Below is Havana's main Catholic cathedral. One night I walked by it and heard beautiful choral music coming from inside. I stepped inside and enjoyed a touching concert of religious songs performed by terminally ill children visiting from Venezuela. Only about a third of the pews in the enormous church were filled with concert-watchers.
These flags stand in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which passes for our embassy absent full diplomatic ties. Behind the flags is an electronic sign placed on the side of the building by the U.S. government that conveys pro-American, anti-Castro messages periodically. Considering this propoganda, the Cuban government responded by placing a barrage of flags to block the sign.
3 Comments:
Do you have any examples of what these "pro-American, anti-Castro" messages are? What are the actual texts?
Just curious.
Did you see any "anti-american" messages in Havanna? such as the giant picture of Hitler and George Bush:
http://flickr.com/photos/photo_radar/106058061/
/johan
Johan: Thanks for your questions. They are good ones. I couldn't see any of the U.S. Interest Section's electronic messages because of all the flags, but according to a Washington Post article, they have been messages such as: "How sad that all the people who would know how to run this country are driving taxis or cutting hair" & "In a free country you don't need permission to leave the country. Is Cuba a free country?" You can read the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051201879.html
And a good Wikepedia article about this is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Interests_Section_in_Havana#_note-7
I did see some 'Bush as Hitler' and other anti-American, anti-imperialist signs and billboards and took pictures of as many as I could. I will try to collect them and put them up on a future post.
Thanks again for your questions.
I have returned from Cuba at the end of February 2008. All these Cuban flags have now been replaced by black flags, the number of which represent the number of Cubans who have died as a result of American actions.
Post a Comment