Posted on 12/19/2010 6:42:08 AM PST by TheRevolution1776
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Moore did not go to Cuba.
He went here:
Totally agree.
So, I wonder how Moore feels about that $20,000 donation?
If the cable were a fabrication by U.S. operatives for the purpose of discrediting Moore, why send it in secret? That makes no sense.
That it was sent secretly indicates to me that it was true.
It also corresponds with similar stories I’m acquainted with regarding communist regimes and censorship of foreign media. For example, the movie version of “The Grapes of Wrath” was banned by the Soviet government. One would think that it would promote the film, since it’s about a poor farm family during the Depression, and it doesn’t cast the U.S., or capitalism in general, in a favorable light. That, of course, was John Steinbeck’s intention. The movie, however, was banned for an interesting reason:
It unintentionally showed that even a desperately poor American family under capitalism could own its own truck!
And THAT’S why it was banned. The Soviet authorities were afraid — just as the Cuban censors were afraid — of a popular backlash by the people, once the latter saw that even poverty under capitalism was better than poverty under socialism.
bump
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