Moore's Cuban Friends (and Foes)

Fidel Castro allowed "Fahrenheit 9/11" to be shown first in Cuban cinemas and then over Cuban television. It wasn't difficult for reporters to find a couple of Cubans who were willing to share their thoughts:

"'We hope this film will lead Americans to see the reality of their government, and not only deny Bush reelection but put him on trial for the harm he has done to humanity,' retired worker Armando Rodriguez tells Reuters."

Sounding more like some of his American counterparts than he probably knew, a professor added: "'The film is a work of love for humanity. It confirms what many of us believe, that George W. Bush is a real threat to the world,' adds University of Havana professor Arnaldo Coro Antich."

Castro's use of Moore's mendacious docudrama remind me of the USSR's fondness for American reports that criticized life in the U.S. What's fodder for homegrown radical wannabes -- meaning those whose only suffering for their beliefs is the cost of a movie ticket and the actual viewing of the film -- can of course be used as propaganda by dictators. But Cubans know real brutality when they see it, having lived under Castro's totalitarian regime for 45 years. Government-induced poverty and hunger have become a way of life there, 90 miles from what many Cubans must see as unimaginable wealth and freedom.

This past Monday, Castro drew on Moore's book Stupid White Men to ridicule President Bush's reading skills. (George Bush must be the only graduate of Yale and Harvard to suffer such idiocy. Then again not everyone can grow up in Flint.) And he claimed that the President's drinking problem decades back explain his "sinister" religious fundamentalism and "bellicosity." Sounds as if Moore's found a true friend and follower.

Cuban dissidents, about whom we've written before, know the difference between a liar who merely gets rich from his work, and one who has the power of life and death over them. That's why some of them told Reuters that they applaud the press freedoms in America and wish they were allowed to criticize Castro. And it's why some Cuban Americans are dubious about John Kerry's beliefs, especially after seeing Moore seated next to Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter in the President's box at the Democratic convention.