Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Barf-o-rama (Updated)

Over at Babalu, they are logging and commenting on this morning's Cuba coverage on NBC's Today Show, and the reviews are not good (link fixed).

Update: This turned out to be quite the understatement. The outpouring continues, in post after post. And mainly it's the media's fault.

1 comment:

leftside said...

Amazing. I had forgotten how wacko those folks are over at Babalu blog (they banned me, then tarred and feathered my real name, in typical exile fashion after a few unpopular posts... the reason i hide my name now).

How anyone could watch the intro to the Today piece and say the things being said ("commie propoganda", et al) is baffling. Consider the first few minutes:

There is no political opposition, there are no free elections, there is no free press, and many of the people here live at or below the poverty level.

There are two sides to every story here but you can't always believe what you hear because the government controls information and wields an iron fist.

But in the five decades since fidel castro's revolution not all has gone as planned. For evidence look no further than the weathered and crumbling facades all around Havana.

But to some, Cuba's reported achievements are not what they seem. Despite high levels of education and low official unemployment rates, most Cubans are forced to eke out a hard scrabble life. The average salary in Cuba is 50 cents a day after government assistance for housing and insurance. The typical Cuban family uses the black market for even basic goods. While homelessness does not exist in Cuba the lack of quality housing remains a major problem. Transportation presents perhaps the biggest difficulty, visible by the teeming buses and crowds hitching for rides. Dissent in any form is not tolerated by the Cuban government, which limits outside influence. For example most Cubans are not free to use the internet...