Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

November 1, 2011 By Fausta

What killed Laura Pollan?

Babalu has Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet: A medical analysis of the painful, tragic, and unecessary death of Laura Pollan.

Too bad Michael Moore is too busy Occupying…something.

The Economist has Pollán’s obituary

Ms Pollán came brand-new to campaigning. She was a mother (of Laurita), a housewife and a teacher: someone who loved literature and had taught peasants to read in the early years of the revolution. She had never done anything wilder. Short, blonde and stout, she was not cut out to be hauled into a bus by the police. All she wanted was to see Héctor back, and all the others. Her group would meet each Sunday at the church of Santa Rita in Miramar, Havana’s grandest district, say the rosary, hear mass, and then walk ten blocks in silence along Quinta Avenida on the green verges under the palm trees. The women wore white, symbolising pure intentions, and carried gladioli, a single stem each.

Yet politics crept in. At the end of every march the women would chant “Libertad!”—for Cuba as a whole, as much as for their men. They would throw out pencils with Derechos Humanos on one side and Damas en Blanco on the other, hoping that, slowly, people would pick them up. Enemies called them “mercenaries” and “Ladies in Green”, in the pay of the United States, and Ms Pollán had to admit that they did get American dollars and American parcels for their imprisoned men. Shock mobs of other women were especially bused in to attack them, beat them and pull their hair. Ms Pollán could fight back with the best: when a man called her “Puta!” once, she threw her gladioli in his face. In one battle in September she was crushed against a wall, which may have set off the breathing troubles that killed her.

By then, the 75 prisoners they were campaigning for had been released; most by the intervention of the Catholic Church and the government of Spain, but around 20 by their own efforts. Héctor, gaunt and thin, came out only last February. The numbers of Ladies dwindled, to 15 or so, as their work seemed to be done. But for Ms Pollán it was not done. Her Ladies had to go on marching as long as the laws remained that could fill the prisons again. As long as Cuba was not free, she would go on sitting at her computer with her little dog stretched out on the tiles beside her, alert for the telephone, with her front door open and Santa Rita at the ready, and the ceiling fan turning slowly in the smothering air.

As the Communist dictatorship continues to stifle dissent, Cuba demands that the US end the Cuban Adjustment Act, and to start issuing unrestricted visas to all immigrants.

The demand was first published on Granma, the official organ of the Communist government. However, last month useful idiots from 30 countries had asked for the repeal of the CAA, as many other useful idiots had done in the past.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, Michael Moore Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Laura Pollan

December 18, 2010 By Fausta

Sicko banned in Cuba for portraying Cuban medical apartheid

Ah, the irony: Right after Michael Moore goes and pays for Assange’s bail, Wikileaks goes out and bites him in the butt,
WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting ‘mythical’ healthcare system
Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore’s Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash
(emphasis added)

Cuba banned Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a “mythically” favourable picture of Cuba’s healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a “popular backlash”, according to US diplomats in Havana.

The revelation, contained in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks , is surprising, given that the film attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system.

But the memo reveals that when the film was shown to a group of Cuban doctors, some became so “disturbed at the blatant misrepresentation of healthcare in Cuba that they left the room”.

Castro’s government apparently went on to ban the film because, the leaked cable claims, it “knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.”

Facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them – which, by the way, it’s a point I’ve been making for nearly half a decade.

This is what ordinary Cubans get in a hospital, where you even need to bring your own sutures thread if you need surgery. Only foreigners and Cuba’s elite paying in US$ get to be treated at the best facilities, which aren’t all that great:

The memo points out that even the Cuban ruling elite leave Cuba when they need medical care. Fidel Castro, for example, brought in a Spanish doctor during his health crisis in 2006. The vice-minister of health, Abelardo Ramirez, went to France for gastric cancer surgery. The neurosurgeon whoheads CIMEQ [Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Quirúrgicas] hospital – widely regarded as one of the best in Cuba – came to England for eye surgery, returning periodically for checkups.

I must point out that Fidel Castro not only bright in a Spanish oncologist/gastroenterologist, the doctor had to bring his entire medical team and all the operating room equipment.

Moore’s response?

insists that “Sicko” was not banned in Cuba, and links to reports in the Cuban media that it was broadcast on Cuban TV.

In full and unedited, at that?

