Watching the Todays Show’s broadcast from Havana this morning – putting the overwhelming anger and frustration aside – I am now completely convinced of one unfortunate certainty of being Cuban:
Our opinions and thoughts matter to no one but ourselves.
If you are a Cuban living in Cuba, you have no voice. The Cuban government sees to that.
When you are a Cuban living in exile here in the states – regardless of whence you came – you, like every other American living in freedom, have a voice. But, no one listens. The Media sees to that.
So regardless of how sane your argument is, regardless of how reasonable you are, how verifiable your facts are or how absolutely right you are, the MSM – and by default those that get their news from same – dont really care about what you have to say or what you have experienced. The minute any Cuban crosses the Gulfstream, that voice that has been supressed for so many years becomes like that proverbial tree in the forest that falls. It make a sound, but there’s no one around to listen.
Update by Pitbull: I haven’t had the stomach to watch the Today Show since perky Katie’s antics during the Elian affair. My feelings of revulsion — and, yes, hatred — towards her and the network that allowed her to malign me and mine as though we were some fresh-off-the-boat nobodies, have never gone away. So it was with some trepidation that I tuned the channel this morning to the Today Show to find Matt Lauer, that miserable excuse for a “journalist,” go to sidewalk “cafes” as though he were doing a piece on vacationing in the US Virgin Islands, and not on the longest running, one-man rule, communist dictatorship in the western hemisphere.
I’m asked many times why I’m so cynical and negative about certain subjects, why it is I cannot put a positive spin on things; well, this morning all of you witnessed one of those reasons. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Don’t despair, Val. The communist sympathizers in The Media not only hear you, but they fear you. They aren’t just ignoring you, they want to silence you.
Kerry Sanders has a blog on his report on the embargo, that somehow reads a bit more objective than this morning’s report.
The link is this: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/06/05/213639.aspx
for those who want to read it and leave comments.
MSM has always been complicit with el coma andante and has always taken every opportunity he gives them to go schmooze and lick his derriere, from Bawa-Wata to Ed ASSSner to Belafonte.
This will only change the day when Couric gets to read her teleprompt in a burqha, and not before. They can’t even bring themselves to nail what’s happened in Venezuela, why should they do any differently in Cuba?
For me watching this fiasco stirs up feelings of desolation and hopelessness that I’ve felt so many times before when it comes to the subject of Cuba. Our truth is denied and replaced by scripted garbage passed off as fact. I’m angry but mostly heartbroken for people like Oscar Elias Biscet and countless others rotting in jail for demanding human rights who are deliberately ignored by the MSM.
Val, “No Nope”? I think “No Hope” might work better! 😉
such crap: I kept yelling at the radio until I had to turn it off; such misinformation; a propaganda piece if I ever heard one. Good old Matt refering to the embargo in a segment as the “US Blockade”; then his parroting the “best healthcare” mantra; with a musician Matt tells him “so musicians in Cuba have creative liberty” — oh come on. All they spoke about was the “embargo” . . . nothing on the human rights violations and other crimes going on over there. And then, he has a rice farmer in buttfuck Minnisota saying that the embargo prohibits the farmer from selling rice to cuba…oh the humanity. Bullshit. They can sell it but for cash pal. (But they don’t report that). I told y’all yesterday; I didn’t expect a thing; in fact it was worse than what I anticipated.
Did you guys really think that he was going to report anything different that what was already given to him to recite by the government, guys come on you should know that anyone that reports from Cuba has to adhere from the script and if you deviate just a little you are sent packing.
Media in general does not care about the true situation in Cuba, so can we focus our efforts in finding another way to free our country. I believe that the only way anything will get done is by having a military intervention, nothing PC no mercy to those that have rape and stolen our land, Lets make sure that we will not have another Russia or Nicaragua, take no prisoners.
Paremos de tumbar a Fidel desde la Carreta y llevemos la pelea a Cuba
I will just copy my post from yesterday (before the first propaganda telecast of TODAY):
“Call me pessimist, but after seeing the promo articles on the Today Show site, I fear of nothing less than a TODAY SHOW stunt complicit with a major propaganda ploy by the Castro clique. I see absolutely nothing that tells me these MSM HOs will parrot anything but the old anti-USA and anti-Cuban propaganda that has been orchestrated by the Castro clique for over 50 years now.
Posted by LaConchita at June 4, 2007 11:11 PM
“
I did not bother to watch the program because I knew that it would contain the same slant and bias the MSM has been giving Castro’s dictatorship since the early 1970s.
The fact that the MSM ignores us is what turns us into MILITANT CUBAN EXILES. Our activism, which the left wrongly predicted would expire when the old “batistianos” died, has been embraced by a second generation of Cuban Americans, such as the contributors to this blog.
In the 19th century, Jose Marti appealed to the new generation, “Los Pinos Nuevos,” who carried out the eventual liberation of the homeland after the failure of the Ten Years’ War.
Matt Lauer has now gone over to the dark side. It does not anger or frustrate me. In our struggle for Cuban liberty, we need to know who the friends of the dictatorship are. It gives us a better perspective of who we can count on for the challenges that lay ahead.
betcha fifo has a video of matt “powdering” his nose if you know what i mean..
