I Am SO Popular in Cuba

I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the Wikileaks scandal, but there is one little aspect that came to light recently.  A diplomatic cable claimed that Michael Moore’s Sicko was banned in Cuba.  According to the cable, Cuban doctors were concerned—stop me if this sounds familiar—that the idyllic healthcare system portrayed in the film was at variance with reality (something we have demonstrated over and over again right here at Moorewatch).

Well, you just knew Mickey wouldn’t let that go unanswered:

It is a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats for the State spin their lies and try to recreate reality (I assume to placate their bosses and tell them what they want to hear)

Of course, if you follow Michael’s bullshit, you would know that he thinks the Wikileaks revelations are 100% accurate when they embarrass the United States.  But have someone gainsay his movie, and that’s pure fiction.

There’s only one problem—‘Sicko’ had just been playing in Cuban theaters. Then the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of ‘Sicko’ were set up in towns all across the country.

I want you to step back a moment and think about this.  Michael Moore is boasting that his film was beloved by one of the most oppressive regimes in the Western hemisphere.  He is boasting that his film was used as propaganda by that regime to fool their own people into believing their broken useless (but free!) healthcare system was so much better than the dynamic, innovative (if flawed) system employed by their nemesis.  He even quotes from one of the approved Cuban news agencies.

We’ve occasionally joked around here at Moorewatch by calling Mike some variation of Mikey Riefenstahl.  It’s very rare that he himself tries to own up to that moniker.

But the bigger issue here is how our government seemed to be colluding with the health insurance industry to destroy a film that might have a hand in bringing about what the Cubans already have in their poverty-ridden third world country: free, universal health care. And because they have it and we don’t, Cuba has a better infant mortality rate than we do, their life expectancy is just 7 months shorter than ours, and, according to the WHO, they rank just two places behind the richest country on earth in terms of the quality of their health care.

First of all, if the government were colluding with the insurance industry, they would have been broadcasting Castro’s love of Mike’s films. Their popularity with the Cuban government would do more to discredit them than anything we could type here on Moorewatch.  Only when you’ve drunk as deeply from the totalitarian well as Mike has, does Castro’s endorsement seem like a good thing.

Second, he never learns, does he?  We’ve talked about how the numbers coming out of Cuba are bullshit.  I’ve personally deconstructed the infamous WHO report.  And yet he’s still flogging these long-debunked numbers.

Well, that’s propaganda for you.  They don’t change their opinions to fit the facts.  They change the fact to suit their opinions.