Via Hit & Run, you can read the memo here.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, films, Michael Moore Tagged With: Assange, Fausta's blog, Julian Assange, Sicko, Wikileaks

September 7, 2009 By Fausta

Hugo goes to Venice UPDATED with photos

UPDATE
Photos, via Noticias 24

Hugo and Oliver both wore matching outfits. Sweet!

Italy Venice Film Festival South of the Border

VeniceStoneHugo


Oliver Stone, whose career is way beyond salvation at this point, has made a propaganda movie about Hugo Chavez titled South of the Border, which gives us a chance to see Hugo break and fall off a little kid’s bike.

Stone invited Chavez to go to the Venice Film Festival, where South of the Border will premiere outside of competition.

Well, what is a fashionable traveling tyrant to do?

Chavez has now taken time off his tour of Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus and Russia and headed to Venice

The leftist leader was expected to walk down the red carpet at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) to attend the official screening of “South of the Border”

As a worthy Communist, Hugo travels in style:

His entourage has taken over the entire third floor of the luxury Hotel des Bains on the Lido near the festival venue, a Venezuelan journalist told AFP, adding that Chavez was under the protection of 26 bodyguards.

That’s four bodyguards short of Hugo’s other buddy and fellow fashionable traveling tyrant Muammar al-Qaddafi, who pitches his tent (except for New Jersey) with thirty female virgin bodyguards. There is no information available on the gender or purity of Hugo’s bodyguards.

I can’t decide whether the late Thomas Mann (since Mann’s character Gustav von Aschenbach stayed at the Hotel des Bains on the Lido) or the surgically-altered Joan Rivers would be the most appropriate person to review Hugo’s stay, but will post photos of Hugo on the red carpet once I find them.

michaelmoooreVeniceWhile in Venice, Hugo and Oliver may have a chance to get together with fellow traveler Michael Moore and deplore capitalism

Blending his trademark humor with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an all out attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.

Because nothing spells sincerity as bemoaning riches in the style one has become accustomed to while at one of the word’s premiere luxury settings.

Update 2
Venice Film Festival: A Movie Star Reception For Hugo Chavez

Update, Tuesday, 8 September
What did I tell you? Hugo meets Michael

Drooling on the lens of his Sincerity-cam

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Filed Under: Communism, entertainment, films, Hugo Chavez, Michael Moore, movies, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Oliver Stone, South of the Border, Venice, Venice Film Festival

January 7, 2009 By Fausta

Sanjay for Surgeon General

Obama Wants Journalist Gupta for Surgeon General

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way.

James Joyner was hoping for Dr. Phil, Roarin Rep wanted Dr Oz, I was hoping for House, M.D.

As it turns out, Gupta is very qualified for the job. In addition to his impressive CV, Krugman doesn’t like him, because Gupta doesn’t like Michael Moore:

But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don’t have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore “fudged his facts”

Sounds good to me.

Althouse examines the Gupta-Moore argument,

Krugman’s link — at “mugging” — goes to a USA Today article about the conflict, which mainly dealt with the amount of money spent on medical care per person in the United States compared to Cuba. You can see Gupta and Moore having it out on the Larry King show on video here or read the transcript here. The fact that Gupta actually did get some numbers wrong overshadows the policy dispute: Moore wants the government to pay for all medical care for everyone, and Gupta thinks Moore might be right, but that things are more complex than Moore will admit.

It’s true, as Krugman says, that Moore comes across as an uncouth outsider and that we tend to feel an instinctive aversion to him. And Gupta is couth, an expert at projecting competence, expertise, and level-headedness. And Krugman is right that the uncouth speaker may be right when the couth speaker is wrong. On this occasion, Gupta got some things wrong, and where he was wrong, he quickly and clearly corrected himself and apologized. That’s part of the couth style. So where is this “lack of accountability” that Krugman talks about? Gupta didn’t get away with mistakes by speaking “in a socially acceptable way.” Gupta was immediately called to account, and he stepped up to it.

And what of Moore? Is he accountable? Moore may have not been wrong on this occasion, but he’s been wrong in the past about plenty of things, and his entire filmmaking style is based on a strong point of view — that is, bias — that involves distortion and emotive exaggeration. Does Moore make corrections and apologize? He method involves going doggedly forward toward his predetermined goals — like government-managed health care or opposition to the war or gun control.

On a related subject: As readers of this blog know, the so-called excellent Cuban healthcare is in such shambles that Cubans who have no dollars or access to foreigners-only clinics have to procure and bring their own suture thread to the hospital before they can have surgery.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Cuba, health care, healthcare, Michael Moore, Paul Krugman Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Sanjay Gupta

August 30, 2008 By Fausta

McCain had CAKE on his birthday. Cake, I tell you!

