An Hour of Cuban TV

The night after my conversation with Mauricio about access to information to Cuba, I stumbled upon a documentary on Cuban TV produced by 'Zona Franca'. Zona Franca seemed to have a very Cuban political bent, but nothing in the ending credits led me to believe it was produced here.

The documentary was about the ownership of the media by corporations, and focused mainly on the corruption that exists in the US and Puerto Rico as a result. Mauricio had just been talking about his love for Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, and here she was, with Spanish subtitles, talking on Cuban TV.

Goodman described the way the police arrested her and other demonstrators outside the RNC, despite their right to demonstrate and their press passes. Goodman then goes on to say that the Youtube footage of that event is the reason rights were wronged.

--That's the power of the internet. Why we have to keep internet open and free. Open access for all.

Having just talking to Mauricio about the lack of open internet use in Cuba, the reason why the government here would play this documentary confuses me. Sure it had a strong anti-corporate and at times anti-American message, but it's overall point was that the media needs to be operated by and for the people. Certainly not by corporations, but not by the government either.

I have to wonder how the average Cuban perceived the documentary. To me, seeing Rufus Wainwright's 'Oh What a World' played to spliced footage of stocks and bonds, Bush, and yes, even Obama, was surreal to say the least. The documentary closed with a point from Ms. Democracy herself.

Goodman continued:
-Thomas Jefferson said, if he had to chose between no government or no free press, he'd chose no government. It is absolutely essential to have a free press.

Why would Cuba play a documentary quoting Jefferson, or democracy for that matter? Calling for a free media? In some ways its heartening to know things are not as censored as I thought. It seems that many radical messages can slip through the cracks, as long as there is an equally radical anti-corporate or anti-American message to counter-balance it.

After the documentary ended, I was curious to see what would follow it.

The next segment that came on Cuban TV was called 'Cuba, Que LInda Es!'. This week, the lucky town was Cienfuegos, and music played for 5 minutes to a sort of amateur tourist video. There were no words, just shots of people, walking on ordinary looking Cuban streets. Elevator music. Shot of statue of Jose Marti. More people, walking on the street. 5 minutes of this and 'Cuba, Que Linda Es!' is over.

The nightly news was next.

The first segment, not unusually, was about Venezuela. Chavez was giving a speech protesting the presence of US bases in Columbia.

Here in Cuba, Chavez has his own billboards. That's a high honor here, with the exception of Bush, who has billboards comparing him to Hitler. Here, Venezuelan news is Cuban news. The partnership between the countries is obviously more filled with brotherly love and hope than the awkward partnership between Cuba and China.

Next was a segment pulled from CNN en Espanol about the deficit in the US reaching a record high in October. What followed were 3 'local' segments, the first about a group of Cuban doctors on an aid mission in Bolivia, the next about a series of new street lamps in Cuba (from what I can gather a gift from the Chinese?) and third about the success of fumigation efforts against mosquitos in the country.

And that's it, there's your hour of Cuban TV. Weird by our standards to say the least, but not nearly so simple as state-run propaganda. I for one will be tuning in more often, if only to see what crazy movie slips through the cracks next.