Bauza Watch - Part II

Mora over at Babalu posts a scathing commentary on Sun-Sentinel's (freelance? staff member? who knows) Cuba reporter Vanessa Bauza's latest piece on the Cuban education system's efforts to recruit young people to the revolucion.

Of all the Bauza columns I've read, this one has to be the most disappointing. Someone might argue that Bauza is just presenting observations of what is occurring on the island, and that is partially true. The problem is that she's missing the other part, the crucial element to the entire Cuba issue which is the struggle between opression and the dissidents who want change.

Bauza seems to gloss over the dissidents and their efforts, resorting to matter-of-fact reporting of the latest protests and arrests. Even here, she's failed by not admitting to the violence that fidel goons have used against the protesters.

Contrast her reporting to that of the Miami Herald, which focuses more on the dissident struggle, while still covering fidel's ramblings which are well disseminated by international media outlets.

I did catch one interesting comment from Bauza's column:

Values vaunted in the 1960s and '70s -- self-sacrifice, solidarity and the rejection of consumer culture -- are still instilled in today's youth, but Cuba is no longer as insulated as it was then. Tourism, foreign investment, American pop culture and visiting Cuban-Americans offer young people a different world view, making the role of schools in teaching ideology perhaps more significant than in the past.

She alleges that Cuban-Americans are indeed influencing Cubans on the island with their ideas and values. Hmmmm. Wait a minute! I thought the embargo prevented that from happening.

By accident, I'm sure, that paragraph justifies everything the pro-embargo crowd has been saying all along: You can send all the tourists you want, you can flood the island with Americans, but nothing, NOTHING, will change unless fidel and his cronies are removed.

The indoctrination and brainwashing of the regime, this "battle of ideas", starting at a very young age, is something that is severely underestimated by the U.S. anti-embargo crowd. They assume that Cuba plays under the same rules and thinks the same as the rest of the Western world. The exact opposite is true.