Maria sent this, a particularly pungent sample of the level of discourse at MSNBC. Michael Moore & Olbermann are shocked, SHOCKED! that McCain was insensitive enough to eat cake while Katrina was hitting New Orleans.

Not that Moore is insensitive, nooo sireee… he won’t eat cake while the storm he wishes would come to New Orleans gets there. He just calls Gustaf ‘Proof There is a God in Heaven’ because he hopes Gustaf will hit NOLA during the RNC.

Your god is not my God, Michael.

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Filed Under: idiocy, media, Michael Moore Tagged With: Fausta's blog

February 23, 2008 By Fausta

From this morning’s email basket:

“Don’t vote for McCain because he’s … bald.”

What in the world?

Clearly the author of that post misjudged me:

——————————————————————–

When I first did the Patrick Stewart post above, Jeremayakovka reminded us all of Johnny Carson’s “Daddy Sang Bass (mamma sang tenor)”, so here’s the video:

Jeremayakovka’s got The O-Bomb Threat

——————————————————————–

Le Monde interviewed Little Miss Atilla, and she looks marvelous!
——————————————————————–

Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis is now public. Jammie Wearing Fool has the links (h/t Larwyn).

If I have time, I’ll read it, but to me what counts is what she’s saying now, which bears all the signs of Ivy League Populism (h/t M.).

Barack means “blessing” in Arabic.

Isn’t that precious.

From Maria, Habla Usted English, Mrs. Obama?

——————————————————————–

Now the Iranians are holding mass executions of people “offending the sacred”. (h/t Larwyn)
——————————————————————–

In an effort to remake Weekend at Bernie’s as performance art on the Oscars’ red carpet, Michael Moore wants to bring Castro to the Oscars (h/t Laura).

Speaking of Castro, Mark Falkoff remembers a dinner from 2001. Castro was cleary senile even then, but the ones who were wrong not to act immediately were the Americans.

——————————————————————–

The Anchoress is Grateful for art.
——————————————————————–

Poonovation. Take The Tour

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Filed Under: Barak Obama, Election2008, Fidel Castro, Iran, Michael Moore, Patrick Stewart, politics

September 28, 2007 By Fausta

Ahmadinejad goes to Bolivia and Venezuela; Spacey goes to Venezuela and Cuba

Continuing his triumphal grand tour, after leaving the US and being celebrated by fellational journalists and others, ‘Jad went to Bolivia.

Ahmadinejad bolsters Iranian ties with Bolivia and Nicaragua. I have no idea why the IHT headline mentions Nicaragua and not Venezuela, but here’s the text of the article (emphasis added):

On a trip to strengthen ties with leftists in Latin America and roll back U.S. influence, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has pledged to invest $1 billion in Bolivia and reaffirmed relations with the Venezuelan president with a declaration that “no one can defeat us.”

Promises, promises.

‘Jad and Evo go back a long time:

But the promises don’t come for free:

The investment in Bolivia, to be made over the next five years, would help the country tap its vast natural gas reserves, extract minerals, generate more electricity and finance agricultural and construction projects.

After La Paz, ‘Jad flew up to Caracas, where the love flowed:

Chavez greeted the Iranian leader warmly on a red carpet in front of the presidential palace, where they both stood before microphones and let loose with rhetoric challenging Washington.

The BBC states, “The Iranian and Venezuelan leaders see themselves as brothers, with similar political aims.”

You know things are screwed up in Venezuela that pro-democracy students are asking Ahmadinejad to serve as intermediary with Chavez so Hugo will grant them the right to ask questions regarding Venezuelan-Iranian relations.

———————————————————

In other Latin American celebrity travel news, Actor Kevin Spacey met with Chavez looking for oil money to produce movies, since Hugo Chavez Funds State-Run Film Studio and already gave Danny Glover a few million $$$.

I wonder if Hugo and Kevin were pondering another sequel to The Karate Kid, but maybe it was just a regular dinner-and-a-movie kind of date:

Neither Spacey _ who has won Academy Awards for roles in “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” _ nor Chavez spoke to the press after the nearly three-hour encounter in the presidential palace in Caracas. They shook hands warmly on the red carpet as Spacey left after a dinner with Chavez.

We’ll never know for sure.

