Anita Snow filed her final piece today on her month long effort to live on Cuban food rations just like the 11 million Cubans on the island. The entire series has been an insult to intelligence, but the title of today’s report left me flabberghasted:
“Living on Cuban Food Ration Isn’t Easy”
Gee, ya think?
I suppose I could editorialize on this “article” but I’d end up criticizing every single ridiculous sentence. Suffice it to say that this latest report along with the entire series is just another Snow job. Any reporter worth their salt and interested in, you know, actually reporting the truth would have taken the opportunity to delve ino the reality of the food rationing system and the consequences and ramifications caused by same.
But this is Anita Snow, folks. The AP’s Havana Bureau Chief. And we all know that the reporting of reality is taboo in Cuba and any reporter that dares speak truth to power becomes persona non grata and is quickly and surreptitiously booted off the island.
What we learned from this series on Anita’s Libreta is that she has absolutely no understanding of the culture she has lived in and been “reporting” on for eight years. Anita believes that Cubans’ “generosity” vis a vis food is a product of the rationing system and cannot fathom the fact that open doors and set tables are inherent to our culture. When is the last time you visited a Cuban – or any Latin American home – and not been offered a meal? Sometimes even forced to eat even when youre not hungry?
My grandparent’s home in Cuba had an open door policy. Every day my grandmother and my mom and her sisters would cook an exhorbitant amount of food. Tables would be set and anyone and everyone was welcome, whether family or friends, or a cochero or a neighbor or someone visting from anywhere else in the island. All were welcome and all were treated to a fine meal, like family.
I could go on, but what’s the use? People like Snow just dont get it. Maybe they dont want to get it or maybe theyre just incapable of getting it. I dont know.
What I do know however, is that you really dont need to go on the Cuban ration card diet to lose weight ala Anita Snow. All you need to do to lose your appetite is read one of her “articles.”
Jenny Craig eat you heart out.
5 thoughts on “Anita Snow slips off tree, breaks fall with ration card.”
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I can see it running through her head: ‘Oh, if I only had a brain.’
In Anita’s customary Snow[job] tradition of reporting from Cuba, she mentions that “Today, Cuba spends $1 billion a year” to purchase food, but omits that a good part of that comes from the United States. Other foreign reporters in Havana, like Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune, have been expelled from the island for critical writings. It is no surprise Anita remains “Waiting for Snow in Havana.”
Snow’s coverups of the food situation in Cuba have me worried. It could be that this propaganda is in preparation for expected severe famine conditions…
In defence of Anita there are very very interesting facts in her story that make Fidel look like poo.
According to her report the average rations would cost $50.00 in a us supermarket. In addition she spent $17.00 on food as well. So in addition to the ration card and 100% of the average cuban wage to but food we arrive at 67$.
In “evil” Miami the minimum wage is $6.15 per hour. So the person with the lowest possible wage in the Miami will take just under 11 hours or less then a day and a half of work to get the same food basket that cubans have to work all month for.
The typical middle class American Family spends 10% of thier income on food. And that food basket includes all sorts of meats fish candy etc. that Anita pines for. According to this article, the average cuban spends 100% of his or her income to eat a very poor diet.
I hope that my pointing this out to everyone does not get Anita in trouble.
Boca,
Yes, she does allude to some issues with wages and the cost of living in Cuba. But the report lacks seriousness and, moreover, she’s rather aloof about the dire situation 11 million people live in.