Free Republic

Cuba: Why are U.S. reporters, who know about watching what they say, putting ordinary Cubans on the spot and in danger as the island's tyranny begins to totter? The mainstream media embedded in Havana know very well what it's like to tiptoe around as journalists in Fidel Castro's totalitarian state. They're followed by Cuba's G-2 agents. Their phone calls are monitored. Anyone they contact is questioned. And either they're careful of what they write or they're expelled. But that's why what they're presenting as news from Havana is just a whiff disgraceful. They are presenting Cuba as this normal country...

Val Prieto, at Babalublog, has some fun at the expense of a restaurant in Minneapolis which serves "revolutionary Cuban cuisine" amidst portraits of Che and Fidel. Val writes what getting a real meal is like in Havana... It's a masterpiece of debunking. He floors the guy in that magnificent storytelling way that only he can. >>Revolutionary Cuban cooking!? I wonder if the maitre'd hands everyone a ration card when they walk in the door. Or if they make the cafe cubano like they have been making it in revolutionary Cuba. One thin layer of fresh coffee grounds, one thin layer...