The AP story claims that “Details were not released about the rest of Spacey’s itinerary.” Maybe the AP reporter should have spent some time watching Venezuela’s government-controlled TV newscasts, because in this video (via Jeremayakovka) the reporter (in Spanish) says that after Caracas Kevin was heading to Cuba.

Chalk it up to Associated Press Deficit Disorder, because Kevin indeed went to Cuba after leaving Venezuela.

Marc Masferrer links to the article, El actor estadounidense Kevin Spacey se pasea de incógnito en Cuba (American Actor Kevin Spacey Travels Incognito Through Cuba).

Other recent visitors to Cuba listed in the article include Michael Moore, Benicio del Toro, Steven Soderberg, Sean Penn, Joseph and Ralph Fiennes, Gael García Bernal and Fernando Trueba.

I don’t believe any of them asked about Martha Beatriz Roque, Elizardo Sanchez, or much anyone else who is not a celebrity.

Update: GM follows up.

———————————————————

Update 2:
Totten’s turn;

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Filed Under: APDD, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, Cuba, Cubazuela, Iran, Kevin Spacey, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Michael Moore

July 25, 2007 By Fausta

Remember those Cuban doctors Fidel sent to Venezuela?

Via Mike’s America,
Growing numbers of Cuban doctors sent overseas to work are defecting to the USA

A large number of the defectors have fled from Venezuela, which has received some 14 000 Cuban medical professionals, more than the rest of the world combined. Currently, dozens have sought refuge in neighbouring Colombia, often living in precarious conditions, while they await permission to enter the USA.

Andres paid a price to get to Colombia. He and his wife had been assigned to the city of Punto Fijo on the northwestern coast of Venezuela, not far from the border. Their escape went smoothly until they reached the frontier, where Venezuelan guards refused to permit them to cross because the visas on their passports were valid only for travel within Venezuela. Only after Andres bribed the agents with nearly all their possessions did the guards let them leave Venezuela. “We gave them all the money we had, cellular phones, watches, and they let us cross”, he said. “We were in Colombia and we had reached freedom. We felt free.”

Andres and his wife were fortunate because not all defecting Cubans get across the border but are, instead, arrested and shipped back home. Once across the border, however, Andres and his wife found themselves stranded in north east Colombia’s harsh Guajira desert without contacts or money to continue travel. Eventually, however, they were given a lift by truckers, who carried them to the capital, Bogota.

In Bogota, Andres has lived with two other defectors in an unused storage room provided by a church group. They have also received assistance from the UN High Commission for Refugees. But, as they wait for their US visas, many of the Cubans are fearful because of their uncertain legal status in Colombia, whose government has given few of them refugee status.

The working conditions are those of slave labor:

Several Cuban defectors interviewed in Bogota said that they fled not only because of oppression in their own nation, but also because of unreasonably poor and demanding work conditions in Venezuela. Andres said that he could not stand the conditions in Venezuela, where he lived in a crowded house with a leaky straw roof which he shared with fifteen other Cuban doctors waiting to be put to work.
…
The doctors also said that in Venezuela, Cuban minders monitored their movements, prohibiting non-work contact with Venezuelans. When not at work, the Cubans were required to be at home after 6 pm. One couple said that after they pointed out some problems with the programme, officials threatened to send them back to Cuba in retaliation.

The Cubans said that the programme they worked in, called “Inside the Barrio”, was also plagued with mismanagement and inefficiency. Although many clinics were severely understaffed, newly-arrived medics sometimes sat for months waiting for assignment to a post, they said, and often conditions in the clinics were rudimentary lacking even basic medicines.

And they’re fleeing from Bolivia, too.

Read the article. Earlier this year the WaPo had

You should also bear in mind that Cuba’s suffering shortages of healthcare workers because one-fifth of Cuba’s health care labor supply – some 14,000 doctors and 6,000 health workers – has been contracted out to work in Venezuela. In return for these medical services, Cuba receives 90,000 barrels of discounted oil per day.

Chew on that the next time you read/hear about the charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Venezuelans/Cubans/Bolivians, and every time you hear about the excellent Cuban healthcare and other myths.

Too bad the folks who have been playing SICKO at the downtown movie theater for the past 5 weeks, and the folks who watch the movie don’t care much about reality.

Update
Slide show: Cuban Healthcare in Decline (h/t The Real Cuba).

Update, Friday 27 July
More on the Sicko Propanganda.

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Filed Under: Bolivia, Cuba, Cubazuela, health care, Michael Moore, Venezuela

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