Susanna J. Sturgis   Martha's Vineyard writer and editor
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Cuba Libre

May 13, 2006

Funny story in today's online Washington Post: "Havana's 148 Flags Prove Mightier than the Billboard." Gist is that earlier this year the U.S. of A. decided that the building in Havana that houses the U.S. Interests Section ("a diplomatic post one notch below an embassy," notes the article) should make itself useful while diplomats party or sleep, so now slogans electronically written in five-foot-tall letters scroll across the façade at night. The "billboard" debuted on Martin Luther King Day with phrases from King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Doubtless no mention was made of the FBI's various attempts to shut Dr. King down while he was alive.

Also in the repertoire is a Spanish translation of George Burns's observation: "How sad that all the people who would know how to run this country are driving taxis or cutting hair." Leaving aside the distinct possibility that Burns made this quip with irony aforethought -- perhaps he'd just ridden with a cabbie who solved all the world's problems between the airport and the studio? -- something similar could certainly be said about the United States. Who knows where the people who know how to run this country are. Not in the White House, that's for sure; and if they're in Congress, why don't they speak up?

Also: "In a free country you don't need permission to leave the country. Is Cuba a free country?" Immediately I started humming "The Ballad of William Worthy," by Phil Ochs. The chorus goes something like this:

William Worthy isn't worthy to enter our door
Went down to Cuba, he's not American any more
But somehow it is strange to hear the State Department say
You are living in the free world, in the free world you must stay.

OK, fair is fair. That happened in 1961.* It would never, ever, ever happen today.

A U.S. State Department spokesman is quoted as saying: "Castro gets angered by the truth, yet they call their revolution a revolution of ideas. So we're battling with ideas. The people of Cuba aren't able to enjoy freedom of expression -- we're bringing them positive messages from the free world." Substitute "Bush" for "Castro" and "the United States" for "Cuba." Works pretty well, doesn't it? Well, yeah, USians get all the freedom of expression we can pay for; just don't try out your one-liners on the security guy who's x-raying your shoes at the airport.

The Cuban government planted 148 flags across the front of the U.S. building, apparently in order to block the view of motorists passing on a nearby highway. Pretty clever -- how many flags would it take to block all the obnoxious billboards on the way into Boston? -- but it would have been cleverer if they'd planted 148 U.S. flags across the front of the building.

According to the Washington Post correspondent, quite a reaction was elicited by a Forbes magazine statement that Fidel Castro was the world's seventh-wealthiest head of state, with a fortune estimated at $900 million. One wonders how they calculated it, and also what Bush fils and Bush père are worth.

Lower the flags, Fidel. Put up your own billboard. All it has to say is POT CALLS KETTLE BLACK.


*William Worthy went down to Cuba sans passport because the State Department wouldn't let him have one, all because he'd pulled the same trick with China in the late 1950s. More about Worthy at http://abacus.bates.edu/pubs/mag/95-Fall/worthy.html .

 

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