writing for the Chicago Tribune:
Parade a charade to many in Cuba
Citizens unimpressed by planned display of military might in honor of ailing leader
By Gary Marx
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published December 1, 2006HAVANA — The tanks are in place. The missile launchers are ready to move. The jet fighters and attack helicopters are set to take off.
Cuba is planning to hold its first military parade in more than a decade Saturday, and the guest of honor is supposed to be ailing leader Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public since he temporarily ceded power four months ago.
While reporters from all over the globe are rushing in to cover the event, which is being held in part to belatedly celebrate Castro’s 80th birthday, Cubans are reacting to the military parade and the possible re-emergence of Castro with a mixture of curiosity, frustration and a collective shrug.
Many Cubans have come to believe that Castro is terminally ill and will never return to power. They now have set their sights beyond him, toward hopes for economic reforms and a political opening that would ease the daily grind and government controls in this impoverished island nation.
“It’s a political show,” said a 50-year-old Cuban intellectual who asked not to be identified out of fear of government retribution. “Nobody cares that much. They may watch it on television, but their main concern is surviving everyday life.”
This is today’s must read, and it’s right here. The article’s very last line pretty much says it all.
gary marx is great, although unfortunately named. what’s really strange is that the chicago tribune has an office smack in the middle of havana vieja. the fact that they manage to pull that off while printing stories like this makes CNN, AP, et al. look awful shitty.
That Cuban intellectual Marx writes about sounds like a real ignorant jack ass fossil. I thought intellectuals were smart.
Hopefully castro is dead and its a funeral instead of a birthday celebration. The timing couldn’t be perfect… The military and tanks out on the streets and all…
CBS reported today from Havana that Fidel Castro does NOT have cancer! What does Dan Rather have to say about this?