WikiLeaks cables: Michael Moore film Sicko was 'not banned' in Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

WikiLeaks cables: Michael Moore film Sicko was 'not banned' in Cuba
Film-maker says diplomats made up the story to discredit film that showed healthcare was worse in US than Cuba
David Batty guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 December 2010 15.26 GMT

American diplomats made up a story that Cuba banned Michael Moore's 2007 documentary, Sicko, in an attempt to discredit the film which painted an unflattering picture of the US healthcare system, the film-maker said today.

A confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks claimed that Castro's government banned the Oscar-nominated film because it painted such a "mythically" favourable picture of Cuba's healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a "popular backlash".

But Moore said that far from being supressed by Havana, the film – which attempted to discredit the US healthcare system by highlighting what it claimed was the excellence of the Cuban system – was shown on national television.

The film-maker said on his blog that the diplomatic cable, dated 31 January 2008, was "a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats for the state spin their lies and try to recreate reality (I assume to placate their bosses and tell them what they want to hear)".



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/18/wikileaks-us-diplomats-story-cuba-banned-sicko-film

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Story was posted in G.D. by kpete:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=33106

It was linked to DU'ers in the Latin America forum by EFerrari, who alerted those of us who didn't see it in G.D.

Thanks to both DU'ers for passing on the information first.

[stray cat]

1. Did anyone ever think it was banned in Cuba?

[flamingdem]

3. There are hundreds of anti-Cuban bloggers who blab any shred of news

and then sometimes the MSM picks it up.

Example: It was floated that Gorky the punk musician was arrested and doomed but the truth was he received a fine of a few dollars for playing his music too loud.

Problem is that is appeared in the New York Times, so many still believe it happened.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Right! Before they were finished with it, that brat was being touted as a hero, a "dissident"

whose right to speech had been brutally suppressed.



http://farm1.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/141/372206620_defa41c646.jpg

[EFerrari]

6. Only the American media, apparently. n/t

[flamingdem]

2. That is convoluted, I remember those conflicting stories, and there are many more! nt

[EFerrari]

8. It's easy. State wanted Cuba to look bad so they lied

about the film being banned.

They do that all the time but this time, they got caught and caught by Michael Moore.

Oops.

:)

[Vattel]

4. we wouldn't need wikileaks

if the govt wasn't full of liars.

[struggle4progress]

5. Wait! Does this mean I can't believe everything released by wikileaks?

[EFerrari]

7. Why would you believe everything that is released by anyone?

[dflprincess]

10. The whole thing begs the question

why would Cuba ban a film that makes their health care system look better and far more equitable than the U.S.?

I don't know if our diplomats are that stupid or if they were just relying on the stupidity of the American people not to notice that a ban would have made no sense.

[Judi Lynn]

11. The last intelligent US diplomat in Havana was Wayne S. Smith, all the way back during Jimmy Carter!

During the _{George W Bush} years they started using US Interests Section heads to work as provocateurs, going out in the countryside to recruit "dissidents" who were then put on the US taxpayers' dime to act as provocateurs against their own country.

It became a daily war against the Cuban government, from the U.S. "embassy" (Interests Section) operating out of the building used by Switzerland, I believe. The diplomats invited the official, professional "dissidents" to use the Interests Section at will, coming and going at any time of day or night, using all their office equipment, other facilities, just to irritate the Cuban people who knew they were actually making a very comfortable living working against their own country.

This is illegal in every country. All of _Bush's appointees were exceedingly rude and combative toward the Cuban government, their host.

[bitchkitty]

13. Because our diplomats aren't diplomatic.

And they're not our diplomats anyway - they work for the corporate citizens of America. Not the ordinary, human citizens.

[Judi Lynn]

14. True! They work for the people who keep the embargo on Cuba, the travel ban on US.

They know the majority of people wanted that travel ban on the U.S. public removed long ago. They know most of the US population also don't approve of a 50+ year old embargo on another country.

It's a rotten, dirty state of affairs. Thanks for mentioning it.

[NJCher]

18. right on target

Logic escapes their propaganda efforts.

This is incredibly funny.


Cher

[Peace Patriot]

19. I think you need to consider the Stalinist "Big Lie" techniques that the U.S. government uses

to keep us from finding out about Cuba's great health and educational systems (among other things). The "Big Lie" is that "Cuba suppresses free speech." To turn off the functions of the human brain that permit independent thought, they have to repeat the "Big Lie" over and over and over again, and they have to black-hole any evidence to the contrary. So, the Cuban government permitting Cubans to freely watch an American film, and to openly discuss it, has to be denied. They cannot allow any impression of Cubans having access to information.

And, in this case, they had to MAKE UP something that is entirely illogical in order to reinforce the "Big Lie." Yes, the "talking point" they made up is absurd, if you think about it. But they DON'T WANT you to think about it. They want you to believe that the Cuban government is repressive and doesn't allow free discussion. This particular "talking point" had the added fillip of making the Cuban government seem a bit crazy, for those, like yourself, who might think it through.

One more thing: This same Corporate Ruler establishment, that is in charge here, and for whom U.S. diplomats work, want US to believe that WE are "free"--when in fact we are very, very controlled. They wanted us to see, in our mind's eyes, that Americans are free to go view a film that criticizes Corporate America and to discuss it all we want, by contrast with Cubans, where they lied that it was "banned." In truth, our "freedom" means little or nothing. We have absolutely no power to influence our government on any matter--from health care to war. The last nail in our sovereign power as "We the People" was driven in by the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, fast-tracked all over the country during the 2002 to 2004 period, to keep Bush-Cheney in office, and to control, manipulate and choose future leaders as well. We actually do have a feasible way of getting rid of these machines, although I fear that the new Diebold/ES&S Congress will take it away. (They never passed a federal law mandating corporate-run e-voting. It's still up to local/state jurisdictions. They accomplished the e-voting coup with corruption and filthy lobbying of our local/state officials, by means of the $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress.)

