In Havana, U.S. turns off sign critical of Cuban government

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/27/us.cuba.propaganda.ticker/index.html


It was the U.S. government's version of the ticker in New York's Times Square, blasting Havana's main seaside strip with anti-Cuba slogans in 5-foot high crimson letters. It symbolized the tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Washington and Havana.

But the ticker at the top of the U.S. interests section in Cuba has gone blank, yet another signal the past half-century of animosity between the two countries is easing.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the ticker was turned off in June because it was not considered "effective" as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people.

The scrolling electronic sign, fitted across 25 windows of the U.S. interests section, ran quotes from American heroes, such as Martin Luther King's "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up," and Abraham Lincoln's "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

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The sign -- erected in 2006 by the Bush administration and billed as a way to circumvent censorship and, the administration said, offer hope and freedom to Cubans oppressed by a brutal regime -- fueled a propaganda war with Fidel Castro, who referred to the U.S. interests section as "the headquarters of the counterrevolution."
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and


http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/870


U.S. State Department's Little Times Square of Propaganda Runs Out of Juice in Havana


It seems the Bush Administration forgot to turn off a certain light switch when they left, indicating that while the Cold War ended in 1989, the political propaganda war that perpetuated it is only just now coming to a close.

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The ticker operated in the windows of the U.S. interests section, a part of the Swiss embassy in Havana where U.S. consular activities take place. It is housed in the same building that once housed the U.S. embassy before the breakdown in relations in 1961. The section was reopened under the Carter Administration in 1977.

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The scrolling messages began in January 2006, touted by the Bush Administration as a way to combat censorship in Cuba. The ticker stood as further proof that Bush & Co. never got the point that two wrongs don't make a right, and that you can't scream propaganda loud enough to make it become "the truth."

This is merely the latest news in the signage wars in Cuba. Back in 2004, in response to a U.S. Christmas display that highlighted the plight of 75 dissidents jailed in Cuba, Castro erected a huge billboard highlighting the prisoner abuse pictures from Abu Ghraib in Afghanistan. In 2006, Castro put up 138 black flags that he said represented victims of U.S. aggression to block the ticker, and organized a protest march in front of the building.

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Yet, despite a recent softening of the 47-year-old declaration, Obama has made it clear he will not lift the embargo until further advances in democracy and human rights are made in Cuba.

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So, unless this is some attempt to make the State Department greener and less wasteful, this symbolic gesture had better be followed up with real action. Perhaps instead of the ticker, the normalizing of relations could function as a more efficient "candle in the window," to let Cuban democracy know it's OK to come home.
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I disagree with Obama and think the embargo should be lifted now.