CNN’s Havana correspondent Shasta Darlington gives her reader’s an “insider’s guide” to things to do in Cuba. She tells us where are the best places to eat, the best places to people watch, where the nightlife can be found, where to stay, where you can relax, and even the best place to buy souvenirs.
“The best thing to do at night is go and listen to jazz — there’s lots of great Latin jazz in Cuba — or go salsa dancing.”
–Shasta Darlington, CNN
Conspicuously missing from Ms. Darlington’s list of “things-to-do-in-Cuba” are the following tips:
- The places to hide when Castro Security Agents are coming after you for expressing an opposing point of view
- The best way to protect oneself from being fatally injured while being pummeled by fists, boots, and clubs by Castro thugs
- The “best” and “worst” political prisons on the island
- The easiest way to let the world know you are being attacked by a Castro mob
I am certain that Shasta Darlington and CNN will be coming out with a list like this real soon.
“the best places to people watch…”
And obviously ‘only’ the places the liberal media want anyone visiting Cuba to watch people. And none of the places have anything to do with, more likely than not the indigenous population of Cuba, but the other interloping visitors to the island ‘paradise’.
With a name like Shasta Darlington, I expect this sort of drivel is par for the course. In other words, sorority-girl journalism. Still, that’s what she’s paid for; she’s only doing what her employer wants. It’s incredibly amoral and repugnant, but she’s only a minion, after all. Would this ever have happened with a mainstream journalist based in Johannesburg during the apartheid era? Perish the thought. But Cuba? No problem. Tell ’em where to have a good time and get the best cigars, mojitos and jineteras. Party on, folks. Is it any wonder some of us practically exude contempt every time we exhale?
This is the exact same hypocrisy of those music people who wouldn’t play Sun City, but had no problem whatsoever playing Havana, and still don’t. It’s tempting to think they’re cretins, but I’m afraid it’s worse than that.
Asombra,
It’s a never ending source of frustration for me how an impoverished, third-world country with a deadbeat dictator can so utterly control the most powerful country in the world’s organs of mass communication. Of course if we even hint at some sort of MSM conspiracy we will be ridiculed to high heaven.
There is practically not one MSM organ that does not shill for the tyrant. You name it:
CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Jersey Journal, etc..***
***these are just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
I will try to be methodical and make sense of this, but its not easy. Still, I will try to explain it, the way that I see it:
A] I know for a fact in NYC where I live that if a newspaper writes a critical editorial, opinion piece or article about the tyranny, the Cuban Mission to the U.N. will contact the editorial board and send a representative over to complain. Obviously, any embassy has access to a newspaper’s editorial board that the average citizen does not.
B] Americans are impressed by titles and affiliations. All of the so-called “Cuba experts” that are the sort-after folks for knowledge on Cuba are affiliated with prestigious think tanks, or universities [often Ivy Leagues], many of them have Ph.D’s. Doesn’t matter that they are agents-of-influence, their titles and associations seem to trump all other considerations and blind the MSM
C] The MSM is being slowly becoming a monopoly. The New York Times is a cancerous sore oozing pus, yet this anti-American, pro-Castro newspaper is still powerful [despite recent setbacks] and has branched out and owns other newspapers around the country.
D] Most newspapers get their stories from AP and Reuters. These news bureaus are spineless. The tyranny tells them that if they dare publish anything negative about them, their particular news bureau in Havana will be closed and their reporters expelled. Undoubtedly, the reason why people like Anita Snow write so many fluff stories.
E] POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Despite the fact that castro is a caudillo and that Cuba is a fascist state [as we all know, in his university days, castro was an admirer of Mussolini and Hitler] because Cuba has the trappings of a socialist state, this somehow precludes a fair critique.
F] Cuban Americans are not popular. We are not your typical down-and-out brown lateeno that blindly votes democrat. This doesn’t do much to endear us with the MSM.
G] Cubans are not institution builders. Thus, we have no anti-defamation league, no viable think tank, no publishing house, no English Language newspaper to counter the massive misinformation blitzkrieg. If Cubans were institution builders, they would buy shares in a major newspaper and influence it that way, they would fund chairs in Universities and fill them will pro-Cuban professors, they would establish a strong publishing house, etc.. We do none of this. In this world, there is little sympathy for anyone. Whatever one gets, one has to fight for. We Cubans don’t have an army. Our millionaires are more interested in that trip to Aspen, their daughter’s lavish Sweet 15 party, and the biggest mansion they can buy and the most luxurious foreign car.
Look at how Leon Ichaso had to mortgage his house in order to make “Bitter Sugar.” I know for a fact that he solicited money from wealthy Cubans and only the Bacardi’s gave him something, $10,000. $10,000 for the Barcardi’s is like 50 cents from you or I. $10,000 doesn’t go far in making a movie.
Actually, Shasta looks like she could be Cokie Roberts’s dumber sister, who just wasn’t perky enough for bigger and better things. Ugh.