Havana's 148 Flags Prove Mightier Than the Billboard

[Rose Siding]

HAVANA -- At night, when all Havana seems to be out for an evening stroll, the austere office building that serves as an outpost of U.S. diplomats turns into a billboard......

Some nights they read the insights of comedian George Burns translated into Spanish: "How sad that all the people who would know how to run this country are driving taxis or cutting hair." Other times, questions are posed: "In a free country you don't need permission to leave the country. Is Cuba a free country?"...

In the latest installment of a long-running propaganda war, Castro's government planted a field of flags on tall poles -- 148 in all -- in front of the U.S. building, which holds the offices of the U.S. Interests Section, a diplomatic post one notch below an embassy. The flags block the view of the billboard from its intended audience: the heavy traffic along a seaside highway in central Havana. The flags loom over an outdoor amphitheater already freighted with symbolism: Its name is Anti-Imperialism Park.
...
The billboard -- which displays a mix of historical quotes, broadsides against Cuban policies and news and sports reports -- is unique in U.S. diplomacy, Watnik said. But "we'd like to see other embassies" install similar message boards, he said....

The messages in Havana are diverse. There is cheeky commentary: zany musician Frank Zappa opining that "communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." There are biting observations, such as George Orwell's satirical take on communism from "Animal Farm": "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." And there are lengthy document dumps, such as the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with lines such as "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051201879_pf.html

[MADem]

1. Well, so much for being a good neighbor!!

The billboard -- which displays a mix of historical quotes, broadsides against Cuban policies and news and sports reports -- is unique in U.S. diplomacy, Watnik said. But "we'd like to see other embassies" install similar message boards, he said....

I'm sure they'd just LOVE that on Embassy Row in DC!!!!!

[Rose Siding]

2. Red letters, 5 ft tall.

No other country would be so crass.

[JVS]

10. I think China was known to be more hostile the USSR during the Cult. Rev.

I remember reading about frequent demonstrations staged during the night in which crowds of students yelled to keep the Soviet embassadors and staff from being able to sleep. They also renamed the street the embassy was on to "Anti-revisionism way", a jab at at the Soviet abandonment of the idea of "World Revolution"

[Rose Siding]

11. That sounds like the reverse

The Soviets didn't park themselves in China with garish insults.

[JVS]

13. I was comparing level of crassness, not who was the "home team"

[Rose Siding]

14. Thanks for clarifying

My comment about crassness was in relation to the post to which I was responding- That post was considering who was the home team, and how they'd like the same sort of treatment.

Interesting bit about the Chinese, though.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Can you just imagine what the US would do if a foreign embassy tried that?

[MADem]

7. I can see the one minute speeches by the GOP in Congress already!!!

Ach, the WHINING...the desperate attempts to enforce zoning laws, the hand-wringing, the popping vein outrage!!

[bigluckyfeet]

15. We are Not Free

To Travel to Cuba,so who is free.

[roody]

18. We could take our freedom rather than wait for

those in power to give it to us. You could go to Cuba with Pastors for Peace in July. Check it out at ifconews.org.

[Miss Chybil]

3. This is diplomacy? I don't get it. nt

[htuttle]

4. ... "Surrender Dorothy!"...

[Robbien]

6. "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

And the Cubans think, no USA you are not more equal than others.

[daleo]

8. And yet, Americans can't travel freely to Cuba

"In a free country you don't need permission to <when you> leave the country. Is Cuba <U.S.> a free country?"

On edit - Plus, the U.S. government eavesdrops on its citizens phonecalls routinely.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Great irony, isn't it?

We'll be prosecuted for traveling to Cuba by our "free and democratic" government.

[cantstandbush]

12. Is the US a free country if citizens can't travel to other countries,

say like travel to Cuba?

[TomClash]

16. What the Wasington Propagandist fails to mention

The flags were put up as an antiterrorism memorial.

Few Cubans can see the messages because of where the building housing the US Interest Section is situated.

How does Forbes know Fidel has $900 million in assets?

[HuffleClaw]

17. can anyone imagine what bush would do if some embassy in DC

did the same thing? they'd FREAK.