Culture not Capital, Cuban Minister

[Joanne98]

Source: Prensa Latina

Havana, Apr 5 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto advocated creating in people, particularly youth, solid cultural references to challenge false models of alleged capitalist postmodernism.

"We cannot accept or be satisfied with our youth saying our messages are low quality and boring, that the canned TV programs from the United States are more entertaining," Prieto said.

Addressing the closing session of the 7th Congress of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), the Cuban official stressed that rejection of "pseudo-cultural garbage should become an instinctive reflex."

"We need to wage a battle against colonialist contamination, so that our people can enjoy their own authentic culture and others that open new paths in the world," he noted.



Read more: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={69580A06-72D6-41CA-A5C1-5CDA2134F1C8})&language=EN

[xchrom]

1. unless we want to grow old on planet mcsame -- we all have that problem.

[polticalpout]

2. "pseudo-cultural garbage should become an instinctive reflex."

Love it.

[Elspeth]

3. Why was this moved?

I kind of agree with the sentiment myself, in its pure form. God knows how it will pan out politically.

[Mika]

5. Most all Cuba topics posted to LBN get moved over here now.

Gawd forbid that Democrats have easy access to information about Cuba. (Unless, of course, it is some anti Castro screed.)


Ya notice that if someone has a toaster for sale it is listed in the Latest Threads page, but LBN about Cuba disappears into the Latin America forum (never_fucking_mind that Cuba is a Caribbean country), and the Latin America latest threads are not listed on the Latest Threads page.

:hi:


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[Elspeth]

6. Seems bizarre to me.

This is of political interest. There are threads in GD that clearly belong in the Lounge.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Good for Albel Prieto. Cuba has so MUCH culture to sustain, to celebrate.

I've heard from people who travel there as PEOPLE, not as propagandists, that the society is rich, the people are warm, lively, intelligent, good humored, interested in visitors from other places, and very well informed on the rest of the world as well as their own country.

Even a Congressman from my state said he was directly surprised when he took a cab in Havana and discovered the cab driver actually knew what Cuba-related business was going on at the time in Congress.

If they had to surrender their culture to the crap we're stuck with, it would TRULY slow them down, as if they'd have to have lobotomies to get in step.

In a country with free education for everyone who's interested through college, you get people who are more involved, who have a deeper sense of connectedness to the country, people who feel they have so much at stake, so much in common. The fact that they are also the constant target of terrorists from the States, and have been for 50 years undoubtedly intensifies their feeling of communality, and shared interests and values and future.

As James Wolfensohn of the World Bank said, the rest of the world can "learn from Cuba," in his remarks in 2001. He was referring to their whole organization and its remarkable record in this report, which I'm posting simply because it's good to have read it sometime!

Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank
By Jim Lobe, IPS, 1 May 2001
WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - World Bank President James Wolfensohn Monday extolled the Communist government of President Fidel Castro for doing "a great job" in providing for the social welfare of the Cuban people.

His remarks followed Sunday's publication of the Bank's 2001 edition of 'World Development Indicators' (WDI), which showed Cuba as topping virtually all other poor countries in health and education statistics.

It also showed that Havana has actually improved its performance in both areas despite the continuation of the US trade embargo against it and the end of Soviet aid and subsidies for the Caribbean island more than ten years ago.

"Cuba has done a great job on education and health," Wolfensohn told reporters at the conclusion of the annual spring meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "They have done a good job, and it does not embarrass me to admit it."

His remarks reflect a growing appreciation in the Bank for Cuba's social record, despite recognition that Havana's economic policies are virtually the antithesis of the "Washington Consensus", the neo-liberal orthodoxy that has dominated the Bank's policy advice and its controversial structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) for most of the last 20 years.

Some senior Bank officers, however, go so far as to suggest that other developing countries should take a very close look at Cuba's performance.

"It is in some sense almost an anti-model," according to Eric Swanson, the programme manager for the Bank's Development Data Group, which compiled the WDI, a tome of almost 400 pages covering scores of economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Indeed, Cuba is living proof in many ways that the Bank's dictum that economic growth is a precondition for improving the lives of the poor is over-stated, if not downright wrong. The Bank has insisted for the past decade that improving the lives of the poor was its core mission.

More:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/185.html



Culture Minister Abel Prieto

[roody]

7. What a handsome man, and beautiful hair!

Why can't we have cool people in our government?

[Judi Lynn]

8. We're just not used to seeing government people with long hair, are we? Definitely cool! n/t