Covering Up the Real Storm that Has Destroyed Cuba
When the storm’s effects were felt in Varadero, Seidel treated us to riveting footage of an overturned tiki hut. Oh, the humanity! At the other end of the island, however, the pictures tell a different story. In an a rare act of accidental journalism from Cuba, the Associated Press released these photographs.
Meanwhile, by comparison, The Weather Channel’s coverage from Haiti included a phone interview with representative from the International Red Cross who discussed threat of cholera, the state of danger for citizenry, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. What’s notable is that in Cuba the Castro regime routinely restricts movement of members of NGOs like the International Red Cross, if they are even allowed to enter the island in the first place. Also, Cuba is in the midst of a cholera outbreak of its own, though we don’t know its extent because of the same cloud of propaganda and media controls. And cholera isn’t Cuba’s only ongoing health scare. The recent outbreaks of dengue and yellow fever will presumably worsen in the aftermath of any major storm. The Weather Channel was silent on the matter.
The truth about Cuba is that the state of infrastructure is disastrous, much of it predating the Castro reign. Fifty-three years of communist-style neglect has left most dwellings extremely susceptible to inclement weather. If buildings in Cuba collapse under their own weight on sunny days, what’s going to keep them up in a hurricane? And those buses and large-scale evaluations the military is famous for? Well, the file footage (no doubt provided by Seidel’s Castroite handlers) doesn’t show the devastation of previous storms and how the citizenry was left to fend for itself (like it did in these photos from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike in 2008).
If the regime can’t provide food and shelter under normal circumstances, how are we to believe that it can do so in an emergency? It simply doesn’t meet the smell test.
The Weather Channel is just the latest media outlet to agree to a Faustian bargain with the Castro regime, in which they consent to give away any journalistic integrity they may have had in order to maintain official access. Real journalism would have required making clandestine contacts on the island and using the citizen journalists who risk their lives every day to smuggle the truth about Cuba out of Cuba. But most media outlets are too lazy, unoriginal, and ideologically sympathetic to challenge the regime.
Incidentally, The Weather Channel is owned by NBC/Universal, which has an accredited bureau in Havana that brings such important stories as the world record-holding Cuban head bouncer and the 11-foot bicycle built by and ridden by a Cuban man. Wouldn’t want to risk their fake news bureau by reporting actual news, would they?
Castro and our own lame stream media have been married for decades,and is also the father of many new illegitimate bastards on the internet! I havent even heard much arguing from their house in quite some time!Some people like to keep to themselves.
American journalists should not even GO to Cuba, because in order to report from there,the Castro regime has to OK their reports. They wind up as mouthpieces for Communism, which is an absolute bad thing, and massively dishonest. No real truth is allowed to be told,so American reporters should boycott Cuba until real press freedom is achieved. Castro is a psychotic mass killer of his own people. According to people who have been there, the mansions of the dispossessed HAVE been literally left to rot, Castro will not ALLOW the current residents to paint or repair anything, and the houses are quite literally falling apart and down. I imagine that any hurricane landfall will kill a LOT of Cubans. Too bad Castro himself isn’t living in a rotting slum.
You’re making the colossal assumption that the American press still has any interest in that thing called truth.
“Incidentally, The Weather Channel is owned by NBC/Universal, ”
Tells me all I need to know. NBC makes William Randolph Hearst look objective.
Snr. Gomez wrote: “an all-inclusive resort reserved for foreigners in Varadero”
False. I go to Varadero frequently and I can tell you that there are many Cuban guests at all of the resorts. 250,000 Cubans who are resident in the US flew directly to Cuba from the US in 2011 on charter flights. Many stay in resorts and invite their family & friends who live on the island.
What kind of ghoulish people are these?
True, Castro is very bad.
He must have good protection not to be dead by now… Does anyone know what that is?
He took away guns from all the citizens.
True, as well… and the sky is blue, so there must be some correlation.
The regime won’t last forever. As soon as the Castro brothers and the rest of the old guard are gone, there will be a transition to a more typical Latam-style crony capitalist state.
Unfortunately, Castro has ruined more than just the infrastructure. Cuba is the oldest, least fertile country in the hemisphere. It’s a communist nursing home, at this point. If you’re young in Cuba (and there aren’t many who are), you’re looking for greener pastures.
Some of the stats:
-0.11 population growth rate (yes, shrinking)
TFR (fertility) of 1.45, one of the world’s lowest
Median female age of nearly 40
Cuban demographic and migration patterns mirror almost exactly what we see in Eastern Europe. It’s a dead zone.
Have always been a fan of the meteorologists at the Weather Channel, but they need to keep a lid on the politics. We all know they’re in bed with the MM Global Warming thing; so when the Obama-praising starts (it goes hand-in-hand), I turn them off. Give us the weatherfacts, not the ruinous socialist politics. Or you’ll go the way of CNN.
At sea we relied on NOAA.
Last weekend I compared the Weather Channel’s dramatization of Isaac to the National Weather Service website, and had a good laugh at the histrionics of the talking heads of the WC….It was clear from the NWS tracking that the storm was headed for New Orleans without changing direction. The WC kept talking about Tampa, Fla and the damage to the Rep Convention…Meantime, back at Climate Depot, there was a meteorological chart showing all tropical storms with the same origins as Isaac, none of which went north eastward….The WC has become a joke.
I’ve always felt that one of the very few vicious things that Allied leaders did after the war was to decide the futures of relatively helpless countries. How would they handle the dynamic nature of the Cubans and the likelihood that Cubans might become a major influence in Central and South America? Easy! They made the Cubans communists!
As non-communists, some Cuban criminals would become wealthy but most would lead most Spanish speaking nations. As communists, some Cuban politicians became wealthy but most, who stayed in Cuba, have lead meager, painful lives.
Cuban communists exist and rule because Allied leaders did not want Cubans competing with their Spanish speaking friends.
Cubans can be so full of caca de vaca at times.
Click on the link and look at all the flights from Florida to Castro’s Gulag!!
http://www.abc-charters.com/pages/flights.asp
Just as long as he doesn’t call a rum and coke a “Cuba Libre!” Hehe.
Henry, I agree with the thrust of your post, but aren’t you expecting a bit too much from a weatherman?
Dear Weather Channel: just give me the Local on the 8s weather forecast and shut up on everything else, especially on business reports from CNBC, the news from PMSNBC, storm reports from the GOP convention, the GOP convention itself, etc. You were good as exclusively a weather reporter, but you’ve hit bedrock doing everything else that you do besides the weather. Signed, jimbo.
Stop watching the Weather Channel and set yourself free. Do-it-yourself weather on the net is faster and more informative. Also, you can customize it to your specific needs on the fly.
Throw off the chains.