Searching for truth in the storm
What’s the truth about Cuba?
LAURA BLAKLEY
“I don’t understand how people can talk shit about Fidel.” Th at was the fi rst full sentence Maidelys said in English, and I was amazed she knew the word “shit.” Maidelys and I are creating workshops for students in Sydney, Nova Scotia., talking about globalization, fair trade, and how the media help us to form our idea of what the world is like outside our backyard. I’m starting to think that media workshops should be mandatory for adults, too, because critical analysis is sorely needed.
I thought I knew about Cuba before I came here. Socialist government, Spanish-speaking, led by Castro, few white people (except tourists), exports sugar, has old cars and wicked rhythm. News coverage of Cuba is hard to come by. It’s typically discussed as a lovely vacation destination, or alternately a country held in the iron grip of a dictator, home to noble and courageous people fi ghting to break free! Rarely is Cuba discussed in a calm, humane way. I thought I knew all about this tiny country, but lately I’m not sure what’s true, and what is merely propaganda.
It came as a bit of a shock to fi nd out that every two years, Fidel Castro has to go back to Santiago de Cuba and be elected to represent his municipality, Biran, to have a shot at being president for another term. It was weird for me as a “westerner” to hear that the people of Cuba have had (at least on paper) a chance to oust Fidel something like 24 times, but they chose to keep him in charge. From the media coverage of Cuba in North America, I got the impression that once upon a time he took control of Cuba under auspice of helping all Cuban people, and simply never left the leader’s chair.
Consider the media coverage of Fidel’s amazing face-plant a couple years ago. Whilst walking off a stage, Fidel tripped and kissed the asphalt in front of tons of cameras that instantly broadcast it throughout the world. (Th ank God there is no one following me with a camera 24/7.) While we in the West were peeing ourselves laughing at this, Fidel had broken several bones, including his collarbone and leg, but got about halfway through one of his 7-8 hour speeches before he fi nally said “OK, take me to the hospital for surgery.” I only heard about this from a friend of mine who was doing a semester in Havana when it happened. Th e leader of the country where I was born was almost killed by a pretzel. In a fi ght, who would you bet on?
All the news that we read in Canada and the U.S. regarding Cuba seems to come from Miami, Florida. Th e largest concentration of ex-Cubans in the world is in Miami, and for some reason, we depend on them to interpret our news for us. It seems obvious now: when I write a paper I try to get as many sources as possible so that I can make sure my facts are straight and hopefully give a better-informed opinion. In Miami, might there be some confl ict of interest when they discuss how Cubans feel, or what Cubans want? When something happens in Cuba, I want to know what that means for the average Cubano — not ask someone who is
the most likely to harbour resentment towards that country and its leader, people who may have risked their lives and/or left their families behind in order to get out of Cuba and into the U.S..
I’ve been reading about the Cuban Five: fi ve Cuban agents held in prisons in the United States for monitoring the actions of anti-Cuban terrorist groups operating in Miami. Regardless of whether you think these guys were conspiring something nefarious against the U.S., merely protecting their country, or both, their case raises a good point: if trials are to be judged by the relatively unbiased peers of the accused, it sounds really naive to think Cubans can fi nd a jury like that in Miami. Th is seems like a pretty big deal.
Noam Chomsky is getting behind a campaign with other activists to free them; people want invoke the 1503 (Human Rights) Procedure by the United Nations; but how many times have you read an article covering the trial or any other aspect of this case? Have you ever heard of Orlando Bosch? In the fi ght against terrorism we hear about Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and we know we’re not supposed to like Chavez, and those are all the bad guys in this comic book.
I guess I just wish that I saw more rational thought regarding the media when I talk to most people in Canada. When and if people here vote, they seem to vote for their party, without keeping track of what they say they’ll do, and what they actually do whilst in offi ce. Th e fact that Stephen Harper lowered GST and raised income tax in the same month has gone virtually unnoticed (not as serious as blowing up a plane, or torturing innocents, I know, but humour me). We think we have a free country and therefore everything we print in the newspaper is inherently true, and unbiased. As human beings, we cannot be completely unbiased. Th is piece is fl awed, I know. Th e Cubans I live with were interviewed extensively by the Ministry of Education before they were allowed to leave the country, and are less likely to voice dissent for their country.
Now, I’m trying to ask more questions, rather than give everyone my version of the truth. I wish I knew everything that was going on in the world, and what the real truth was. In that moment, I had no idea what I could say to Maidelys about her commander-in-chief.
Laura Blakley is a former arts and entertainment editor of the Manitoban.
