From:
Nelson Valdes nvaldes@unm.edu
September 18, 2004
Dear Cuba-L reader,
The Miami Herald has been working overtime in politicizing and criticizing the Cuban government. Even Juan O. Tamayo has been caught in this process. Tamayo, as a rule, has done fairly balanced reports on Cuba. Nancy San Martin, on the other hand, has changed her tune in the last 12 months or so, she is now one more in the large crowd of rightwing journalists cranking out tirades against the Cuban government. Contrary to what Cuba-L usually does, we wish to point out all the examples in the following piece were the authors have gone out of their way to politicize and criticize the Cuban government - when, in fact, it was unnecessary We have added our comments [in brackets]. It should be noted that what is extraordinary is that they are totally unaware of how the Civil Defense system in the island is highly regarded throughout the world.
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September 17, 2004
Miami Herald -
STORM PREPARATIONS: Cuba imposes strict response
[The
title begins with Cuba "imposes strict" response. But, CBS4
News out of Ft. Lauderdale on August 11 reported that the South Florida
authorities had established "Mandatory
Tourist Evacuation In Lower Keys." Thus, it is OK when it is done in
Florida but not when it is done in Cuba. Whether it was mandatory in Cuba was
not demonstrated]
Cuba evacuated nearly 1.9 million people facing the wrath of Hurricane
Ivan with remarkable effectiveness.
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO AND NANCY SAN MARTIN
jtamayo@herald.com
Cuba's state TV and radio monopoly was all Ivan all the time.
Volunteers went door to door announcing evacuations for the
Category 5 hurricane, and police followed them to enforce the order.
President Fidel Castro, as always, went to the province most threatened -- before
Ivan arrived.
[Imagine
a report on a hurricane begining with a discussion of the ownership of the
media in Cuba. Fair enough. How about media concentration and monopoly in
Miami? Should we learn about that while getting a report on hurricane
preparations in south Florida? Why not? I want to know about Viacom and Clear
Channel and what the Columbia Journalism Review reported on media
concentration and mergers in Miami in the last 4 years. The point is:
it was totally unnecessary to start the piece that way.]
In the end, Ivan barely brushed the westernmost province of Pinar del Río, destroying
several homes, flooding some areas and knocking down power lines and
trees but causing no deaths. [From this sentence you
could conclude that the hurricane did little damage to Cuba. But is that the
case? How could they report on the damages when the Cuban government has not
issued a final assessment yet? It is due to do so latter this afternoon]
The country's evacuation of nearly 1.9 million people from coastal and
flood-prone areas underlined the effectiveness of its hurricane preparedness
-- partly because of its organization, partly because of the communist
government's
firm control over the lives of 11 million Cubans. [Could
the same be said of the United States government? In fact, outside of Iraq is
there a government that does not have a firm control of its citizens? Are
these journalists born again libertarians?]
After 45 years of Castro rule, Cubans understand that the
government has the last word. When state agents came, most people
did not question the orders to evacuate, to open and staff shelters and
ensure that displaced families were accounted for and fed. [A
report on hurricanes have to state that Fidel Castro has been in power 45
years. Interesting. Then we are told about "state agents"
- they become "volunteers" elsewhere in the story. They write
that "most people did not question the orders to evacuate" 1)
How do they know? 2) Did Tamayo and San Martin were in Cuba? 3) 1.9
million were evacuated, so, how many of those did THEY interview?" 4) How
long did they take them? 5) How many are most? And last but not least, 6) how
come they did not? Fear of the government or sharing the same concern as
the authorities? So many questions, verdad? ]
What if the people don't want to leave their homes? a reporter
asked a resident of Artemisa, just outside of Havana. She
laughed. ''They have no choice,'' she said. [A reporter?
Who? Where? When? Are Juan and Nancy relying on those "independent
journalists" we hear so much about? And what, "a" reporter asks
"a" resident out of 1.9 million people? It should be noted
that: 1) the Cuban government has no incentive to evacuate anyone
unless it has to, 2) the Cuban governent will have to provide evacuation
resources (trucks, food, space, etc) unless the people evacuated are taken
to the homes of friends and relatives [something that will be unheard of
in the US], 3) the Cuban government also moved the possessions of the
people evacuated, something that is never done anywhere else.
Imagine, the
family and their possessions (including animals) are evacuated at no cost. The
von Mises crowd obviously cannot comprehend this. More important,
did the reporters checked to see whether FEMA engages in compulsory
evacuations as well? Do the authors realize that the "The USA stands
out more or less alone for having adopted the alternative term 'emergency
preparedness' rather than civil defense? [See: "From
civil defense to civil protection--and back again" by David
Alexander] Thus, comparing Cuba and the United States demonstrates a
naive degree of ethnocentricism.]
The Cuban government's first line of defense against hurricanes is the media, totally
controlled by the state, from the three TV stations to dozens of
radio stations and newspapers. [We already learned this
in the first paragraph but the authors apparently forgot that they told us
that already, or felt compelled to tell us again.]
From the day that Ivan began pointing its eye toward Cuba, TV broadcast
nonstop shows on the hurricane. Civil-defense officials announced preparations
and meteorologists gave hurricane instruction every night before a
classroom-like studio audience. [Non-stop? Really? Not
entirely. Only Radio Reloj did so non-stop, and they always report just the
news. Radio Progreso and Radio Rebelde provided music as well. And so
did the other radio stations. Many of them available via Internet. Tamayo and
San Martin actually missed the opportunity of attacking the Cuban government
on this matter. They should have said that the mass media - controlled and
owned by the Cuban government - did not provide around the clock information
on the hurricane...]
The result was that Cubans began stocking up on emergency supplies early and
taking other precautions.
In all, the government moved 1.89 million people -- 17 percent of its citizens
-- out of harm's way.
As civil defense officials announced evacuations, members of neighborhood
watch groups went door to door making sure everyone knew. Then came
the police, making sure everyone obeyed. [Obeyed what?
Evidence?]
All along, civil defense officials and volunteers kept detailed lists
of residents, those who were in shelters and those in neighbors'
homes. [Detailed lists of residents? Like in Google?
Should Cuba-L provide the addresses and the phone numbers of Juan and Nancy?
Well, one could start here: http://find.intelius.com/search-summary-out.php?ReportType=1&searchform=name ]
''We are well organized,'' said a civil defense representative at a shelter in
Guanajay just outside Havana.
''We got very lucky,'' Melardo Quintero, 54, said as he made some minor
adjustments on his thatched roof near the town of San Juan y Martínez in
Pinar del Río.
But Castro, who repeatedly compared his government's preparations for Ivan to
the island's long-standing preparations for a possible war with the United
States,
said it was more than luck. ''We've been preparing for this for 45 years,'' he
told state television.
[So, why such organization in Cuba? Is it totalitarianism at work? Is it Fidel Castro showing off? Is it, perhaps preparing for a military invasion from outer space or Florida? How about October 9, 1963? Have the reporters ever heard of Hurricane Flora and what it did to Cuba? Over a 1000 Cubans were killed then. And the Civil Defense network that the island has now began to be built then. The system is so successful that the United Nations has recognized it as a model for the world. Tamayo and San Martin have not caught up with those facts, yet. But let us help them with the proper hyperlink. This is a report issued on September 14, 2004. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/iha943.doc.