Cubadebate

To the Editor,

I had hoped - really hoped - that Americans had by and large overcome
the 40 years of propaganda that has coloured their perspectives on
Cuba.  All those cuts to education funding, it seems, continue to
succeed in furthering the vast ignorance of all things outside U.S.
territory.

The editorial "Jailed in Cuba" (2 December) is a textbook case of the
myths, misconceptions and outright blatant lies that far too many
Americans (or at least, those who work as "journalists") hold to be
true.  The statement "a third or more of Cuba's brave corps of
independent journalists languishes in prison" presumes an awful lot:
that these people are really journalists!  If you had bothered to
share with your readers the mountain of evidence to the contrary,
that these individuals were in fact supported through monies and
other material rewards by U.S. Interests' Section head James Cason,
then perhaps the propaganda mask might begin to crack.

Alas, as usual, America's media continues to provide zero analysis
topped with a boatload of innuendo and slander.  Cuba could hardly
expect to be seen any other way.

Having lived in Cuba off and on for a decade, pursued research that
covered the island end-to-end, made very dear friends of Cubans who
live both on and off the island, the Cuba that I see resembles
nothing of the one portrayed in your editorial. I see a country where
children are vaccinated against 13 killer diseases, more than any
other nation, including the U.S. of A.  I see a nation where the
people decide what to do with their resources, rather than putting
everything in the hands of corporations.  I hear the pride in the
voice of an elderly former sugarcane cutter, whose children - thanks
to the Revolution - not only grew up literate and healthy, but have
gone on to be a doctor and an engineer.

America continues to blame Castro for the conditions of life on the
island.  The rest of the world blames the U.S. economic blockade of
Cuba.. something made quite apparent at the United Nations several
weeks ago in a 172-2 vote against U.S. policy.

So as your *ahem* President continues to restrict YOUR right to
freedom by preventing Americans from visiting Cuba and seeing it for
themselves (God forbid they learn that Communist Cuba isn't the
tropical gulag they've been taught), I and my fellow Canadians will
continue to freely exchange views and share the friendship of 11
million genuine and wonderful people.  Such a shame your government
won't let you near them.  You just might learn something.

Mark Rushton
P.O. Bx 632
Halifax, Nova Scotia
CANADA, B3J 2T3