What’s worse than the show is the commentary on the blog. Pass the Kool Aid. Although we can’t give up, we need to face the fact that all they wan’t is a cheap vacation with nubile young things and “happy” natives. I live for the day that the truth comes out.
The script for Lauer’s Cuba gig was set ahead of time according to the standard, typical, longstanding MSM approach to the whole Cuba matter. I can imagine the “negotiations” during those 18 months between the dictatorship and NBC. Lauer was never going to go there to play hardball. Basically, what the job calls for is an Oriana Fallaci (RIP), and neither Lauer nor any other current media “star” is even remotely in that league.
The usual double standard, of course, applies. The Cuban regime, however totalitarian, is given every benefit of the doubt in the name of “balance,” which would never be the case if this was about Chile under Pinochet. The usual mindless parroting of the regime’s official claims, however distorted, as to the supposed achievements of the revolution is duly heard. The usual “ordinary” Cuban(s) claiming devotion to their decrepit leader and loyalty to the system are bound to conveniently appear on cue. The usual ostensible dissidents who are suitably “moderate” will be featured while the real, serious opposition will be passed over. Not to mention the inevitable picturesque vintage cars, cigars, music, and so on and so forth. And, needless to say, “those people” in Miami will be treated with skepticism at best, if not with the open disdain of that supremely jerky, I mean perky, Couric person.
Surely none of this can be any surprise, but yes, it still reeks and hurts. The bottom line is that we are alone, as we have always been. If this thing is ever going to end, it’s up to Cubans to do it.
This TODAY segment belongs in the ‘Hall of Shame’ exposition right next to the parroting Peter Arnett – “Baby Milk Factory” soliloquy.
We Cubans suffer a double misfortune, 1) being oppressed by a dictator and 2) being oppressed by a LEFTIST dictator. Because of the latter the MSM either ignore (political prisoners in Cuba) or blame (exile community) the victim. The one detail that would’ve made Andy Garcia’s Lost City a bit more realistic would have been to have shown Fico walking the streets of Manhattan while a beatnik type wearing a Che t-shirt crossed his path. Slightly anachronistic, I know, but would’ve gotten the point across that a great deal of non-Cubans have little sympathy for our plight simply because they like our oppressors politics. Welcome to America, here’s a sobering slap in the face.
I’m sure I won’t be popular with this post and I will start by saying that I am not a left wing liberal.
I watched Matt Lauer on TV this morning and thought that he did a good job reporting from Cuba. He seemed to know the culture and history as though he did more than just study it for a couple days on his way to Cuba.
So, I find it tiring that many Cuban Americans get angry at anyone who goes to Cuba. Especially this show where the Cuban people and the culture of Cuba was shown in such a positive light.
Cuban Americans should be proud of their island brethren for living under the conditions of Fidel but the culture of hatred from the Cubans in Miami is very disturbing to me.
So, go ahead. You can hate me now too.
And I suppose Jewish people should be proud of their relatives that lived under the conditions of Hitler, those that survived that is.
We get angry at all those whose vacations are at the expense of a captive people. Even if they had the money, which they don’t, ordinary Cubans can’t go to those hotels. They are forbidden to use those beautiful beaches. If they are lucky enough to work in a resort, they get twenty cents of every dollar the government collects in salary for them. Young girls are forced into prostitution with fat, old German tourists.
We get angry because invariably those that go to Cuba don’t see the realities. What they see is as representative as Disneyland is to the United States. Then they come back and presume to lecture those of us who do have an inkling.
Rob,
Do you make a profit from your Havana Journal website?
I’m sure Rep. Jeff Flake, for instance, would also swear he’s no left-wing liberal. So would all the Republicans who want to do business with Castro’s regime, politics (and human rights) be damned. It makes no difference. Those who are, in effect, Cuba’s enemies (consciously or not, deliberately or not) come in all sorts of flavors and various kinds of packaging. The wrapping doesn’t matter; only what’s inside. By their deeds ye shall know them, not by what they call themselves or claim to be.
Val,
It is not a non-profit venture if that’s what you are asking.
Why do you ask?
Rob,
The reason I ask is because there sems to be much support for travel and tourism and business opportunities in Cuba at your site, and the only reason I could fathom that anyone would ignore human rights violations and apartheid is money.
I guess I try to see the positive side of Cuba where you seem to focus on the negative side of Cuba.
I am not pro-Castro and agree that the Cuban people might be better off without him but who really knows?
To me the Havana Journal is really about understanding Cuba and showing people examples of why the 45+ year old failed Plan A Embargo simply does not work. It didn’t work in the Special Period. It’s not working today and it is not going to work tomorrow.
The Havana Journal is a culture of pro-Cuba news and information and commentary. I’m sorry that this site and many outspoken Cuban Americans lean towards a culture of hatred and negativity.
I also find it odd that many Cuban Americans think they will have some influence on the next Cuban government. I don’t see how the Cubans (whom Fidel told the Cuban people for many years that Cuba’s problem are because of the Embargo and the Cuban Americans) are going to embrace the Cuban Americans once/if a new government comes to power in Cuba.
If your father tells you your whole life that your family is poor because of an evil neighbor then your father dies, are you going to go to your evil neighbor and ask for help? I don’t think so.
Same for the Cuban neighbors north and south of the Florida straits.