This, we are free to obtain information and discuss our hearts out, as if we were free, but we have no power--not even to obtain a slight mitigation of corporate-run health care--a public option.

The Cubans long ago insisted on and obtained universal free medical care. It was the overwhelming will of the people. So they did it and did it well. We can't. We have lost control of our government and our elected leaders. Corpo-fascist TV/radio sets the agenda and our leaders follow right along. But the Cubans must be portrayed as oppressed and unfree, compared to us who are free to have an opinion but have no power as citizens and as a people. Do you see how this illogical notion could have been promulgated, that Cuba banned "Sicko"? They are "not free."

[Blue_Tires]

20. well said...

[Mimosa]

25. PeacePatriot:, ITA: our gov promotes the 'freest nation on earth' propaganda

And suckers believe it, swallow it up, and repeat ad nauseum. Even delivering a Dem version here as they ignore how we are getting double-crossed.

[SnakeEyes]

30. It's pretty simply why they would ban it

If this were true, of course.

They would ban it because they wouldn't want the Cuban citizens to see people glowing over the hospitals that only the connected and foreigners have access to that are vastly superior to the hospitals the Cuban citizens are allowed to visit.

The thinking plays off the rhetoric that communism is all a big propaganda hoax and what we see is what they show us for propaganda and then what is hidden from our view is actually for the people and it's supposedly always much less or nonexistent.

[Mika]

12. BREAKING NOOZ: Cubans are not like mushrooms growing in the dark.

Most Cubans in Cuba that I've run into are more informed about the US electoral system than are most Americans I meet.



A man leaves a voting cabinet at a polling station
during Cuba's municipal elections in Havana

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[Amonester]

15. I bet they vote on a sheet of paper...

and using a simple pen.

That makes them more Democratic also...

Can't have that in the 11We're #1 USA! USA111!!

[Mika]

16. Plus, they are counted in public view.

Candidate posters


Local residents line up early Sunday before casting
their vote at a polling station during Cuba's municipal
elections in Havana



Been there. Seen it.

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[Judi Lynn]

17. Wait a moment. This must be photoshopped. Everyone knows they don't get to vote

in Cuba, according to the loudest right-wing voices!

http://www.kaosenlared.net.nyud.net:8090/media/19/19928_4_cuba5.JPG http://www.artemisaradioweb.cu.nyud.net:8090/imagenes/elecciones_cuba.jpg http://www.globalresearch.ca.nyud.net:8090/coverStoryPictures/19368.jpg http://www.cubasocialista.cu.nyud.net:8090/imagen/elecciones02.jpg http://www.ain.cu.nyud.net:8090/2008/elecciones2008/elecciones03.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/2412/1700506266_921d4230b5.jpg

http://sonandolarevolucion.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2007/10/44291.jpg

[Demstud]

24. Voting is no big deal

It's the choices you have available to you that are important. Most communist countries have had voting. Of course the candidates are extremely limited or those with certain viewpoints running contrary to the communist party are censored in some way. I don't know what Cuba is like compared to other communist countries, but just saying that pictures of voters voting is pretty meaningless without knowing how elections were run overall.

[nyy1998]

21. I don't see why it would be banned in Cuba

It made the American insurance/hospital system look terrible(as it should), and the Cuban system surprisingly well run. If anything, Castro(both of them) should be heavily promoting the documentary.

[SnakeEyes]

31. As i stated above...

it would make sense if there is indeed two health care/hospital systems, one for the average cuban citizen and another the powerful, connected, and foreigners. Wouldn't want to show a movie praising the good side to the people that aren't getting that.

But that would mean MM would have had to be duped by the Cuban government and used for communist propaganda. MM is smarter than that

[Exilednight]

22. Is this really the stuff that our State Department spends time on? Don't we have

bigger problems in the world than worrying about where a Michael Moore film is banned?

Sheesh, no wonder the world is such a mess.

[jenmito]

23. No wonder Michael Moore helped pay Assange's bail. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

26. More to the point, the State Department used false propaganda against the American People on behalf

of the for profit "health" insurance corporations.

This could only work to prevent the best possible solution in regards to health care for the American People from being realized.

Moore said on his blog that the cable came in the wake of the US health insurance industry deciding to "to spend millions" to go after him and, if necessary, "push Michael Moore off a cliff".

He said the industry worked with anti-Castro Cubans in Miami in order to have them speak out and smear the film.

"So, on January 31, 2008, a state department official stationed in Havana took a made-up story and sent it back to his HQ in Washington," said Moore.

[craigmatic]

27. This is the first I'd ever heard of a Cuba ban. I thought Castro would want people to

see the movie. Cuba comes off looking very good in it.

[Uncle Joe]

28. That's the point, there was no ban, it was even telecast on their national television.

The State Department pretended as if there was a ban to discredit Cuban Healthcare as a means to turn the American People against Universal Coverage.

The State Department spread the word via their Cuban allies in South Florida that the movie was banned in Cuba because it made Cuban Healthcare look too good and it would cause a backlash with the Cuban People.

The target of this false propaganda was the American People as we were debating health care reform.

[craigmatic]

29. Just goes to show that even after the war is over, cold war thinking is still fucks us to

this day.